Five minutes back I became a Neelkanta. LOL.
Praise the Lord! The Vaishnava has finally become a Shaivite!
Nandi Vahana Naga Bhusana
Hey Neelakantha Shooladhari Hara Shankara.
Narayana! Narayana!!
This is not that Neelkanta. This is Neelkanta Narayana. Narayana took this avatar at the request of Kupa Mandukeshwari Mathaji.
Mathaji ki Jai. Neelkanta Narayana Kaappaaththuppaa.
Ha Ha Ha..there is no escape. You said Neelakantha and everyone knows who is Neelakantha.
Dont try to escape...all Vaishnavas in forum are going to be very disappointed with you!LOL
prema chakoree, chakoree, chakori.
It seems to me that Religion promotes poverty.
What has lack of wealth got to do with spirituality?
Can we really preach religion to a starving person?
Nope.
I feel certain amount of wealth is needed for the mind to even focus on Moksha!
Really....we only can renounce something which we had have and used it and then discard it.
A poor man needs to survive first..earn money..support his family and only then he can think even of religion.
What we call religion today is NOT religion..its just a transaction.
Only when we renounce everything is when we really are religious and thats the only day we really pray...a desireless prayer.
But religious heads seems to favor mankind to be suffering in poverty just to hoodwink them into thinking that lack of material wealth = spirituality.
I read once that a beggar might think he is the same as Lord Buddha becos even Lord Buddha is begging.
But the truth is Lord Buddha gave up everything after having known it..but the beggar has not given up anything cos he has not had a chance to know it yet.
It seems to me that Religion promotes poverty.
What has lack of wealth got to do with spirituality?
Can we really preach religion to a starving person?
Nope.
I feel certain amount of wealth is needed for the mind to even focus on Moksha!
Really....we only can renounce something which we had have and used it and then discard it.
A poor man needs to survive first..earn money..support his family and only then he can think even of religion.
What we call religion today is NOT religion..its just a transaction.
Only when we renounce everything is when we really are religious and thats the only day we really pray...a desireless prayer.
But religious heads seems to favor mankind to be suffering in poverty just to hoodwink them into thinking that lack of material wealth = spirituality.
I read once that a beggar might think he is the same as Lord Buddha becos even Lord Buddha is begging.
But the truth is Lord Buddha gave up everything after having known it..but the beggar has not given up anything cos he has not had a chance to know it yet.
RRji.Dear Vaagmi Sir,
I have come across a few brahmin boys who hate the way their orthodox parents live. They just want to be let free
to live in the way they want! You are carefully avoiding to write about such characters.
One grandson of a famous sAstrigaL cooly eats non.veg stuff and never feels bad about it. He says that his grandfather
liked to live in a particular way and he wants to be different!
And.... no one can make a person love ONLY from the same caste / sub-caste / religion. When cupid shoots his arrow
even the worst looking male / female will look like a Manmatha / Rati. :lol:
i have queried many couples who have married across religions and castes, the reason for choosing out of their clan. the reasons are numerous.
one of the interesting case was that of an iyengar girl who married a christian. her husband was her project mentor in her office. she being far away from her hometown, was staying in a pg accommodation. towards completing her project she found it convenient to visit her mentor's house during weekends and holidays and work on the project from her mentor's home. during her visits the mentor's parent also became friends. she continued to visit them even after the project was over. to her amazement she discovered that they are strict vegetarians. their house was kept neat, clean and tidy. they were tension free, always happy. there was total absence of madi, pathu etc. she proposed to her mentor, who in turn discussed the matter with his parents and after long consideration the parents agreed and they got married. there is no prostrating before elders. she is as free as the daughters of her in-laws. no customs, traditions, artificialities, etc which she piled up. she is not compelled to visit places of worship. although her in-laws follow a discipline of reading the bible and discussing the contents, she was never compelled to participate in the discussion. to cut a long story short, she was disillusioned with too much of customs and traditions that would have been imposed on her had she married an iyengar.
although i do not approve of her reason, i think we need to seriously introspect into our own selves and reform our practices, lest we witness an erosion of members of our own community.
i have queried many couples who have married across religions and castes, the reason for choosing out of their clan. the reasons are numerous.
