DEIVATHIN KURAL # 49 (Vol #4) Dated 31 July 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 49 (Vol #4) Dated 31 July 2010.

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from the second para on page number 275 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too, mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)

382. As I said before, in these educational institutions of Buddhists and Jains, it was Brahmins and Kshatriyas who joined in greater numbers. Other caste people, till very recently used to have practical on the job training basically. They used to know all the important points about their profession in a poetic form. We do not know as to who were the authors of these poems, as these have been going on for so many hundreds of years. If you go to a ‘Nattu Vaidyar’ in some of the villages in Tamil Nadu, he will rattle out a song listing out the names of herbs, method of its recognition, procedure for the preparation of the medicine and the details of the diseases for which those medicines may be given. Similarly the Sthapathy who is a master of the art of stone carving, will tell us a poem covering all the intricacies of his art! Till recently, if you ask a villager as to whether he knows how to ‘read and write’ he is likely to reply in the negative! But when it comes to a question about his profession, he is likely to know much more intricate details than an engineering graduate in the same discipline! Some amongst them may know how to read and some of them may not even know how to read! But they would all know that poem completely and if prompted, can give you a guided tour of the intricacies of their profession quite nicely! Though they may not have a phenomenal memory, since they would not be burdened by unwanted gossip, they would have a sufficiently sharp memory power.
383. What I said is a generalization. Not all Brahmin boys are likely to be very sharp either. There are some dullards amongst them too! There have also been some brilliant brains in the other castes certainly. As you know exceptions always prove the rule! After the advent of these Buddhist and Jain educational institutions, education came to mean what is done through the written media. There is one more reason for this change. The world was changing and changing faster. There were more disciplines of studies in arts and sciences, being added day by day! However much a brilliant brain you may have, everything just could not be kept only in memory. The written script was playing a major role in the education!
384. University for Vedic Studies. When the Buddhists and Jains started those huge institutions, the mother religion of India could not just lack behind. There was an awakening as though. With Vedic subjects, big centres for learning were started by Hindus also. When the going gets tough the tough get going they say! When agnostic propaganda becomes noticeable, there is always a revival of religious awareness!
All over the world, one of the greatest problems of Religion is not the Religion per se! It is the fact that majority of its followers are those who are non-practicing, not understanding, blind followers who are of that religion by birth, in name sake only. They love their own religion because it is their own and hate others’ because it is not theirs’!
385. Similarly, when Buddhism and Jainism came into being, those Hindu Brahmins who were neither having any devotion towards God nor were practicing any of the required procedures, but were simply lounging about lazily, were shaken out of their stupor! This we have seen even these days! When agnostic propaganda picked up with Brahmin baiting, it paved the way for some awakening amongst the Hindu masses too, here in the South. There were suddenly more Kumba Abhisheka-s, conduct of Pravachanam-s, Bhajan-s and Satsang-s. Every household too started some sort of devotional rituals and observance of Vratam-s of abnegations! Similarly when the Brahmin community had lost some of their grip with their functioning, Buddha came into being condemning their ways and conduct of rituals, giving raise to these educational institutions, waking up the Hindus virtually. Both in purely Vaidic matters and non-Vaidic subjects, big educational institutions came into being! There was an overall growth in philosophical Saastraa-s, literature, arts and sciences.
386. The Hindu Sanaatana Dharma had grown from strength to strength over millennia without the support of organizations, only by the individual’s power of their practices. But when Buddhism and Jainism grew on the basis of organizational power, there was a dire need for combined effort of groups in this religion too. It was felt that individual Guru Kulam-s run by single religious teachers was considered grossly inadequate. With Veda Vidya-s, it was considered necessary to include other arts and sciences with a team of instructors. Such schools in the North were known as ‘Dhols’. The elementary teaching was done in ‘Patashaala-s’ while these ‘Dhols’ catered for subjects such as grammer, classic literature, astrology and other religious subjects. They were run by religiously oriented organizations. The time when salary or wages were never considered as necessary and the teacher was satisfied with whatever the disciple gave as Guru Dakshina was finished! Either the King or local landlord ran such schools with endowment or grants, from which the teachers were paid. (These kingly grants known as ‘Raja Manyam’ was meant for not only the teachers known as ‘Upaadhyaaya’, but was available for the pot maker, launderer, the pujari for the village deity and so on, for whomsoever was taking care of the traditional business of his family!)
387. The practice till then in the Guru Kula was for the disciple to beg in the village and whatever he so gathered, he used to deliver it to the Guru’s wife. She also would have cooked at home. If the material gathered by the disciple was uncooked, it may get added to what was in store in the house. Cooked food used to be added to the material meant for the students. The Guru being a householder himself was not entitled to get the cooked food from other’s houses. The villagers gave the alms as a contribution for running of the educational institution of the Guru Kulam. For this the Kings or local leaders used to cater for special funds or allot the produce from some specified lands as a regular source of revenue! It is this income that enabled the Guru to conduct Yaagaa-s and Yagnaa-s. The wife of Guru known as ‘Rishi Patny’, used to feed the disciple as well as he would be taken care of at his own home, with as much loving care! As the child student the disciple has surrendered himself, by heart, body and mind; the Guru and Guru Patny, would take care of the students’ physical, mental and spiritual needs! On special days, he would be given specially prepared snacks or cookies or fresh clothes too! This situation gave way to, the Guru taking the pay for himself and in turn only imparting knowledge to the student, when bigger institutions came into being. This was an unavoidable change with times! As the number of subject matter increased, student population increased, number of teachers and classes and pooling of efforts had to increase. This led to a scaling down of standards of the Guru Kula system, which was already shaken up by the spread of other religions!
388. But still, we cannot think of these educational institutions as worse as what is obtaining nowadays. These were also like the Guru Kula system only, slightly modified! These students were not day scholars. The teachers and students stayed together in such educational institutions. Each teacher had a set of students under him. He was the class teacher and the warden too. Comparatively what is obtaining nowadays in the hostels is too loose with hardly any control.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 48 (Vol #4) Dated 29 July 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 48 (Vol #4) Dated 29 July 2010.

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from the last para on page number 270 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too, mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)

375. I was talking about the contribution of Buddhist and Jain scholars in Tamil classic literature. The five classic works known as ‘Aimperum Kappiyam’ are theirs only. The most proudly quoted Magnum Opus of Ilango; a SamaNa Ascetic is ‘Silappadigaram’. ‘MaNimekalai’ was written by Seethalai Saathanaar, a Buddhist Bikku. ‘Kundalakesi’ is a Buddhist contribution. ‘Jeevaka ChintamaNi’ is by Thiruthakka Devar, a SamaNa. ‘Kalingathu BaraNi’ is by Jayam Kondaar, a SamaNa. ‘Nannool’ a book on grammer, ‘Yapparunkala Kaarikai’ is a defining work on poetical meters and grammer, ‘Aranerichchaaram’ is a book on rules of Renunciation, ‘Naaladiyaar’ a book on morals; are all by SamaNa authors! ‘Veera Sozhiyam’ a book on grammer is by a Buddhist scholar.
376. In the North the Buddhist Universities have been popular and famous enough to get international recognition. They have been huge with many faculties, very well defined syllabuses and run systematically! Many visitors from other countries, especially China were for studying in such educational institutions. Amongst them Hieun Tsang was not only a visitor but also was part of the faculty for long, as I read recently.
377. I also read about the reason why these Buddhist Universities grew beyond anyone’s imagination! Brahmins used to give much importance to the memory power. While performing the ‘Samitaa Daanam’, one of their prayers addressed to the fire, sun and the power behind all that says, “mayi medaam”. When the memory power is nurtured thus, anything seen or heard even once gets registered in the mind as though etched! Clean living, uncorrupted mind, a simple life that does not fritter away ones attention by running after elusive desires, doing daily and periodical Karma Anushtaanaa-s that automatically involves delaying and starving the body of its normal tendencies for instant gratification, chanting of the Gayatri and Veda Mantras, doing Yogasanas like Praana Yaama, Surya Namaskara and most importantly, maintaining strict celibacy during life as a student; are such habits that cumulatively instil brilliance, enhances IQ and memory power! These things are essential qualities required in instructional ability! Adhyaapanam, that is teaching is one of the six duties of a Brahmin. Many people from other walks of life would come to him for consultancy. On those occasions, he cannot be searching the books for reference. There were no reference books anyhow, those days!
377. So all the references have to be in his memory. He has to keep his wits so fine tuned and polished. For this he had to sacrifice much as a policy. The vast Vedas themselves were known as ‘ezhudaak KiLavi’ as the ‘unwritten scripture’! Instead of committing it to memory, if you are having books, the tendency will be to feel as to, “Why should we take the pains of memorizing it, since after all, we can always refer to the books!” Not only that we will be reluctant to commit it to memory, the attention given will also be less, in trying to grasp the inner meaning and purport! This we see practically on so many occasions! Our ancestors used to say and feel that once given in writing, you can forget it. Actually there used to be a dictum which goes, “sahasram vada –ekam maa likha:” . This means ‘tell a thousand things but, do not write even one!’
378. This is so contrary to the tendency these days, at least in bureaucratic circles ‘to hand over a memo’ at the slightest opportunity! I am told that to read out of written down notes and scriptures was first started by the Buddhists. I am also quoting from an article that I have read recently, researching the historical evidence of the likely dates of these things! (See the first sentence of the last para too.) As per the researcher’s opinion, some time before the invasion by Alexander, that is in the 6th Century B.C. our Saastraas were put in to brief, succinct forms known as ‘Sutras’, such as ‘Brhma Sutra, Yoga Sutra, VyakaraNa Sutra and so on’. In PaaNini’s VyakaraNa Sutra, there are words such as, ‘lipikara’ meaning writer and ‘grantam’ meaning a book!
379. But it is true that writing was kept to the minimum. Kings when they sent a letter or an invitation or declaration of war, possibly sent it in writing. All other Saastraa-s and literary works were spread by word of mouth and memorised. When it came to the Vedas, the Samhita-s, Brahmana-s and Aranyaka-s were never written. There is just no mention of barks or skins or leaves or ink or any other writing material. In the Brahmi Lipi, the first writings that we see are those edicts known as Royal Saasana-s of Emperor Asoka etched or inscribed on stones around 3rd Century B.C.! These are all connected to the Buddhism. In Ramayana and Maha Bharatha, there is mention of Rama and Pandava doing Vidya Abhyaasam, but there is no mention of their writing anything! In Buddha’s life history known as, ‘Lalita Vistaram’, there is mention of his learning to write! The very name for Vedas is ‘Sruti and Smruti’ meaning, ‘what is heard and remembered’! Thus these very names seem to emphasise the point that it is not to be made ‘cheap’ by being written. Even when writing came into existence, the one who has to write it to memorise (likita patak) was considered ‘pataka adhaman’, the worst amongst the students! Contrary to such beliefs, the first to record the Saastraa-s in writing were the Buddhists, says that author whom I have been quoting all along.
380. There is reason for this. Kshatriya’s dharma is to fight wars, do policing, hold governmental offices and manage such duties. Vysya is to do trades, commerce, manufacture, produce agricultural goods from land and take care of cattle, (that is ‘Go SamrakshaNam’)! People from the fourth caste are meant to work as the labour force on service jobs. If you put these people in the schools in childhood and tell them, “Sharpen your brain power, try and commit things to memory without writing and so on”, what is the use? Instead of being useful, such effort may prove to be counterproductive. Instead the Kshatriya could be trained in physical fitness, archery, horse and chariot riding and such activities. The Vysya could gain useful apprentice training on the shop floor or the field or barn than learning in the school. Similarly, whether it is agricultural labour or construction, carpentry or sculpture, shoe making or any other crafts, the children of the fourth caste too is best trained on the job! The way a Kshatriya boy can wield a sword, a Brahmin boy can never do. The ease with which a Vysya boy can assess the quality of perishable goods, other children can never. Whether it is cutting or slicing, joining pieces or polishing the surface, the carpenter’s son will have an edge over other children, when it comes to handling wood. What I am saying is that, here too there is some capability that gets conveyed through to the next generation! This is equally true of the ease and ability with which a child from the fourth caste can handle physical labour and hard work!
381. Till the time of Buddhists, all learning was learning the Vedas. So it was known as the ‘Heard’ Sruti, Ears being the inputting devices and recorded in the memory. Buddhists made the change that, all learning became ‘reading the written’ with the Eyes as the inputting devices, without much emphasis on the need to commit it to memory, as one can always refer to the books! What this research scholar says stands to reason that, it was from the Buddhists time that, instead of hearing and memorizing, learning the Vidyas became a process of reading the written! Till Brahmins were the only ones doing the ‘Vidya Abhyaasam’, hearing and memorizing was sufficient. When Buddhists established these universities, as people from all the castes joined them, it became necessary that, the process of learning, instead of being ‘hearing and memorizing’ became ‘reading the written’! As they say, “need is the mother of invention”!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 47 (Vol #4) Dated 27 July 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 47 (Vol #4) Dated 27 July 2010.

