Friday, September 28, 2007

10 years of...

Sep 27, 1997...... a month and few days before I turned 18... I think it was a Saturday... A bunch of folks at IIT Madras, trying to start a new student group ( well rather trying to semi-officialize an already existing loose network) organized a small talk by a Swamiji.... I was one among the may be 20 some audience...

It took me another year before I really started volunteering for the group, but I believe that day, 10 years before, some how initiated changes in my social life ... academically and careerwise whether that influenced my life - I donno..... I was told by my Father that astrologically I was supposed to have shanidasa (a bad period as I understand it) from like 18 to 36 or some such... I donno how that fits into the picture also, as even though compared to quite a brilliant academic record in the first 18 years ( State 10th 7th rank, state engineering entrance second rank, and IIT-JEE 141 ) , I may not have been able to do-all-I-wanted in my past 10 years, but it has not been any particularly bad either

Anyways, whatever that is... and around October beginning that year was when I first picked up a Bhagavad Gita also for myself........ and the 10 years, I have volunteered in my own small ways, for different organizations.... being instrumental in starting a few also.... educational, charity, social,student, non-student...... but memories about the first one are always special

In this post, I would perhaps post about just one experience - something which the organization never made much public, but I feel that its important that more people know about it.... A spiritual organization in the land of Periyar... it did not take much long after its initiation in 1997 that accusations of "Brahmanical propaganda" were hurled at us... in fact such a complaint was apparently lodged with the institute authorities about us

A bunch of young volunteers who never spoke about our "castes" among ourselves - suddenly we were forced to look at each other... for the first time in our 2 or 3 years of friendship, I was curious about knowing what castes my fellow volunteers belonged to.. Not that I would judge about the organization based on that, but just out of curiosity - thanks to the esteemed fellow who made the complaint based on his own fancy

And it turned out that out of the 7 vols from my batch , (as per the British defined system) 1 was a Brahmin, 1 told his caste as a vysya caste, I belonged to an "OBC", 3 belonged to SC and I don't know about the 7th fellow.....

and even if it were all Brahmins, what a stupid complaint that is.. If spirituality is what they equated to Brahmanism, then I would anyway don't mind being accused of being Brahmanical.. will take that as a credit !

2 comments:

m r rao said...

जातिभेदजनितः परस्परवैरिभावः आधुनिकभारते श्वेतवर्णजनैः तथा तैः प्रभावितैः secularism/rationalistवादिभिः भारतीयैः कल्पितः उद्दीपितश्च राजनीतिकपटोपायः। प्राचीनभारते जातिभेदः आसीत्‌ किंतु परस्परवैरिभावः न कदाऽपि कुत्रापि आसीत्‌। अयं ब्राह्मणः इत्येव नो कोऽपि विद्विष्टः।

ब्राह्मणः क्षत्रियो वैश्यः शूद्रश्च पृथिवीपते। स्वधर्मतत्परो विष्णुमाराधयति नान्यथा॥
सर्वभूतहितं कुर्यान्नाहितं कस्यचित्‌ द्विजः। मैत्री समस्तभूतेषु ब्राह्मणस्योत्तमं धनं॥
दया समस्तभूतेषु तितिक्षा नातिमानिता। सत्यं शौचमनायासो मङ्गलं प्रियवादिता॥
मैत्र्यस्पृहा तथा तद्वदकार्पण्यं नेर्श्वर। अनसूया च सामान्यवर्णानां कथिताः गुणाः॥ - श्रीविष्णुपुराणे ३, ८

एवमासीत्‌ प्राचीनभारतसमाजलक्षणं।

चातुर्वण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागशः। गीता ४, १३ इत्यत्र जन्मना विभागः नैव उद्दिष्टः। अतः एव
यस्तु शूद्रो दमे सत्ये धर्मे च सततोत्थितः। तं ब्राह्मणमहं मन्ये वृत्तेन हि भवेत्‌ द्विजः॥ इति महाभारते। मृतस्य गृहं क्षेत्रं वित्तं धनं इत्यादिवस्तूनि तस्य सन्तानेषु यथाविधि वण्ट्यन्ते। किंतु तेन लब्धाः MA/MSCइत्यादिपदव्यः वण्टनीयाः किं? अतः मम पिता द्विजः अतः अहमपि इति न युज्यते। ब्राह्मणत्वं न पैतृकं।

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m r rao said...

(मम पूर्वप्रेषितपत्रस्थाने अनुवर्तमानं परिष्कृतं शोधितं च पत्रं प्रकाशयतु इति प्रार्थये। धन्यवादाः! Please replace my previous posting by the following edited posting. Thanks!)

जातिभेदजनितः परस्परवैरिभावः आधुनिकभारते श्वेतवर्णजनैः तथा तैः प्रभावितैः secularism/rationalistवादिभिः भारतीयैः कल्पितः उद्दीपितश्च राजनीतिकपटोपायः। प्राचीनभारते जातिभेदः आसीत्‌ किंतु परस्परवैरिभावः न कदाऽपि कुत्रापि आसीत्‌। अयं ब्राह्मणः इत्येव नो कोऽपि विद्विष्टः।

ब्राह्मणः क्षत्रियो वैश्यः शूद्रश्च पृथिवीपते। स्वधर्मतत्परो विष्णुमाराधयति नान्यथा॥
सर्वभूतहितं कुर्यान्नाहितं कस्यचित्‌ द्विजः। मैत्री समस्तभूतेषु ब्राह्मणस्योत्तमं धनं॥
दया समस्तभूतेषु तितिक्षा नातिमानिता। सत्यं शौचमनायासो मङ्गलं प्रियवादिता॥
मैत्र्यस्पृहा तथा तद्वदकार्पण्यं नरेश्वर। अनसूया च सामान्यवर्णानां कथिताः गुणाः॥ - श्रीविष्णुपुराणे ३, ८

एवमासीत्‌ प्राचीनभारतसमाजलक्षणं।

चातुर्वण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागशः। गीता ४, १३ इत्यत्र जन्मना विभागः नैव उद्दिष्टः। अतः एव
यस्तु शूद्रो दमे सत्ये धर्मे च सततोत्थितः। तं ब्राह्मणमहं मन्ये वृत्तेन हि भवेत्‌ द्विजः॥ इति महाभारते। मृतस्य गृहं क्षेत्रं वित्तं धनं इत्यादिवस्तूनि तस्य सन्तानेषु यथाविधि वण्ट्यन्ते। किंतु तेन लब्धाः MA/MScइत्यादिपदव्यः वण्टनीयाः किं? अतः मम पिता द्विजः अतः अहमपि इति न युज्यते। ब्राह्मणत्वं न पैतृकं। नाहं व्याकरणपण्डितः किंतु अहं मन्ये यत्‌ वृ वरणे वृण् प्रीणने वृत्‌ वरणे इति धातुभ्यः युक्तकृद्रूपेण व्युत्पन्नः वर्णः इति शब्दः इति। अतः प्रत्येकजनः स्वेच्छया यथास्वभावं यथापूर्वं युक्तवर्णाश्रमधर्मं वृणोतु। अनेन वर्णसङ्करः जायेत इति शङ्का माऽस्तु यतः श्रेयान्‌ स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्‌ स्वनुष्ठितात्‌। (गीता ३, ३५; १८, ४७) इत्युक्त्या वृतः स्वधर्मः स्वभावानुकूलः भवेत्‌।

मध्वपति रामचन्द्रः