Course XXVIII - Teaching 3: Brahmanism

Aryan established all their religions, philosophies, laws, letter and arts on Vedas.
The Upanishads and Sutras, which are moral and philosophy of Hinduism, are vast commentaries on early texts based on their religion.
The Aryan people grows up, becomes strong and powerful, and later its desire of power promotes intestine fights and awful wars.
In Puranas, there is a description of a war between gods and elements; in Ramayana, you find a description of the war of the Aryans guided by the Divine Incarnation of Rama against the Atlanteans; and the Mahabharata describes the intestine war of the Hindus. In this epic, Krishna, the eight Avatar of Vishnu guides Arjuna to victory.
A conversation between these two, described in the Bhagavad Gita, even today is spiritual basis of many devotees in India, and followers of this religion are called Vaishnavites.
In the end of the Mahabharata, Shiva, god of destiny and destruction, and Kali, his wife, appear. These gods prevailed much since then, and will have more temples in India, producing a lot of yogis and tantrikas, mystics and people endowed with psychic powers, who none in the world can surpass. Even Yoganauth, king of the world, carried once a year on his millenary chariot is image of Shiva.
Exercises practiced by Yogis are especially described in Patanjali’s Yoga, in Sivagana, in Chakra Nirupana. This love of the Hindus for their religion and spiritual practices makes them fit to multiply their creeds in numerous sects, which would be impossible to name; all of them incite to study and abstract things.
In Vedanta Purana’s philosophy, all the rest is Maya, with the exception of the Non-Manifested One. Vedanta Advaita takes the absolute as the only reality, but tolerates a creational principle, Purusha (Spirit), and a vital and substantial principle, Prakriti (matter).
Behind these philosophies and theologies, there are numerous Pandits (sages) and Brahamacharins (monks), who renew, maintain, clean and purify continuously the only early Vedic religion; of them, Ram Mohun Roy (founder of the Brahmosamaj), Ramakrishna and Vivekananda (the latter, founder of Ramakrishna Mission), and Tagore, a poet and philosopher.
As you have seen, the pure Vedic religion had a time of obscurantism that the Mahabharata describes later.
Peoples grew weaker and priests had the government under control.
They were called Brahmans and their name is after Brahma, the divinity, instead of Indra. They consolidate their power by dividing the race into four castes, with them at the top of the divine dynasty.
Despite this, many Brahmans were truly descendants of ancient Aryan Initiated Kings.
The four castes were divided as follows:
Brahmans: Priests and spiritual leaders of the people.
Chatriyas: Caste of kings and warriors.
Vaisyas: Caste of industrialists and merchants.
Sudras: Caste of servants.
As a negative consequence of these laws, which became despotic, even today it is difficult to extirpate totally their results.