{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 155/1912-05-29/p006","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Let us go back to the ancient civilisation of India. In that civilisation there were certain divisions of the people; they were divided into four castes, the highest of them being the Brahmins, who cultivated wisdom. The separation of the castes in ancient India was so strict that, for example, the sacred books might only be read by the Brahmins and not by members of the other castes. The members of the second caste, the Warrior caste, were only allowed to hear the teachings contained in the Vedas or in the epitome of the Vedas—the Vedanta. The Brahmins alone were allowed to explain any passage from the Vedas or have an opinion as to their meaning and it was strictly forbidden for all other people to have any opinion on the treasure of wisdom which was contained in the sacred books. The second caste consisted of those who had to cultivate the profession of war and the administration of the country. Then there was a third caste which had to foster trades, and a fourth, a labouring caste. And last of all, an utterly despised part of the population, the Pariahs, who were looked down upon so much that a Brahmin felt he was contaminated if he so much as stepped upon the shadow thrown by such a one. He even had to perform certain rites of purification if he had touched the shadow of such an outcast as a Pariah was considered to be. Thus we see how the whole nation was divided into four recognised castes and one that was absolutely unrecognised. Though these regulations may now be considered severe they were most strictly observed in ancient India. Even at the time of the Graeco-Latin civilisation in Europe, no one belonging to the Warrior caste in India would have ventured to have his own independent opinion about what was in the sacred books, the Vedas. Now, how could such divisions as these have arisen amongst mankind? It is certainly remarkable that we should find these castes exactly in the most outstanding people of human antiquity and in the very people who had wandered over to Asia from Atlantis at a comparatively early date and also precisely those amongst whom were preserved the greatest wisdom and treasures of knowledge from the old Atlantean epoch. This seems very remarkable, and how can we understand it? It almost seems as if it contradicted all the wisdom and goodness in the order of the universe, in the guidance of the world, that one caste, one group of people should be separated off, who alone were to preserve what was looked upon as the highest possessions and that the others should be destined from the very beginning, by the mere fact of their birth, to occupy subordinate positions.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture II","site_heading":"Moral Impulses: From Atlantean Fall to Francis of Assisi","site_heading_note":"A heading the site wrote for this unit from a summary of it; not in the edition, and not the words of Rudolf Steiner or of the translator. Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote it.","date":"1912-05-29","location":null,"word_count":465,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/155/1912-05-29/p006","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Henry Collison","identified_edition":"APC1928","book_title":"Anthroposophical Ethics","publisher":"Anthroposophical Publishing Co.","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA155/English/APC1928/19120529p02.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/155/1912-05-29/p006"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/155/1912-05-29/p006","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. 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Es war die Absonderung der Kasten im alten Indien eine so starke, daß zum Beispiel die heiligen Bücher nur gelesen werden durften von den Brahminen und nicht etwa von den Mitgliedern der anderen Kasten. Die zweite Kaste, die Krieger, durften sie nur hören, die Lehren, welche in den Veden enthalten waren oder in dem Auszug aus den Veden, in der Vedanta. Erklären irgendeine Stelle aus den Veden, also eine Meinung haben über das, was die Veden bedeuten, das durften nur die Brahminen. Den anderen Menschen war es strenge verboten, eine Meinung zu haben über dasjenige, was als Weisheitsschatz in den heiligen Büchern enthalten war.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":210,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/155/1912-05-29/p005"},{"locus":"GA 155/1912-05-29/p006","passage_number":6,"text":"Die zweite Kaste waren diejenigen Menschen, welche das Kriegshandwerk und die Verwaltung des Landes zu besorgen hatten. Dann gab es eine dritte Kaste, die Handel und Gewerbe zu treiben hatte, und eine vierte, eigentlich arbeitende Kaste; endlich aber eine ganz verachtete Bevölkerungsschicht, die Parias, welche so wenig geachtet wurde, daß zum Beispiel ein Brahmine sich schon verunreinigt fühlte, wenn er nur auf den Schatten trat, der geworfen wurde von einem Paria. Er mußte sich sogar gewissen Reinigungsmaßregeln unterziehen, wenn er auf den Schatten eines solchen verunreinigten Menschen, wofür die Parias gehalten wurden, getreten war. So sehen wir, wie merkwürdig hier die Menschen eingeteilt sind in vier sozusagen anerkannte Kasten und in eine ganz und gar nicht anerkannte Kaste. Wenn wir uns nun fragen: Wurden solche strengen Regeln im alten Indien auch eingehalten? - so müssen wir antworten: In einer völligen Strenge wurden sie eingehalten. Und es hätte gewiß in der Zeit, in welcher in Europa schon die griechisch-lateinische Kultur waltete, kein Angehöriger der Kriegerkaste in Indien es gewagt, eine eigene Meinung zu haben über dasjenige, was in den heiligen Büchern, in den Veden stand.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":184,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/155/1912-05-29/p006"},{"locus":"GA 155/1912-05-29/p007","passage_number":7,"text":"Wodurch war es nun geschehen, daß eine solche Gliederung der Menschen eingetreten war? Warum war diese Gliederung der Menschen eigentlich in die Welt gekommen? Es ist doch merkwürdig, daß wir diese Gliederung der Menschen finden gerade bei dem allerhervorragendsten Volke der menschlichen Urzeit, bei demjenigen Volke, welches aus der alten Atlantis schon in verhältnismäßig früher Zeit nach Asien herübergewandert war, welches sich bewahrt hatte die größten Weisheiten und Wissensschätze aus der alten atlantischen Zeit. Das scheint merkwürdig zu sein. Wie können wir so etwas verstehen, wie können wir es begreifen? Es scheint ja fast, als ob es aller Weisheit und Güte der Weltenordnung, der Weltenlenkung widersprechen würde, daß ausgesondert wurde eine Gruppe von Menschen, die das höchste eingesehene Gut allein bewahren sollte, und daß die anderen Menschen zu untergeordneten Stellungen von vornherein durch ihre Geburt bestimmt werden sollten.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":138,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/155/1912-05-29/p007"}],"english":["GA 155/1912-05-29/p006"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":532,"en_words":465,"ratio":0.87,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":0.99,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":7065,"original_word_count":7143,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Henry Collison","identified_edition":"APC1928","book_title":"Anthroposophical Ethics","publisher":"Anthroposophical Publishing Co.","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA155/English/APC1928/19120529p02.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. 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