Thread: temple priests

British might have anglicised the word brahmin to brahminism or applied a 'ism' to give the meaning of this as a seperate movement or something like that. But the real problem is brahmins failed to explain the true meaning of brahminism to british, they should have said, there is no such thing as brahminism or even if there is, it is open to all, and everyone is equal in terms of brahminism, because, brahman, which is the essence of brahminism, means 'one who is in pursuit of knowledge and righteousness', and one who is in that pursuit is a brahman, but then, brahmin given a new identity and a status, that is above all non-brahmins and charecterized as a superior being comparable to the aryans like british, failed to see the real truth (which basically demotes them as brahmins, because they inspite of their goal in seeking knowledge) and succumbed to the divisive tactics of british. But regardless, brahmins already monopolized hinduism for their own means, for quite a long time, and the british, characterization was just additional fuel.

Coming to your truth aspect as in it cannot be destroyed;
The brahminism cannot be destroyed because it imitates a function, like purohit, similarly engineering is a function, or being doctor as called by british (or maruthuvar in tamil) is also TRUTH! as per your logic.

Brahmin is a tag not a truth!, Devar is a tag not a truth!, Buniya is a tag not a truth!. These originated through something called jati, which originally stemmed through the function/task/role (however you want to call it) that everyone did initially and as time passed everything got associated with birth as though you carry something with you physically!.

Originally Posted by pattuk

The explanation is this The word Brahminisim was created by British (called Pomy)
Even before that when you look at the westernised buddist texts would say that buddha challenged the authority of brahmisim.
Even if you take the two ways like
a) it is totally true, buddha was not successfull in his mission. Because many of the "Sangas" were populated with brahmins and they continued with what they wanted to do.
b) if it is not true then the brahmin, still the way the buddhism entered the the religious platform was through an atheist way.

Anyway their temproray sucess were not long because they entered politics .

Thus the brahminhood is a way of life, in this you try to be a role model and impress on your fellow being to become the same. It is the way every one should aim to. Even if the there is non brahmin archakar in temple he will become a brahmin at least. There is no guarantee that he will not repeat the same situation.
Another classical example would be few sri vaishanvas, they were not brahmins, but they were inducted into brahminhood by Sri Ramanuja. They call thems selves as brahmins. Still their root is a non brahmins root. It will be difficult to differenciate between themselves unless they say so. Obvivously they wouldn't proclaim in public.

Therefore the brahminism cannot be destroyed as everyone comes to the basic function of a brahmins (ie a prohitha - in temple an archakar) would show the same properties of the presently adjudged as brahmins qualities.

Hope I have explained my stance.

hi all,as a hindi brahmin,i support the fact that now non-brahmin will be appointed as priests in temples.anybody with vision will not oppose this.after all all non brahmin all children of god.so how can god refused to be served by them.in north india many o.b.c are working as priest.ramkrishna paramhansa,spearheading the ayodhya movement is a shudra by caste.fire brand uma bharti is a o.b.c.in many temples of benaras o.b.c and dalit are serving as priest.mata amrit anandmayi is from fisherman community.great visionary vivekananda was a bengali shudra.can anybody deny these people contributions to dharma.WE SHOULD FIGHT FOR OUR RIGHTS BUT WE SHOULD ALWAYS SUPPORT REFORMS.

hai all!
ok when gajendran says he sees brahmins far more forward in their thinking then what does he mean by that if he could be elaborate then we can change our tunes too!emotions are true to tamilians but it cannot be controlled unless our object is achieved!

To continue to think that one is superior to others just because they were born into a caste shows that the your community ( may be a few in...) hasn't come to grips with the reality and are living very much in the way past times.

unfortunately, the way "others" act and talk are very much based on these superior/inferior values.

i do not mean any specific sect or individual,
it happens with everyone including us.

whether we do it consciously or not that is something which we find hard to change.

As mythreyi said, Emotions are true to tamilians in all walks of life and that is something which is hard to change as well.

Btw,

Welcome to the forums grajendran

Mythreyi, I guess rajendran didn't try to single out brahmins to say that they are out of their shell, what he means is I guess is people are opening their mind to lots of possibilities, whether brahmin or not!.

