Birth and Caste (was Re: [Advaita-l] RE: Vedic Shakhas ...)

[S Jayanarayanan]

The practical problem with accepting Vedic study not based on birth is
(besides the fact that some smR^itis do say that it is based on birth):

How many pandits do you know who are scholars of the Vedas and
practising VaidIka dharma *full-time*, but are not BrAhmaNas by birth?

For quite sometime now, the Vedas have been propagated by the Arya
Samaj and other organizations to everyone high and sundry. Have you met
even one person from any of these organizations who has adhered to
vaidIka dharma all his life? Everyone I know who studied the Vedas from
such places abandoned it within a few weeks, so obviously studying the
Vedas was only a fad for them. Vedic teaching did not have a lasting
effect on these students at all, and they're all freely eating meat,
drinking wine, and living their life without any regard for dharma.
When the topic of the Vedas comes up, they say, "Oh yeah, I've tried
that too, it was cool!"

If the Vedas were a "study if it is your choice" program, there
wouldn't be any dedicated students. The Vedas have been preserved for
such a long time only because they were restricted by birth to the
dvijas, especially BrAhmaNas.

-Kartik

--- sri parasukhananda nadha <sriparasukhanandanadha at rediffmail.com>
wrote:

>   Dear Sir,
>            Iam unable to understand how the Varna dharma can be
> re-established and decided by mere birth in some caste.  Intercaste
> marriages have become common now a days.  What caste you can give for
> a baby born to a brahmin male to a harijan female and viceversa?
> With all respects to the Acharyas, I wish to express my openion that
> it would be better to do something to keep the Hindu dharma alive
> first by circulating litterature and books at a very cheap prices,
> propagating the merrits of Dharma door to door, bring reforms in the
> Karma Kanda which is becoming very costly for the common man.  The
> exploitation of the Purohits every where becoming unbearable.  They
> must do  something that a common Hindu should not be psychologically
> humiliated himself for not affording to perform the rituals properly.
>  The Acharyas must turn their devine looks on to the downtrodden
> people who are every day exploited by the missioneries and mullas in
> the name of helping them financially in the name of loans and
> circulating very objectionable litteratures freely or at a scrape
> price misleading and misinterpretting the Hindu puranas etc., Iam
> sad, leaving all this,the Acharyas start propegating the Varnasrama
> dharma and showing the old and old quotations of the Shastras and
> preachings of Paramacharyas to uphold the cast systems and asking
> people to before the above said brahmin, just because he claims
> himself as a brahminborn.
> I think we can not renovate the ruins of the caste systems while
> there is a necessity to do something to prevent people from leaving
> the religion itself.
> I may be excused  if there is any thing wrong in my expressions.
> 
> Sriparasukhanandanadha
> 
> 
> On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 abhishek rk wrote :
> >Character and Vocation by Birth
> >(HinduDharma: Varna Dharma For Universal Well-Being)
> >(Please follow this link)
> >
> >http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part20/chap3.htm
> >
>
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