Ancient India: Religion

Religion has always been a part of my life in one form or another. After this week’s discussion on Ancient India, I found that the religion aspect was interesting and did further research.
India, unlike many ancient societies, connected their people through an elaborate cultural system which includes religion. Religiously, Indians followed The Varna which translates to the colors. This is a good description because within The Varna there are four divisions: the Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Sudra. Each of these divisions acted as a social class as well as religious class. The Brahmin consisted of people such as priests. Those who were leaders and warriors were considered Kshatriya. The Vaishya consisted of merchants and farmers, and the Sudras were the laborers. Another main aspect of this religion is reincarnation. In this case, an individual will be reincarnated into the next caste system (social class) if his life consisted of good deeds. However, I have always questioned the fact of reincarnation because people typically do not remember a life prior to their current one. On the other hand, there have been instances where a “reincarnated person” has an interest on the items in the prior life. This also raises the issue of chance. What if by chance this person happens to have the same interests? I have also pondered the thought of souls. In this case, the soul must pass Brahmin to achieve “eternal rest” (nirvana). Is nirvana like heaven? Is this life truly better than life on earth? Does a soul have to wait after a death to find a new body? Unfortunately, these questions and many others still do not have an answer. With every religion there are questionable beliefs to them such as the questions I have presented. However, Ancient India, built mainly on this religion instead of education and government like other societies, kept their society strong for years. For this reason, I think religion should be important in every culture.