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Weight Of The Poonool Wearers

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The Vishwakarmas have the weight of their community behind them when they face any crisis! But in case of Brahmins, we are not ready to support our fellowmen for fear of being branded as a casteist...Let us remove these shackles and work towards emancipation of the poor and instill a fearless attitude amongst our community! Why can't we join hands with Vishwakarmas??

8 Dec 2017

Weight Of The Poonool Wearers

In the land of ancient architectural wonders, craftsmen also wear janeu, something ritualistic radicals don’t get

G.C.Shekhar



[FONT=&quot]
https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/weight-of-the-poonool-wearers/299609[/FONT]
 
The Vishwakarmas have the weight of their community behind them when they face any crisis! But in case of Brahmins, we are not ready to support our fellowmen for fear of being branded as a casteist...Let us remove these shackles and work towards emancipation of the poor and instill a fearless attitude amongst our community! Why can't we join hands with Vishwakarmas??

8 Dec 2017

Weight Of The Poonool Wearers

In the land of ancient architectural wonders, craftsmen also wear janeu, something ritualistic radicals don’t get

G.C.Shekhar

https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/weight-of-the-poonool-wearers/299609

But vishwakarmas may not like to be seen in our company.
 
Everyone wants to join an alliance with a stronger group or individual, no one is willing to accept a weaker group. Everyone would like to join NATO or Russian block, how many would like to join Rwanda? Or Haiti.

The Brahmins have been the apex for so long that they can not accept that they are weaker and they need alliances. Then again among Brahmins, there is competition, every Brahmin thinks of themselves as the only leader.
 
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“The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one.”


It’s an interesting notion—you can’t solve a problem until you admit you have one. As managers, how common is it for us to ignore a problem in hopes that it might just go away? Probably too common. But let’s be honest, how often does a problem just go away? You can ignore a problem, but that doesn’t mean it has been resolved.

And if denial is the weapon of first resort for many managers, what’s the second? Excuses. Deny you have a problem until you can no longer ignore it or refute its existence, and then begin to make excuses for why the problem exists.
 
[FONT=q_serif]I am quoting this opinion of a non-brahmin.
The world’s largest operating so-called Hindu temple is in Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu State, India.[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]1000s of years, non-brahmins were not allowed in this temple, until XXXXX movement started on civil rights and Dalit Rights in South India, which triggered civil rights movement in north India as well.[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]I just lived 10 kilometers away from this Temple, and my Grand parents used to say that, during their young age, they used to go to this temple and Brahmins asked them to stop one kilometer away from this temple and asked them to see Vigraha(Main God), as only Brahmins were allowed to go near to God’s sculpture. There was no electricity, how in the world, you can see in the dark, one kilometer away, the sculpture of God.[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]This happend thousands of years and it started changing in 1960s and 70s, 80s slowly.[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]North India, also same stories in the villages and small places. So many independent films have been taken on these issues in north india.[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]This will take sometime by Non-Brahmins, Dalits as they have to digest this 1000s of years of hatred of non-Brahmins by Brahmins.[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]I am talking about “THE LARGEST HINDU TEMPLE IN THE WORLD”.[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]By the way, there are Dalits in Christians and Catholics as well in India.[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]Tell me where was hatred ?

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-there-...e-comes-we-can-stand-Muslims-but-not-Brahmins




Do we need to build bridges? YES[/FONT]
 
[FONT=&quot]“By targeting Brahmins and not other communities the so-called social reformists have themselves placed the Brahmins on a higher pedestal unwittingly,” points out [/FONT]Thuglak[FONT=&quot]Editor S. Gurumurthy.[/FONT]

I think Gurumurthy Ji is right.....
 
One more quote:

[FONT=q_serif]I'm a non-brahmin who is currently residing in Chennai, India. When I moved to Chennai 6 years ago, I was looking for a small residence for my family of 3 to move in for rent. [/FONT]

[FONT=q_serif]Since I was new to Chennai, I asked the help of my colleague in my office to help me find a residence. My colleague had few contacts so he asked his friends if they could find a vacant apartment to inform him. [/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]Luckily they had found 6 to 7 apartments of reasonable budget. My friend and I left one evening to see those apartments. [/FONT]

