Modern (western) "Education" and the meaningless Rat Race!
There is conceptual reality and then there is something called phenomenal reality. Phenomenal reality is not a concept. It is what it is. But the average person cannot see it or experience it. You have to work to get the dristi that allows you to see it and experience it. But not everyone really cares to have that dristi. We rever those who have acquired that dristi through tapas, tyaga, sadhana and anusthana. Nowadays, people want the recognition without doing the work!
Ancient IKS was always about cutting through conceptual reality and accessing the wisdom of phenomenal reality. Back then titles meant something. They kind of marked how close you were to accessing phenomenal reality. How clear is your DRISTI!
Do you see the world the way it is or do you see the world the way you are? Do you see reality or do you see concepts? It was not based on your performance in a rat race. It was supposed to be an indication of the level of your consciousness.
At each level of consciousness, there appears one version of truth. As the consciousness rises the understanding, dristi, vision of truth and version of truth - changes. From danava dristi to manava dristi to divya dristi. Like S Vivekananda said, "We go from lower truth to higher truth."
It was not an information highway that people were concerned with. We were focused on the consciousness highway. The external and societal organization was based on the understanding of phenomenal reality by seers who were at the highest level of consciousness, and they set up pathways that facilitated this journey to higher consciousness for everyone regardless of where they were. They understood that this journey cannot be forced. Everyone's third eye does not open at the same time. But stay on the path and it will eventually open.
Now, this upward surge of consciousness needs to be guided by those who have been there done that. And these were the people we really revered. This is the ultimate goal for every human being -Moksha. But then we also needed to address Kama and Artha within the framework of Dharma. Every step had to ultimately take you one step closer to Moksha.
Now, we don't have Dharma. We don't aspire for Moksha. We are caught up in Artha and Kama. You cannot understand Varna and Jaati without understanding the entire architecture. It is like someone dissecting a body and studying only the lungs or the liver. And this is what people are doing today.