Bhagavata Purana Question

An accessory is a person who assists in the commission of a crime, but who does not actually participate in the commission of the crime as a joint principal.

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kunjuppu said:

nachi, sesh, sb, happy,

i will try to present my views on so many interrelated topics, here and in other threads.

nachi, to start off, i will address your query re social progressiveness and religious conservatism. to initialize, i wish to say, that i am with on all your social views.

having said the above, i have found that labels may mean different things to different people. please permit me, to address your query, at an issue level. perhaps we can then extrapolate, to what it means vis a vis, conservative or progressive.

by social progressiveness, if it means, not practising discrimination through castes, considering dalits as of our own faith, eschewing the two tumbler system, i think i am for it.

then comes the issue of quotas in educational institutions. the stated aim is to get representation to other folks within the hindu community. which is in direct conflict with our own goals, and the single skillset that we have inherited ie pursuit of knowledge as a means to livelihood.

would it be progressive to support this purported egalitarian moveof educational quotas? or would it be prudent to go for the status quo, in the narrowest of terms of looking after the tamil brahmin interests? i think it comes down to personal preferences.

religious conservatism - would it mean the mastery of the vedas and the puranas, to seek the wisdom of the ancients, and find a solution to current day living? would it means seeking directions and living according to the strictures of mutts like kanchi?

i am not so sure, in many an instances, where religion and practice can be compartmentalized as distinct, particularly in a brahmin household. there are so much interwoven, i think.

is caste religion? or practice? two tumblers, is a practice, which is a derivative of religion.

all in all, i am sure, i know what i like and what i don't like.

i don't like casteism, the 'othi pO' attitudes emanating from our supposed 'purity and ritual cleanliness', the shaving of widows, the hypocracy of the mutts, and particularly the coterie of ex executives who appear to hover around the managing of these institutions.

i am very uncomfortable with the way we carry out our rituals.

let us take the three key life defining functions:

birth: when the first born arrives, there is atleast in my family, the usual hullaballoo and the functions that go along with it. nothing happens when the other children follow. not sure, whether it is religious or social that we focus here. the first born gets the benefit of the homams and the the ones that follow have nothing to their benefit.

marriage: it has become a f(3c) ie a function of cash, convenience and comfort. any of us here can translate and relate to the 3Cs to varying levels of comfort (or discomfort). nowadays these are also coldly calculated formulaes, intended to maximize the perceived opportunities of the couple, through synergies produced through a common secular profession (!)

death: this is where we appear to seek elaboration, for after all, this is the ultimate unknown journey. i have had to be the primary participant of death ceremonies since early teenhood (my sonless maternal grandparents) and even then, in my childhood wonderment, i could only realize the levels of compromise and duplicity practised by all the participants. i have written some of my experiences elsewhere in this forum.

how much of these above rituals are pure religion? our concept of ritual purity, conditions our minds,i think, to wallow in the deepest of filth that is current day ganges, and yet claim to have purified our soul. it is but a fact, that kooja of gangajalam, indeed putrify, in a few days, producing an unexplained dismay among the recepients, who have been storing it for special purifying occassions. do we need all this to reinforce our faith? or is it practice?

personally, i find it more satisfying, to give vaazhakkai/rice as dhaanam, than those donations of heifers or ancient foods, involving the chavundi brahmins, for whom we have nothing but contempt otherwise, and yet whom we need in our deepest moment of anguish. personally, i categorize, our treatment of chavundis, as our biggest existing shame. no amount of whitewashing would be acceptable to me.

i also wish to say something about 'separate but equal' sentiments expressed elsewhere. it has something to do with, 'if you don't like my customs, go set up a separate temple for yourself'. separate but equal, to me, is an oxymoron.

personally, i wish an inclusive hinduism. in this current day and age of egalitarianism, where communication is instantaneous and where ideas travel faster than the speed of light - i think for us to have a healthy future as hindus, we need to bring all of the castes and creeds together under one umbrella.

i also think, in order to achieve the above, we as brahmins, need to position ourselves a few notches down - willingly. this is not out of any viewing through 'guilt ridden eyes' or some profound introspection.

we as brahmins, have botched our chances for leadership and missed chances to promote unity. unity, implies, willingness to 'give'. we appear, by and large, i think, more concerned with the pang that our 'take' is increasingly less. we do not have credibility anybody, to lead any religious revival, i think, in tamil nadu.

to attribute, our lack of status to periyar, is to give him too much credit. many of our shortfalls are due to our own shortsightedness and shortcomings. we could have sensed the directions in which the winds were blowing, and adjusted our sails accordingly. instead, i think, we continued with full sails headon into oncoming storms, and have now been wrecked beyond redemption, in the socio political life, of tamil nadu.

i think all of us like to belong to a greater group. many of us, have shunned the timeworn garments of tradition, handed down by our ancestors to us. we (try to) identify with the new progressive tamil culture. others of us, appear to renounce the 'tamil' in us, and reach out forlornly, across the borders, to a vague union with other brahmins of india. or to an even more, vaguer, disturbing and divisive, hindutva. again, this is my opinion.

all in all, we as community, i think, are trying to come to terms with an increasingly fast paced changing world, trying to find a balance, and at the moment of acheiving it, find that the targets have moved. in this endeavour, we are no different, from other communities. i think so anyway.

again, this whole idea is debatable. but this is my personal view. does that make me a social progressive? a religious progressive?

frankly, i do not know. i am not sure whether i care about it either.

but i am grateful for the likes of nacchi and krs here, to provide a dose of reality and sanity, to an otherwise this diverse forum.

one bright light that i have identified in this milieu of spaghetti network of contradictions and conflictions, is the overall acceptance of the need to give. dhaanam. if there is one thing that appears to be a uniting thread, it is the need that we all feel towards the underdogs of our community.

it is said, that poverty and afflictions know no caste or creed. but i find personal satisfaction in doling out my mite rather selectively to those whom i am ancestrally kithed and kinned. such selective interpretation of charity might not stand the scrutiny of the finest of our finest, but for one who is so flawed as i am, it is an acceptable compromise.

thank you.

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malgova.mango said:

Bhagavat geeta is not quoted to supported for untouchability, it is quoted to emphasis on Jathi - please don't mix-up.

Any text can be interepreted in any way. From the masters i have sought clarification so far, there is no jathi in bhagavad gita - the context in which it is quoted is misplaced.

I ask you , why don't you ask the looters of india - to have service mind.
why don't you ask the bankers - charging extra-orbidant interest rates to be service minded.

you can't ask them... only poor workers are exploited..

When service to humanity starts with oneself putting in some form of effort, one is automatically not giving an exploiter a chance to exploit.

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