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from the last para on page number 263 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too, mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)

367. There is another aspect in which, by looking at the present day environment we can visualise as to what would have been the situation in the past. From the time English based education started in India, who or people of which caste have availed those opportunities to the maximum? Is it not so that they are the Brahmins who have had the lion’s share? Till other caste people woke up to this fact and started a mass movement against the Brahmins, they were dominating the Indian bureaucracy from Indian Civil Service right down to the clerical level in the Post Office and Railway Station. Other caste people were nowhere in the picture till decades later.
368. Mostly the non-brahmins did not opt for English based education for a long period of time, because they had their professions, trades and crafts to take care of, which in turn took care of their income! The Brahmin who always trusted his brains more than his brawn, took to the new language of English and the subjects such as Science and Arts, as fish takes to water! Kings were no more and with them was gone their Royal edicts assuring the Brahmins of yearly income on returns from lands allotted to them as part of munificence. The Brahmin was losing on many counts such as trust in God and the courage of his convictions! His sincerity and integrity to face even utter penury for his beliefs was wilting! His sense of sacrifice was dwindling. So when the Englishman showed ‘employment on education’ as the carrot before the horse, the Brahmin was ready to bite! So, Brahmin was the first slave to the Britisher’s English based education system and also the first to forsake his duties as required by Varna Ashrama Dharma! Having first picture painted the existence of an imaginary social evil, of ‘domination by the Brahmins’, the English man introduced the English based education system, on the pretext of trying to destroy that imaginary evil! As the major contributor to the Buddhist and Jain Universities, here too, Brahmin was the major subscriber. Thereby Brahmins did really become the cause for domination of the Indian society. So, came in to being the Justice Party and the Paguththu Arivu movement of the Dravida Kazhagam! Indian society lost all cohesion and unknowingly and unwittingly, better bettered the Britisher’s plan beyond their dreams!
369. The only difference in the scenario between what was obtaining during the advent of Buddhism and now when the Britishers were trying to strengthen their stranglehold in India was that, the majority of people of the hard working ‘blue collar workers’ then, could ill afford to leave their traditional profession! The Brahmin had more options during his transit from purely Vaidic Saastraa-s, to books on philosophy, classical literature, Jyotisham that is Astrology, and such things which were expanding day by day! The other castes did not have such expansion in weaponry or warfare or business environment or factory based large scale manufacturing or industrial training schools and polytechnics. So it was in their interest to continue in the traditional modes. In them also, those who were well to do and or those who did not have a hunger for the knowledge of existence, did not join such educational venues! There were some who had a thirst for inner awakening, from other castes too. Appar for example was from the fourth caste! He joined the ‘SamaNa’ PaLLi of the Jains and attained to high recognition and fame. Later of course he became a Siva devotee of such renown that he is considered as one of the foremost Nayanmars! Still the percentage of non-brahmins who went to those Buddhist and Jain universities were not much. After Brahmins, Kshatriyas, then Vysyas and then the Sudras, in that order frequented these educational institutions.
370. So, the way the Brahmins unwittingly contributed to the cutting of our roots of our religious and cultural heritage after the Macaulay’s scheme of English based education system, in this last century; it happened at the time of Buddhist and Jain schools and universities too. Like now in the past too, it was the Swa-dharma of the Brahmin which was most corrupted. Otherwise how could other religions take roots in this soil? In the name of ‘Ahimsa’, were those religions not basically condemning the Brahmins conduct of Yagna-s? In the book ‘Sankara Vijayam’ we read that the Devas go to God and complain about the poor performance of conduct of Yaagas and Yagnas. So, there were more Brahmins who became Bikkus than people from other castes. So also there were more Brahmins who joined those educational institutions. Not all of them were only interested in a livelihood. There must have been quite a few who were genuinely having the thirst for knowledge.
371. Though slightly jaded, Brahmins after all were still heirs to keenness of mind and high IQ that evolves out of generations practicing Karma Anushtaanaa-s and chanting of Gayatri Mantra and Veda mantras! Tradition inculcates some character qualities deeply etched in the sub-conscious. These impressions get erased only after many generations have passed. (I am really worried that in the coming years the salubrious effects of such eons of chanting the Vedas, may not be lost!) Till such total collapse, like the bicycle that keeps moving due to the force of inertia even after the pedalling has been stopped, our ancestor’s powers may continue to sustain us. History repeats itself they say. I only hope that we have a revival of the old traditions, in the coming years.
372. More over, efforts to spread Buddhism overseas have been going on since the time of Asoka. So this exposed the Indian intelligentsia to people of Greece, Europe and China. This enabled us to get to know about those ancient civilizations, their cultures and scriptures. This became further incentives for the thinking analytical brains of ours. We could tell them a few things which we knew better in Geometry and Susruta’s Surgery and learn more about Astrology. Thus there were our Adhyapakas having foreign students and our students learning under foreign teachers. Once again the participation was from Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vysyas and Sudras in that order.
373. While talking of philosophies, concepts and religious principles like ‘Ahimsa’ in a holier than thou attitude, the Buddhists and Jains were quite capable of such underhand means like arson, physically dropping or rolling people from atop mountains and tall buildings. Despite this, we have to accept also their high achievements in the fields of Education, Intelligence, Science, Reasoning, Dialectics, Philology, Logic, Debating, Classical Literature and Poetry! In this, in the North it was the Buddhists who were predominant and in the South, it was the Jains, locally known as the ‘SamaNas’! Actually the word ‘PaLLi’ in Tamil means the School. This word is derived from the ‘SamaNa PaLLis’, which means the place where their renunciates lived. Many of the cities and towns which have a name ending in ‘PaLLi’ was possibly the place where there was a Jain institution, like ‘Thiru ChirappaLLi’, known as Trichy today.
374. In the lighter vein, you may note that in Tamil, the word ‘PaLLi’ means a place where you sleep, the bed room! Many of the SamaNa renunciates used to live in the caves in the mountains. There in the open air often we see till date, flat stones polished to a very fine level of smoothness, so as to be able to sleep on them! They used to make their heads bald by pulling out their hair literally, one by one, because they used to give much importance to ‘torturing the human body’! Actually the name ‘SamaNa’ is from the word ‘srama’, meaning effort, labour or toil. So I suppose, when it comes to sleeping on bare stones, they possibly had to polish it to such smoothness, if only by hand! Without meaning to hurt anybody’s sentiments, when you make self torture part of the institutionalization, certain aberrations, quirks and idiosyncrasies are likely to occur! We will come back to this point later. With the passage of time, these places were occupied by Muslims and came to be known as ‘PaLLi Vaasal’! Actually their Mosques in Tamil are called ‘PaLLi Vaasal’ only, even today.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 46 (Vol #4) Dated 25 July 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 46 (Vol #4) Dated 25 July 2010.

