Some people misquote the verse from Bhagavad Gita that goes as "Chaaturvarnam mayaa srustham..." to argue that God himself created people unequal. They use this argument as a cover-up for their mistreatment and atrocities towards fellow human beings. In this process they conveniently forget the fact that the same Lord Sri krishna professed equality in several places in the same Gita.
Lord Krishna through the following Gita verse "Vidyaa vinaya sampanne braahmane gavi hastini shunichaiva shvapakecha panditaah sama darshanah" says that an intellectual person sees and treats equally - a brahmin with education and humility, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater. A true intellect doesn't see any societal or biological differences and he only sees God in everyone and everything.
Another verse goes like this - "Suhrun mitraar yudaaseena madhyastha dveshya bandhushu saadhushvapicha paapeshu samabuddhir vishishyate". Means, a virtue of a great intellect is the ability to treat his close friends, regular friends, enemies, acquaintances, detractors, relatives, saints and sinners with equality. Another one says "Samatvam yoga uchyate" - "equality is Yoga."
Our Gurudev Sri Babuji Maharaj used to quote the following verse from Viveka Chudamani - "Jaati neeti kula gotra dooragam, naama roopa guna dosha varjitam, desa kaala vishayaativarti yat, brahma tatvamasi bhavayaatmani" - meaning "Understand and always remember that Brahman, which is also your self or soul is above and beyond all the petty differences of society, race, caste, morality, descent, names, forms, virtues, vices, places, times and things." He further used to say there is no better socialism than spiritualism.
In Vibhooti Yoga when Lord Krishna explained to Arjuna that he resides in and drives every living and nonliving thing in the whole universe, Arjuna expressed a desire to see that universal form, Vishwarupa, of the Lord. Krishna said "OK, here you see my universal form." But, Arjuna could not see anything special. Then the benevolent lord said "You cannot see my universal form with your earthly vision. Here I am giving you the divine vision, by which you will be able to see my universal form." Then Arjuna could see Lord Krishna in everything/everyone around him including within himself. And he could see the whole universe within Lord Krishna.
Arjuna, at that moment, became the personification of the Gita verse "Sarva bhootastha maatmaanam, sarva bhootaani chaatmani, eekshate yoga yuktaatmaa, sarvatra sama darshanah" - meaning "A Yogi who attained the vision of equality or Yoga sees the whole universe within himself and himself within everything/everyone in the universe." If you ask yourself the question here "Was Lord Krishna in a constrained form till then and attained the universal form at that moment?" the answer is a firm "No". Lord Krishna is always in his universal form without any change. The thing that changed here is the vision of Arjuna.
If we can change our vision like this through spiritual practice and self realization, then these words that are part of the daily prayer in our Ashram become true - "May there be no differences between human beings. May all the living beings in the world treat each other with equality and love. May there be peace and prosperity in the whole universe." Is there a better form of socialism than this?
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