The issue being temple priests I guess surely we can accept a non-brahmin as priest in our temples, as long as he learns the sambradayam associated with pooja, I guess eating meat or no-meat dont matter, I guess our culture emphasize, taking a full good bath, before indulging in pooja regardless, of what you have done before. I am sure guys can come out of lots of sanskrit quotes and slokas against what I said (consumption of meat before pooja inspite of bath etc...), but I guess for all practical and logical purposes, if a person can take a good bath, and do the pooja when he is doing with full faith and committments, I think that is good enough, and I think that also gels with spirit of hinduism and hindu way of prayer.! Afterall, hinduism is the only religion that doesn't restrict you to a single path for salvation, I think everyone knows that as opposed to other religions where it is more rigid!.

grajendran said>>I've been living in US for a while now and many of friends are Iyers. They are way forward in their thinking and i'm surprised to see this hatred from folks in india. I appreciate the efforts of the few like "srkpriv".

very true indeed praveen (and mythreyi), that emotions are hard to overcome, that is the reason, brahmins used pursuit of knowledge and spirit (not the alcohol type to further themselves, but at the same time, they abused their position as well, after all, they are humans too!. I think whether the issue is temple preist are not, the more important problem is the diminishing opportunities due to reservation and that needs to be changed in whatever way we can, may be, not 0% overnight, but a few percentage of reduction every 5 years or so, will do the needful as well!. Instead of reservation the government should concentrate on economic progress and development, which regardless of the population will touch everybody due to opportunities abound and entities will always seek people (regardless of caste) to fill the vacancies and also new opportunities emerge constantly in a flourishing economy.

"praveen said>>As mythreyi said, Emotions are true to tamilians in all walks of life and that is something which is hard to change as well."

hi all,why not these mr.gajendran is doing something to lessen the suffering of brahmins.instead he is sprinkling salt on our cuts.all the reformers in india were brahmin.they spoke for the welfare of whole humanity.but anyone has ever seen a o.b.c politician to voice concern for peoplre other then his caste.shame on such people.

Truth according to me is the helplessness among our society is the first thing which paved the way for all. One who is rich should help the poor in the society, ofcourse gurukals in our temples other than big temples like kamakshi temple earn very less which will not be enough to make their daily happenings. they are the downtrodden in our brahmin society. But can anyone tell anybody has done enough for them. There lies my point, no help from top people.
Iam really proud that inspite of 69% reservation and lot of distubances from the politicians, our society is striving their best part. Hats off to all. I really like this kind of attitude. It will be better if the helping part is fulfilled. this has to be taken care by ourselves, not even kanchi madam is doing anything fruitful. they are also supporting the rich people instead of poor.

In such a situation how can we all expect our fellow brahmins to protest. First do (y)our duty and ask others to . this is my moral, funda .... anything.

if i had hurt any of yours feelings, pls forgive me.

Originally Posted by srkpriv

For churches and mask their is no restriction except that you have to ordain yourself as a priest! Anyone (a christian in that denomination) can become a priest if you go through their training and their hierarchy etc. To become a priest in a temple, you have to be a hindu as well!. Previously it was brahmins now it can be anybody with proper training!. In a way I support that!. The whole problem for brahmins is we dont look at us among everybody, if you try to corner things that are social in nature, backlash is only a matter of time, and that's what is happening to brahmins. I as a brahmin think we should reform ourselves first, and join together as one under one umbrella and face our problems, diplomatically, politically and socially.

I definitely disagree with you. Every religion has a procedure and they follow it strictly.Similarly in Hinduism there is a procedure like only this generation can server this temple.Even I as a pucca brahmin cannot go to any temple and become a priest.When things are like this it is not at all proper to compare with useless islam or christianity and blame ourselves in a forum like this.

These stupid non brahmins will become priests only to loot money and misbehave before God.

No wonder a time may come when anybody who brahmin chants Narayana will be killed by MK's party men.And that time also there will be people like you to support the cause.

You know how the Agama system is very very unique in atleast one sampradaya in every temple.A Srirangam chief priest dont have any rights inside an another small perumal temple somewhere.

Why you know? He is also a Vaishnava that too priest in a temple that is the best of 108.Then also why he cannot enter? It is because of our strongest agama tradition and austerity.

That and all are greek and latin to these DEMONS AND DOGS OF TN but atleast our people should not join them like this.