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Casteism in the Bhagavad Gita?

  Castesim in the Bhagavad Gita?  I have seen people trying to say that the Bhagavad Gita is promoting casteism, which is ironic because out of the 18 chapters of the text, only 10 or so have remotely anything to do with caste, and that too they don’t say anything about them being immutable or mutable or whether to beat lower castes up for minor offences and such. Anyway, in order to tackle this we need to go verse by verse and perform the requisite exigesis. While doing so, I will be using my hermeneutical principles of Hinduism, which you can read about here:  https://bharatasamskriti.blogspot.com/2024/03/new-hermeneutical-principles-for.html The main thing I want to establish is  Episodic Contextualization  and Reality Based Contextualisation. We must in interprate  the words of the Bhagavad Gita in light of the larger story and setting that it is found in, as well as in the social and historical realities of that time.  Duty as a Kshatriya Bhagavad Gita 2.31-38 are the first set of
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Manu's word is Medicine?

 Manu's word is Medicine? I often hear people put Manu on a pedastal because of a certain verse found in the Vedic texts which say that Manu's word is medicine.  More specifically, that verse is found in the Krishna Yajur Veda, Taittriya Shaka 2.2.10: " Yonder sun did not shine, the gods sought an atonement for him, for him they offered this oblation to Soma and Rudra: verily thereby they bestowed brightness upon him. If he desires to become resplendent, he should offer for him this oblation to Soma and Rudra; verily he has recourse to Soma and Rudra with their own portion; verily they bestow upon him splendour; he becomes resplendent. He should offer on the full moon day of the month Tisya; Tisya is Rudra [1], the full moon is Soma; verily straightway he wins splendour. He makes him sacrifice on an enclosed (altar), to acquire splendour. The butter is churned from milk of a white (cow) with a white calf; butter is used for the sprinkling, and they purify themselves with b
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Viramitrodaya Samskaraprakasha; On Upanayana of Women

  Viramitrodaya Samskaraprakasha; On Upanayana of Women Preface : This is only a part of the Viramitrodaya, and that to part of the specific chapter. I have translated it for the sake of having it on the blog. In the future, I will write a more comprehensive article on the right of Vedic study for women. I will be quoting from the Viramitrodaya, and to make my future article more streamlined, I will keep the translation seperate. My translation here is not perfect, so I hacve my personal notes in parenthesis. 
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Hitopadesha: Book 3 (Vigraha, War)

 Hitopadesha Book 3 Vigraha (War) This is the third book of Hitopadesha, which concerns war (Vigraha).  Hitopadhesa is a collection of animal fables that is meant to teach social ethics ( niti ). The stories are passed down from generation to generation before commited to writing. The text I am about to give you consist of Sanskrit shlokas which are essentially proverbs. It turns out that the Hitopadesha is not an actual full on Sanskrit text like the Itihasas or Puranas. Rather it is told as one pleases and these Sandkrit proverbs are cleverly scattered through out them. In this chaoter on war, the text gives proverbs on whom to wage war with and how a king should wage war. The translation are by mine with some outside help. Correct me on the translations if they are wrong. This is the link to the original source for the Sanskrit: https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/hitopadesha-sanskrit/d/doc277173.html
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Reformist Ideas from Other Religions?

 Reform Due to Other Religions  This article is made with a view of accusations that Hinduism reformed itself because of British Colonialism or Christian missionary activity or Islamic evangelism, etc. Yes, there were certain practices Hindus did that were stopped in large part due to these foreign religions, but so what? That doesn't collapse Hinduism as a whole? You can forgo these practices and keep the essence of Hinduism. In my future blog posts, I will explain how social evils like Sati or Untouchability, or even Child Marraige is not fundemental to Hinduism. The reason I say this is because this isn't the first time Hinduism got reformed by another religion. Case in point: Buddhism.  Most Hindus know that animal sacrifices were done in the ancient past, and interestingly enough, they have Vedic sanction, which actually will strengthens my point. Now as most of us know, Buddhism played an active role in the discontinuation of animal sacrifices and the popularization of ah
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What is the Equivilant of Hindu Smritis

 What is Anagolous to the Smritis? This will be a very brief blog.  A lot of traditional Hindus believe that the Smritis (Dharmasashtras and Prayogasashtras) are as if they are the word of God, or as serious as the Vedas.  R emember that the literal definition of a Smritis are actaully recollections of traditions and social customs passed down from time immemorial. text called Manusmriti is simply a recollection the tradition of laws and teachings that trace back to somwone Manu. And critics of Hinduism place them on par with the Bible and the Sharia laws. And this brings us to an important matter to discuss. When we try to judge other religions by their scriptures, you have to take into account that those scriptures don't function the same way as the scriptures of your religion do. While the Smritis so have a theological component to them and are on a higher pedastal than say the Sharia law, it is wrong to assume that they are a practical end all be all.  In actuality, the Dharmas
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Age of Rama and Sita

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 Age of Rama and Sita There has been accusations that Rama married Sita when she was 6. Now keep in mind that Rama was 13, so it is a 7 year age gap and both were minors. Now yes 7 years is a huge age gap amogst children and teenagers, but this was the ancient period where medical knowldge was not advanced and they probably thought in that such an age gap will thin out in the long run. Of course all this is assuming that those were the ages Rama and Sita were, but as we shall prove, Rama and Sita could NOT have been those ages when they got married.  Now I am going to admit that child marraige was a rampant practice in histocial India, which admittedly did take British intervention to stop, but child marraige has no basis in the Vedas and indologists agree that there was no child marraige in the Vedic age. Of course, in this blog I am supposed to not use indology and western scholarship to defend Hinduism, meaning I must accept that the Vedas are authorless, eternal, and that the Smrii
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