Dear All, A subtle thought process in the lineage of a question being raised by one of my kin. Question pertains to varnasrama in Srivaishnavam. I had few thoughts with respect to the question. I request our people to clarify, correct any mistakes with pramanam for the answers I had given. Question by my Kin: "The below thing I wrote when I was a part ramanuja.org discussion list. I didn't get any answer for this. Still I am searching the answer for this. Do anyone of you have? Respected Sir, kulanthaangu saathikaL naalilum keezizinthu, etthanai nalanthaa nilaathasaN daaLasaN daaLarka Laakilum, valanthaangu sakkarath thaNNal maNivaNNaR kaaLenRuL kalanthaar, adiyaar thammadi yaarem madikaLE. If an individual is a devotee of Lord Vishnu, then, even if he belongs to a lowly caste, you must consider his devotee's devotee as your lord. I'm quoting this paasuram from tiruvaymoli. I have quoted the explaination from our own web site www.ramanuja.org. Whatever i understood from the above paasuram according to my intellect is that if a person is a devotee of shriman naarayan to whatever castes he/she belongs should be given enough respect. Then why in our sampradaayam it is so that in the name of achaaram we discriminate among our own people. Even if they are great devotees of lord naarayan they are not given enough respect just because they belong to low caste. I have seen many people who are brahmins and shri vaishnava but they do not follow any rules and regulations of what shri vaishnava should follow.But even then they get respect in the society as well as by high intellectuals since they belong to high caste. Should it be not like this that the discrimination should be made only on this basis whether a particular person is a devotee of shriman naarayan or not rather than caste.Is our sampradaayam emphasize on casteism. I also felt that casteism is one of the main reason that our sampradaayam's message is not widely spread. If by mistake i have written something wrong due to ignorance then i am extremely sorry for that. with regards charchita Answer: Dear Charchita The message is apt but the concept of varnasrama should or could not be confused here. Varnasrama Dictates Rules For 1) Individual's Work in society a) Bhramins - Bhramanosya Mookam aaseeth. Bhramins come from face of vishnu. Let them be responsible for learning Vedas, chanting it, and spreading it. By no means they can enter i) Trade ii) Warfare iii) Cultivation or any means of procurement b) Kshatriya - Baaho rajanya krutaha: By the muscle power let the rajans rule the world. They should i) Conquer and control teritories ii) Learn Vedas and not teach / preach them iii) Be the sole properitor of wealthiest items in his teritory c) Vaysya - Vaysyo Dhana samridhasyad - Let the merchants trade and earn money. Let them use thier strength in thighs to travel far off and bring money. i) They cannot learn/preach vedas d) Shudra - Shudra sukam avapnuyaad - Let the fourth caste people do the job of line men, agriculture, hunting and all work of building assisting kings in army. Thereby they are not directly responsible for any decisions but enable decision makers to fulfill the objective of society. They can a) Have multiple marriages, have food without bath, can kill animals and move from places to places. Now the key point is Narayana bhakta He who is intrested in bhramagnana is above these 4 castes which come by birth and has to be respected alteast equivalent to vishnu, If currently bhramins/ sri vaishanavas are not doing it its solely the fault of the individuals and not that of the sampradaya Instances: Ramanuja before bath used to hold hands of mudaliyandan (Bhramana sreshta)and later after bath hold the hand of pillai uranga vali dasar (4th caste person) Nampillai called one dasar to submit the food he prepared for perumal fearing the atma guna poorthi of his second wife. Lot of instances where disciples were of 4th caste but they were deciding people of sampradaya, Our great Acharyan Manavala maamunigal got the greatest of rahasya Sri vachana bushana from the mouth of an acharya called koora kulothama dasar who by his birth is the care taker of burial ground (Sandala vargam). Note: Please correct the name of our poorvacharya who did the kalakshepam of Srivachana bhushanam to maamunigal. Points: We have to take sree pada theertham from the lotus feet of any sri vaishnava of any caste if he shows atma guna poorthi. abiding the faith on manavala maamunigal and ramanuja if we fail to do so we dont call ourself sri vaishnava and because of hypocrats pure sampradayam is getting dis illusioned as the caste oriented system. Azhvar EmberumAnAr JeeyAr ThiruvadigalE Saranam http://www.vedics.net Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ramanuja/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ramanuja/join (Yahoo! 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