First.. as to what the Mythili Initiative is all about.. I am copy pasting the document here for everyones perusal.
Mythili Initiative V.1.0.2
Prelude
In the world of hinduism, brahmins are supposed to be the gatekeepers of vedic knowledge. They are supposed to practise the vedas everyday and suitably advise the leaders of society on the best possible ways to live happily and in harmony with nature and everyone around us. The brahmins were the people who were called on to pray and conduct puja and yajna to propitiate the gods and bring about rain when there was drought. They were the ones who were supposed to initiate homams for the welfare of society and man.
With the advent of newer religions and their trying to establish their own spectrum in this world, there has been multiple wars and invasions. Although initially, reasoning was the primary process through which knowledge and power were sought, it came to be that threat of violence took over as the process through which power was attained.
It is obvious from the relics and still existing temples from Afghanistan to South-east asia that hinduism had flourished in these places. This, as was noted earlier, was done through dialogue and reasoning and people generally accepting the ideas propagated by vedic hinduism and realising that these concepts were for peace and betterment of society. Not a drop of blood was shed nor any type of coerced conversion took place in the history of spread of hinduism
But as in the case of every great civilization, the hindu civilization is also past its glory days and is in the twilight of its existence. This decay started sometime around the start of the persian conquests and the mughal invasions of what is now India. There was many an account of slaughter of hindus and destruction of places of worship and relics alike. But hinduism seems to have survived through this and the eventual East India Company’s British rule. Hindusim had also been in the doldrums before but was rejuvenated mainly due to the timely intervention of Indian Vedic scholars like Sankaracharya and Ramanuja. These two people have single handedly mastered the large scrolls of sanskrit documents and spread the right essence of the vedas through the original pathway of dialogue and explanation of what is written in the scriptures rather than the crass “If you dont say I am right, I hit you.”
Many a century has passed since the days of Ramanuja. Now, we are again at a point of time where hinduism is in severe decline. But no singular entity has arisen who has mastered the vedic knowledge enough to spread its word through contesting currently held beliefs.
I am not a Ramanuja or Sankaracharya. I do not even know sanskrit. But I am a brahmin by birth. Therefore, it is my sacred duty to work for peace and prosperity in society without the evils, anger, corruption and violence that seems to have ensnared us today. I believe that perennial peace among people which is required for strong growth of knowledge and society can be achieved by understanding the basic vedic principles of Sanathana Dharma and Vasudeiva Kudumbakam. Vasudeiva kudumbakam means that we (all life on earth including human, plant and animal) are all part of one large family.
Although not a vedic scholar, I am a brahmin and well educated per the norms of todays society. Therefore, I am taking it upon myself to spread the word of vedic wisdom among Indians and whoever cares to pay attention.
Why Mythili Initiative?
The current state
Please take a moment to look around us. We are surrounded by immorality and corruption. Yes, we have also evolved a robust police department and a matching judiciary, but do the problem creators really respect and abide by these institutions? To the people who have less than moral values, no police department can force them to follow the righteous path, no judicial enquiry is going to correct their evil designs. To them, it is just going to be a week or two in jail and then they are going to find some judicial loop hole to get out. Till now no judicial review has been able to bring the real culprits to book. For the culprits, they just have to throw around a few more dollars to get around a judicial review or judgement.
So what is the point?
I believe that the point is.. no police department or judiciary or any form of societal policing is as efficient as fear of god. I believe that fear of the omnipresent is the ultimate deterrant to morally loose people to prevent them from committing acts of corruption or damage to society. But, If you know that a lightning will strike you blind the moment you accept a bribe then you will always fear bribe and never accept one.
Now, our society and the current generation has grown up to be atheist for the most part. This has resulted in most of us testing the realms of acceptable morality. So we cannot really turn around our generation to become god-fearing but what we can do is to make the next generation to respect the omni-present thereby leading to a better society for tomorrow.
Therefore
It is my humble attempt to re-invigorate the brahmins so that they turn back to their old profession of practising the vedas and spreading the knowledge of god. This is in the hope that, the next generation of brahmins will once again be scholars in vedic knowledge and use ancient wisdom to answer our questions to distinguish between the eternally opposing paths of right and wrong.