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from the last para on page number 259 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too, mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)

359. Instead of being the friend, guide and philosopher only for some, Adi Sankara is the one to do good for all sorts of people, from the lowest to the highest, to the good, bad and ugly as well as good, better and best! He is the repository for ‘sruti, smruti and purana-s’ like a temple. He is the refuge for all in need of love, compassion and grace! I bow to him, who is the benefactor doing good for all, ‘namami bhgawat paada sankaram, loka sankaram’!
360. He got back the Brahmins to their original religion by intelligent reasoning and securely moored them to the ground of spiritual progress through the cords of Karma Anushtaanaa-s, so that they could try and successively ennoble themselves to an ideal life for the rest of the society to emulate and follow! Wherever he visited, he not only debated and conducted a war of words with opponents but repaired and renovated the local temples and revived the devotional procedures there. In some places he installed powerful Yantras and elsewhere, he pacified the ferociousness of the divine ‘Ugra Murthy’ installed there.
361. The moment we take his name, the one thing that comes to our minds is the idea of ‘Adwaitam’. It is alright to praise him for the fact that he did much to give the due importance to Adwaitam. But the persons who could really understand and fully comprehend Adwaitam are very few indeed! More than all this, we should thank Adi Sankara for the following things. First, our thanks are due to him, for restarting the Karma Marga for all people of all castes to do their appointed work or trades for their own individual ‘chitta shuddhi’ and the well being of the society. Second, we should thank him for, restarting Bakti Marga for all and sundry! Whether it is Ganesha Pancha Ratnam or Lakshmi Ashtoram, Kanaka Dhara Stotram or Sivananda Lahari or Soundarya Lahari; his innumerable poems are all capable of imbibing devotion to God even in the heart of a stone! He started the ‘panchayatana pooja’ to be done by each individual at his own home every day, in which you are required to combine the prayers to Ganesha, Siva and Parvathy, Vishnu and Lakshmi, Sun and Subrahmanya; thereby also bring the devotees of Ganapatyam, Saivam, Saktam, VaishNavam, Sauram and Koumaram into one main stream of Hinduism! The point to note is that prior to Adi Sankara Bhagawat PaadaaL, the followers of these deities were pulling in different directions as though they were totally different religions! Somehow or the other, what started as a discussion on Aachaarya and Upaadyaaya, led to a description of Adi Sankra’s eulogy! But let me connect back to the matter of education.
362. Other religions opened these huge universities and invited people of all castes to join them. Still the people were only interested in continuing with the traditional trades and crafts, as their own houses were the training institutions for them in their family business. They did not need these schools and colleges. Some of them did join these institutions but did not continue for long! Again it was the Brahmins and Kshatriyas, who could get interested in the cerebral exercises of concepts, principles and logical analysis! We read from the life history of Buddha that the Brahmins whom he opposed were the mainstay of his religion too, as they were the ones keen on such adventures! So, as I was saying, it was during the time when Buddhism and Jainism were dominant that the system of a team of instructors pooling their efforts came into being, giving raise to the concept of Upaadhyaya. Even then the Varna Ashrama Dharma was continuing.
363. For that matter, there is no need to investigate the past so much and confuse ourselves. It is enough to see the condition existing in the present day to identify the fact that Varna Ashrama Dharma is soaked in our very being. (PeriyavaaL says that it is permeated in our blood. In the modern parlance we should say that, it is programmed in our DNA!)
More than Buddhism and Jain religions, British missionaries tried to use more virulent methods of propaganda using innuendo and slander to criticise the Varna Ashrama Dharma. They also started schools and colleges. Actually they went one step beyond. They made their education the basis for employment in governmental jobs. At least during the Buddhist and Jain Universities, the Vaidic Chatur Dasa Vidya-s were being retained as part of the syllabus. Had it so happened that Varna Ashrama Dharma had completely been annulled and had there been no more inductees into some of these trades and crafts, there would have been a social collapse! That is why, it was in their interest to continue with these trades and crafts as before.
364. By the time the Britishers came in to the picture, they literally threw overboard anything connected to the Veda-s in their syllabus for education while inducting the Bible and all Christian concepts and themes in a big way. Industrial revolution was simultaneous, with this period in history. Automation, mechanization, and ever new sources of power were in the pipeline! Steel, aluminium, plastic, coal, steam, electricity, hydrocarbon based fossil fuels, channelizing of rivers and tapping of hydro-electricity, nuclear power and so on, ever new inventions and discoveries were pouring in every day. We almost reached the end of Varna Ashrama Dharma! Coupled with these changes, clever economic entrapment, propaganda of hate in the name of research in to history, spreading of a canard like Aryan Vs Dravidian Race divide, almost brought this Varna Ashrama Dharma to a nullity. When all over Europe and elsewhere, Jew baiting was going on, in India it was Brahmin baiting! Whatever way other trades and professions changed, adapted and survived, the six trades of the Brahmin, namely learning and teaching of Veda-s; doing and conducting Yagna-s; giving and getting Daanam; were most affected! Coupled with local ‘Paarpanane Ozhiga’ campaigns, the Brahmins were driven to poverty and penury!
365. It is here that the Brahmin co-operated the most with willingness in the destruction of Varna Ashrama Dharma! Except for some Vaidic relics like me, it had become a fashionable thing for the Brahmin to talk ill of the Caste system, as though it is the most heinous of the social customs, on top of the earth! Without realising as to how ignorant he was of the scientific reasonableness of the system, he was to actively participate and contribute in the act of self destruction!
366. But despite all the above, even when Varna Ashrama Dharma is almost defunct, when it comes to finding a suitable partner for marriage, it is interesting to note that people are sticking on to not only caste or ‘jaati’, but to further sub-divisions of those castes! (KTSV adds:- Since PeriyavaaL’s speech some 60 years back, the social milieu has changed further, with electronic innovations in the fields of communications, television, cell phones, globalization of economies and out-sourcing of jobs from the West to countries in the East. Inter caste marriages have become more acceptable, since then. But, even today, Casteism is not a thing of the past. Having depicted it as an Evil from the past, it has now become a convenient tool in the hands of the politician to flog an imaginary horse and grind his own axes! Today the Brahmin has left the scene mostly, for greener pastures overseas, not exactly pursuing his Braminhood, while within India, Casteism has taken different shapes for Vote garnering politics, in the so-called Indian Democracy! But, here PeriyavaaL is making a point, that people are still having some love for their own caste as against others’ castes! So, it is not a surprise that at the time of Buddhism and Jainism, it was but natural that, till the Indian populace was dependent on village based handicrafts, the castes had continued to not only survive but thrive!)
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 45 (Vol #4) Dated 23 July 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 45 (Vol #4) Dated 23 July 2010.

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from page number 254 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too, mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)

