[Advaita-l] Brahmin culture under threat

[vaidehi chaitanya]

I am not sure if this response is relevant to the on-gonig discussion. But,
it is interesting and eye opener for me, THought of sharing with all of ou:

I met a person from nomadic tribe community recently. he went to school and
got directly admitted to 7th standard. now he works in government service
in a very high post, written several books and articles, known for his
works on nomads and tribes in the country.

he made an observation which made me think "oriental brahmins are much
better than the mordernised brahmins. Modernised brahmins have changes only
at the surface level to accomodate themselves for the modernisation".

regards
Mythili

On Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 10:27 PM, Abhishek Madhyastha <abhishek046 at gmail.com
> wrote:

> I advised him the same. He actually went to that purohit and troubled
> him till he answered! :-D
> He found out that he is a Gaur Brahmin, Sandilya gotra, yajur vedi &
> belonging to apasthamba sutra.
> But now I have a different dilemma. I read on wikipedia that Gaur
> Brahmins are Vaishnavi Brahmins. I know of Vaishnava brahmins, but
> what's this Vaishnavi brahmins?
>
> Regards,
> Abhishek Madhyastha
>
> On 8/14/12, Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >> Although a bit off topic I'm asking for the advice of learned Brahmins
> >> here. Some of you may already know this but let me highlight it again.
> >> The Brahmins in Haryana are in such a situation that they don't know
> >> anything about culture. There is no one to teach them even the
> >> Sandhyavandanam! Recently, a Brahmin from Haryana contacted me on
> >> facebook. He says that even though many Brahmins living there are
> >> interested in learning Sandhyavandanam, there is no one to teach them.
> >> All he knows is that he belongs to the Sandilya gotra. He doesn't even
> >> know which veda Shakha he belongs to. He wants the Sandhyavandanam
> >> mantras and procedure. I being a Rig vedi am facing a dilemma whether
> >> its acceptable to give the same mantras that I recite, especially
> >> regarding the Abhiivadanam part. Could some learned list members
> >> advice me here?
> >
> > The first thing to do for such people who are interested in retrieving a
> > lost
> > heritage is to search through their own family records and community
> lore.
> > For example, Sandilya gotra has multiple sub-divisions when it comes to
> the
> > pravara-s and hopefully some elder in the family knows which one it is.
> In
> > the process, other related details will also emerge. Or else, if the
> family
> > or
> > community has a tradition of making pilgrimages to Kashi or Gaya, priests
> > in these spots may have some memory of these details. This is getting
> > increasingly rare nowadays, but it is not impossible to find out.
> >
> > If the person has undergone the upanayana saMskAra, then the priest who
> > conducted the ceremony should be able to provide some details. gAyatrI
> > japa should be done as the basis of the sandhyAvandana ritual. The other
> > prayoga-s in the sandhyAvandana that are specific to family/community
> > tradition can be left out till he gets clarity on these details.
> >
> > And I feel it is not necessary to get too hung up on veda SAkhA and sUtra
> > details. In the past, there were dvivedI-s, trivedI-s and caturvedI-s,
> who
> > could not be classified under any one SAkhA/sUtra combination. Today, if
> > a person is serious about learning at least some part of the veda, then
> he
> > should learn it in person from a qualified teacher, not from
> > books/recordings.
> > And in that case, that teacher should decide what course that person
> needs
> > to follow.
> >
> > Vidyasankar
> >
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