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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00139 Feb 2003

 
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we could perhaps have two categories
practicing and non practicing.

The non practicing should and can atleast
facilitate the practicing vedic scholars.

In other words all thous of us who are
entrenched in other professions and are not
doing their part 
should set aside 5% of their salaries and 
engage in 
supporting their own acharya in support of 
patasalas etc (all our acharyans have this going)
support individuals who have given up work and
are pursuing vedic knowledge without expecting
anything in return
support schools that teach sanskrit and other
vedic knowledge

oppose and make noise about those anti-vedic.

--- "M.K.Sudarshan" <sampathkumar_2000@xxxx>
wrote:
> Dear friend,
> 
> (1)Being a brahmin or a SriVaishnava has nothing to
> do with caste.
> Anyone -- repeat, anyone -- who dedicates his life
> wholly (not
> "part-time") to the pursuit of Brahman (the ideal of
> the Upanishads)
> is said to be a 'brAhmanan'. A brahmin is obliged
> to pursue Brahman
> in life through the Vedic pathway. That is his
> "karma-yOga".
> 
> (2) SriVaishnavam is not separate or distinct from
> the Veda. It is an
> offshoot of the Vedic tradition. SriVaishnavism is
> "rAmAnuja
> darsanam". 
> "rAmAnuja darsanam" has its roots wholly in the
> Vedas. 
> 
> (3) The DivyaPrabhandhams of the AzhwArs are also
> not separate and
> distinct from the Vedas. They owe their roots and
> inspiration to the
> Vedic 'sruti'. The AzhwArs were all well-versed in
> the Vedas -- you
> only have to take the example of Tirumazhisai and
> NammAzhwAr to
> confirm that they were Vedic adepts in their own
> right, although they
> were not 'brahmin' by birth. The AzhwArs, who
> belonged variously to
> many caste-backgrounds and occupations, were all
> brAhmanA-s too in
> the larger Upanishadic sense of the term.
> 
> (4) The Prabhandams do not and cannot compete with
> the Vedas. They 
> complement it. They are the equal of the Vedas in
> the same way that
> one eye of ours is the equal of the other. This is
> why "rAmAnuja
> darsanam" or SriVaishnavism has always been called
> the tradition of
> "ubhaya-vedanta" -- the royal path of Vedanta paved
> on both sides: on
> one side, is the gilded Vedic 'marai' and on the
> other, is the gilded
> Tamil 'marai'.
> 
> (6) To think therefore, as you seem to be doing,
> that we can all do
> very well with just the Prabhandhams and abandon the
> Vedas, or the
> Vedic way of life, is like saying "Who needs the
> cane-stalk when I
> have the cane-juice at hand?". Let's not forget that
> the elixir of
> Prabhandham was extracted from the cane-stalk of the
> Vedas. 
> 
> (7) Cultivating cane-crop, unfortunately, is far
> more difficult than
> drinking cane-juice. Farming is hard, back-breaking
> labour. And Vedic
> learning and Vedic-living is precisely like that.
> Just as no one
> wants to be engaged in farming these days, the
> brahmin community too,
> over the centuries, got away from the hard Vedic
> life. And now since
> we find it so difficult to go back to farming we
> come up with clever
> rationalizations as to why farming is an outdated,
> outmoded
> occupation. 
> 
> But let us then ponder deeply about the fact of
> life: If there is no
> one to raise the crop, where will future supplies of
> cane-juice come
> from?
> 
> Sir, the points you have raised are also very valid.
> Can we all
> abandon our professions and way of life now and go
> back to the
> 'agrahAram'? For what purpose? There seems to be no
> wisdom in that at
> all. But see what the Kanchi AchArya had to say to
> that too (which is
> also in the original passage I quoted):
> 
> (QUOTE):
> ?People ask me: ?What is the remedy then today? Do
> you expect all
> brahmins to leave their new life-style and return to
> vedic learning??
> 
> ?Whether or not I expect them to do so and whether
> or not such a step
> seems possible, I must ask them to do so.
> 
> ?Where is the need for a ?guru-peeTam? or a seat on
> which an AchAryA
> is installed if I am to keep my mouth shut and watch
> idly as the
> dharma that is the source of everything is being
> endangered?
> 
> ?Even if it seems impossible for brahmins to return
> to their
> varnAshrama-dharma it must be shown to be possible
> in practice? that
> is the whole purpose of the institution called
> ?mutta-s?. They must
> harness all their energies towards the attainment of
> this goal.
> 
> ?It is not for me to say that the return of the
> brahmins to their
> vedic dharma is not possible. To take such a view
> would be contrary
> to our very dharma. It is up to you all to make it
> possible in
> practice or not to make it possible. All I can do is
> to keep
> reminding you of the message of the dharmasAstrA-s?.
> (UNQUOTE)
> 
> Regards,
> 
> dAsan,
> Sudarshan 
> 
> 
> --- Mugundhan Varadanarayanan <mugundv@xxxx>
> wrote:
> > Respected Sir,
> > I agree with the points you raised. When we say a
> Brahmin, being a
> > part
> > time Brahmin is not good. When a Brahmin moves
> away from his
> > profession
> > because his faith is weakened on Vedas, then we
> have a serious
> > problem
> > and its manifestation is very much obvious
> nowadays....
> > 
> > But my view point is that Srivaishnava and Brahmin
> are not exactly
> > the
> > same. Most of the Azhvars are non-brahmins but
> they are sri
> > vaishnavas.
> > There are lots of Brahmins who do not subscribe to
> the Vaishnava
> > philosophy. Lots of kings were srivaishnavas
> (Pandavas from
> > Mahabharatham are good eg, same with Kulasekara
> Azhvar etc). In
> > these
> > cases, I feel what Kanch Acharya said is not
> applicable. His
> > Holiness
> > spoke of people who took Brahmin profession and
> who did not do
> > justice
> > to the same. In this case for people outside
> Brahmin fold, is
> > giving up
> > material pursuits and seek exclusively knowledge
> the right thing to
> > do?
> > 
> > I am not sure. Karma Yoga is as important as
> other yogas... I am
> > an
> > engineer, I love my field. I have deep faith in
> Sriman Narayana. I
> > enjoy listening to Tamil Prabhandhams and feel
> humbled by the fact
> > only
> > endless devotion can produce such profound and
> interesting verses
> > and
> > this only increases my faith... 
> > 
> > But am I a Brahmin? I come from a very traditional
> Brahmin family
> > with
> > Ahobil Mutt Acharya as our Acharya and my home
> village of
> > Thuvariman is
> > a devout Vaishanva village. But me learning or the
> desire to learn
> > Tamil Prabhandhams is not because of my family
> background but
> 
=== message truncated ===


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