[FONT=q_serif]1. I liked the first house. It even had a small penthouse in which my wife would love to do gardening. Having liked it, I thought maybe I could fix the house and we started speaking to the Owner of the house (OH).[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]After few questions regarding my income and family and so on)[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]OH: [/FONT]neenga vadakalai ya illa thengalai ah?? (Are you from Vadakalai or thenkalai?)
Me: Sir? Apadina? (Sir, I don't understand)
OH: Nee enna jadhi pa? (Which religion you belong to?)
Me: XXX

OH: (immediately calls my colleague's friend) yen pa? nooku theriyadha? Iyengar ku dhanna aatha vaadakai vidaradha sonnen? Kanda va lam aathuku vandha? Ava ena jadhiyo??? ( don't you know that I would leave my house to rent only for brahmin? Some random people coming into the house? I don't even their religion!)

We were denied the house!

2. Similar situation
3. Similar situation
4. Similar situation
5. Similar situation

6. Finally got a nice house for reasonable rent in a non-hindu house.

After all these years of living in chennai, I came to know about few things
[FONT=q_serif]1. There are areas where Brahmins are more dominant. ( West Mambalam, Madipakkam, Triplicane, Mylapore, T.Nagar, Nanganallur)[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]2. There are Brahmin-only apartments. You will not be able to buy a house/take a house for rent in such apartments. Though in Indian constitution there is no such rule.[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]3. My child is still untouchable girl by her Brahmin friend[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]4. I work in a financial company dominated by Brahmins, where the promotion comes easily if you're a Brahmin.[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]5. I'm not allowed into my neighbor's house who is a Brahmin! (Yes. They can stay in any apartment they want.)[/FONT]

[FONT=q_serif]Personally I don't hate Brahmins. I still have good Brahmin friends. But showing off their caste is very rude.

[/FONT]
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-there-so-much-hatred-for-Brahmins-in-India-I-have-heard-from-my-friends-who-are-from-the-lower-caste-that-If-the-time-comes-we-can-stand-Muslims-but-not-Brahmins


Do you see where this is going?
Can we accept that something in Brahmin community has to change?
 
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You can have your pride, then you shall only have pride nothing else.
It is like the British, they still think they have an empire.

When the Arab army under Muhammad ibn al-Qasim invaded Punjab-Sind area in 712 AD , a Brahmin king by name Raja Dahir was ruling Sind. Since he denied freedom to Rajputs and Buddhists, they did not support Raja Dahir fully. Some people from inside the fort supplied vital information to the enemy force. Ultimately Muhammad won the war which established foreign rule in India for another 1000 years.



Have we learned anything yet?
 
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Ideally, most important for the modern day Indians is to prosper as a country, and not as individual or subgroups.
 
May be the other side of the coin........

At a time when the Congress government wants to raise the quota for Other Backward Classes to 49.5 per cent in private and public sectors, nobody talks about the plight of the upper castes. The public image of the Brahmins, for instance, is that of an affluent, pampered class. But is it so today?

Doctors in arms


There are 50 Sulabh Shauchalayas (public toilets) in Delhi; all of them are cleaned and looked after by Brahmins (this very welcome public institution was started by a Brahmin). A far cry from the elitist image that Brahmins have!

There are five to six Brahmins manning each Shauchalaya. They came to Delhi eight to ten years back looking for a source of income, as they were a minority in most of their villages, where Dalits are in majority (60 per cent to 65 per cent). In most villages in UP and Bihar, Dalits have a union which helps them secure jobs in villages.

At Ground Zero of the quota protests


Did you know that you also stumble upon a number of Brahmins working as coolies at Delhi's railway stations? One of them, Kripa Shankar Sharma, says while his daughter is doing her Bachelors in Science he is not sure if she will secure a job.

"Dalits often have five to six kids, but they are confident of placing them easily and well," he says. As a result, the Dalit population is increasing in villages. He adds: "Dalits are provided with housing, even their pigs have spaces; whereas there is no provision for gaushalas(cowsheds) for the cows of the Brahmins."


The middle class deserves what it is getting


You also find Brahmin rickshaw pullers in Delhi. 50 per cent of Patel Nagar's rickshaw pullers are Brahmins who like their brethren have moved to the city looking for jobs for lack of employment opportunities and poor education in their villages.

