[Advaita-l] janmana jaayate shUdraH

[Ravisankar Mayavaram]

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 10:23:51 -0800 (PST), Srikrishna Ghadiyaram
<srikrishna_ghadiyaram at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> Based on this long discussion on this topic, I
> understand now that brAHmaNa, kshatriya, vaisya are
> eligible for Upanayana and vedic studies. Can I also
> infer that all these three castes can conduct vedic
> rituals as Ritviks ? Can they take up the vritti of a
> purohita etc. ?

AFAIK, the answer is no. The mantra-s used in the sandhyaa vandana,
the type of upavitam worn are all different for xatriya-s and
vaishya-s.  vaidyanAtha dIxitIyam describes some of these details. 
But they can be yajamana-s for yaj~na-s etc.


> 
> Sri Vidyasankar has said that he is even Ok with not
> having upanayana for vedic study. Does he mean only
> for the first three castes ?

I thought he said the opposite. Please see
http://www.escribe.com/religion/advaita/m15977.html and the line
"Personally, I would say upanayana is a prerequisite for learning to
chant
the veda, because that would be a sign of respecting the tradition."



> I am told that Paramacharya Chandrasekhara Sarasvati
> of kanchi Matha was opposed to the bill that was to
> give right for harijan's to enter temples.

I am not sure about it. Most of his talks are compiled into
deivaththin kural and other works.
You should ask your source for  details and the source of this information.

> Now a days, after the recent Kanchi episode, there is
> some news of mobilising DALITs (I don't know what it
> means, and how different it is from harijans,
> untouchables) in support of Kanchi svami. To what
> extent is this love for dalits will go?

Sri Jayendra Saraswati (JS) swamiji's association with dalits and
other non-brahmaNa communities started quite a while ago.  Probably
you can trace its route to the failed  Jan Jagran Jan Kalyan movement
he started. His over all goal is to show that there is scope for all
upliftment within the vedic religion.  To a large extent, he was
concerned with the massive conversion attempts going on with
evangelical christian missionaries and wanted to send a message that
the religious heads care for all segments of the society.  He even
shared a stage with a dalit leader  sometime last year or so.   People
say that he was even instrumental in the enactment of  a bill against
"forced" conversion, after the election loss Jaya pulled this bill
back.

Sorry for typing the word "dvija" as "dviija" in my previous message.  

Ravi