[Advaita-l] shudra

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear Michaelji,
 
That everybody is born Shudra is told by Atri. Lord Krishna said what is there in the book you have. The verse containing "paryuthaanaatmakam karma" is from that version of Bhagavad Gita which contains 745 Verses. According to the Mahabharata the original Bhagavad Gita had 745 verses and out of that Lord Krishna spoke 620 verses. In the commonly available version of the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna has 574 verses and 46 (620 - 574 = 46) verses are missing. Adi Sankaracharya reportedly wrote Bhashya on the version of Bhagavad Gita with 700 verses as that was only brought to him when he asked someone to fetch the book "Lalita Trishati" for writing a bhashya on that. He accepted that as the wish of the Lord and proceeded to write bhashya on the Bhagavad Gita, which he got. All the scholars may not agree on that.
 
There was a time in the ancient past when the same family had all the Varnas and there was dignity of each Varna. Rig Veda has a verse where it shows the different members of the family with different professions. However the food habits (or rather the food requirements for) people of different professions were different. The brahmins had austere food-habits and austere life-style and thus the profession-wise distances grew up in the course of time.
 
Regards,
 
Sunil K. Bhattacharjya
 
 
 

--- On Tue, 8/18/09, Michael Shepherd <michael at shepherd87.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:


From: Michael Shepherd <michael at shepherd87.fsnet.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] shudra
To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 12:41 PM


Dear Sunilji

Who am I to cavil with you ?... But my copy of BG 18.41 says nothing of
initiation or second birth or specialised training. Rather, it speaks in
18.42-3 of the personal and moral qualities expected of the Brahmana and
kshatriya.
All that 18.44 offers is a 'job description' for vaishyas and shudras -- as
if no personal qualities are required for these 'jobs'.. not quite a
balanced  statement : who would not want a servant who does not possess
something of all those qualities enumerated of brahmana and kshatriya when
the need arises ?
However, of the shudra, the requirement is 'paricharyatman'... now whose
atman does that refer to ? 'Serving the atman' gives a different flavour to
real service.. certainly more than 'shifting goods' with a fork-lift truck !

I mention this only in view of what I read in some places as if shudra were
merely a labourer in the 'service industries' without imagination.. and I
still ask where and when the 'second birth' dvija came into Hinduism -- and
what it implies ? Krishna goes on to say that that all that play these roles
may achieve perfection.

What I do find interesting is the karmic aspect. As we know, noble birth is
not always lived up to; and humble birth can be a great stimulus to
achieving greatness..

Michael






_______________________________________________
Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita

To unsubscribe or change your options:
http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l

For assistance, contact:
listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org





_______________________________________________
Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita

To unsubscribe or change your options:
http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l

For assistance, contact:
listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org