Even after toiling the whole day, Vijay Pratap and Sidharth Tiwari, two Brahmin rickshaw pullers, say they are hardly able to make ends meet. These men make about Rs 100 to Rs 150 on an average every day from which they pay a daily rent of Rs 25 for their rickshaws and Rs 500 to Rs 600 towards the rent of their rooms which is shared by 3 to 4 people or their families.
Did you also know that most rickshaw pullers in Banaras are Brahmins?

Do our institutes connect with the real India?


This reverse discrimination is also found in bureaucracy and politics. Most of the intellectual
Brahmin Tamil class has emigrated outside Tamil Nadu. Only 5 seats out of 600 in the combined UP and Bihar assembly are held by Brahmins -- the rest are in the hands of the Yadavs.
400,000 Brahmins of the Kashmir valley, the once respected Kashmiri Pandits, now live as refugees in their own country, sometimes in refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi in appalling conditions. But who gives a damn about them? Their vote bank is negligible.
And this is not limited to the North alone. 75 per cent of domestic help and cooks in Andhra Pradesh are Brahmins. A study of the Brahmin community in a district in Andhra Pradesh (Brahmins of India by J Radhakrishna, published by Chugh Publications) reveals that today all purohits live below the poverty line.

Eighty per cent of those surveyed stated that their poverty and traditional style of dress and hair (tuft) had made them the butt of ridicule. Financial constraints coupled with the existing system of reservations for the 'backward classes' prevented them from providing secular education to their children.

Who are the real Dalits of India?


In fact, according to this study there has been an overall decline in the number of Brahmin students. With the average income of Brahmins being less than that of non-Brahmins, a high percentage of Brahmin students drop out at the intermediate level. In the 5 to 18 year age group, 44 per cent Brahmin students stopped education at the primary level and 36 per cent at the pre-
matriculation level.

The study also found that 55 per cent of all Brahmins lived below the poverty line -- below a per capita income of Rs 650 a month. Since 45 per cent of the total population of India is officially stated to be below the poverty line it follows that the percentage of destitute Brahmins is 10 per
cent higher than the all-India figure.

There is no reason to believe that the condition of Brahmins in other parts of the country is different. In this connection it would be revealing to quote the per capita income of various communities as stated by the Karnataka finance minister in the state assembly: Christians Rs 1,562, Vokkaligas Rs 914, Muslims Rs 794, Scheduled castes Rs 680, Scheduled Tribes Rs 577 and Brahmins Rs 537.

Appalling poverty compels many Brahmins to migrate to towns leading to spatial dispersal and consequent decline in their local influence and institutions. Brahmins initially turned to government jobs and modern occupations such as law and medicine. But preferential policies for the non-Brahmins have forced Brahmins to retreat in these spheres as well.

Caste shouldn't overwrite merit


According to the Andhra Pradesh study, the largest percentage of Brahmins today are employed as domestic servants. The unemployment rate among them is as high as 75 per cent. Seventy percent of Brahmins are still relying on their hereditary vocation. There are hundreds of families that are surviving on just Rs 500 per month as priests in various temples (Department of Endowments statistics).

Priests are under tremendous difficulty today, sometimes even forced to beg for alms for survival. There are innumerable instances in which Brahmin priests who spent a lifetime studying Vedas are being ridiculed and disrespected.

At Tamil Nadu's Ranganathaswamy Temple, a priest's monthly salary is Rs 300 (Census Department studies) and a daily allowance of one measure of rice. The government staff at the same temple receive Rs 2,500 plus per month. But these facts have not modified the priests' reputation as 'haves' and as 'exploiters.' The destitution of Hindu priests has moved none, not even the parties known for Hindu sympathy.

The tragedy of modern India is that the combined votes of Dalits/OBC and Muslims are enough for any government to be elected. The Congress quickly cashed in on it after Independence, but probably no other government than Sonia Gandhi's has gone so far in shamelessly dividing Indian society for garnering votes.

From the Indian Express: 'These measures will not achieve social justice'


The Indian government gives Rs 1,000 crores (Rs 10 billion) for salaries of imams in mosques and Rs 200 crores (Rs 2 billion) as Haj subsidies. But no such help is available to Brahmins and upper castes. As a result, not only the Brahmins, but also some of the other upper castes in the lower middle class are suffering in silence today, seeing the minorities slowly taking control of their majority.