For the average hindu child, I am trying to create a vedic syllabus which will teach them the basics of vedic knowledge, astrology, itihasa-puranas and our classical music/arts which they canuse in their daily lives and which will also help them identify a guru for themselves in their pursuit of vedic wisdom.
Hopefully we are able to create a society which has a balanced diet of science and religious philosophy so that the human race continues to grow and expand albeit without the currently inherent problems of corruption and immorality.
Conceptually
I believe the brahmins have always restricted themselves to temples, service to god and memorizing the vedas to be passed on to generations over the centuries. It is my humble, as also personal opinion, that the current view that brahmins are upper caste and they have been oppressing the rest of the hindu community for centuries might not be entirely correct.
During the rule of kings, the valiant and knowledgeable kshatriyans always provided food and livelihood for the brahmin community after realizing that the vedic knowledge provides for a stable, peaceful and corruption free society. But when the rule of the kings died with the advent of the persian and mogul invasions followed by the eventual british colonization under the east india company, the brahmins lost their livelihood as there was no one to donate food to them. The british seeing that the brahmins were seemingly able to read and understand began to employ them across the board in India. This led to the feeling that brahmins were superior. This when it got combined with the brahmins practice of "Theetu" which is grossly and incorrectly translated into english as "untouchabililty" fortified the theory that there were sections of the community which was "upper" caste and "lower" caste. This basically played into the hands of the british who wanted to use their "Divide and Rule" policy.
"Theetu" in my understanding as a simple brahmin is the word assigned to anything which is needed to be avoided based on health and cleanliness concerns. Without going into an elaborate discussion on the concept, I believe it would suffice to the intelligent people to note that - Even menstruating women where considered to be "Theetu" during their 3 day periods. Thus "Theetu" was not made to target a section of people who became known as the "lower" caste. It was practiced in effect to maintain cleanliness.
The initial brahmin generation did not believe in this lie. But sometime towards the end of the british rule, when the next generation came in, they began to live the lie of Upper caste and Lower caste. They began to really believe that they were upper caste and started to treat the rest of the population accordingly. This was because no brahmin family had continued to pass on the vedic knowledge to its children and the concept of para brammam or singular unity was lost to the indian population. This was a direct result of all brahmins being forced to find sustenance for themselves and had to go to a job instead of passing on the universal knowledge to their offsprings like what had happened for centuries.
Further the western hemisphere also contributed by again incorrectly translating brammam as brahman in every english literature that was published and therefore feeding it also to the people of the developed world that brahmins were considered supreme and were upper caste. It was totally lost on everyone that we in India were the first to use respect for one's profession no matter what they did. But having torn down this concept where it was born, it is now practised in almost all developed countries where equal respect is given to a man irrespective of whether he is cleaning a toilet or managing a team. This is why our current generation feels more comfortable cleaning toilets in singapore than doing the same thing in india because they are considered lower caste here whereas they are considered respectable everywhere else.
It is our responsibility to change this. We have to again spread the knowledge of para brammam and singularity.
Irrespective
Irrespective of what has happened, I believe that it would help us all .. together .. as a community, if we could push the brahmin community back to its original path of temples, service to gods and memorizing the vedas.
It would be best if we could request the remaining few truly knowledgable people to leave the act of searching for jobs and entering business to the rest of the population. Instead, the brahmins should be enthused to return to memorizing the vedas and temples.
Asking the government to provide for the brahmin community like the kings used to do might not be entirely realistic in todays world. Therefore, it would be ideal if the brahmins could restrict themselves to using fields of education, law, auditing and priesthood for gaining a means of f inancing their livelihood. The above suggestion is not new.. in the intermediate times after the british rule, brahmins have only been lawyers and accountants and teachers in schools for the major part. Also these areas of employment do not provide riches but do lay the foundation for a strong and incorruptible society..
I will be dedicating all my resources to achieving this end. I hope I am correct and god does guide me. If you can help, then please spread the message of the Mythili Initiative.