348. When Buddhism and Jainism were ascendant, Varna Ashrama Dharma was not defunct totally but was ‘avyavast’, i.e., disorganised and irregular, not intact but not liquidated either! There was this accusation that the Brahmin was not impartial. His behaviour must have been at least partly to be blamed and so his reputation was under a cloud, so to say! There must have been some lessening of standards in the quality of his Yagna-s, conducting Yagna-s for others and impartial capacity to give judicious advices! For the conduct of day to day business in the society, as it was convenient to continue with the traditional caste wise trades, people were continuing to do so. They were neither aware of the Hindu Vedanta nor the concepts of Buddhist or Jain philosophies. Even then some of the well behaved Brahmin-s who could attain to some level of maturity, were functioning as simple devotees. Their losing the social ‘leadership’ seems to have adversely affected their effectiveness also! With that, they seem to have been derailed somewhat from their original path towards certain deceitful, scary and ugly methods of misuse of procedures by people like the Kapalika-s and Mantravadi-s! The general mass of people who converted to other religions, instead of Siva or Rama or Krishna simply shifted their allegiance to Buddha or some Tirtankara! For them the change made hardly any difference! It cannot be said that they were aware of the principles, ways and means of that religion.
349. Were there not others, in those other -isms who were in the same position as the Brahmins in Hinduism, for the common man? For this question the only answer can be a simple ‘No’. Despite being a Hindu religious leader, impartially speaking, I have to say this answer only. In both Buddhism and Jainism, there were many great scholars, excellent saints, brilliant thinkers and philanthropists aplenty! Actually I myself had a deep admiration for the philosophy of Buddhist Nagarjuna! It is also true, that these Bikku-s were more forthcoming in their dealings with the common man. Instead of remaining aloof on a high pedestal, they would move close to the proletariat without much ado! Still they never assumed a position of leadership as such.
350. What is this ‘leadership position’ that I am talking about? To cause others to follow and emulate our actions is the ‘leadership’ I am talking about! Staying in the Gruhasta Ashrama, when someone by his eminent example inspires others to emulate and do things the way he does by way of honesty, integrity, truthfulness, fairness, and such qualities in his dealings with his wife, children, friends and relatives, with his boss, co-workers, sub-ordinates, other people and other life forms in general; automatically evoking the admiration of the people, become the role models to follow. It is this leadership that I am talking about. In the Sanaatana Dharma, the Brahmin was providing this role model, living the greater portion of his life as a house holder, as one amongst us all, inspiring and encouraging by his very being! This cannot be done by a Bikku, who is all recluse, loner, abstainer and ascetic! When Buddhism and Jainism thus created a whole lot of Bikku-s, the very standard of what was ‘Sanyasa’ became watered down. With many such people going astray, to be a Bikku became something to be laughed about!
351. That is, first by the fact that they were not one amongst you but a class apart, they lost the ‘leadership’ of being the role models to be emulated! Then when they failed to live up to the high standards of self-denial, they became something to be laughed at with derision! To fully understand what I am saying, you should read the book written by King Mahendra Pallava, titled ‘Matta Vilasa Prahasanam’! I am not interested in the humorous aspect of it, but the truth of the situation that was there those days. Despite the advent of these two religions, despite whatever the social changes, Varna Ashrama Dharma did not collapse completely and people did not forsake the trades and crafts that they were pursuing from birth!
352. All the principles and concepts of these religions stop at what is known as the intelligentsia level. What Udayana, Kumarila Bhatta and then Adi Sankara AachaaryaaL did was to repeatedly contest, oppose and disprove these religions at that level! Here is something done by AachaaryaaL not achieved by anyone else. Let me explain. Already experts in Tarka Saastra and Meemaamsaka had driven the advocates of Buddhism and Jainism out of India almost. These two concepts of Tarka (Logical Debate) and Meemaamsa, finish with the intelligentsia and does not reach the ears of the general populace, being a subject not possible to be comprehended by the common man! AachaaryaaL’s Adwaita too is an abstruse subject that may not be understood by most. If the very process of understanding and comprehending is so difficult, as a matter for experience, ‘Adwaita Anubhuti’ is one in a trillion chances, for some rare individual to achieve! So having set aside those other religions through debates and demonstration, for the sake of the general public, he encouraged and reinforced the paths of Karma and Bakti, re-establishing the traditional methods and procedures of worship at the individual level at home and at the collective level at the temples, day to day as well as during festivals. This was done by goading and encouraging the Brahmins to restart their Vaidic Karma Anushtaanaa-s thereby regaining their leadership roles, motivating the rest of the population to mimic and follow the leaders!
353. I hope I have made myself amply clear as to what I meant by this leadership role! It does not mean however the sort of political gimmick resorted to in the name of leadership. It is not flag marches with banners and placards! It is not staged demonstrations, speeches and mutual scratching of each other’s backs by way of titles and awards! It was all silent leadership. They simply started living with simplicity, sincerity, doing their duties with lack of cruelty and covetousness. This is what I meant by silent leadership!
354. Through such behaviour of the Brahmins as role models, automatically resulted in a revival and rejuvenation of the entire Indian Hindu ethos. This is the contribution of Adi Sankara Bhagawat PaadaaL! That is, if you think of India, you should think of morality, truthfulness, simplicity, devotion, mutual unconditional love and such qualities which are like oxygen for breathing. Fully deserving the name Aachaarya, he paid attention not only for the growth of brain and mind, but to the uplifting of the human being to the desirable qualities of humaneness from crass selfishness! This he taught to the masses of India and through them to the whole world, in double quick time that too.
356. He went around the whole country and defeated many proponents of opposing views and concepts. Those differing views and concepts of the other religions took to heels. Still the Vaidic Hinduism (that is called as ‘Brahminical Hinduism’ in that book ‘Oxford History of India’), could not have been considered as re-established till, people had restarted their old ways of Karma, Bakti and Gnana Marga-s. This revival of the Vaidic ways of life along with Adwaita Siddhanta is what made it the victory of Hinduism over the other religions!
357. Though it is generally said that Adi Sankara mainly re-established the Gnana marga among the tri-fold Karma / Bakti / Gnana marga-s, in fact, he is also equally responsible for strengthening the other two, as I have already explained. Karma and Dharma go together. Playing your appointed role as per your caste in which you are born is Karma. Doing it as righteously as possible without transgressing the rules of the society is Kula Dharma or Swadharma! By doing thus ones duties, one attains to clarity of mind and heart. In that clean state, you concentrate all your attention on God the Easwara. When that deep concentration fructifies in to ripeness you get Adwaita Anubhava of oneness with God! That is the step by step process our Adi Sankara AachaaryaL has streamlined for us.
358. In this, Smruti the Dharma Saastraa-s tells us all our Karma and Dharma. What imbibes devotion i.e., Bakti are the Puranas. What tells us the ways and means of Adwaita Gnaana are the Veda + Antam = Vedantam, the doctrines as given in the Upanishads. If Sruti is the Head, the Feet are the end Vedantam of the Veda Mata! You have to go up to the top from down below, to reach the highest of Gnaana! For all these Sruti for Gnaana, Smruti for Karma and Purana for Bakti, our Adi Sankara AachaaryaaL was the Repository or the place of Refuge, the Temple or Aalayam. So the Sloka says, “sruti smruti puranaanaam aalayam karuNaalayam I namaami bhagawat paada sankaram loka sankaram II”
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 44 (Vol #4) Dated 21 July 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 44 (Vol #4) Dated 21 July 2010.

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from page number 249 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too, mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)

339. There is a post script in English in page 249 of the Tamil original of Deivathin Kural (which is being translated in these e-mails), in which some History Professor has opined that PeriyavaaL is possibly referring to a book named “The Oxford History of India” written by one Mr.Vincent Smith, from which the following extract is quoted! QUOTE. “It must be clearly understood that Brahmanical Hinduism continued to exist and to claim innumerable adherents throughout the ages. It may well be doubted if Buddhism can be correctly described as having been the prevailing religion of India as a whole at any time. The phrase ‘Buddhist period’ to be found in many books is false and misleading. Neither a Buddhist nor a Jain period ever existed. From time to time Buddhism and Jainism obtained exceptional success and an unusually large percentage of adherents in the population of one kingdom or another, but neither heresy ever superseded Brahminical Hinduism.” UNQUOTE. (That just about confirms what PeriyavaaL has been talking about in the past few paragraphs! Now we will continue with his narration.)
340. Having started talking about education, if you ask me as to why I am talking about these things, such as Buddhism and Jainism and whether they were ever predominant religions covering the whole Indian Sub-continent or not, please do not jump to the conclusion that these are not related! Education should be such that it informs us of truth and not fiction, is it not so? Presently in the education being imparted to our children it is being said that, within a short period of the start of civilised living, Buddha and Mahavira took birth and shook the foundations as though of the social life of this country and their views and concepts were widely prevalent in this land for long periods of time! This is the history our children are being taught! This is wrong and it has to be pointed out that it is wrong! Education should not be misused as a propaganda machine! If you simply establish a University and form a text-book-committee and so on; that is not the end of education! Such arrangements do not come anywhere near the lofty ideals of what was the Guru – Sishya relationship! The Guru Kula arrangement centred on the individual and personal, physical, mental and moral cleanliness and purity of the highest order!
341. When we say that Adi Sankara AachaaryaaL or Thiru Gnaana Sambandar re-established the Hindu Dharma, it means that they during their life time rejuvenated people’s belief in the Sanaatana Dharma that had become dormant and discredited or put a dampener on those other religions that had become ascendant. More importantly they re-built the trust and belief in the Hindu Sanaatana Dharma, in the minds of the people whom you could call, the intelligentsia. The sociological aspect of the trades, professions and crafts based on the caste to which you are born, did not change but continued as before. This was neither changed nor reintroduced or enforced by anybody whatsoever. It was all as it were!
342. The greatness of Adi Sankara AachaaryaaL was that he achieved much more than what one man could do, with no conceit whatsoever! He debated in public with many learned scholars of his time who differed with him in understating of the meaning of existence and defeated them all, while some of them became his disciples. He virtually drove the non-Vaidic Religions of Buddhism and Jainism out of this country almost. He established the Aachaarya Peetam-s at Sringeri, Dwaraka, Jyotishmat, Puri and Kanchi; (in the South, West, North and Eastern part of India and South again.) At Kanchi the final place he gave up his mortal coil at the young age of 32! From these Peetam-s generations of Jagatguru Sakaracharya-s have been continuing to work towards maintaining the traditions of Sruti and Smruti holding the flag of Adwaita high.
343. He wrote extensively so many Bhashyam-s (word for word meaning with comments) for already existing Scriptures; wrote so many original treatises on principles and concepts of philosophy (like Atma Boda:, Tatva Boda:, Viveka ChudamaNi and such works) and also devotional sloka-s on every God or Goddess of the temples he visited. He did all this while going around the whole of India three times on foot! If you go to any temple in any corner of India, you would find that he has been there and left his indelible mark in terms of some Yantra or Chakra or some such thing! For example, in a place known as Alampur, located SW of Sri Sailam and East of Kurnool in the present day Andhra Pradesh, he has pacified the extremely fierce Kali Roopa of Jugulamba. In Guruvayoor Krishna temple, he has installed the ‘Bakti Chakra’ which is influencing people’s minds to turn to devotion as tangibly seen till date, while in Thirupathi Balaji Temple the Lakshmi Chakra that he has installed, is making that temple the richest in the world today! I have given you only a short summary of his super human achievements! But the point is that in doing all this, he has not spoken about himself or beaten his own trumpet in any of his books or elsewhere! This is the main reason why there are so many versions about his life and people are not able to correctly fix his time in the history of the country!
344. There is a famous saying that all of William Shakespeare’s writings are not his but written by somebody else by that name! Similarly there are claims about, there having been more than one Adi Sankara AachaaryaaL! But there is one place in his writing which gives us some idea of what was the condition existing in his times. He says that, “there was no ‘Saarvabouman’ (meaning omnipotent Emporer) existing at that time”! In the Bhashyam for Brhma Sutram, {1st Adhyaya, 3rd Paadam, 33rd Sutram}, he mentions that ‘once upon a time there was direct communication between human beings and Gods’. (That any how throws a shadow of doubt on the claim that we in the 21 Century are much advanced scientifically! May be as the Vedic scholors claim we in the 5000th year of Kali Yuga approximately, may be, actually on the down ward trend! In the scale of each Chatur Yuga that lasts for 43, 20,000 years and there have been many such cycles of Chatur Yugas!)
345. Having said that there was a time when human beings could directly communicate with Gods, he says, “It is not correct to ask me as to how is this possible? In these present days, (that is, he is talking about his time, i.e., during the time of Adi Sankara), when there is no one worthy of being called a ‘Saarva bouman’, you cannot think that they have never been there! Just because the Varna Ashrama Dharma is presently not as it should be, it is not correct to argue that it was never in perfect condition!” Now you tell me as to what does all this mean?
346. What it means is this. Even if an all powerful ‘Saarvabouman’ was there as an Emperor of the whole of India, at the time of Adi Sankara, even if we take it that, hypothetically it was possible that just by his decree or edict, Varna Ashrama Dharma could have been brought back to its original shape, there was no such Emperor at that time! So if it was brought back to shape after Adi Sankara, it all means that it was never dead and out!
347. When Adi Sankara AachaaryaaL says that there was no ‘Saarvabouman’ in his time, it fits in with the fact that, there was no Empire covering the whole of this country, but only smaller kingdoms. That is also the time when the country was also subject to influx of foreign invasions and forays! Though the Buddhism and Jainism had made inroads, the Varna Ashrama Dharma was not totally defunct! But Yes! As pointed out by Adi Sankara AachaaryaaL, at that time, Varna Ashrama Dharma was not as ‘vyavast’ or well organized, as it should have been.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 43 (Vol #4) Dated 19 July 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 43 (Vol #4) Dated 19 July 2010.

