[Advaita-l] About Satyakama

[V Subrahmanian]

The word 'paricharyā' that appears in the BG in the context of the
traits/duties of a śūdra could erroneously give rise to the same meaning in
the current instance of the Satyakāma episode. That such need not the case
can be known from the fact that it is a practice in the Śringeri maṭha that
the person employed to assist the archaka in the various temples of the
maṭha and other specific places, though a brahmin, is called a
'parichāraka', roughly translatable as an 'attendant.'

In all such discussions we must also remember that Shankaracharya has said
in the BGB: sarvaśāstravidapi asamprādayavit mūrkhavadeva upekṣaṇīyaḥ' -
even if one is well versed in all the various intellectual disciplines, if
his knowledge is not as per the (vedānta) sampradāya, he should be rejected
just as an ignoramus is. The sampradaya, followed and established by
Shankara and his followers does not give room for such erroneous
interpretation of the Satyakāma story in the Chandogya upanishad.

regards
subrahmanian.v