For the non-Hindu Indians, I will not interfere in their beliefs. Their belief systems are their own choice. So I cannot really tell anyone to stop believing in Jesus or Allah and say Ram Naam Sathya Hai from now. This is because I believe it is the fault of my forefathers who did not defend their forefathers resulting in their conversion to other religions. When the fault of their creation lies within me, how can I ask someone to change their faith? So their choices are upto them, I just hope that in addition to their chosen faith, they also teach their children sanskrit and its culture as is the aim of the Mythili Initiative.
Mythili Initiative
The mythili initiative is fundamentally four-pronged
Step 1. Re-invigorate the brahmins in India to try and establish the old knowledge base that was present before the persian invasions. This is proposed to be done by encouraging all brahmins to send their kids to veda padasalas to learn the vedic knowledge. These kids can then be encouraged to enter the mainstream by having them admitted to normal schools for their Tenth standard and Twelfth standard education or O levels and A levels as the case maybe.
Step 2. Re-instate Hinduism first in Tamilnadu and then among the populace of India.
Step 3. Provide the large international Indian diaspora spread across the world with a vedic syllabus which can be plugged into any country’s curriculum by adding an extra hour of class after school. The curriculum should include indian classical arts, study the basics of panchangam to help understand the lunar calendar, study of basic scriptures and the study of sanskrit.
Step 4. Establish centres of excellence in all major cities, possibly named as Mythili Estates which will be centres of education where courses in law, mathematics/accounting as well as commerce and business are taught as dual degrees combined with a B.A degree in vedic sciences. They will also house one temple which runs a veda padasala following the traditional form of teaching and will have an agraharam for the brahmins to live and sustain the centre. We can add housing for the local populace and other addendums as described later in this document.
These four steps are to be concentrated on in parallel and is not intended to be executed sequentially one after the other.
It is hoped that this four pronged strategy would be enough to enthuse and give an opportunity for the next generation of indians to embrace the essence of vedic knowledge. Where they go from there is upto them.
There is also a need to establish a legal, an audit and an investment company to help fund the above strategy. We do not want to be dependent on the benevolence of the general populace for our funding. Also, we will try to make these companies as brahmin only establishments.
Venkatakrishnan Parthasarathy Trust and Venkatakrishnan Parthasarathy Pvt Ltd has been established to support this initiative.
Step 1:
It is now possible for boys graduating from Veda Padashalas to get a degree in IT, Engineering, Medicine, Accounting or Law. This Mythili Initiative is a personal action on my part to try and publicize this information to the Brahmin population at large.
Following is the proposed advertisement in local newspapers and journals catering to the brahmin section. It is subsequently planned to have short videos which can be forwarded in whatsapp and be screened as advertisements during IPL matches. The videos should come at a time when the international syllabus is also ready so we can advertise that in the Indian subcontinent also.
Advertisement
I would like to advertise that children who finish veda padashalas can now write their 10th standard board exams directly without having to go to school up to 9th standard. This is possible by registering the students graduating out of veda padashala with NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling) for the purpose of writing 10th exams. After they pass 5 subjects to get their 10th board exam certificate through NIOS, the kids can then attend any state board or cbse school for their 11th and 12th standard examinations. This means they can all take up degrees like normal kids who go through full schooling from LKG to 12th standard and become engineers, doctors and lawyers after doing paarambarya veda-adhyayana.
Save Paarambaryam:
I believe this will be very helpful for people who are interested in their boys taking up vedic education to save our paarambaryam from disappearing, but were concerned that they will not have a financially strong career in IT, engineering or medicine like other kids their age.
Save money:
Even though money may not be a criteria when educating our own kids, it must be noted that the current schools charge in Lakhs of rupees for our children to attend their schools. Compared to this Veda Padashalas teach our kids veda parayanam at absolutely minimal costs, So middle and low-income Brahmin families need not spend thousands/lakhs of rupees for their kid’s education. They have to pay for their kids 10th, 11th and 12th standard education only.
NIOS:
This National Institute of Open Schooling is a national initiative on the part of the Central Government. They require the student to register on their website for taking the 10th standard exams. They also have a requirement that the registered student has to attend a few on-site classes at specific schools in their locality where classes will be held for 10th standard. All these information and more can be obtained by visiting their website
www.nios.ac.in
Please send your boys aged 7 and above to veda padashalas for vedic education.