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from the last para on page number 244 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too, mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)

329. With the sole aim of showing off the Hindus in a poor light, the British historians wrote Indian History, with a slant as though Buddhism and Jainism had completely engulfed the entire Indian subcontinent. This is quoted by our historians also, for their own ulterior motive of parochialism! If such was the case, Adi Sankara could not have just come on the scene and redistributed everybody in to the four castes, once again! History instead of being a fairly accurate recording of the past for the knowledge of future generations became just anybody’s ‘cock and bull story’!
330. When the castes were doing the job that was traditionally theirs, the next generation of people did not question as to why, they were in so and so job! The carpenter’s son did not question as to why his father was a carpenter and so on! Instead, if later on some third person came and told them that henceforth they will belong to so and so caste, certainly there would have been objections galore. In such a vast country like India, if once all the castes had been thoroughly mixed up to a casteless level I am sure, we could not have gone back to square one! So, had this Buddhism and Jainism become all pervading as picturised by the British historians, the whole nation could not have come back within the ambit of control of Varna Ashrama Dharma at all!
331. From the time of Adi Sankara AachaaryaL, other religions started regressing and or shifted more to countries outside India, as discerned by most historians. That is true. But still, one man could not have brought back the whole of India back to Sanaatana Dharma. He had no support of any King or political leaders either. There is no evidence in literature or in history whatsoever that Varna Ashrama Dharma was brought back or newly established by any royal edict or some such thing either! This reinforces the point that the Varna Ashrama Dharma was never done away with despite the onslaught of other religions.
332. Nindra Seer Nedumaran a King in the South, converted to
‘SamaNa’ that is Jainism. But his subjects continued to follow their traditional religion and way of life. May be they were reluctant to openly display their deep rooted loyalties to their religion and traditional beliefs and customs. But, they did not convert wholesale to the new religions! Even those who did convert continued to practice their trades as they did before, without any noticeable change in their attitudes, beliefs, way of life and environment. So, when that king was reconverted to his original religion, the situation came back to what it was before! Some came back to their earlier religion while some remained as converts. The traditional festivals, visit to temples and other Karma Anushtaanaa-s recommenced as before! The caste wise trades and professions were never affected. (KTSV adds:- In the modern India too, this above point is underlined as though by the fact that, amongst convertee populations of Muslims and Christians, there are those who claim themselves to be Rajputs, that is Kshatriya-s, Vysyas and Dalits still and claim some political rights and privileges!)
333. So, these religions Buddhism and Jainism did not make much of a dent in the Indian social milieu at all! Leaving the social environment, even if we look at the changes in religious beliefs and practices, there was no mass movement to talk about! People did adopt the new religion so to say but, did not convert completely! For example when the king Nindra Seer Nedumaran changed to Jainism, his wife Mangaiyarkkarasi and minister Kulachiraiyar remained ardent devotees of Siva. (Later Sundara Murthy Nayanar challenged the SamaNa-s to ‘Anal Vaadam and Punal Vaadam’ that is, ‘ordeal by fire and flood’, defeated them and cured ‘Koon Pandyan’ of his disease. When from a hunch backed being, he stood straight like a ram rod, it was then that he became Nindra Seer Nedumaran! All three of them that is, the King, his Queen and Minister, are revered as great devotees of Siva as ‘Nayanmar-s’! Please relate to Para 54 of Deivathin Kural # 94 (Vol # 3) Dated 01 June 2009.)
334. Moreover, coming back to the main topic of our concern, In the Buddhist and Jain schools and universities, the number of non-brahmins were not much! As pointed out earlier, as they continued in their traditional jobs and trades, there was no need for them to learn from such educational institutions. Since there were such schools available, there may have been some non-brahmins who were keen on such intellectual pursuits! But their numbers were not substantial but only sparse, compared to what it could have been!
335. Thus to cater for projected mass conversion figures, there were more such educational institutions that came into being and they were bigger than anything anywhere else in the world. From within this student population also, the number who joined the ‘Bikku Sanga’ were rather limited. Though it is true, that there was a substantial increase in the number of ‘Bikkus’ due to which, there was a watering down of their standards of discipline. It still does not mean however that, people converted en masse to these religions either! Before this, only Brahmins mainly went through these three stages of life, namely Ashramas of Brhmacharyam, Gruhastam and Vana Prastam, from which some opted for Sanyasam. Some amongst them went directly from Brhmacharyam to Sanyasam. During those times the Sanyasi population amongst the total used to be around one percent or even less say. When people converted to Buddhism and Jainism, the number of Sanyasis would have gone from one percent to about four or five percent! Balance 95% of people was continuing in their respective trades or jobs as before.
336. If you have one practicing doctor in your colony say and suddenly if three or four doctors open their clinics in the same area, would you not feel a sense of there being too many of them? That is what happened in this case too. From one percent of the total population to 4 or 5 percent increase is after all a 4 to 5 times increase! So it did give an impression as though there is abundance. Then also, unlike the Hindu Sanyasis who do not stay in one place for too long and believe in roaming the countryside alone, these Bikkus were to be found in such collectives giving the impression of being too many! When the number of Sanyasis increases, as they are required to observe very strict rules of abnegation, there is likely to be a lessening of the strictness in their discipline! That is what happened here too.
337. To sum up, in the social set up, the Varna Dharma was not much affected. In the religious aspect too, practicing of the individual daily and periodic Karma Anushtaanaa-s continued as before. Collective conduct of festivals as per yearly calendar as well as those which were temple or area specific, were not affected adversely at all! Conduct of Pushkar Mela or Maha Kubha Mela or celebration of Deepavali or Ganesha Chathurthi or Gokulashtami and so on, continued as before! At the intelligentsia or administrative level of the government, there could have been some disinterest, when these religions of Buddhism and Jainism were on the ascendency, may be. On those occasions, there came a Sankara Bhagawat PaadaaL or a Thiru Gnaana Sambandar, to rekindle the Vaidic Religion to shine brighter than before!
338. We cannot fault all the British historians as being partial either! There are people who value truth more than anything in any walk of life. There are individuals like that and there are some organizations too who have stringent standards of integrity! Oxford University people have that sort of a reputation! If they publish a book at any time, they do not leave it at that in a limbo, so to say! They will keep on updating their data base and doing research on that. Then when they have collected additional information which is genuinely authoritative enough and it makes it imperative for them to change an earlier interpretation or finding, they would not hesitate to accept their earlier mistake in reporting or analysis! They would either publish an amendment or bring out a fresh edition with apologies! They have done so in the case of the Indian History!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 42 (Vol #4) Dated 17 July 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 42 (Vol #4) Dated 17 July 2010.

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from the page number 240 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too, mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)

