....The person in this forum, abused and sent away, Sangom, is from a family of vedic scholars. If a person like him feels strongly about hypocrisy in our society, it is something to think about!.
Dear subbudu sir, If hypocrisy becomes a matter of pride, where is the question of having a critical look at it?
From my experience as a practicing ultra-orthodox SV Brahmin in my "poorvashrama" I find three kinds of hypocritical Brahmins, (i) the willfully orthodox, (ii) accidental Brahmin, and (iii) weekend Brahmin wannabe orthodox.
The willfully orthodox:
These are the ones who live what is considered "Brahmin life" these days, starting from appearance, clothing, jati-separation, etc. They were raised to be like that, they know of no other life, they try to make the best of it. Most of them are extremely money-minded. They carefully nurture close friendship with wealthy type-(iii) Brahmins and hit them for money at every turn. Over a period of time, they would hit them for money starting from daugher's college, marriage, delivery, grandchild school, grandchild's marriage, grandchild's seemantham, never ends. Some senior people go to the extent of swiping grocery provisions from the Matham's store, I have seen these with my own two eyes.
There are exceptions, but, shouldn't these exceptions be the norm and the others the exception?
Then there is the family members of the Sanyasi head of the institution. These family members behave as though the institution belongs to them. Some years ago the grandchildren of one of these heads ran a Chit fund with the name and iconography of the institution itself, giving it a certain legitimacy among ordinary people, many of whom were probably the type-(ii) Brahmins. For whatever reason the Chit fund went bust and these people had to spend time in jail.
According to Hindu Darma, Sanatana Darma, Sanyasses are not supposed to ask for money from anybody for any purpose. Yet, there is hardly any sanyasee, even the best, who refrain from this practice. Some ask for lot of money, a whole lot of money, repeatedly for whole lot of money. It is always one thing or another, never ending series of projects. I recently read a news item that in the private quarters there was 11.5 crores and 11 KG of gold, etc. Whatever the good purpose these wealth is meant for, keeping them in private quarters outside the proper accounting protocol is not the kind of example heads of institutions must set.
Here, I have to mention one exception, the Jeeyar Swamy at Thirumalai Thiruppathi, I have met him many times and never once did he ask me for money or anything else. Once again it is sanyasees like him who must be the norm and not the exception.
These leadership sanyasee position itself is seen as a coveted position among the orthodox scholars, each hoping to ascend to the top spot some day. They have open rivalry and never miss a chance to put one another down. Once I had the unfortunate experience of sitting mute and put up with a rant from a much respected orthodox scholar, with his wife chiming in, about the head of a popular SV religious institution. Later I learned that these two were rivals to the throne!
This is not just a modern phenomenon, such rivalry apparently existed even in the past. About 150 years ago, the 38th head of Sri Ahobila Matam suddenly passed away without naming a successor. This left the field open with several panditas wanting the post. The dispute went to the court. The Matam was without a head for more than five years. Finally an election was conducted to decide who would be the head. All this is narrated in their own Matam publication. What do you think about this, an election, ordered by a beef-eating British Judge, to decide who is going to become a sanyasee and head the institution? All these panditas lined up in the court and rising when this British judge walks in, and we blame the British for just about everything.
This post is already too long, let me stop here and write about type-(ii) and type-(iii) later.
Cheers!
lane:
