[Advaita-l] RE: Vedic Shakhas for kshatriyas and vaishyas?

[S Jayanarayanan]

--- abhishek rk <smartie_625 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I hereby make the announcement, "I declare life-time
> financial support
> (covering all basic needs of a BrAhmaNa) to at least
> two BrAhmaNas on
> this mailing list who will abandon their professions
> based upon western
> education, and take up Vedic studies and practise
> vaidIka dharma
> full-time."
> ----------------------------------------------------
> I am sure that no brAhmaNa would take up such an offer
> because to live in servility to a master is explicitly
> forbidden in the Manu Smriti. But this would anyhow be
> turning from one dAsyatva (job) to another (support by
> someone else).

Strictly speaking, according to the shAstras, the BrAhmaNa should *beg*
for his food as well as for his Vedic sacrifices (read the quote below
by the Late Kanchi Paramacharya if you have any doubts in this regard),
so my suggestion should be welcomed by the BrAhmaNa, since I'm willing
to provide what is required for his daily sustenance so that he doesn't
even have to beg for his food -- it is on his table already!

Also, do the dharma shAstras say anything about being an intellectual
slave to mlechchhas -- accepting a mlechchha as a boss, shaking hands
with them, eating with them, and being servile to them?

Anyway, if you still think there is some servitude involved, I don't
need to know the BrAhmaNa personally. If any BrAhmaNa is so interested
in my proposal, all he has to do is to contact the list administrators
about this matter, and the whole thing can be worked out through them.
The BrAhmaNa and myself need have no personal contact whatsoever, so
that eliminates all possibility of there being servility of any kind.
BTW, my announcement is open for the next two years!

Discussions on BrAhmaNas and their occupations have taken place in this
list several times already. e.g.:

http://www.escribe.com/religion/advaita/m6750.html

Quote from "Hindu dharma," by Chandrashekharendra Sarasvati svaami, the
late pontiff of the Kanchi Math:
p. 639
--------
In the second part of daytime, the Brahmin must teach his disciples the
Vedas...Since he is not expected to earn a salary -- and if he does not
own any land received as a gift -- he must beg for his food and also
for
the materials for the conduct of various sacrifices. The brahmin has
the
right to beg, but it is a restrictive right because it means that he
can
take only the minimum needed for his upkeep and what is required for
the
performance of rituals.
--------

But is this how the present-day Brahmin conducts himself?
p.69
--------
The Brahmin...fell lure to the jobs offered by his white master and
aped him in dress, manners and attitudes.
--------

After noting that the BrAhmaNas of today have neither courage nor
spirit of sacrifice in them, the Paramacharya offers a "small remedy": 
"I am prepared to ignore that they [the Brahmins] have neither courage
nor the spirit of sacrifice necessary to come back to their dharma..."

And then the Paramacharya admits that other kinds of work can be done
by the Brahmins. Again, this is not because the BrAhmaNas are permitted
to do so by the dharma shAstras, but because they *lack* courage and
spirit of sacrifice!

-Kartik


		
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