Who is an Outcaste

When the Buddha was moving from house to house on his alms-round and reached Aggika Bharadwaj’s house, he screamed, “Halt oh shaven-head, halt! Don’t come near!” He feared that the sramana might cast an impure shadow on his pure fire-sacrifice. He called him an “outcaste” meaning the lowest among the low castes. The Buddha asked him if he knew who was a true outcaste? On replying in the negative the Buddha explained: No one is an outcaste or a brahmin by his birth. By one’s deeds alone, be one’s karma alone, one is an outcaste, by one’s deeds alone one is a brahmin. The cemetery-keeper’s son Sopaka was from a so-called low caste but he progressed in Vipassana Dhamma. When he went to the brahma-realm after his death, his caste was not an obstacle. Similarly when a brahmin proficient in the vedas commits a sinful deed, his caste cannot save him from going to the lower states of existence. Hearing these words of the Buddha, Aggika Bharadwaj took refuge in the Buddha and became a lay follower. He was fortunate!