11/29/15 Every Chapter Is Wow?

    I am still reading The Lucifer Principle and each chapter still feels like it teaches me something basic but grand.  The latest chapter started with explaining the truth about Hinduism and how noble it is.  It teaches one to reject materialism, to lay aside earthly desires, to go with the flow, accept the world as it is, and to strive for nirvana in a selfless world.  The only problem with this is that this religion was used as a "device with which one conquering group managed to validate its theft of power, prestige and goods from a rival superorganism."
    Turns out the people of India were invaded around 1500 BC by a cluster of Aryans that had two things their lives focused around, their cows and their fighting.  These Aryans were simple nomadic folk who had seen nothing more complex than a temporary hut.  The Indians had lived in elaborate cities for over a thousand years, with systems of reading and writing in place.  Because the Indians lacked a fighting mentality, they were defeated quite easily, soon the Iranian invaders reduced the Indians to the shameful role of of a conquered people.
    At Hinduism's heart is the simple notion that there are several classes of human beings, very distinct from each other.  The term "twice born" came to refer to the men favored by the gods, and their oppposites, the shudras, loathsome and low, unworthy of gods to even accept their prayers.  Who were the "twice born"?  The descendents of the Iranians.  This directly led to the development of the caste system in India.  The top three castes were exclusively for the "twice born" Iranians.  The warriors and aristocrats were at the very top, the Iraninan priests second, and the third casteholders were the landholders and merchants.  All of the Indians were placed at the bottom and put to work in the fields to enrich their overlords.
    Why does the Hindu religion tell its adherents to go with the flow, to set aside earthly desires, to hope for an improvement in the afterlife?  Because it was written by the Iranian clergy to keep the Indians in line and not make trouble.  These clergy actually convinced the lower caste members which were all darker skinned Indians "that if they were patient and tolerant you would be rewarded later by rebirth in the next caste up the ladder.  In essence, if you were patient long enough, you could become an Iranian!"