Most people will admit that hierarchy exists.
In our world today, it's become a dirty word- hierarchy = bad, oppressive, with a proposed solution, or better way, being egalitarianism (a very modern notion, which can only be truly realized if we bring everything down to the lowest common denominator).
But many have not gone so far as to consider that hierarchy is not just a human thing, but characteristic of the cosmos Itself, as natural law, or in Sanskrit what would be called dharma. According to the teachings of antiquity (held by isolated cultures across the globe, not just some 'imperial' group), far from being evil, hierarchy is actually right behavior. In hierarchy, we can find order, and even the detachment from desire that allows for liberation.
The caste system is a more modern degeneration of the varna system of old. It's important to understand the difference between the two: in a caste system, your physical birth and the the family you're born into are the basis for your judgment and place in society, so if you're born into a farming family, a farmer you shall remain. Often in a caste system, people at the lower levels are barely granted any sort of human rights. But in a varna system, an individual is placed moreso based on their individual nature. To understand this better, it's helpful to understand the three gunas of the Vedas: Tamas, Rajas, and Sattva. (Gunas can translate as qualities or attributes of a person especially to describe more subtle aspects of them, so speaking more of their beingness or spirit than the color of their hair or how loud they talk, though there is a relationship here, but that would be a digression). So the three gunas are:
Tamas - the qualities of laziness, ignorance, lethargy, heaviness; associated color would be black
Rajas - qualities of passion, ambition, active intellect, busy; associated color would be red
Sattva - qualities of clarity, serenity, wisdom, balance, lightness, associated color would be white
Each person contains all of the gunas, but in different proportions- some of us are almost entirely weighed down by tamas while others are primarily sattvic.
The varna system divided individuals based on these qualities of their unique individual nature: Brahmins (deep thought, wisdom; priests, teachers, philosophers), Ksatriyas (courage with intellect; warriors), Vaishyas (intelligent but more focused on basic/simple needs of life; farmers, merchants), and Sudras (ignorant, driven by sense organs, undisciplined; no specific talents so acted as laborers and aids to other classes).
So, in a nutshell, the main difference between caste and varna is that you are born into your caste and have very little wiggle room if any, while your varna is dictated by the qualities of who you are. Within the varna system, these classes weren't necessarily viewed as higher or lower, but as each having a part to play for the order of society.
Hierarchy must not imply oppression as the contemporary narrative would have us believe.
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This all applies to something I've been thinking on lately after making the decision to hunt.
There is a common notion today, especially in the super-grocery-West, that hunting is bad.
But most people are okay with killing some living thing, right? Be it a snake, a spider, a wasp, a possum... yet those same people will be against deer hunting, turkey hunting, etc. And those same people will argue that hierarchy does not exist, that all should be [somehow] equal. Yet their very actions and tendencies prove otherwise and only serve to highlight that an innate hierarchy very much does exist, naturally.
This should be considered when proclaiming it is immoral to hunt. And that's not to mention the death that is caused from mass-scale so-called 'vegetarian' food production, so to ever think you are somehow living without anything dying for you to live, should really be allowed more thought before forming an opinion or speaking on the matter.
Hierarchy is imposed on us by natural law, not just locally here on Earth, but cosmologically. Fulfilling our human predator/prey role is not only not 'bad', but unavoidable. Our need to eat must be met, and because if you are reading this you are human, and not a blade of grass, you have specific requirements for this particular incarnation.
That said- frequent consumption of animal meat is not ideal due to its Tamasic nature. The degree to which a person requires it has to do with their individual constitution and karmic load.
I think its best not to judge what another person eats, but whether or not they go about obtaining it in a principled way (assuming you feel the need to judge these things at all). Of course, that requires first sorting out ones principles... which means turning the focus back toward yourself.
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