Monday, April 04, 2005

Mistaken Beliefs

I happened to read one of my friends' blog recently where he has mentioned about the Sankara Mutt being an organization that serves the Brahmin Community and has gone on to insult it and talk of caste discrimination and stuff. It has sort of made me realize how little people are aware of this organization and the true greatness of it as well as some more things on Brahmins. Here is an attempt to clarify certain things about the Sankara Mutt and about Brahmins in general.

1) Before I begin, I start on this axiom : "Every organization has a motto and a set of beliefs. IF you expect an organization to function without a motto or a direction , you could rather not expect it to be existent at all. If having a set of beliefs is wrong, then the whole world be damned for everyone believes in something. Even nihilists believe in not believing in anything".

The Sankara Mutt has its foundations based on the Varnasrama System, which believes that every man should do the duty that his caste specifies and does not infringe on the duty of others, in other words, a software engineer should not drive an auto for a living because that is causing unnecessary competition for the Auto Driver. Whether or not the Varnasrama System is valid or not is another issue altogether. I am not interested in arguing upon that, all I want to say is that, the members of Sankara mutt have some particular belief. They practice what they believe. As long as they are not disturbing the peace and tranquility of other people by practicing their belief, everyone else can shut their **** and keep quiet.

Now, coming to this so called practice that has been so badly accused, torn apart, criticised , exorcised, and insulted in so many places.

What is it that people complain about? I broadly classify them into the following categories:

1) Brahmins are not allowing other caste members to chant the vedas - To be frank, being a brahmin and practicing the duties of a brahmin to the book is not something that you need to envy about. It is not a 5 star hotel stay with your bills paid by your father in law. Here is a partial list of what you are supposed to do and not do if you want to do the duty of a Brahmin as specified by the scriptures:

a) Get up EVERY DAY (no sundays) at 4 AM. Start with your Sandhyavandhanam (a prayer), and then there are a lot of homams(sacrifices, not animal sacrifice, but sacrifice made with Ghee, and oil) which you have to do right from 4 o clock until afternoon 12 o clock. Sitting in front of the fire for such a long time everyday is no mean task.
b) You are not supposed to eat till 12. After 12 you can have lunch, and then you again get on with chanting the Vedas till evening.
c) Evening you again do the Sandhyavandhanam , and listen to some Mahabharata/Ramayana stories recited by your guru etc.. and go to sleep at around 8 PM after your dinner.
d) No Eggs allowed in your diet. No Non vegetarian. No onions. No Garlic. And very staunch Brahmins have even additional restrictions like No Salt. These people have to beg for their food. They cannot cultivate/purchase from others.
e) Coming to the Mantras they chant, these mantras are not for Self but are for the welfare of the society. Just go and read any mantra from the Vedas and the Upanishads and it will have the word "we" in it rather than the word "I". Which means, they are praying for the welfare of you and me and the world. Is that sinful? Even the Gayatri Mantra has "Dhiyo yonaha prachodayat" which means "from me let the this world benefit".


This kind of a ritual which the members of the Sankara Mutt follow does not seem to me like something that anyone would want to do badly in their lives. In fact, the food that they eat is begged from streets.

People who think the Sankara mutt is gladly enjoying the money sent by brahmins all over the world, please rethink. Please go and see for yourself what happens in these mutts. I have seen one subsidiary of the Sankara Mutt here at Hyderabad. There are 6 teachers, and they are so poor that they are literally living like beggars. Their life is not all that glossy as someone would imagine.

2) Secondly to People not being allowed inside temples - This I too strongly object to. This should not take place. And I definitely donot see this happening anywhere now. So no point again and again talking about what probably happened 150 years ago. Even the Britishers suppressed us, do we now go and scorn them? We rather want to go to UK and proudly tell everyone that I went on a foreign trip. (I am not generalising here... so please donot assume I am accusing someone in case you donot fall under this category)

Now, let me atleast try to explain why sometimes some persons are not being allowed, or atleast why this sort of a thing came into practice - When a person performs duties such as cleaning a gutter, or working on dirty places, he is usually dirty. Temples are supposed to be clean places. So if these people are allowed inside without cleaning themselves first, then it just makes the place dirty.

Of course, anyone who enters the temple has to first wash his feet and then enter. If everyone who enters the temple has taken bath/or is clean, then I donot mind even if he were a gutter cleaner or sweeper. But I will object to Anil Ambani entering the temple, if he is dirty.

Are you aware of why a Kumbhabhisekam is performed in a temple? It is performed after you renovate any temple because during any new construction/renovation work, brings a lot of dirt into the temple and the Kumbhabhishekam is for cleansing this dirt. Kumbha - means the topmost point in the temple (its dome). Abhishekam is cleansing by pouring water/milk etc, and chanting mantras.

But yes, it is true that a lot of injustice was happening in the past.

But off late, I get the feeling that Brahmins are the lot that are suffering now. Apart from being scorned by members of different societies, (for the injustice which their great great grandfathers meted out), the brahmins also have the problems of reservation everywhere.

It is like this now : An upper caste gets 90 percentile. A reserved candidate gets 80 percentile. The reserved candidate gets to study in the medical college because his great great grandfather was once not allowed inside the temple by the upper caste members great great grandfather. How stupid can you get?

I personally know a person who lived above my house whose dad is like a millionaire and can afford to spend good money and educate his son. But he was an SC, and his son got a seat in IIT C and did Computer science though he had a much less rank when compared to another counterpart.

I guess I am deviating from the main topic.

