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

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Apologies; I forgot to add two Gita shlokas to drive home these points:
श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात्। स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः
परधर्मो भयावहः (3.35)
यतः प्रवृत्तिर्भूतानां येन सर्वमिदं ततम्। स्वकर्मणा तमभ्यर्च्य सिद्धिं
विन्दति मानवः (18.46)

On Fri, May 6, 2022 at 7:34 PM Praveen R. Bhat <bhatpraveen at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
> /* येनेदं सर्वं विजानाति, तं केन विजानीयात्। Through what should one know
> That, owing to which all this is known! [Br.Up. 4.5.15] */
>