[Advaita-l] Brahmarishi

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Thu, 23 Jun 2005, Ramesh Murthy wrote:

> ** I doubt if this is true. To my knowledge, a Brahmarshi is simply a
> rishi who has realized Brahman. A rajarshi is a king who became a
> rishi (such as Visvamitra). Any king would be considered a kshatriya
> (i.e. by karma and not by janma). The usage of the word "stock"
> appears to indicate heredity, which I believe is a misinterpretation.
>

You can doubt and believe all you like but why in this day and age should 
you need to guess?  Check in a dictionary.

Also though some may wish otherwise, that caste is based on birth is also 
obvious to anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes in India.  (But don't 
start that topic up again.  It's been done to death on this list.  Check 
the archives if you must.)

> While this may not be a proper example, the freedom fighter
> Purushottam Das Tandon is often referred to as a "Rajarshi". By
> hereditary caste (jaati) he would be a brahmin. But being a
> politician, his varna, on the basis of his karma,  would be that of a
> kshatriya. Hence the term Rajarshi.
>

In modern times all sorts of people have been given all sorts of flowery 
titles.  But a Rishi as far as our shastras are concerned is a 
mantradrashta, nothing more, nothing less.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>