But anyways, people who scorn these practices, please realize that the Mutt, and the Brahmins are praying for the welfare of the whole world, and it is not that the Mutt serves only brahmins. IT IS NOT SO.

I would strongly sugest you read "Hindu Dharma" by Chandrasekara Saraswati Swamigal before you again scorn a brahmin/the mutt.

8 comments:

Whoiscb said...

Just want to ask you this:

If you are NOT a brahmin, then do you want to REPEAT THE SAME mistake the great great grandfathers of brahmins did by scorning some members of the other caste? Will you also behave like them? If so when is the end to this? Someone has to stop at some point of time.

If you scorn Brahmins now, then soon their children will scorn you. Hence if you are reading this and are a non brahmin that has probably been hurt by this behaviour of Brahmins a few decades ago, I request you to please forgive them and forget them. Let all of us have a new start where there are no hard feelings.Let the world be free of hatred.

Shiva said...

CB,
we'll discuss on this during the TT session.. :)

Chaosrules said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Chaosrules said...

CB,
What is the significance of Yagna (or "Homam") ? I have heard beliefs varying from "Ozone Generation" to "Bacteria elimination" (??), any thoughts on this?

Anonymous said...

Hi,
Nice post, but here's something I wish to point as flawed..
"...A brahmin gets 90 percentile. A non-brahmin gets 80 percentile. The non brahmin gets to study in the medical college because his great great grandfather was once not allowed inside the temple..."
Its not just the brahmins who are suffering today..Anyone who is a non-reserved caste is today being elbowed out by a relatively lesser deserving SC/ST/OBC --typical victims today are ALL OF so-called upper castes - Brahmins or priests,Kshatriyas or the warriors,Vaishyas or the traders.

In my opinion, no individual has right to ask for concessions to entry in IIT/IIMs or Civil Services owing to an accident of birth -- the individual has done nothing to earn it.

The very fact that Brahmins consider themselves suffering more than anyone else (as your post seems to suggest in places) is indicative of a sense of superiority.

This may or may not be a correct generalization, but I have noticed this very often -- While the other so-called upper castes have learnt to live with changes in urban social dynamics, Brahmins still cling with longing to the absolute veto powers they once enjoyed.

This is precisely why a large chunk of well-educated, upper-caste Indians cannot get to think highly of Brahmins as a community...

An opinion again, feel free to dismiss !

Whoiscb said...

@Anonymous : While I would agree when you say that all castes are suffering, I used brahmins simply because I am one and not because I feel superior.

However, I should probably have used upper castes. Point noted.

On another note, historically Brahmins were never landlords. They were historically poor and used to live off begged food. So today, they neither enjoy economic superiority (as a % of total brahmin population, many are still middle to poor class) nor do they enjoy benefits of reservation.

And when you say
"While the other so-called upper castes have learnt to live with changes in urban social dynamics, Brahmins still cling with longing to the absolute veto powers they once enjoyed. "

I would strongly disagree. For example in the recent Gujjar uprising, the Gujjar community was the one which wanted a reserved category status and it was not Brahmin community. In Tamilnadu today we have close to 270 reserved castes all borne out of castes other than the brahmin community. Almost every caste in Tamilnadu has sought a reserved status while Brahmins have not.

Anyways, this post was written back in 2005 I suppose. I have moved on and have changed a lot of my views and opinions on topics like reservation. I dont even remember what I wrote back then... :)...

But ya, thanks anyways for pointing out.

Anonymous said...

You said that the *discrimination* that was happening in the past is not happening *anywhere* TODAY.
May I request you to seek entry to a tiny city called Mecca? May I request you to try forming an association for spreading Christian thoughts or Buddhist or Zen Philosophy in one of the wealthiest Middle-Eastern countries - the KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia].
If the discrimination was done a thousand years ago - people pay for it today. However, a discrimination divinely-sanctioned and being thrust upon all UNBELIEVERS from the past many centuries - continues unchecked, unabated and its foot soldiers continue shouting "THEIR SPECIFIC" GOD IS GREAT unabashedly.
But then, your blog post is really old. I think you might have a different worldview today - after almost 5 years.
~ MN

Prakash G said...

As someone already pointed out. it is not just Brahmins are FCs. in Tamilnadu itself there are other castes like Nagarathars(Chettiars), Saiva Pillais ( which i was born under ), etc are FCS.

Any form of discrimination is wrong including against Brahmins.

But Reservation is required for Dalits. Most people dont even know who is Dalit. Dalit means SCs/STs. Reservation is really required for them. They represent 25% of the population, but we can hardly see any SC/ST in any decent position ( not in even a decent position like a Tailor, small grocery shop owner, let alone Doctors, etc). They have very small quota and most of the time it does not even gets filled up.

I support reservation only for Dalits. it is true human nature to support. not for the vast majority OBCS - which is just caste = vote.

It was started for these sovcially depressed (remember social backwardness is much harder to overcome than poverty. it is psycological and society pressure). For e.g., I have been discriminated by Brahmins as Sudra, are you really vegetarian - u dont look like, telling that i got into degree using quota ( my brahmin friends in college, did not believe i took that cut off mark - i had to show my certificate). From brahmin point of view, it could be even un-intentional or minor but i felt really really bad. I have seen my family itself discriminating the lower caste people. I can see both sides. Casteism is bad. It has too much social/psycological pressure. I cannot even think about how much these Dalits suffer and really see why it is very hard to pull them up. Every one is above them and just don't care. OBS are much better shape now compared to FCs I think. so let the vote politics not hijack the real genuine reservation required for Dalits.