Outpourings

My Books - I love them

2007-11-26T19:21:00.000-08:00

ponniyin selvan, sivagamiyin sabadam, partiban kanavu, alai osai, thyaga bhoomi, kavanin Kadali (did i miss out any??) - books that made me feel proud for being born as a tamilian. Kalki is indeed AMARAR KALKI.
Sila Nerangalil Sila Manidargal- The book that ran through my brain and spine bringing out extremely diff emotions at the same time within me. Jayaganthan he is truly exceptional
Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, Digital Fortress - Dan Brown at his best
Ignited Minds - I wish I had the optimism of Kalam, one man in who I have total respect for.
The Man who knew infinity - the life of genius Ramanujan by Robert Kanigel - I'm extremely proud to be a Kumbakonamite
Who Moved my Cheese, The Present - Dr. Spencer Jhonson, cute little books
Five point Someone - The novel which i read in a single stretch.
Dead Famous Albert Einstein - Mike Goldsmith, I just couldn resist my love for einstein
Tell me your dreams, Rage of Angels - Sidney Shelon at his best
Rich Dad Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki has sat over the head of the conventional education, a nicebook

Virus vs Homosapiens, a small comparison

2007-11-24T04:46:00.001-08:00

I was just going throught the definition of Virus in Wiki and I was just surprised to see the amount of similarity that existed between the organisms which are still debated to be a living creature or not i.e., the virus (because the virus do not have any cells, they just consist of a genetic material either a DNA or an RNA and a protective protein and they tend to evolve through Natural selection. As a result many people do not accept virus to be living organisms) and the most sophisticated living organism in the world - human being or Homosapiens.
Both Virus and the Human beings are completely parasitic in nature, they depend on other plants and animals for their survival. Both of them utilize the host's resource in an unrestrained manner causing an irreparable damage to the system, in case of the virus it is a single plant or animal, in case of human beings it is the entire environment of the particular location. Further it is also interesting to compare the life cycle of a virus against the human. The first stage is called the ATTACHMENT where the virus attaches itself to a favorable host, the human also first try to attach himself with a place which could offer him all the food and the other resources he needs, the second stage of the life cycle is PENETRATION, where the virus penetrates into the host cells in order to start utilize its resources, a human being also penetrates into a natural resource like a forest in order to utilize its resources, the next stage is UNCOATING where the virus releases its genomic materials which will kill the host cells, a human uncoats his real nature, starts to pollute the environment through all possible manners and thus slowly killing the natural resource. The final stage of life cycle is REPLICATION where the virus replicates itself rapidly and each replication in turn attaches to a host cell and continuing the life cycle, i dont think i need to mention about the rate of replication of Homosapiens which has made him the second largest species in the world only behind a microbe whose named i had forgotten :)
But the only difference between the virus and the human is that, the plants and animals can be prevented from the viral attack through anti-viral drugs and vaccines, but no method could be developed so far by nature to protect its resources from the exploitation of a human being :(

CHATURVARNYA – The real picture

2007-11-22T20:37:00.000-08:00

Though not a single comment has come over for the previous post, yet it could never deter this amateur historian from writing the sequel. In my last post regarding Chaturvarnya, I had put forward the words of Chandrasekara Swamiji of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. However anyone who had read the post could have easily identified that the whole of the talk regarding Chaturvarnya was merely Superfluous. Swamiji had tried to put the entire positive motivations that might have lead to the Varnashrama Dharma; however he had carefully tried to ignore the real situation and the prejudice against the fourth caste. The following post gives the actual prejudice and hatred towards the Sudhras in the ancient Aryan civilization. Most of the information in the blog has been taken up from the book Who were the Sudhras written by B.R.Ambedkar.

The only place where there is a reference regarding shudras in the entire Vedas is in the Purusha Suktha, the ancient theory of the Aryans regarding Cosmogony or the theory of the universe. The entire hymn statement is available here, The description regarding Chaturvarnya is as follows

When (the gods) divided Purusha, into how many parts did they cut him up? What was his mouth? What arms (had he)? What (two objects) are said (to have been) his thighs and feet
The Brahmana was his mouth, the Rajanya(Kshatriya) was made his arms; the being called the Vaishya, he was his thighs; the Shudra sprang from his feet.

