[Advaita-l] Advaita-l Digest, Vol 61, Issue 20

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Hari Om, Anbu-ji,

On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 7:03 PM, Anbu sivam2 <anbesivam2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Pravenji,
> People convert to other religions.  And there are people born of other
> religions.  There too exists the varnas however they do not observe
> the varnasrama
> dharma.  You have to understand the distinction.


Besides the point, Sir, we're hardly discussing other religions and
conversions here!
At least not me. In any case, studies in other religions do not interest me,
since in my
lifetime, I find myself short of learning and following my svadharma.
Moreover,
(most) people in other religions themselves would not be interested in how
Vedas
define their varNa, would they?


> In simple terms the varnas indicate the distinctness among intellectual,
> the warrior, the entrepreneur and the laborer.  How much of it manifests to
> the discernible levels for others to notice is a different matter.  It is
> merely of quantitative nature and would make no difference.


This is, as usual, half the story told, AFAIK. The varNas indicate the
distinctness
among them, alright. But from where do they get such distinctive features?
By birth,
I suppose, since you say these features manifest within. Now, isn't that
prArabdha
due to purva karma? I understand so, and precisely the reason that such a
distinctive
feature is seen in a respective distinctive varNa's family where the person
is born.


> All I am saying
> is this four varnas do exist universally irrespective of the religious
> affiliation such as Hinduism.


You may well subscribe to that view, I do not please. Even within Hinduism,
I hold
the traditional viewpoint that a person born in a Brahmin family becomes a
dvija
only after the upanayana saMskAra and remains so as long as he follows his
svadharma.


> What you are talking is in dharma terms and not varna terms.  There is
> varna
> in dharma but there need not be dharma in varna.  Hope you understand this.
>

No, sorry, I do not. To me, varNa binds me to dharma and with that, there
must
be dharma in varNa, thats where svadharma comes from!


PS: I'm not sure which mail of mine you replied this too, I'd merely quoted
the
great Paramacharya of Kanchi.

Thanks much,
--Praveen R. Bhat
/* Through what should one know That owing to which all this is known!
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