JOIN USCaste is the disease of the mind, said B R Ambedkar, the architect of modern India. Our ancient epic Mahabharata too illustrates the perils of mind towards casteism through the story of sage Uttanka. When Krishna was coming back to Dwarika after the Kurukshetra war, he comes across the wandering ascetic Uttanka who is oblivious of the war. On Krishna’s briefings, he is disturbed that Krishna did not stop the war. But the Lord pacifies him saying that Dharma should be established at any cost. Further, he offers him a boon of his choice. Uttanka asks for the boon of having water around whenever he felt thirsty during his wanderings, which Krishna grants him.
Later when Uttanka felt thirsty while crossing a desert, he invokes the Lord. He neither sees water materialising from earth nor clouds emptying contents. But he sees a ‘Chandala’ (untouchable) attired in rags, carrying an old water pot and he offers the same to the sage. Uttanka furiously refuses despite many pleas and persuasions from the stranger. Soon after, the Chandala vanishes, and it dawns on the ascetic that he has been tested and has failed miserably. As Uttanka was repenting his mistake, Krishna appears before him and mentions that Chandala he had seen was Devraj Indra and his refusal to accept anything from a Chandala was improper. He further narrates that Uttanka was offered Amrita by Indra, but his false pretensions of inequality made him lose his chance to become immortal. The sage learns a valuable lesson that there are no differentiation in mankind with respect to caste, creed, or colour of the skin. Based on their Karma, people take birth and it’s not our place to form opinions based on their caste but to treat everyone the same.
Uttanka falls at the feet of Krishna full of remorse for his actions and begs His forgiveness. Krishna pardons him and grants him the boon that whenever Uttanka needed water during his travels, rain clouds would appear in the sky and shower him with water to quench his thirst. Even in our modern times when rain clouds appear rarely in the desert and shower a small bout of rain, it’s called Uttanka Megh or Uttanka cloud.
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