Please call or email me if help is needed in identifying veda padashalas for your children or other issues.
Parthasarathy Venkatakrishnan Phone/Whatsapp: 9381092695 or goto my website and use the contact form Website:
www.pvkrishnan.com
Re-Instating Hinduism in Tamilnadu and eventually India
Plan Overview
A college providing for combined degrees in vedic and law/accounting/business/engineering/medicine courses in each district. The students for these colleges should be drawn from vedic schools (Gurukulams) teaching basics of Sanskrit, Grantha, Itihasa-Puranas, traditional music and instruments, as well as basics of astrology till students reach 8th standard and contemporary CBSE for 9th to 12th standard. The school also absorbs the students of veda patashala which follow traditionally prescribed methods of imparting vedic education directly into 10th standard. Both School and Veda Padashala to be established in temple lands in every temple town where there is a 100 year old temple. The temple should have been freed from governmental oversight.
Result
General population kids will have greater understanding of our vedic culture. Kids finishing veda-abyasam of 7-8 years from traditional veda patashalas can be given contemporary school certificates. Kids graduating school after veda patashala will have an avenue to become lawyer or accountant or business magnate bringing back lost repute to vedic hinduism. Normal kids who are studying accountancy or law or business will be able to learn vedic philosophy in their undergraduate degree.
Implementation
Step One (Year 1-2) – Free one single sample temple and setup sample school
Use the stolen idols in tamilnadu as grave concern and symptoms of mismanagement of temple assets and start by freeing lesser known temples through legal action by select panel of driven aasthika lawyers.
Each freed temple should then be placed under a trust headed by a team of three vedic scholars atleast one of whom should be skilled in agama rituals and atleast one of whom should know law ( can be achieved by a part-time course in LLB ). Being vedic scholar who had passed out of a standard gurukulam based veda patashala should be basic qualification. Unlike normal trusts, the trusts should provide for basic livelihood amenities for the vaideehan trustees and running of schools/veda patashalas under it.
On a parallel note to legal proceedings to free temples, we must also lease temple lands for the use of creation of vedic schools. Teachers for the vedic schools will be sourced locally possibly through TAMBRAAS or suitable organizations. All students irrespective of status or religion will be admitted free of charge or with minimal charge to accomodate rentals to temple land and teacher fees. The affluent parents will be requested for donations based on their income tax returns which should be filed with the schools. This will help determine which kids need help with free education.
Step Two (Year 2-3)– Choose the district of implementation and replicate in 5 temples within same district.
Step Three (Year 4-5)– Replicate in 4 adjacent districts with more ancient temples.
Step Four (Year 5 or Year 1 depending on available funding)– Buy one of the low performing colleges in the district and add BA vedic courses offered by Madras Sanskrit College to the curriculum. Offer the following contemporary courses..
1. B.Com (Chartered Accountancy upto ICWA)
2. LLB
3. Engineering / Medicine Courses
1-3 should be compulsorily combined with a BA degree in Vedic shastra sampradhaya from Madras University making them a 5 year degree. Masters degree courses may be offered based on age of college.
Students after finishing college can hopefully find employment with Mythili Initiative work places around the age of 25 and return to their districts at the age of 40 to form their family and build the next generation. People aged 40 who move back to their districts can be employed in the colleges or farms of the temples
Step 3:
We are to formulate a vedic-hindu syllabus appropriately christened as mythili syllabus which can teach the international indian diaspora the essence of vedic knowledge and our paramparyam. This is hopefully a one hour addition to the curriculum of the international country where the syllabus is implemented.
The basic constituents of the syllabus will be sanskrit language, study of panchangam and lunar calendar, basic knowledge of the different scriptures and puranas and reasonable study of mahabharatha/ramayana ithihasas along with Bhagvad gita in addition to coaching in indian arts, classical dance and musical instruments.
Step 4:
This post has become too long. Let me see if it posts in the first place. But Step 4 is to setup centres of excellence around every existing temple.