319. As I was saying, in those days Vidya Abhyaasam was thus specially meant for the Brahmin boys. Others did not envy the Brahmins for this. For them to learn their professions, stay in Guru Kula was not considered necessary. If and when need be, they could always refer to the Aiyar for any technically complicated issues in their professional subjects and or in matters concerning Dharma in human relations! There was no jealousy from his side, for the Brahmin’s learning of the Veda-s or observing his Anushtaanaa-s. So also there was no high headedness from the Brahmin’s side as though he is a man from the Mars!
320. They were all happy doing what was their appointed role by birth, in the society. They lived with the idea that the Vedas chanted by the Brahmin and the Yagna-s conducted by him were for everyone’s benefit. Their thought process ran on the following lines. “The self imposed restrictions of the Brahmin show us also as to how we should behave in society. If the Brahmin’s role is important for the society’s welfare in a spiritual way, our appointed role is also important for the society in a practical and material way! So let him do his job. We need not disturb him and or compete with him.” This is how the people of the other three castes looked at the situation for not only centuries but for thousands of years! There was no problem of understanding or unity in the society!
321. Both Buddha and Mahavira misunderstood this arrangement. For them to think so, the Brahmins of that period must have been partially responsible, due to lacking in the strength of their Anushtaanaa-s and or their understanding of the concepts of philosophy! Due to a mistaken notion of belonging to a higher caste, they might have stood more on formalities and demanded some special status and privileges. Buddhists and Jains instead of correctly identifying such behaviour as aberrations, when they held the system itself to be wrong and faulty, may be they fell into a trap of their own making. This led to a temporary boost in followership or converts, which however did not necessarily mean true understanding! So, they started big training institutions to teach in the colloquial, boosting conversion into their religion!
322. Still, the point to note is that, while people were converting to these religions in a big way, people continued to work in their ancestral trades to which they were born to! As far as the Brahmins were concerned, though their loyalty to Veda Karma Anushtaana got a jolt, it helped in waking them up from a reverie somewhat! Other caste people too remained in their traditional professions only. Carpenter remained a carpenter and a sculptor remained a sculptor and so on. The only difference was that instead of a being a Hindu carpenter or sculptor, they called themselves Buddhist or Jain so and so!
323. In other words, Varna Dharma was never removed or erased! The non-brahmins’ involvement in ‘tatva vichara’ that is, getting into comprehension of philosophical matters was rather limited! He accepted the idea that Brahmin was not superior to himself any more, but there ended his analysis and foray into philosophical concepts and principles! Thus his understanding of Buddhism and Jainism was limited. Thus as long as he did not kill and eat, he could eat the meat and flesh of any animal. That is why though ‘Ahimsa Paramo Dharma:’ is the highest principle in both these religions, their followers are not very strict about being vegetarians!
324. Generally you may notice that any mass movement will be found to have a following based on the points against which it is raising objections. When it comes to observing the rules and regulations being imposed by that movement, people only pay lip service to it! For example, when Mahatma Gandhi raised the slogan, “Throw out the White Man from India”, it got a lot of support. When these very followers were exhorted to observe the principles of, ‘Ahimsa (non-cruelty), Satyam (truthfulness), discipline and devotion to God’, you would be shocked to note that there were not very many ready to live with those requirements!
325. Instead of understanding the logic of why the foreigners should be thrown out from the Indian soil, the desire and greed for power was the greater driving force! So the movement caught everybody’s attention. But, when it came to the standard of discipline demanded by Gandhi, people were not ready to accept them and live up to it. That is human tendency. To realise one’s own mistake and correct ourselves is not as popular as raising objections to others mistakes, even if they are only imaginary! If I tell you to conduct a mass meeting against conversion of Hindus into other religions or against agnosticism, just one word from my side will do! You will form a big committee, have preparatory meetings, conduct publicity, collect funds and one day hold a popular meeting in which there will be verbal fireworks and passing of wholesome resolutions! But, if I tell you to live strictly as required of you in the Saastraas, will you listen to me? If I tell you to do Sandyavandanam three times a day and Brhma Yagnam and Vaisve Devam daily, there will be an immediate reduction in the number of people attending my Pooja and lectures!
326. The above is the reason why, some of the rules as required to be observed by the followers of Buddhism and Jainism were never taken up seriously. Here I must talk about one aspect of some of the impositions by these religions, which were never going to be practical. Unlike the Hindu Sanatana Dharma which has much inherent freedom and alternate arrangements of expiation for each error, default and aberrant behaviour, both Buddhism and Jainism are very strict in Ahimsa and Sanyas (renunciation). Between these two religions also, in Jainism the rules on renunciation were much stricter for all people, without much let! Comparatively Hinduism believes in a gradual tightening of the restrictions depending on growth with age and maturity! So there were many conversions into these religions but, simply they just changed the name of their religion! (KTSV adds:- Indian society somehow adjusted to the influx of Buddhism and Jainism for the next 12 to 13 centuries. But with the forcible entry of Muslim religion and the advent of Sikh religion, the scenario changed drastically. Despite all that, people continued to be in the same job or profession as of old, with the fear that now anyone could do anything, in terms of employment and profession! I think the problem of unemployment started from there, which was further irrevocably complicated when Curzon introduced English based education in India. Then the flood gates were opened forever as though, for unemployment, competition and mutual hate as to who should do what to whom? Now let us go back to PeriyavaL’s narrative.)
327. So even after the advent of Buddhism and Jainism, Varna Ashrama Dharma continued as before. If you read the inscriptions in stone (known as Saasanam), by kings of that period like Asoka, we can discern that those kings were aware of the fact that to play with the Varna Ashrama Dharma setup was to disturb the apple cart so to say, as that would be tantamount to disrupting the whole social structure! I will give you one argument in favour of this point!
328. It is a historical fact that Tarka Saastra experts like Udayana Aachaaryar, Vedic Karma Anushtaana Expert like Kumarila Bhatta and finally Adi Sankara AachaaryaL, defeated the exponents of Buddhhism and Jainism and re-established the Varna Ashrama Dharma. When they did so, they did not start from scratch in a vacuum! Despite all these onslaughts, within the Hindu Sanaatana Dharma, Varna Ashrama Dharma had continued to survive!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 41 (Vol #4) Dated 15 July 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 41 (Vol #4) Dated 15 July 2010.

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from the page number 235 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too, mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)

309. Thus when Buddha and Mahavira created new religions, in those religions, the concepts of Veda Pramanyam (inviolability of Vedas), Vedic Anushtaana (practice of rituals as per the Vedas) and Varna Ashrama Dharma (the division of the society in to four castes with some common and some exclusive duties and responsibilities), were not there! Instead of restricting anyone from reading and practicing the basic scriptures, it was open to all. So, instead of the small Guru Kula-s there was a need to have much bigger educational institutions, since all the people had to be covered!
310. Another factor contributed to this opening of the gates as though to all and sundry! Till then in the Guru Kula the most systematic, scientific and refined of the languages, Sanskrit was used. Normal common man was not capable of speaking or understanding this Sanskrit language. They knew only the ‘Praakruta’ (or Prakrit, meaning natural as derived from the word ‘Prakruti’?), it was the colloquial lingo known as ‘Pali’! The basic scriptures of Buddhism known as ‘Thripitakam’, was written in that ‘Pali’ language only. Similarly, the basic scriptures of the Jains known as ‘Angaas’ were written in another ‘Praakruta’ language known as ‘Ardhamaaghadi’ (may be what was spoken in the Magadh region during those times)! When you are interested in spreading your own religion to as broad a spectrum of the masses as possible, especially those who were not aware of reading and writing, you are bound to set up schools to teach them the art of reading and writing and interpose the religious books! We have seen this done by many of the Missionaries from the west, all over Africa, Indian sub-continent and Asia!
311. Guru Nanak, when he was keen on spreading the Sikh religion in Punjab, some 600 years back, there was no method of writing the Punjabi language. That is, there was no written alphabet for the graphic representation of the language on paper! At that time he had to create an alphabet! This was done and perfected by the time the next Guru Angad was able collect what Guru Nanak had said and what had been said by some of the Saints that he used to quote. As the language took shape through what was spoken by the Guru-s, the language so evolved got the name of ‘Gurmukhi’, to mean what has come in to being through the mouths or through the spoken words of the Guru-s!
312. Instead of using force and compulsions, through the process of imparting education by establishing schools, colleges and universities, they are able to convert people to their own religion quite peacefully and cleverly. That is what was done by the Buddhists and Jains! But when points of principles became deeper and subtler with arguments and counters; Sanskrit was found to be the more suitable medium of education! In the seventh Century A.D., when Harsha Vardhana was the King, Hieun Tsang visited India and reported that in Nalanda, the Buddhists conducted their discussions in the Sanskrit language. Anyhow, to start with, all teaching was in what was the spoken dialect, leading to creation of more and more schools and colleges!
313. I have already told you as to how the Vysya-s and Sudra-s had to refer to the Brahmin Aacharyas for consultation only on specific issues or clearance of doubts and that the Guru Kula-s were mainly places where Brahmin and Kshatriya boys learnt their Veda-s and Saastraa-s. Within them also it was mainly meant for Brahmin boys. So the curriculum and the syllabus had to be oriented towards their study of Adhyayanam of the Veda-s and the 14 Vidya Sthana-s. As I have said before, the syllabus of these Brahmin boys and Kshatriya boys could not have been the same, of necessity.
314. The Kshatriya boys evidently did not have to read and commit to memory all the Veda-s and the 14 Vidya-s, as was expected of the Brahmin boys. Similarly, the Brahmin boys except for those who took up study of Dhanur Veda, Artha Saastra and such things, could not have been expected to learn about those things extensively! There could have been some activities and classes which were common between the different classes of students!
315. As people who are also entitled to Brhmopadesam and learning the Veda-s, there could have been Vysya-s also among the students of the Guru Kula. But as the population kept on expanding and trade and commerce kept increasing with neighbouring countries and even overseas, with added importance of agricultural activities, on the job training in the shop floor and fields became more profitable than learning in the Guru Kulam, I suppose! This is the reason that the Vysya-s who are profit oriented, became more involved in production, cattle rearing i.e., ‘Go Samrakshana’, trade and commerce, as a life time job from childhood! Moreover, they had to constantly update their data on sales, balances, fluctuations in prices, stock situations and the related accounting, that they could not have had time for anything else! Their business deeply depended on their learning of various languages and the presence of mind in tackling a variety of customers, vendors, suppliers and so on. They cannot be referring to books or notes during their negotiations! So, their children, instead of going in for studies in a big way, believed in apprenticeship with their father or grandfather, on the job, ‘learning all the tricks of the trade’, literally I suppose!
316. All said and done, in the past thus, Vidyabhyasam meant the educating of the Brahmin boys mainly. That is why, even after the passage of so many decades and centuries, ‘Paatam’ a word indicating learning of the Vedas, became the root word for the name of all educational institutions as ‘Paatashaala’, originally meant to be a place where starting from the Gayatri Mantra all Vedas are taught! Similarly any teacher became ‘Aachaarya’, though now there could be an ‘Aachaarya’ for communism and even agnosticism! What was an assistant teacher of Vedas and Saastraa-s known as ‘Upaadhyaya’ has become a ‘Vaadyaar’, a slang synonym for all and sundry gang leaders!
317. Sishya or Vidhyarthi is a synonym for student or disciple. In Tamil, it is known a “MaNava or MaaNaakkan”, which might have been a derivative of the word ‘Manav’, from which the English word ‘Man and Human’ could have evolved! Manu is considered as the origin for all human beings, not only etymologically. (KTSV adds:- In Tamil when you write the letter ‘n’ with a double roundel, it is pronounced a little thickly, which is indicate by a capital ‘N’ in these e-mails.) This word ‘MaaNav’ means a young student, as he starts his education as a small boy really! This word was really known earlier as ‘MaaNi’ and meant, a young Brhmachari Brahmin boy given the ‘PooNool’ in ‘Upanayanam’! Since immediately after the ‘Upanayanam’, he proceeded to the Guru Kula and became a student, ‘MaaNi’ became a generic word ‘MaaNava’ for all students and disciples.
318. Thus in the olden times, Vidya Abhyaasam or education was specially meant for the Brahmin boys. Other caste people had no objections to that, as they did not think of it as a denial of rights or something! Every caste people were happily doing what was their job and playing their appointed role! It is only after the meaning of the word ‘Education’ itself had conveniently been changed and became the basic qualification for employment, that put the whole society was in a race for ‘one-up-man-ship’!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 40 (Vol #4) Dated 13 July 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 40 (Vol #4) Dated 13 July 2010.

