8/8     "Till caste do us apart...":
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/south/08/08/india.teenagers/index.html
                \- article which focus on these kinds of anomalous behavior
                really distort external perception of a community. If the
                only news someone got of life in the american south were
                stories of lynchings, cross burnings, and black men dragged
                along the street by good old boys in pickup trucks, you would
                certainly get a wildly innaccurate view of what life was like
                in the south. --psb
                \_ how come you aren't "ok tnx"ing people anymore?
        \_ Actions, not birth, dictates ones caste. Those who fail to
           see this are doomed to commit acts such as the ones mentioned
           in this article. Neither the killed nor the killers acted
           in a manner consistent with being a Brahmin.
           \_ Birth dictates caste in all the sources I've seen. It's
              institutionalized, religious racism. Trying to deny that is
              rewriting history.
              rewriting history. Your attempts at rationalizing it don't get
              around the central issue. How does one enter the higher caste?
              Only through the acceptance of that caste? Unlikely. Maybe they
              would and maybe they wouldn't, but clearly the theory goes that
              depending on your actions you are reborn into the different caste.
              There is no possible way you can spin that to my satisfaction.
              Blacks may be reborn as whites as long as they act like whites
              enough, and if they're really white, maybe they'll be accepted
              by the whites as an honorary white. Until then, the blacks should
              accept their sacred roles as ho's, crack dealers, and rappers.
              With enough religious trappings, it probably works better than
              apartheid. After all, religion is the most proven form of mind
              control.
           \_ What is the "Jat" caste?
                           \_ Probably an untouchable.
                              \- have you ever though of not flapping your
                              \- you are jumping to conclusions. "jat" probably
                              in this context means caste, but it can also be a
                              generic term for class or kind. it can also be a
                              root for "best", mean a birth. it is the root of
                              a lot of difficult to translate words and
                              expressions. --psb
             \_ Actions in previous life dictate birth in next.
             \_ It is obvious you know very little about indian religion
                or scripture. The characteristics of caste are clearly
                described in the Gita and Krshna states that those who
                adhere to the rules of a given caste verily become members
                of that caste. There are several examples in the stories
                of the Upanishads, the lives of the Alvars and the Ramayana.
                Consider the case of Viswamithra, although we has born a
                warrior, he ultimately transcended that nature to become
                a Brahmarishi (the highest type of Brahmin).
                Also you may wish to consider the life and teachings of
                Sri Ramanuja whose greatest teacher was a man from the
                "lowest" caste, illustrating that caste is meaningless
                for true devotees of the lord. Ramanuja readily converted
                people from all castes and made them Brahmins with the
                only requirement being that they live as Brahmins live.
                BTW, Ramanuja lived over a thousand years ago so you
                can't tell me that this is a new development.
                \_ Is that why there are so many fake "brahmin" arseholes
                   around?  - a Brahmarishi.
                              \_ On average achieving this title takes
                                 several hundred thousand years of
                                 meditiation. Not even psb is that old.
                                 \_ You are wrong.  For some, enlightenment
                                    comes in a flash.
                   \_ I don't know what you mean by fake brahmins. The
                      vast majority of brahmins you meet are not related
                      to Ramanuja's followers (Iyengars, of which there
                      are less than a million world wide). In fact most
                      traditional brahmins don't like Iyengars because
                      they have revolutionary ideas like non discrimination
                      based on caste or creed.
                      \_ So all these born "brahmins" are not necessarily true
                         brahmins?  Otherwise, how do you explain the number
                         of arseholes among them?