Swami Gober's Bhagavad Gita Commentary: Introductory Essay - 23

An Equal Eye

Sages look with an equal eye on a Brahmin endowed with learning and humility,
on a cow, on an elephant, and even on a dog and an outcaste.

Bhagavad Gita, Chap 5, Ver 18

Alternative translation:

The wise look with equal vision upon a gentle and learned brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a chandala.

Yeah, yeah, we see how much equality!

The Brahmin comes first in the list, of course, and is affectionately attributed two noble traits, learning and humility! So much humility to be found with the Brahmins really, and as for their learning, om tapakkataya svaha, om dabakkadaya svaha, om labakkalaya svaha!

The rest of the members in the list don't get any attributes. Cow is the most sacred animal to the Hindus, because it gives ghee which can all be poured into the fire and turned into vapor in sacrificial rites performed by the Brahmins. So the cow comes next, second only to the Brahmins. Next comes elephant, an animal very crucial in battles of those times. Then comes the dog, of no particular use, just can make a good pet sometimes, and can come in handy on some special occasions like hunting. Last, and least of the least, comes the untouchable — a human being, but even below dogs! And this verse is preaching equality!

One would normally expect chandala to be mentioned next to Brahmana, before the list moves into the domain of animals. But no, that would have been an outrage, to put the highest cast and the casteless together. There is simply no limit to the inhumanity and hypocrisy of these spiritual gurus! And then the untouchable, or the outcaste, or the chandala, is not even called as much in the original verse. Brahmins get two great extra attributes, actually three, because the original verse says, 'rich in learning and humility', but the untouchables don't even get a name. Krishna just refers to them as dog-eaters! Such absolute, monstrous contempt for fellow human beings! And they didn't do you any harm. Actually, these are the people without whose incessant labor the society couldn't run for one day, while getting rid of the Brahmins would have only made everything more smooth and efficient!

Dog-eaters? I’ve never even heard of even African Zulu tribes eating dogs as staple diet! Pure, vicious contempt and a sly effort to portray fellow-human beings as unthinkable monsters. Even if they ate dogs sometimes, it would have been surely only to ward off total starvation, because most of the food was being consumed by these fat, pot-bellied Brahmins, and the leftovers would be thrown to dogs. The untouchables were not allowed to be even seen in the premises. Perhaps in the nights they would secretly slip in and eat any crumbs left after the dogs have licked up their share. Acute hunger pangs could have driven some of them to kill dogs sometimes, what could they do, they couldn't kill cows, right? If they did, they would be burnt alive! So some person sometime must have eaten a dog, and whoever came to know this found another nice name for the outcastes: dog-eaters! It is not just derogation or deprivation, these people were dehumanized to no end, methodically and systematically. Even in a verse preaching humility, wisdom, equality, Krishna doesn't miss the chance to derogate and dehumanize them!

The words 'the wise' and 'sages' in the verse is also a very loose translation. The original word is pandit, which means learned. And what have these people learned? To treat fellow humans like total scum and then preach Vedanta! It is a tragedy that millions and millions of human beings down the ages were punctiliously looked down upon as being below the lowest of animals. But it is disaster that one of the highest of philosophies conceived by the human mind, Vedanta, has fallen into the hands of these pandit-scoundrels.