[Advaita-l] Re: Question: Swadharma

[Rishi Lamichhane]

Dear Anantharamanji,

I think we disagree on this then - keep in mind that perhaps your
position is the official position smArta position, but it clearly does
not apply to all Hindus.

Just one thing about the example of the person you knew. It seems like
other relatives of the person who did not migrate consistently would
have maintained a tradition to do sandhyavandanam, so it would not
have been a dead tradition in the general community/family, but just
in the immidiate family. So in that case, I agree that after learning
that his family does sandhyavandanam as a nityakarma, it becomes a
nityakarma for him too.

Regarding scriptural evidence of nityakarmas one has some problems. No
one follows all the injunctions in the dharmashastras and there are
many different dharmashastras which operated reigionally. Now as far
as I know (please do correct me) there is no pramana for saying "of
all the stuff in the dharmashastra, this is the minimum requirment" -
this is established by each tradition seperately.

So no one follows all of their dharmashastra and the parts that they
do choose to follow as minimum requirment does depend on the
individual tradition. Perhaps if someone wants to learn Vedanta from
an orthodox smArta, he should follow the smArta conventions regarding
"minimum requirments" - I don't know what this is though,

Regards,

Rishi.

On 2/5/06, Sanjay Srivastava <sksrivastava68 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Sri Ram Garib wrote:
>
> > I am not suggesting a complete break off with traditions; nor the
> > perpetuation of all traditions. I think only those traditions need be
> > emphasized, which we can relate to. This stand necessrily involves
> > subjective discretion in regard to dharma, which has been vehemently
> denied
> > by Sri Chandrashekharendra Saraswati in "Hindu Dharma". However, I do not
> > see how it can be otherwise. Take for example rules of manu. No
> > self-respecting non-dvija can ever relate to those rules. I understand
> that
> > no one today is insisting for imposition of those rules, but the sanction
> of
> > them by a religious scripture attacks at the very core of ones value as a
> > human being. As a non-dvija, it makes you feel worthless as a human being.
> > Therefore identifying those traditions which we can relate to, should be
> the
> > first step in defining dharma.
>
> Namaste Ram-ji. I would like to share my comments, though they are not
> answers to your questions. "It is better to debate the issue, without
> settling it; rather than settle the issue without debating it". Take
> my comments in this spirit only.
>
> We can view caste system in one of the two ways. The first is to look
> at it from an outsider's eyes. The other is to look at it from the
> inside.
>
> If we look at the caste system from an outsider's eyes who does not
> believe in reincarnation, this is the most unjust system. After all if
> I have only one life, how can I justify a caste, which is based on
> birth?
>
> Now look at it from a vaidika's point of view. This is not the only
> life I have. What I get in this life is partly determined by my
> karma-s of past lives and what I will get in the next life will partly
> be determined by my karma-s of this life. For a vaidika, universe is
> supported by a "just" order, but this "justice" is maintained over the
> entire life spans of a jiva-- not every individual life span.
>
> For a believer in reincarnation, caste system is not inconsistent with
> the concept of justice. This world view helped hindu society to become
> a non-competitive society where occupations were decided on birth. On
> the flip side, this world view also gave rise to a complacency and
> condonation of excesses in the name of dharma. Ideally, I would like a
> system to have all the positive qualities without any negative
> repercussions. However, in practice, one is usually gained at the
> expense of the other. It seems somewhere we lost this balance.
> Fortunately, hindus of all hues have recognized that a rectification
> is needed. You rarely find someone who does not advocate to restore
> the balance of caste system.
>
> praNAm
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