This is the only depiction regarding the shudras in the purusha suktha. There is absolutely no description regarding the origin of the varnas, whether they are by birth or whether they are by birth or by their Guna (character). It has also not stated what was the job that must be done by the four varnas and whether each varna was above one another. There are different types of argument that are put forward, the most important argument (the argument supported by Ambedkar) was that the author of the Purusha Suktha was wilfully malicious in depicting the four varnas with four different parts where the sudra was depicted to the lowest part and hence it has depicted the real society as an ideal society. However I do not think that this theory could hold water because if the motivation of the author was malicious, he could have easily elaborated the malicious or the prejudice details or he could have similarly made the depiction in the other parts of the Vedas too, but such depictions are not found in any other part of Vedas. Hence it could be easily concluded that there was absolutely no caste prejudice or differences during the ancient Vedic period. Another argument which states that even these verses might have been inserted into the Purusha Suktha during the later vedic period is also a worthwhile argument, since the mention about the Chaturvarnya is not present in any other part of the Vedas

But then when did all this prejudice begin to happen and why did it all happen? There are so many arguments that have been put forward regarding this which is however out of scope of this article, but the fact remains that somehow the racial prejudice had got into the Aryan civilization and it had reached its culmination during later phase of the Vedic period (700 BC) during which the Dharma Sutras (which are a part of the Kalpa which is one of the six disciplines of Vedanga), the laws that deals with rituals and law were written. If one could have an analysis through all these Dharma Sutras it is clear that the Sudras were treated to be the menials amongst all and they were subjected to so many inhuman tortures is clearly visible. A small brief of all the Dharma Sutras and smrithi’s that deal with varnashrama has been made as a word file that is available here. Sorry I could not cut those short since each of them depict the cruel and inhuman treatment metted out to the Sudhras.

Now if you have read it completely, I’m sure the mind of any learnt, sane person who treats all humans as equal would have turned vitriolic against the caste system in Hinduism and sometimes even against the religion. The gist of all of them can be summarized as

The Shudra was to take the last place in the social order.
The Shudra was impure and therefore no sacred act should be done within his sight and within his hearing.
The Shudra is not to be respected in the same way as the other classes.
The life of a Shudra is of no value and anybody may kill him without having to pay compensation and if at all of small value as compared with that of the Brahmana, Kshatriya and Vaishya.
The Shudra must not acquire knowledge and it is a sin and a crime to give him education.
A Shudra must not acquire property. A Brahmin can take his property at his pleasure.
A Shudra cannot hold office under the State.
The duty and salvation of the Shudra lies in his serving the higher classes.
The higher Classes must not inter-marry with the Shudra. They can however keep a Shudra woman as a concubine, but if the Shudra touches a woman of the higher classes he will be liable to dire punishment.
The Shudra is born in servility and must be kept in servility for ever.

Even from the first two verses it can be easily understood that the Sudhras are no more a people of bad character, but they are Sudhras by birth and they are menials by law. Now there is nothing uncommon in having a social inequality amongst people, every civilization in the world had social inequalities, for example Roman Civilization there were Freeman who had all social liberties and there were Slaves who did not have any liberty. But what makes the Aryan society so unique is that here the inequality was made fixed by giving it a religious paint and the society that already existed was depicted to be the ideal society that was intended by God. And hence as a result the inequality that had crept in had perpetuated and could never be removed.

Another astonishing thing that could be observed is that unlike in any part of the world, even the criminal law was not common to all the people even in which the Brahmins were given a special privilege and the Sudhras were punished extremely severely even for the slightest of the mistakes. The disabilities were so high that it never allowed a sudhra to obtain even the slightest liberty.

But who were really these Sudhras? Were they people, who were captured and enslaved by the invading Aryan race? Or were they a part of the Aryan people itself? Why have these people been disabled and crippled so badly? Can a religion which had preached and practices Ahimsa even towards animals and to other livind beings can act so heinously and in an inhuman fashion towards a particular sect of people? More would follow in the next post.

Regards

Janakiraman

Chaturvarnya

2007-11-06T07:42:00.001-08:00

I have been a deeply spiritual person all through my life time. I had always been interested in arguing and debating and obtaining knowledge about Hinduism. However this interest has reached its culmination especially after being inspired by Archana’s Symbology Hindu gods. However I personally don’t feel Hinduism to be a religion. It is more than that; it is a culture in itself and carrying with a diversity which even all the religions together in the world cannot hold. However unlike Archana I’m more interested in debating about the controversial topicsJ, because I feel we can be more enlightened by debating on such issues. This blog was inspired by the writings of a person in whom I personally have great respect, the late Chandrasekendra Saraswathi Swamigal of Kanchi Kamakoti Madam. Last Sunday I dusted the book collections of my grandfather and there I was able to find all the 5 parts of the book DEIVATHIN KURAL where I found his thoughts regarding the most controversial subject of Hindu religion, Charturvarnya or the Varnasrama Dharma (Part 2 last chapter). This blog is just to sum up the thoughts and explanations of the great man that have thrown new dimensions regarding this subject. I thought I would share this information in this blog.