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from the third para on page number 230 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too, mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)

298. Malik Gafoor and such Muslim marauders went south right down to Rameswaram looting and destroying the Hindu Temples and Townships, delivering almost a mortal blow on the Hindu society! After that, if the Indians could still rise from the ashes like the Phoenix, it was the Vijayanagara Empire that could make them hold their head high with pride once again! This was made possible at the start of the 14th Century due to the efforts of a Sanyasi Jagat Guru Sankaracharya, Vidyaranya Swami. He has not only been the driving force for the creation of Vijayanagara Empire, but also authored many treatises on Adwaita such as Panchadasi and Sayana Veda Bhashyam.
299. A branch of the Vijayanagara Samrajya was the Tanjore Nayak dynasty, which was mainly founded by the efforts of a house holder expert in Adwaita philosophy, by name Govind Deekshidar known as “Adwaita Vidyacharya”! Then I will not be doing justice to the topic that I am talking about, if I do not mention the name of the clean Naishtika Brhmachari Samarta Ramadas, who was the force that brought out the lion in Sivaji! At a time when Aurangazeb’s madness knew no bounds, if Hindu society was saved from total desolation, conversion and extinction, it was Sivaji who created the Maharashtrian Empire, under the constant guidance of Samarta Ramadas, his Guru an Adwaitin of eminence!
300. I said all this only to point out that, there are people who show off as though they know much and give their opinion unasked for, creating a sense of inferiority complex in the minds of us Indians about our religion and culture! Within the Indian Hindu society, there was never any jealousy or hate as to who is high in education and knowledge. “Vidya vinaya sampanna”, as the saying goes, humility was considered the defining quality in a man of high education. So there was never a competition in trying to show off! If and when there was an ego clash, it was possibly between Kshatriyas and Brahmins, which I have already described!
301. Cultural Nicety in Confrontations! Even when there were confrontations between Kshatriyas and Brahmins, we notice some peculiarities of Indianness in them as available nowhere else in the world. In other countries when there has been difference of opinion between the Pope and the Ruler of that country or the Ulema and the Sultan, we have seen that such confrontations have ended in real fights and even killings on either side! This has never happened in this country that a Brahmin has been killed because of his caste! If it was true that the Brahmin was exploiting all other caste, I am sure that there would have been revenges when the opportunities presented themselves! Especially when the Kshatriyas were having some difference of opinion, others could have instigated the armed Kshatriyas to do away with the Brahmins! This sort of a thing has never happened, not because opportunities were not there but, because the cause and motivation to do so were never there!
302. Kshatriyas despite being armed, ‘who would pull out a sword at the drop of a hat’, so to say, never ever raised their weapons in anger against the Brahmin! This is indicative of their discipline even in tense situations! Similarly, the other castes too never exploited the situation to settle any accounts with the Brahmin! This is indicative of the apparent reasonableness of their behaviour and the fact that there was no enmity as such between the castes!
303. This matter is not to be closed with that only. You please look at the logic of it! A caste well known for being soft on the physical side, if they were also haughty and cunning, could not have remained deserving the respect of other castes for long! They could not have fooled the entire society and still be recipients of their respect! So what do you gather from this? Brahmins in reality had such character qualities of intelligence and knowledge that was beneficial for all, to be able to evoke the respect and regards of the whole society.
304. This they got from their ‘Vidya’, which in turn came from their stint in the Guru Kula, from a young formative age! Even when occasionally there was a powerful movement against the Brahmins, instead of being a physical objection, it was on the lines of theories, principles, ideas and concepts. I am talking about the advent of Buddhist, Jain and Sikh religions only.
305. Actually none of those three religions were really anti-Veda and Anti-Saastra movements. Though they were against the Hindu Sanaatana Dharma in terms of Varna Ashrama Dharma on the one hand and the rituals on the other, they were not declared enemies of the Hindu ethos really. There are many occasions when they have given refuge to Hindus when they were running away from the looting hoards of Muslims! Sikhs have even gone to fight with the Muslims on behalf of the Hindu Brahmins! The Kshatriyas Buddha, Mahavira and Nanak, fought against the Brahmins on point of principles, which were only slight amendments in perspectives and not total deviations or contrary views. So these religions and their views were not complete strangers or anathema to Hindu ideals! So their clashes were more as debates on differing opinions, views and principles.
306. Those were the times I suppose, when the Brahmins were possibly a bit jaded. But, still it is their traditional power of the ‘sat karma’ or good deeds of anushtaana over generations that was keeping their flag still flying high. Knowing this fact, when they were attacked, it was not done against their physical being, but against their Saastraa-s or their understanding and comprehension that was attacked. Point out the seeming inconsistencies and if they are not able to give sensible replies, it is as good as losing a battle on principles! So the Kshatriya-s must have had a ‘race or class conscience’ that was out to prove the Brahmin wrong! If a cat is always chasing the rat, genetically sometime in the future, the rat is likely to develop one who is capable of standing up to a cat! At least psychologically this is likely to happen! So studying together in the same Guru Kula, some of the Kshatriya boys must have felt themselves superior to some of the Brahmin boys at least in theories conceptually! If not all the Kshatriyas, at least a small percentage of them must have felt motivated to do so. Buddha, Mahavira and Nanak, I would say, were the proof of such motivation. This is something that both Brahmins and Kshatriyas could be proud of!
307. I am saying all this to emphasize that, for knowledge, ideas, concepts, and deeper comprehension and understanding, it was not necessary that Brahmin had to be the only ‘Repository’. Abiding with the Saastraa-s as pointed out by the Brahmin, repeatedly listening to the quotes and references, many a Kshatriya must have felt that, ‘we as Kshatriya-s are not only strong physically and in use of arms and weapons, we are also capable of deep rooted thinking, analysis and conceptualization’. This sort of a collective conscience, must have led to the coming into being of such great thinkers and pioneers such as Buddha, Mahavira and Nanak!
308. This subtle point of psychology is discernible on another aspect too. Amongst the three Satvic, Rajasic and Tamasic Gunas, Brahmins were required to be most Satvic, as per the Saastraa-s! Even in practice the Brahmin has been noticeable in this character quality. Contrary to this the Kshatriyas have been physically strong, brave and ever ready to fight, for a cause may be! So, there must have been a motivation inherent here to prove that they were not only ready to fight, but were also capable not only mental acumen and conceptualization and were also capable of going one step higher than the Brahmin even in the matter of Satvic character qualities! So, Buddha and Mahavira could have sincerely felt the need to emphasize the ‘Ahimsa’ as a major policy thrust!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 39 (Vol #4) Dated 11 July 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 39 (Vol #4) Dated 11 July 2010.

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from the last para on page number 225 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too, mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)

