Dear members, praNAmams If I may, I would like to offer a couple of my observations about this gained from visits to our beloved Sri Rangam Kovil and from my simple reading of Ramanuja Gita Bhashya. On going to the Thaayaar Sannidhi (Lakshmi's shrine) at Sri Rangam, I noticed that many of the archakars there were 'shaathaadha shrivaishnavas' (Sri Pritesh Swamin, in Tamil that refers to Shri Vaishnavas who do not wear the sacred thread). I understand that they are privileged to have this position in the Sri Rangam kovil since Ramanuja's time, it's not because of any government quota or anything like that. So Sri Vivek Swamin, indeed it would appear that our acharyas and elders have allowed non-brahmins to become priests for centuries. Let us get our information correct before we make a blanket statement such as "non-brahmins cannot become priests" which certainly does not seem to have any basis if my observations at Sri Rangam were correct. Learned members, please correct me if I misunderstood what I saw. What is also another issue is whether other communities are allowed to have the sacred thread, and there definite cases of even western europeans being given both yagnyopaveetam and samashrayanam by our own Sri Vaishnava acharyas - anyone can search on the net to check this is true. So let us also not presume to make judgements on this, as that is effectively discrediting the Sri Vaishnava acharyas who initiated those people. 'Varnashrama dharma' is one thing, but 'bhaagavata apaachaaram' is (or should be) a much bigger thing to worry about. Regarding Sri Vivek swamin's point about 18:47 of Bhagavad Gita: "Doing ones own duty, even if faulty, is better than adopting that of others" does not mean 'shUdras should not do a brahmin's job' or anything like that: according to Ramanujar's Gita Bhashya it means that we should not presume to take up the difficult process of jnaana yoga and control of the senses when karma yoga is what we are more innately suited to by virtue of our connection with prakrti. Please refer to Swami Ramanujar's commentary and learned members, again please correct any mistakes in my understanding. I would hope our Sri Vaishnava community at least, would have a bit more sensitivity to the issue of non-brahmins serving in temples rather than a knee-jerk reaction of condemnation. Nothing is quite as black and white as we think it is... although I am not Indian- born or raised and therefore not qualified to comment on the intricacies of caste politics in India, I would at least ask us all to approach this issue with the compassion that is meant to be a hallmark Sri Vaishnava lakShaNam. Let's leave such judgements to the acharyas who understand the true significance of "varNa", "jAti", "dharma" and all those things better than we lay- ShriVaishnavas do. I hope I have not offended anybody. sarvAparAdhAn kShamasva namO nArAyaNAya Ranjan ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Everything you need is one click away. Make Yahoo! your home page now. http://us.click.yahoo.com/AHchtC/4FxNAA/yQLSAA/.itolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 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/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: ramanuja-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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