[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Pūjāri by Birth (Jāti), or by Qualification (Guṇa)?

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Namaste Prashant ji,

This topic has been discussed umpteen times on both of the lists, but looks
like it has been a long while since it resurfaced, thanks to all sorts of
people being forcibly appointed as temple priests in TN and elsewhere!

Although I agree with the most part with what you have written, I disagree
with "to deny guNa is to deny AgAmi karma" for the simple reason that AgAmi
karma goes and joins sanchita from which prArabdha is carved out only after
the end of current life. That is to say that varNa (what you call jAti) can
change only in the next janma based on current AgAmi karma.

Next, if a person does karma across sva-varNa, there may be even superior
laukika phala due to expertise (be it rare or not), but there won't be any
adRShTa phala (and in some cases, pApa may accrue)! For example, a
non-brAhmaNa purohita may gain lot of fame, awards, dakShiNA, following,
etc, but his karma will not yield adRShTa phala for the yajamAna.A flip
example can be of a brAhmaNa soldier who may grow in the military ranks
with great positions, awards, salary, respect, etc, but dying on the
battlefield won't lead him to svarga.

gurupAdukAbhyAm,
--Praveen R. Bhat
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