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Shrimath Ramanujaya Namaha

This post was interesting. As usual I am sharing what I have learnt 
from elders (but, misinterpretation may be due to my agnyanam and my 
apologies for the same). First things first: Basically, we should not 
be mixing up two different geographical divisions. Well, today's 
geographical division might not be the same as it was. But, the 
people are the same as they inherit their ancestors culture/tradition 
etc. Every portion of the Bhumadevi has a visesham i.e a speciality. 
The portion that we live in was called a huge island. It was called 
Karma Bhumy. It was called Jambudweepam(Naavalam Periya Theevinil 
Vaazhum). Here, if you notice, the sunrise and the sunset are pretty 
much in a proper cycle i.e 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night. 
Just this alone doesn't guarantee of, doing the karma here. There are 
umpteen reasons why this is treated as a karma bhumy like the livable 
conditions i.e no extreme weather conditions, the tropical nature of 
the land, pretty much fertile most of it, for the appropriate food 
etc. In those days, the westerners were called as "Youvanas" and were 
supposed to be living in the desams called Bogha Bhumy. They had no 
rules and regulations, they did not fall under the karma and any 
jeeva that had made enough sins not to even fall under the kadaksham 
of any blessed souls were born there. And, as an atma realizes slowly 
regarding its very wrong nature of living i.e just the bogham(desire 
and happiness), when it starts thinking of a better life, it is given 
a chance again to be born in the karma bhumy and starts its cycle 
again. So, to your question on "white and dark races", it does not 
really matter. All are supposed to be boghis:). Now the question 
arises to what happens to those who move from the karma bhumy to the 
bhoga bhumy? There are 4 types(based on the karma and geography) of 
souls born.
a) The one that is born in the bhoga bhumy and enjoys that life. 
Sooner or later starts thinking about a better life and gets a chance 
to make progress in its path towards higher spiritual level.
b) The one that is born in the bhoga bhumy and understands the 
importance of a better life and migrates towards the karma bhumy.
c) The one that is born in the karma bhumy and does not realize the 
importance of the janma that it has got and moves towards the bhoga 
bhumy(only to fall back to its cycle in its next birth - person like 
me:( )
d) The one that is born in the karma bhumy and realizes the 
importance of the dharma shastras and sticks to it and attains the 
better level.

Out of all these 4, due to the punyams that the atman had done in the 
previous births, the atman may indulge in the bhagavadh aradhanam in 
some form or other, whether it does karma or not, whether it enjoys 
the bhogam or not. These souls that indulge in the bhagavadh 
aradhanam this way, protect themselves from not being born under the 
bogha bhumy again. It is only upto perumal to correct them(Thirutthi 
panikollal) and put them in the right place. And if the 
bhakthi/prapatti is complete / or due to his Nirhetuka krupai, he may 
even take them over to his abode after this very birth.

Coming back to our karma bhumy and the dharmams. One thing I wanted 
to clarify was that: A person who is born as a brahmanan is 
considered to have attained the best of the "Dehams". Now remember, a 
deham is given to an atma based on its karma. From what I have seen, 
people fail to understand the following subtle point. If a person is 
born as a brahmana and does a filthy work, how could he still be 
treated as brahmana? Well. The answer is: The body that he/she has 
attained is still that of a higher birth. So, the body has to be 
respected. But, when it comes to the brahmana, he/she, due to his/her 
filthy act, volunteers for a lower birth like an animal or bird 
whatever. So, we should treat that person still as a brahmana due to 
the body that he/she has achieved, while, the soul is losing its 
credits due to the act because, every karma is not associated with 
the deham, but with the atman. In case of azhwars, their atma 
ujjevanam(realization) has happened, but due to the law of this 
materialistic world(leela vibhuthi) the lord let them live in this 
world until the time when their karmas were zeored out - this 
explains the azhwars crying out loud like "koovikkollum kaalam innum 
kurugaadho" i.e "will not the time to take me back shorten more". I 
will give the following examples to explain the same: Lord, in the 
krishna avataram, had an encounter with "Durvasa Muni". This munivar 
was a brahmanar by birth and was famous for his short temperment. I 
don't want to get into more details on this encounter, but the end 
result was that the Munivar cursed the lord that his death would be 
triggered via his foot. The lord, accepted this curse, due to the 
very reason that the Muni was a brahmana and that the respect had to 
be given to that deham. In fact in Mahabharatha, that is how the lord 
goes back to the nithya vibhuthi i.e the lord was lying down asleep 
in a forest and a hunter who came that way saw his lotus feet and 
though it was a deer's skin and hence shot and arrow. Using this as a 
reason, the lord got out of his material body that he took and went 
back to the Nithya Vibhuthi. Same is the story of Brughu. He went to 
all the three leads of the world and cursed each one. Each one of 
them accepted his curse due to his brahmanic deham that he had 
attained.

