Sri Sai Baba`S:Charters And Sayings

653

THIRTY-SECOND TALK

Of course it is tr^ie that the yogi never destroys
life. But then you must remember that his foocj is
always proviSed for him, while the agriculturist who
provides it has To protect his crops from grubs and
worms and so on. The yogi does not need to do

that; so he does not do it. Then the Master goes on

•

to sa y:

IhinL of the treatment ^hich supeistition ha& meted
out to the depiessed classes in oui beloved India, and see
in th?t ho\\ this e\il quality can bieed heaitless duelty even
among those who know the duty of biotheihood

Well of course that does not appeal to you in
the same way as it does to the people in India.
The depressed classes in India, the Pariahs,
sometimes catied the Panchamas, or the tc Fifth"
Caste—who are really ts outcastes," are the descend-
ants of the original inhabitants of India. The
Aryans found them there when they came over the
Himalayas. They have been very badly treated*
The religion warned the people not to intermarry,
mix or eat with ^hem, but they have been treated
with what amounts to gre^-t cruelty. For instance,
there is only one well in a place; the pariah is not
allowed to approach that well to draw \\ ater because
he would contaminate it for the higher castes ; con-
sequently such people have had to undergo great
hardships. They of course cannot touch any food
set apart for higher classes and have been put to very
great inconvenience and sometimes to very serious