Entharo Mahanubavulu…….
We have been witnessing here in this forum a lot of spirited arguments against the Brahmins for the varnasrama Dharma they are following. There are those who swear by their conviction on scientific scrutiny and come here to pour scorn and ridicule on the Brahmins and there are those who are cats on the wall who, after a feeble attempt to argue, give up and join the bandwagon and cry Jai ho! perhaps because that is the “in thing” to do. In the absence of a referee who can lay down the ground rules for a debate and guide it through pitfalls, every participant cries foul at some point and points the accusing finger at the other person debating with him. The only redeeming feature is that it has not reached the low levels which you witness in some of the other forums in the internet. I am fed up with the stone wall like refusal I come across in recognizing that casteism has nothing to do with Brahmins alone. It is a social evil for which the Hindu society as a whole is responsible-This is my case. But it is next to impossible to convince some one who is sold on the idea that Brahmins are responsible for castes. This I have put succinctly with the remark that “Even if you convert all the Brahmins into donkeys over night by waving a magic wand casteism will still exist here.” In order that readers get a balanced view of Brahmins I am giving here my encounters with some of the finest souls who were certainly Brahmins. If other readers have any such experiences/anecdotes to share please post them under this thread. Let the Brahmin bashing arm chair revolutionaries realize that there are other angles also to look from at Brahmins and that they are not such pig headed idiots as they are made out to be.
Mahanubhavulu 1.
I recently visited my village which is in the deep south far away from Chennai. As my car was reaching the village, the tamil song “then inimaiyilum yesuvin namam divya madhuramame…..”wafted through the air and kindled my childhood memories. The madan kovil where I, as a curious young boy had seen a goat being sacrificed in a gory ritual, the irrigation tank where I learnt the basics of swimming from my father, the meadows where I had played kabaddi and had indulged in fist fights with my friends over some foul play in the game, the Board Elementary School where I studied up to fifth class which has now become the Panchayath Union Secondary School with new concrete buildings with a mid-day meals kitchen -- these and many other landmarks were green in my memory because connected with each one of these was a tag in my mind in which was engraved a lesson learnt, a loss suffered, a passion unfulfilled, a moment enjoyed or a boon bestowed. I reached the agraharam which was a street with most of the houses dilapidated. There lived just one Brahmin family in that village, that of a bhattachar who did the pooja in the Sri Krishnan temple at the end of the street. The purpose of my visit to the village was to have darshan of the deity in the temple and pray.I had called the bhattachar over phone in the village post office and informed him in advance about my visit to the village.
As I entered the house of the bhattachar I could instantly realize that this man was very poor. There was no electricity in the house. Later I came to know that he could not afford the luxury of electricity. The clothes he, his wife and his daughter were wearing were cheap and faded. His belongings were very few. His family was very happy that I had come to the village. He took me to the temple and did some pooja in the temple. I could understand that he was fairly well versed in Vedas from the way he did the poojas. In my mind a question had been tormenting me and before leaving the village back for home I gathered enough courage and asked him the question. What on earth was holding him back in the village which was obviously eons away from civilization. He could have lived comfortably if he too, like others from that village, had moved to city. In a very disarming casual way he said he did not want to leave the perumal and go any where. Even though the tenant who was cultivating the temple lands had stopped giving any paddy he still managed to live there and take care of the perumal also. He said that gives him happiness which he may not get if he goes to a city. That was a revealing moment for me. The poverty and deprivation was sitting lightly on him. It was a yajna which he was performing there in that remote village quietly. I felt humbled, saluted him and drove my car towards Tirunelveli. He is one among the great souls I had the fortune to meet.
We have been witnessing here in this forum a lot of spirited arguments against the Brahmins for the varnasrama Dharma they are following. There are those who swear by their conviction on scientific scrutiny and come here to pour scorn and ridicule on the Brahmins and there are those who are cats on the wall who, after a feeble attempt to argue, give up and join the bandwagon and cry Jai ho! perhaps because that is the “in thing” to do. In the absence of a referee who can lay down the ground rules for a debate and guide it through pitfalls, every participant cries foul at some point and points the accusing finger at the other person debating with him. The only redeeming feature is that it has not reached the low levels which you witness in some of the other forums in the internet. I am fed up with the stone wall like refusal I come across in recognizing that casteism has nothing to do with Brahmins alone. It is a social evil for which the Hindu society as a whole is responsible-This is my case. But it is next to impossible to convince some one who is sold on the idea that Brahmins are responsible for castes. This I have put succinctly with the remark that “Even if you convert all the Brahmins into donkeys over night by waving a magic wand casteism will still exist here.” In order that readers get a balanced view of Brahmins I am giving here my encounters with some of the finest souls who were certainly Brahmins. If other readers have any such experiences/anecdotes to share please post them under this thread. Let the Brahmin bashing arm chair revolutionaries realize that there are other angles also to look from at Brahmins and that they are not such pig headed idiots as they are made out to be.
Mahanubhavulu 1.
I recently visited my village which is in the deep south far away from Chennai. As my car was reaching the village, the tamil song “then inimaiyilum yesuvin namam divya madhuramame…..”wafted through the air and kindled my childhood memories. The madan kovil where I, as a curious young boy had seen a goat being sacrificed in a gory ritual, the irrigation tank where I learnt the basics of swimming from my father, the meadows where I had played kabaddi and had indulged in fist fights with my friends over some foul play in the game, the Board Elementary School where I studied up to fifth class which has now become the Panchayath Union Secondary School with new concrete buildings with a mid-day meals kitchen -- these and many other landmarks were green in my memory because connected with each one of these was a tag in my mind in which was engraved a lesson learnt, a loss suffered, a passion unfulfilled, a moment enjoyed or a boon bestowed. I reached the agraharam which was a street with most of the houses dilapidated. There lived just one Brahmin family in that village, that of a bhattachar who did the pooja in the Sri Krishnan temple at the end of the street. The purpose of my visit to the village was to have darshan of the deity in the temple and pray.I had called the bhattachar over phone in the village post office and informed him in advance about my visit to the village.
As I entered the house of the bhattachar I could instantly realize that this man was very poor. There was no electricity in the house. Later I came to know that he could not afford the luxury of electricity. The clothes he, his wife and his daughter were wearing were cheap and faded. His belongings were very few. His family was very happy that I had come to the village. He took me to the temple and did some pooja in the temple. I could understand that he was fairly well versed in Vedas from the way he did the poojas. In my mind a question had been tormenting me and before leaving the village back for home I gathered enough courage and asked him the question. What on earth was holding him back in the village which was obviously eons away from civilization. He could have lived comfortably if he too, like others from that village, had moved to city. In a very disarming casual way he said he did not want to leave the perumal and go any where. Even though the tenant who was cultivating the temple lands had stopped giving any paddy he still managed to live there and take care of the perumal also. He said that gives him happiness which he may not get if he goes to a city. That was a revealing moment for me. The poverty and deprivation was sitting lightly on him. It was a yajna which he was performing there in that remote village quietly. I felt humbled, saluted him and drove my car towards Tirunelveli. He is one among the great souls I had the fortune to meet.
