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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00063 Oct 2006

 
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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

 
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