286. “Because of the division of the society in to four castes, there was no unity among the people. That too, since especially the majority were the down trodden fourth caste of Pariah-s, they were the most disgruntled lot lacking motivation. That is why the nation repeatedly losing its will to survive, has subjugated itself to foreign yoke!” This is a totally untruthful canard created by historians of British origin! In fact the reality was the exact opposite! However much you may twist the history, truth can never be hidden forever, when many events occur to the contrary!
289. From the very Indian History written by the Britishers, what is discerned is that, during the periods when ‘VarNa Ashrama dharma’ was religiously being followed, the country was being governed by such able rulers to deserve to be called powerful empires! Those were the times when Indian Unity and cultural influence was most pronounced! Those are the times when foreign interference was least. Contrary to this when the local power passed into the hands of such people who were against the Vedas and were followers of the so called Ahimsa Religions, it was then that the social fabric was tattered, national unity placed in jeopardy, smaller scattered rulers came to power, paving the way for foreign invasion and occupation!
290. What was indirectly discernible in the books of history written by the Britishers, became apparent when after our gaining independence from the British rule, Indian historians like Dr.K.M.Munshi rewrote the Indian History! Munshi was not a conservative Brahmin like me. He very much was interested in reforming the Indian society on the modern lines. As a minister under Jawaharlal Nehru, he was as forward looking as any politicians of those days. He could not have been simply siding with conservatism at all! But his aim was to get to the truth as it was before the British incursion into India and the Muslims prior to that.
291. Till Chandragupta was the Chakravarti (Emporer), the Mourya dynasty was continuously growing and going from strength to strength, it was truly living by Varna Ashrama Dharma. Then after Asoka seriously embraced Buddhism, it went to pieces. It changed hands to the control of ‘Sagars’ or Scythians, Parthians, Kushans and many other uncivilized foreigners! Then came Pushya Mitra Sanga who did Ashwa Medha Yagna, followed by Samudra Gupta. Then the Vedic reign of Varna Ashrama Dharma was at its peak during the time when Chandragupta Vikrama Aditya was at the helm of affairs! (The earlier Chandragupta was a Mourya and this one was from the Gupta dynasty.) Pointing out these facts, Munshi clearly reiterated that Varna Ashrama Dharma was responsible for unity and integrity as well as the peaks of the cultural achievements in arts, crafts, fine-arts and literature!
292. “This is my work; this will not only sustain me but also protect me! I will achieve the finest in this line that is my profession!” This was the assured pride and spirit of these periods. There was competition within comrades, unity within relations and mutual respect between castes! This was a powerful force in the nation that went beyond the confines of parochialism and regionalism in to universal brotherhood that could proclaim to the whole world messages of love, compassion and respect for all life forms! This was and even now is the force that could bring the whole humanity together! The Buddhist and Jain messages of NirvaNa and Kaivalyam while being ideas beyond human comprehension, Rama and Krishna as role models of high aristocracy with a human touch, with which we could relate; Hanuman as a monkey God and Ganesha as an Elephant God with a hamster on which he rides; with principles such as universal justice, practical objection to cruelty, love towards all life forms with morality as the binding force amongst all humans; could and did build brick by brick moral edifices of lasting value systems!
293. I read an extract of Munshi’s writing in a news paper. In it he had shown as to how it is incorrect to assume tha Harsha Vardhana as a follower of Buddhism, raised and established a huge empire. The great poet Baana in his enthusiasm has praised his patron sky high alright! This may be due to the fact that his book Harsha Charitram did become famous, thus leading to this mistaken notion! Compared with the earlier Gupta period, Harsha’s empire was much smaller. Unlike the longevity of the Gupta dynasty before him, when they were true followers of the Hindu way of life, the moment Harsha died, his empire folded up almost!
294. When Varna Ashrama arrangement was not strong enough, the society scattered in all directions like a bag full of goose berries, with nothing holding them together! India was forever an attractive target for aspiring greedy eyes. With these two factors the kings who were leaning towards Buddhism and Jainism were aware of the inherent drawback in applying Ahimsa that is abjuring resort to arms, as a national policy! So, these kings did help these religions to establish themselves in a big way, they still continued to fight wars and were supportive of Hindus maintaining Varna Ashrama Dharma! There was an overall decline in standards though, the various castes continued in their traditional ways, as supported by the powers in being.
295. I hope you understand as to how wrong it is to say that Brahmins were thrusting the Varna Dharma discipline down the throats of unwilling population and that is why outsiders could get a foot-hold in to our lands! After Asoka, when the Mourya Empire was no more, in the South, it was a Brahmin who brought the people together under the Saatawahana Empire and established a Hindu Saamrajya in Deccan covering parts of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra and northern districts of what is Tamil Nadu today! In these matters we should guard against flippant untruthful statements that could poison people’s minds. That is why I am saying all this!
296. Adwaitam and Arasangam, i.e., Governance. Like the untruth about this statement that Varna Dharma was the reason for the division of this country, let me break another similar canard being bandied about! It is something like this! “Because Sankara propounded the theory of Adwaita and declared this world as a ‘Maya’, the Hindus have become good for nothing people without any direction and purpose. This is the reason for the ease with which the country was brought under foreign yoke!” Sankara never meant that the concept of Adwaita and Maya were to become common parlance to be quoted flippantly. The common man was to go through the paths of Karma (action) and Bhakti (devotion) and work towards taking care of family and society, while internally working towards maturity. The doctrines of Adwaita and Maya were thus to be understood and comprehended as the end points of Vedanta! This can be proved by quoting some inalienable historical facts of three staunch practitioners of Adwaita.
297. What I am going to say now are pure and simple historical truths. The three persons that I am going to talk about were all Brahmin Adwaitins. Each one of them was responsible in his own way for the establishment of three different Empires! Amongst them one was a Brhmachari, another a Householder and the third a Sanyasi!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 38 (Vol #4) Dated 09 July 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 38 (Vol #4) Dated 09 July 2010.

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from the second para on page number 221 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too, mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)

276. Though the clash between Brahmin’s power of Mantra, Tapasya and Brains were pitted against the Brawn power and intense industry of the Kshatriya very rarely only, it did happen on occasions leading to quantum changes in the very fabric of the society! For Drupada what started as a case of looking down on DroNa developed in to total hatred. For Kartavirya Arjuna it started as a case of jealousy against Jamadagni! “This recluse pathetically under clothed Brahmin sitting under a tree in this forest, just by his power of Tapasya is able to feed my whole army”, he thought! “Because of his Tapasya, he has been able to get as his own, this celestial cow Surabhi! Just the ownership of that cow makes the difference between poverty and plenty, for his wife to be able to host my entire army!” This jealousy became self destructing hatred, resulting in his doing the heinous crime of killing Rishi Jamadagni! Similarly, the envy and jealousy that Viswamitra felt looking at Vasishta, led to an epic struggle on the part of Viswamitra! But in this case it became a motivating force of super human proportions! Viswamitra’s final aim was that Vasishta, by his own volition should address him as the “Brhma Rishi”! This he did achieve!
278. When we analyse these occasions of Brahmin versus Kshatriya confrontations that I have quoted in the previous few paragraphs, at least one of the arguments against “Varna Ashrama Dharma” that has been conveniently called ‘casteism’ as put forward by the so called reformers of Hinduism will fall by the wayside! What they say is that, this sub-continent of India was brought under the rule of Muslims for good 400 years and then under the foreign yoke of the British for another four centuries because, the society was not strong enough due to its being weakened by the ills of ‘Casteism’!
279. What they mean is that, these Brahmins were having the Kshatriyas under their control, virtually eating out of their hands, so to say! The rest of the society they claim was so subjugated that they were just dispassionate about who is their boss! Only when attacked by outside forces, either they did not co-operate with their king or actively supported the foreigners! In this canard being painted so as to make the Brahmins look like a culprit, it is the other castes which are shown in much poorer light!
280. Just because they were feeling let down, does this not show the other caste people to have committed the heinous crime of being ‘enemies of the state’ totally lacking in nationalism? There is just no proof of their being such Brahmin / Kshatriya haters historically! The trouble was that such picture painting without proof, has been the work of Britishers as historians mostly and our own English speaking Brown Sahibs! Their spurious claim was that there was no cohesion between the parts of the Hindu society that it fell to pieces at the slightest opportunity! The truth was that between the Kings of various states, there was no sense of cohesion and or any felt need for that as an Indian Nation! With the trusting complacent attitude of, ‘atiti devo bhava’, which means that every visitor was God in human form, by the time they woke up to the threat of foreign invasion, it was anyhow too late!
281. But the point to note is that, there was never any clash between the four castes, not to be thought of even in fiction! If there were any such clashes between people of the four castes, it was between individual Kshatriya-s and Individual Brahmin-s. Even then such events were so rare as to become part of legendary stories to be talked about for eons to come!
282. The Respect that People Had For the Brahmins! Till as recently as a hundred years back, nobody of the Vysya-s or Sudra-s ever hated Brahmins so much that they wished to do away with them! Even then, it was the Kshatriyas who first rebelled against their assumed domination by the Brahmins. But just before that, I would say, that the caste of Brahmins had gone astray from their appointed role of practicing, protecting and propagating the Vedas! The Brahmins were the first to take up the English based education. Thus they started filling all the vacancies as available for jobs from the highest to the lowest level of babudom of all government services at the state, district, tehsil and blocks level of civil administration! That is the time when all the powers had gone out of the hands of regional kings, samasthana adhipathi-s and jamindars and what have you, to the hands of the Britishers! So at every level, it was the Kshatriya-s as a community who were badly affected!
283. This was further emphasised when the powers changed from the East India Company to the British Empire! Not only that the erstwhile ruler community had lost their power and glory, it was the Brahmin who was cornering all the glory in education and bureaucracy! It was the Brahmins who were supporting the Kshatriya-s as the erstwhile ministers and members of the bureaucracy, now having changed the loyalty were, supporting the British rule as Indian Civil and Allied Service officers, down to the lowest levels of officialdom! As it is the Brahmins were known to be brainy and brilliant! Now they were exploiting this natural advantage to the fullest. That is how the erstwhile local lords, land owners, small and big industrialists and traders of all types went on to form the Justice Party! Whatever their other professed aims, the one theme under which they all rallied was “Paarpaan Ozhiga”, meaning, ‘Down with the Brahmins’! This became the main thrust of their political and social philosophy!
284. Before I proceed further, let me first tell you about how deep was the respect in which the whole of Indian society held the Brahmins prior to the formation of this Justice Party! In Kannada speaking areas of what is now known as Karnataka, there was a Basava community who were devotees of Siva. Popularly known as ‘Veera Saivam’, this though started by a Brahmin, was against the division of the society into four castes. In the next hundred years, from the agricultural community of ‘VeLaaLars’, one Meikandaar formed what is known as ‘Saiva Siddhantam’. The point to note here is that, both these two movements are made up of devotees of Siva. But, while the Karnataka one started by a Brahmin went against the division of the society in to four castes as per the Vedas, the latter movement in the Tamil speaking land, though started by a non-brahmin, was fully accepting whatever is said in the Veda-s! That is how the ‘Saiva Siddhantam’ evolved clearly indicating the closeness and co-operation between the Brahmins and the Farmers!
285. Brahmin Vs Kshatriya confrontation was also very rare indeed. Mostly they have been pulling along together only. Even on occasions when there was some difference of opinion, never has it happened that, Brahmins have been disloyal or treacherously unfaithful ever to their Kings or local Chieftains! There is virtually no evidence whatsoever of their being renegades! Whether at village level or at the regional local governmental level, Brahmin has always been a man of justice and Dharma, whose words had social acceptance in all forums! It was an irony of fate that the political party that came into being for downsizing the Brahmin’s influence in the society came to be known as the ‘Justice Party’!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.