Engey Brahmanan by : Cho. Ramaswamy
An engaging story by Cho. With lots of questions and answers from Hindu scriptures it explains - or at least tries to explain who is supposed to be a 'brahmin'. The one who lives his life only by taking 'biksha' - that is by begging for food; the one who does not save anything for tomorrow; the one who studies vedas and scriptures, the one who does homams and yagas, the one who prays for everybody's benefit everytime he prays, the one whose only work is to teach others, who does not expect any material benefit for his teaching, the one who treats all his students equally, the one who imparts all his knowledge to his students - he is the one who can be called as 'brahmin'.
Cho goes onto show that nowhere in vedas or in bagwat gita, it is said that the 4 castes are based on birth.
It is pretty clear that there is none called as a brahmin these days in the true sense of the word!!
1 comments:
I completely agree! Vivekananda was apt in putting it as "one who has understood his Brahman, is a Brahmin!"
The origins of Varnashramams, as it is being consistently proven through anthropological studies as well as interpretation of scriptures, must have been to establish a clear segregation of professionals performing similar functions in society.
Subsequently the desire & efforts in multiplying & protecting the gene-pools must have morphed it into a caste system.
Then politics took over!
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