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and they did not want to be harijans, the fourth class, so only the third class, business people, was possible. Jainism compromised, and because of this I call Jainism a coward's religion; they cannot exist on their own, they have to depend on Hindus. Buddha was absolutely uncompromising. As long as he lived people gathered around him, his personal charisma ... but the moment he was gone people were butchered, murdered, burned, or driven to become sudras. Most of the sudras, the untouchables, come originally from the followers of Buddha.
In Hinduism there is no possibility to enter into any other class. If you want to enter Hinduism, you have to become a sudra. The fourth class only is available, the higher classes are closed for any conversion. I hate to say that Jainism proved a coward's religion, but if you are certainly different from Hindus and you don't believe in the caste system, then you should not use it. You should find your own shoemakers; amongst yourselves you should find the toilet cleaners. Without this, you don't matter; you are a dependent shadow of Hinduism, your revolution is not great enough. It is just in the scriptures that you deny the caste system, but in your life you believe it exactly like Hindus.
Because Buddha did not compromise ... that is one of the reasons for my respect for the man. Humanity is one, and anyone who wants to create divisions of superiority and inferiority should be put in a psychiatric hospital. He needs good electric shocks to bring him to his senses so that he can see that two plus two is really four.
These sutras are in a way connected with what I was saying just now because the followers of Buddha could not exist in India, they were not allowed to exist. They were either burned or forced to be sudras or thrown out of the country. But in a way it proved a blessing in disguise. Buddhism spread all over Asia, into China, Mongolia, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Burma, Thailand, and Sri Lanka -- the whole of Asia became Buddhist because the refugees, who had left India out of fear, spread the message of Buddha. But it is a strange, an unbelievable fact, that from India, which goes on claiming itself
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