According to Swamiji Varnasrama Dharma was a concept that was related to the birth even from the time immemorial unlike many other famous descriptions according to which Varnasrama was a matter related to individual wish during the Vedic period and it became associated with birth only during the medieval period. However he is not able to substantiate his point except for the ceremony of Brahmopadesam which is held at a very early age in all the varnas. His reason to assume that Varnasrama is associated with birth is very different. The main goal of the Varnasrama Dharma, according to him, was that it had to divide the different tasks of the society among the people. All kinds of people were needed to keep the society running and hence the easiest way to do that was to divide it based on birth.
However he reiterates the fact that no inequality has been preached among these varnas in any of the Vedas or Puranas. He also states that the two of the most important things that affect the mind of a person is his family genetics and the environment. It was only for this reason that the people of the same varna lived together (what we call as Agraharam for the Brahmins and Cheri for the Sudras) because these helped to tune the brain of a young child to take up his father’s work and not to deviate into any other field. It was only for this reason that people were not allowed to have an inter-varna marriage because it might affect the family genetics and might create a sense in the people to take up the work of other Varna.

But while making these arguments, I was forced to think what about Yudhistira who being a Kshatriya had all the Sathva Guna of a Brahmin, while Drona being a Brahmin had all the qualities of Kshatriya and the moment I turned the page, Swamiji had the answers for it. He tells that these are all very rare exceptions and they have to be discarded (Oh but I’m not convinced Swamiji). However he was able to convince me for my next question, if all the people are colonized among themselves, what would happen to the unity among the society? He says that it was only for that reason big temples were constructed in the centre of the city / village and festivals were regularly held which forced the people of all varna to come together and participate in all the festivals and thus interacting and living in harmony, a pretty nice explanation indeed.

Another important point that was iterated by swamiji was that Varnasrama Dharma was not something that was created by the Brahmins, because he says if it was they who had created it, they would make it such a way that their life style is easy unlike in Varnasrama Dharma where they are forced to live an ascetic life which was indeed true as known from other sources too.

While answering another question regarding why is that the Brahmin’s are forbidden from obtaining food from the other varanas, he says that since the different sects were destined to do different jobs, the food habits also had to be distinct, for example a Kshatriya needs non vegetarian and other very rich foods because of his demanding physical activity, while Brahmins who are destined only to transfer knowledge and who are supposed to live a rigorous and self denial life are supposed to have bland foods as it had been known from time immemorial that the food can make a direct impact on a person’s emotions and thoughts. Hence it was better for a particular varna not to have food prepared by the other varna. (Swamiji but I’m not convinced as according to the other source of information, only Brahmins were forbidden to eat food from other varna’s and not the others??).

When it comes to the Sudras, according to swamiji they were people who had to do all kinds of human labor according to the requirements of the society. But he strongly asserts that in Vedas and Shastras, they had also enjoyed an equal or even a better status in the society. He backs up his theory with a statement from Veda Vyasa who states that ‘Kali Sadhu, Sudra Sadhu’ meaning that Kali (meaning Kali Yuga) and Sudra are very noble.

Swamiji talks about all these things in detail, I have given only a very brief outline of his talk. However this is only one side of the coin, the other side which is more intricate, which I personally support, talks of the current position of the different varanas, the concept of the Panchama Varna or the 5^th varna called as Untouchables and their role in society, (in which I’m more interested and inclined to talk about and which was more rigorously taken up by Subramanya Bharathi and Dr. Ambedkar on which I’m planning to post very soon), about Manu Dharma Sastra (or Danava Sastra meaning Evil Sastra, as how I would like to portray it) have been carefully avoided by him. Nevertheless his talk are extremely thought provoking had definitely given me a new thought regarding the role of Varnasrama in the society and has definitely lessened my otherwise acrimony towards the Varnashrama.

All your opinions on this topic are welcome

Regards

Janakiraman