Sri: Srimathe Ramanujaya nama: Dear bhAgavathAs, Salutations to all. This is a general post with some sUthrams taken from AcArya Hrdhayam in the light of varNAshrama Dharmam but touches upon one or two examples that Sriman Laskhmi Narasimhan quoted. Forgive for all my misunderstanding of Swami Azhagiya MaNavALa PerumAL NAyanAr's AH and also would like to be corrected. I guess Swami Azhagiya MaNavALa PerumAL nAyanAr wrote AH mainly to defend Sri Vacana BhUShaNam on some of the subtle points like varNAshrama Dharma,prapatti,nirhEthuka krpa etc. Actually I should have read AH first to understand SVB. But in my case it is the other way round. It is SVB which is helping me to understand AH. Initially and even now in my sleep Sri PL and SVB comes. Dear brother Lakshmi Narasimhan quoted about green cards(and other cards),Visa,INS rules and regulations and passport to explain varNAshrama Dharma. First of all these are all man made and its age is only few centuries. During the time of Alexander the Great or Caesar,there was no Visa or passport to enter other countries!!!! Do birds have visa/passport? Don't they migrate freely from one place to another? It is the human mind,which has the power to distinguish,puts this kind of partitioning also by restricting the heart and the mind. So we can not compare these man made rules(which are in the hands of some political hands)with varNAshrama Dharma,a part of karma kANda,which in turn a part of mImAmsa/vEdAs/shruthi which is "aupuruShEya". Green card etc is not a good example. We have to take something concrete even though it is a materialistic example! The moment whoever says brahmin dhEham is superior(due to good deeds) to the dhEham of other lower castes,one is disrespecting the other castes. Sri PiLLai lOkAcAryA says that a prapanna would shudder to perform even good deeds fearing that it may affront the Lord's pleasure. Because a deed is good if it pleases the Lord otherwise bad and this good/bad deeds are not defined according to our words. Assume that the two are different(atma and the body) and should not be mixed up. AtmA does not exist on its own,and hence it requires "some(sentient/non-sentient)" body. Agreed that the body/varNA/caste is according to one's good/bad deeds. Why did nithyasUris,AzhvArs and AcAryAs(nAThamuni, yAmunAcAryAr)always desired a lower caste rather than a brahmin caste. THey wanted to be either some aqautic life forms,or plant or stone,tree,animal,worms etc as long as they are born in a SV family or some divya kshEthrams like tirumalai or a bee in vandinam muralum sOlai. Nowhere they mentioned that they would love to assume the brahmin dhEham which is superior to the dhEhams of other lower castes. My understanding of SVB(my knowledge is bookish and I'm a alpa jIvAtma unlike those who had the fortune to listen to great AcAryAs) is that Sri PiLLai lOkAcArya says that the other mAragams like karma,jnAna,bhakti(goes by varNAshrama Dharma) are poison and aDharmAs because of this drawback of the same. This ego that comes out of one's birth(dhEham is superior)will follow the person like a shadow till death and will destroy the "essential" nature shEshatvam. Precisely for this only,Swami Desikan critised Sri PL's view and Swami Azhagiya maNavALa perumAL nAyanAr(who wrote AH to defend his brother's SVB) and Swami Desikan had a debate on this(anyway this is as per TK's guruparampara). AcArya Hrdhayam says: "iRaivanukku adimaiyAga irukka vENdum enRa eNNaththirkkum puRambAna ahankAraththai varNam/caste kodukkum". This body will only give rise to ego due to the thinking that dhEham is superior! That's why EmperumAnAr did kAya shudDhi and hence the body that is afflicted by ego(which is a stumblimg block for shEshathvam) gets "purified". Sri NampiLLai got anna/food shudDhi done by telling PiLLai ERu thiru udaiyAr dAsar to touch the food and give it to Sri NampiLLai(this is an example for the purification of the food). Respect should be given within the grounds of varNAshrama Dharma?? If this applies to human beings what about animals. SriRama and Hanuman (vAnara/monkey)ate food in the same plate! In many Brahmin houses (iyengar/iyer),they don't allow the lower castes to enter the kitchen or even not beyond the verandah/living room! Sri Naduvil thiruvIdhi piLLai bhattar was constructing a house. PiLLai vAnamAmalai dAsar,thinking that he would not be able to enter after the grhapravEsham,had a tour of the house(including kitchen) the previous day itself. The "so called" elite brahmin people of the society heard about this and were not happy and went to bhattar and asked him "hey,what kind of a grhapravEsham are you celebrating? vAnamAmalai dAsan,by entering your house,had done a sacrilege to the house". Bhattar,thinking that the house got purified(purification of the place) by vAnamAmalai dAsA's visit,entered the house next day without doing any homam. Since Lord's law is veda/shruthi,He also would go by it. So during His sojourns as SriRama and SriKrShNa,does this mean that the body He assumed was inferior to the dhEhams of brahmins who were around Him. To defend this point,people would quote immediately the "five manifestations" of the Lord and it is not the "ordinary" sharIram that we jIvAtmAs acquire. If His body is different from that of the defn of brahmin,kshatriya,vaiShya and shUdra,how can He be born as a kshatriya? Meaning His caste also should be different from the normal four varNAs. Wrt E.Ve.RA PeriyAr,everybody knows that he had hatredness towards brahmins. This is only a retaliation of olden days ill-treatment done to lower castes especially sUdrAs/tribals done by brahmins. This is a vicious circle. So let us not take this as an example. Animals don't have vengence nor the non-sentient. It's only the human beings,who have the rational thinking,acquires all negative traits. So the more one gives importance and keep thinking about the fact that "brahmin dhEham is superior to those of lower castes" is bound to lose shEshathvam. That is the effect of prakrthi maNdalam! AH 90: "sarva varNa shUdrathvam" - whatever be one's caste,if he/she does not have love for PerumAL,he/she(even if he is a brahmin who chants vEda) is only a shUdra. AH 90: "shvapacaril bhakthipAsanamum" - even those,eho eat the flesh of dog,who have bhakthi as their property,should be worshipped. SrivaiShNavargaLaip piRappuk kAraNamAga yArEnum nindhiththAl nindhiththavar appOdhE andha idaththil chaNdALargaL AvAr. Those who understna this difference,whatever be their caste,are equal to nithyasUris. Those who do not realise this and those who do research on the birth of bhAgavathA(to me this sanctions the marriage between two SVs irrespective of the caste),even though they are brahmins,the very moment become chaNdALAs. Keeping aside the "superiority of the dhEham by varNA" aside,we will see what Swami Azhagiya MaNavALa PerumAL NAyanAr says about the purity of sharIram in AH. Also SriKrShNa says in BG,that a shUdra can become a brAhmaNA and a brAhmaNA can become a shUdra by conduct. This topic will be closed with the next post. Once again I seek forgiveness from devotees for any sins committed in the form of writing,or the contents that offended others. AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE sharaNam NC Nappinnai
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