[Advaita-l] Brahmin culture under threat

[Jayasimha Ananth]

Dear Abhishek,

            You can introduce him to this group as well... So he can
come in contact with a lot of people...

Regards,
--Jayasimha

On Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 11:57 AM, 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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