How reservations fracture Hindu society


Anti-Brahminism originated in, and still prospers in anti-Hindu circles. It is particularly welcome among Marxists, missionaries, Muslims, separatists and Christian-backed Dalit movements of different hues. When they attack Brahmins, their target is unmistakably Hinduism.
So the question has to be asked: are the Brahmins (and other upper castes) of yesterday becoming the Dalits of today?

Source: http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/may/23franc.htm
 
One more quote:


Do you see where this is going?
Can we accept that something in Brahmin community has to change?

You can have your pride, then you shall only have pride nothing else.
It is like the British, they still think they have an empire.



Have we learned anything yet?

Heavy weight added on to an over loaded Poonool cart!


Rahul Gandhi Is Janeu-Dhari Hindu, Says Congress

Last straw or பீலி?
 
Heavy weight added on to an over loaded Poonool cart!
Rahul Gandhi Is Janeu-Dhari Hindu, Says Congress
Last straw or பீலி?

True. Now politics has entered the religious practice ! It is regrettable to see wrong notions exhibited to insult Brahmin society.

Wearing Yagnopaveetham or Poonal is not the prerogative for Brahmins alone. I could not find any rule in the scriptures preventing others wearing the thread. That is the reason Arya Samaj, ISKCON,
R K Mutt, TM, and many other cults initiate, wearing of Yagnopaveetham by their members. Even ladies are permitted to wear the same.

The relevent sloka recited while wearing the new Yagnopaveetham clearly states:
"Shrautasmaartha vihita nitya-karmaa anushthaana sadaachara yogyataa siddhyaartham, Brahma-tejas abhivrittyaartham, yagyopaveeta dhaaranam karishye."
The purpose of this symbolic ritual is to take a determined effort to learn the Nithya karma as required by the scriptures.

According to our Epics, people belong to many different castes also wear Yagnopaveetham.

"Wearing yagyopaveetam is a holy sadhana. Sādhanā " -accomplishing something, is an ego transcending spiritual practice.
Thus yagvyyopaveetam represents the sadhana of the purest of pure with determination, courage, faith, commitment and a spirit of toleration.

" Sa suryasya rashmibhih parivyat tantum tanvanas trivritam yatha vide
Nayannritasya prashisho baviyaseeh patir janinam up yate niskkritam."

"One who wears the three threads for gaining knowledge, shines with brightness like the rays of the sun, wearing yagyopaveetam and spreading it over his body. He carries along the new and fine instruments of learning, becomes the master where knowledge is being created and attains expertise and salvation for himself."
In other words it is a symbol of taking a vow while start learning a trade or craft. Many other communities like Achary, Sthapathi, Black smith, Gold smith, Vydhyar etc. also wear Poonool apart from the three Varnas.

However, there is a modern trend to denigrate all that is a symbol of ancient practices, in the name of equality and secularism.

Brahmanyan
Bangalore.
 
May be the other side of the coin........
Counterpoint well presented..
there are factual inaccuracies in the post #5. Only Dalits were disallowed in the temples and not "non Brahmins" as claimed cleverly by the writer. And this is the problem in Tamilnadu. When caste discrimination is talked about it is always twisted into a anti Brahmin rant by clubbing every one else into a wronged victims group conveniently. Is the so called largest temple the Dalits were discriminated against not by Brahmins but by the larger group of all higher castes. The caste discrimination in Tamilnadu had always been one of Dalits versus others and not Brahmins versus all others. Recently--after Brahmins have been "disciplined" the murderers of a Dalit boy Sankar in Tamilnadu were punished by courts with death sentence. Even today Dalits human rights are denied not by Brahmins but by all the middle castes who hold political powers in their hands all over India.

About Brahmins preferring Brahmin tenents, it is also common for Muslims to seek Muslim tenents and Christians preferring Christian tenents. I have come across nonbrahmin house owners preferring Brahmin tenants for their own reasons.

It is high time that Brahmins come out of the victim hood syndrome. We do not want reservations. We have survived years of negative discrimination and remain still on top. As citizens of India we would prefer an India with reservation only for Dalits. The current system of reservation for castes other than Dalits is a big fraud.
 
As citizens of India we would prefer an India with reservation only for Dalits. The current system of reservation for castes other than Dalits is a big fraud.


I fully agree with it.
Actually, I even go a step further. The caste-based system should be abolished. India has been free for 70 years, technically we do not have caste. Yes, there may have to be some adjustments for economically disadvantaged.
 
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