Sri auh, Veteran, who is most welcome to join in this thread, says:-
We have to talk about comparables here. A person born with a disability cannot be equated to a person who has commited a heinous act (of his volition). They are two different yardsticks.
He seems to have touched on a basic point. The point is that only "comparables" are equal creatures of God. This leads to the "1984" situation that all humans are equal, but some are more equal than others.
He talks about "yardsticks", i.e. units created by humans for measurement. Does God have such yardsticks? And does he use them for rewards and punishnments in this world, in the earlier world, and in the next world?
Sinners who have atoned adequately for their sins (like unwed single mothers), adults, adolescents and children who have paid the price for their misdemeanours and their crimes (as classified by fellow-humans) and seek re-integration into society, into OUR society, should be measured by a different yardstick and adjudged as unfift? God has given us the authority to do that? Or only to some of us selecgted by themselves?
When? Where? How?
Compassion, simple charity, fraternal feeling for needy fellow-humans should be discarded in favour of judgmental classification into comparables and incomparables?
Did not Adolf Hitler say that peripatetic Gypsies, the mentally challenged, the impoverished in the ghettoes, the learning-challenged, the physically challenged, the colour-skinned, the Jews, are all incomparables and should be eliminated? Are moving in that direction?
Would what one contributor in these TB columns blithely labels as the ultra orthodox kind of TB (his own dismissive term for simply for one who follows TB religious customs and is not ashamed of it) be an execrable incomparable?
Would one contributor in these TB columns who asserts that at any time he prefers a glass of shandy or a cocktail to a flute of champagne from a top vineyard, count among the enviable "comparables"?
Would it make any difference to Sri auh and those who agree with him, if the posited "person who has commited a heinous act (of his volition)" was later found insane and not in possession of his faculties at the time of the alleged offence, and would definitely have been acquitted had a good criminal lawyer defended him?
Not all matters are pure white or pure black' some are grey areas?
Veteran Krtish44 brings out this out this pungent point:-
Why make a drama of Own caste and exhibit caste name and associated superiority in addressing others,have expectations of worth based on caste?
The question is entirely misconceived.
The real question is twofold: Why parade one's inferiority complex, be ashamed of one's true identity by hiding or by erasing one's caste name if one is a Brahmin -- Sharma, Iyer, Iyengarr, Agnihothri, Ghanapaadi, Bhattaachaarya, Bhatt, Dvivedi, Trivedi, Chaturvedi, Samavedis, Namboodiri? And why feel guilty of having ancestors who used these caste names?
Why seek to ridicule and voluntarily offend those who correctly use these caste names in this TB forum? Why act like the famous fabled fox who lost his tail and asked all other foxes to cut off their own tails? Or like the unsung lion who went for a massive shave and ended up looking like a lioness?
Because one Iyer in this TB forum dares to identify his caste, as his parents and all his menfolk did, you quiver and quake with a massive inferioirty complex -- is that all there is to it? You have expectations of notoriety and worth based on castigating caste on a Brahmin website?
Would you require our present Prime Minister to be known only as Shankar, and fiercely condemn him for "making a drama of Own caste and exhibiting caste name and associated superiority in addressing others,have expectations of worth based on caste"?
Would you delete "Pandit" from our former and first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru's nomenclature? Ask Lal Bahadur Shaasthri, former PM, to delete "Shaasthr"i from his name? Demand that Atal Behari Vajpayee, another past PM, be known simply as Atal Bihari?
White Americans -- descended from Poles, Germans, Frenchmen, Italian s, Greeks -- travel to Europe in search of heir roots. Blacks go to Africa in search of their roots. Creoles go to both Europe and to Afrlca in search of their own roots.
You want all Tamil Brahmins to cover up, burn and bury their roots because of your personal anti-caste chauvinism?
"அன்புமிக்க தப்பித் பிழைத்து ஜீவித்திருக்கும் உயர் திரு க்ரிஷ் நாற்ப்பத்தி-நாலு அவர்களே" என்று பணிவுடன் அழைத்தேன். ஏன் ஸார் குதிதிச்சு ?
"படிக்காதவர்களும் தாழ்ந்தவர்களும் அந்தணர்களை அய்யர்-வாள் என்பார்கள்."
ஏன் படிப்பில் தாந்தவர் என்று புரியவில்லை ? ஏன் பிறப்பில் தாந்தவர் என்று துள்ளுகிறீர்கள் ? ஆங்கிலம் உயர்ந்தது நம் தமிழ் தாழ்ந்தது என்று நினைக்கிறீர்களா ?
ஒருவர் இராஜலக்ஷ்மி வேங்கடஸுப்ரமண்ய அம்மாள் என்ற பெயர் இட்டுக்கொண்டால் அவரை தூக்கி வீசி அவமானிப்பிரீர்களா ? சொல்லுங்கள் ஸார் .
குறை ஒன்றும் இல்லை மறைமூர்த்தி கண்ணா, குறை ஒன்றும் இல்லை கோவிந்தா, கோபாலா கேசவா!
In the wise words of another Veteran in this TB forum:
When the inexorable march of time demands of you only to bend a little, you are readily advocating to crawl and lick the boots. That is the pity of the day. There are many like you. And that is the curse.
Madam Renuka, a Veteran, asks:-
"Since you agree that a Balinese Brahmin who is of Non Indian origin is a bonafide Brahmin too..how would you view a marriage between a Tamil Brahmin and Balinese Brahmin? Is this acceptable?"
Marriages between a Sri Lankan Brahmin and a TB have been accepted, haven't they? And a Bangladeshi Brahmin with a TB? And a Nepalese Brahmin with a TB? Tomorrow perhaps a Pakistani Brahmin with a TB?
If the groom's side and the bride's side share and follow the same shaasthraas, rites and rituals, have the same high regard for the principles enunciated in the Shruthis, smruthis and other scriptures, are born to Brahmin parents who are themselves born to Brahmin parents, what are the objections?
On what grounds?
S Narayanaswamy Iyer
