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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00094 May 2006

 
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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







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