Time to move on ...

The wheel is churning and most of us are becoming engineers, doctors, managers and consultants etc. Nowadays most middle class fellas are well educated and belong to decent modern families. From start of our lives our parents teach us that all human beings are equal and we shouldn’t prejudge a person. They teach us to respect our elders, our teachers, our friends and even our servants. We are given full liberty to take our own decisions from very basic like choosing brand of your chocolates, bicycle, clothes, shoes and even choosing our career. Sometimes even when your dad was unwilling to buy you something e.g. when you chose a bike that your dad thought was not economical; even then he surrendered to your wishes, because he knew he will be the happiest person when he will see you showing off your bike to your friends.

Now here comes the tricky part: What happens when you choose a life partner? It’s the same parents, same you and just another wish (even this choice is not economical, everybody knows that ;-) Rather this time this wish is closest to your heart. Then why our parents take a U-turn. Why they turn their faces against you? Are they at fault or are we at fault. This question pops up in everybody’s mind that goes through this situation.

I have tried (just tried) to understand this and found that neither our parents nor we are at fault rather it is our religion (its illicit practices to be more specific) and our society is to be blamed for. The caste system that we follow has a basic precept - All men are created unequal. That is totally opposite to what our parents have taught us till now. So should we listen to what they have taught us till date or what they are telling us today?

We all know Hinduism is the oldest religion and how can such a religion survive for so long? However, if we give a deep thought, it has something that it’s still surviving (science can’t be wrong, survival of the fittest). What is that? It’s the fact that Hinduism changes with time. I think it’s the only religion that is so open towards accepting changes.

e.g. ‘Sati pratha’ - Burning alive without any reason? It’s gone! Now nobody talks about it but earlier it was an integral part of Hinduism.
‘Untouchables’- Not allowing a person to enter a temple, even not allowing a person to touch others. It’s gone now.
‘Four Karmas’ strictly following pre-defined karmas e.g. Grahasta karma, sanyasi karma etc. are just few that I can recall in this slice of an hour …

So our religion/society adapts and adapts for good.
So now I think this is age for discarding the caste system. Our parents should open up and understand that one day these dissolute practices are going to be eradicated and they should support this change. They should think that, if today Sati Pratha was there, then our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters would have been burnt alive, some of us wouldn’t have been allowed to enter temples and most of our dads would be in jungle as “Sanyasis” ;-) If we are not in above mentioned situations, it’s all because of few people who took stand and worked for the better of society. Not just holding back and listening to others.
They should understand that people who are in habit of talking rubbish about others will talk rubbish. However they should understand that what matters is their children, their happiness for life time not the happiness of those people who will come to enjoy food for two hours on their marriage.