So, AS PER THE SHASTRAS, the deham of a Shudran(which is superior to 
the animals)
is inferior to the Vaishyan whose deham is inferior to the Kshatriyan 
whose deham is inferior to the Brahmanan. This is as per the Karma 
and is only for the dehams. This has nothing to do with the Atma 
Ujjevanam(realization of the self). And if a person who got a 
superior deham does something inappropriate to his/her body, then 
that gets credited appropriately and is used to decide the 
applicapibility of the next birth and if so, will be accounted in 
that birth. This has NO relevance to whether that superior deham has 
to be respected by others or not. Respect is for the deham and this 
is dharmam. Disrespecting a deham due to its inferior birth is what 
is SEVERELY condemned by our sampradayam. This is neither in our 
Varnashrama Dharmam nor did our purvacharyas discriminate. It was 
only due to the bhagavath sankalpam that down the lane people lost 
the knowledge about their tradition, probably due to the "kali" that 
we use as an excuse most of the time, that, people started the 
discrimination etc. Well, it is a cycle, if it started, it will end!

Hence, regarding the applicability, only when we know better about 
the varnashrama dharmam, the importance of it and the overall GLOBAL 
picture, can we understand things better. That is why I keep telling 
myself, "wait till the right time comes i.e until I understand 
everything(right)". I feel, as an empty, I make more noise. First I 
should fill up myself so as to overflow. So, before talking whether 
it is right or wrong, I have learnt to first know it completely. This 
way, a) It takes some time to know it completely b) Time is usually 
the best healer, it teaches us a lot. I will stop with this post on 
this subject and will come back to this when I learn about the 
subject in its entirty.

No offense was intended to anyone by any means. Request everyone to 
SEEK the right acharyan. Please don't give up. Try to get the right 
one and start learning things under him. Don't see whether your 
acharyan is doing right things or practising things etc. He has 
achieved this "acharya" only because of bhagavath/bhagavatha 
kadaksham/sankalpam. Do not underestimate the acharyan due to his 
appearance and deeds. The deeds are for him. As a disciple our 
responsibility is to be humble to him and keep faith in him and learn 
under him.

"Uyya ninaivundagil ungurukkal tham padatthe
Vaiyum - Anbu thannai indha manilattheer - Meyyuraikken
Paiyaravil maayan paramapadham ungalukkam
Kaiyilangu nellikkani" - URM - 62 - Maamunigal

[If you want to attain salvation, just make sure you have faith 
towards your Acharyan. I am telling you the truth, this way, it is 
guaranteed that you would attain the Paramapadam]

"Thannaariyanukku Thaan Adimai Seivadhu Avan
Innadu thannil irukkum naal - anner
arindhum adhil aasayindri acharyanai
pirindhirupparar maname pesu" - URM - 64 - Maamunigal

[Doing service to our Acharyan as long as he is in this
(materialistic) world is the best service, and even after knowing the 
greatness of this service, could anyone be, without having interest 
in this service and be away from his acharyan?]

Yatheendra Pravanam Vandhe RAMYA Jamataram Munim

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasan,
Lakshmi Narasimhan

--- In ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, <purohit@xxxx> wrote:
> 
> Dear Bhagavatars
> 
> The classification according to birth is what is irrelevent. If one 
wishes
> to use this classification in a limited spiritual sense then it can 
be
> useful as a teaching tool. In the modern western world at least 
children are
> brought up to believe that all humankind are equal, equal rights 
for all,
> democracy etc - are we going to teach them to discriminate against 
aothers
> based on their birth? A lot of right wing Americans would consider 
that all
> members of the "dark" races are inferior - do you "brahmins" living 
in their
> society accept that judgement unreservedly? - You should, because 
you are
> living in THEIR society! (That's if you accept varna-ashrama dharma)
> 
> Caste duties as per Manu and the others are what are irrelevent 
because
> there are only a tiny minority of individuals that are practicing 
their
> caste occupations as per Dharma Sastra. How many of the internet 
active
> members of this forum are following their caste obligations?
> 
> The simplified categorisation of caste duties was based upon a
> pre-industrial agrarian society - this no longer exists in the 
lives of most
> of us, therefore the formulations of the sages on these issues is 
no longer
> relevent. 
> 
> The only teaching which is still relevent is off course the loka-
dharma as
> taught in the dharma sastras which is applicable to all times and 
places.
> 
> Adiyen
> 
> Srirama




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