one of the interesting case was that of an iyengar girl who married a christian. her husband was her project mentor in her office. she being far away from her hometown, was staying in a pg accommodation. towards completing her project she found it convenient to visit her mentor's house during weekends and holidays and work on the project from her mentor's home. during her visits the mentor's parent also became friends. she continued to visit them even after the project was over. to her amazement she discovered that they are strict vegetarians. their house was kept neat, clean and tidy. they were tension free, always happy. there was total absence of madi, pathu etc. she proposed to her mentor, who in turn discussed the matter with his parents and after long consideration the parents agreed and they got married. there is no prostrating before elders. she is as free as the daughters of her in-laws. no customs, traditions, artificialities, etc which she piled up. she is not compelled to visit places of worship. although her in-laws follow a discipline of reading the bible and discussing the contents, she was never compelled to participate in the discussion. to cut a long story short, she was disillusioned with too much of customs and traditions that would have been imposed on her had she married an iyengar.
although i do not approve of her reason, i think we need to seriously introspect into our own selves and reform our practices, lest we witness an erosion of members of our own community.
Shri Brahmachariji,
The world is ever changing and change has been eternal. Even the customs, madi, aachaaram, etc., which are observed by many self-boasting "orthodox" families has definitely undergone changes if we compare the situation 200 years or so ago. Many of the present customs (like cowdung for cleaning "panfhi" as Smt. RR suggests) has lost its relevance today. In these circumstances what wise parents should do is to analyze our customs, madi, aachaarams, etc., rationally, and, even if they (the parents themselves) are mentally unwilling to give up some of those pointless customs, no compulsion should be put on the younger generations to follow all those outdated customs without questioning.
Such an attitude will help the youngsters to follow those customs which they feel are logically correct and good for themselves.
Poverty coupled with ignorance, lack of education, gullibility of a high order, etc., are the fertile grounds for cultivation of religion, schisms, etc. This is a reality of this world. The better-off countries have populations which are not as completely submerged by religion (exceptions being some of the Islamic countries) as the poorer countries. India's poverty is even now appallingly high, despite 67 years of democracy and all that. There are more billionaires now and for them religion is perhaps a time-pass like many other things; but, for the poor people their religion, caste, sub-caste, guru/godman, etc., count a lot. Godman Rampal of Haryana and the extent of his followers, is the most recent example.
Because we find NBs eating food from any plate (plate used by others), sipping water from the glass and giving water to others in the same glass, several people eating from the same plate, wearing the same dress for weeks together, wearing lungis which camouflages the dirt effectively and hence does not require washing daily etc., we feel that these practices are restrictive.
I still remember, when young (as a 15 yr old), I developed such an infatuation of a handsome gentleman in my relation who was 10 yrs older to me and was not even a graduate - just a 10th std pass. He did very ordinary jobs, but to me, he seemed like some 'deva dhuta'. Not to mention he was actually a nice person, but still my infatuation for him was far great. But because I was very young, nobody paid any serious notice to my infatuation. And then, because I saw him close to never and also since he got married by the time I was 22, I completely forgot him. But if I had met him close to my marriageable age, I would have definitely married him! So it is young people that don't mind caste mixes but older generation that is against such mix-ups for social reasons.
Renukaji????? I feel this is not always accurate Vaagmi ji,
I have no idea who you have been noticing.
As far as I know NBs too never eat each others eaten food or share same drinks with each other.
When I was young..each one of us used to have a separate stainless steel plate and tumbler with ours names engraved with it.
My dad never used to allow each us siblings to share each others food.
Even when washing of plates my dad used to make sure that adult plates are not washed with children's plates and different set of washing liquid is used.
Even in washing machine ..adult clothes were washed separate from children's clothes.
I used to think that my dad was carrying all this a bit too far but that is how I grew up and my dad's family too practices the same.
I will relate an incident..once when I was some 5 years old I was sipping a drink and my younger female cousin aged 4 came up and took a sip from my drink..my younger cousins mum gave a proper scolding to her daughter for drinking my drink.
Now coming to clothes..as far as I know no one wears the same clothes for weeks.
But when I was in India I noted many Indians of whatever caste used the same garment from morning till they had their bath in the late evening.
It was only those from other countries who used to change clothes often..they would wear 1 set of dress for day time..then come back in afternoon..have a bath again and change a set of dress for afternoon lecture and then have a bath again in the evening at have another set of dress for night outings.
But the Indians even from well to do homes never changed dress as often.
They had no excuse..they were not poor.
I can understand if a poor person wears the same Lungi for an extended period of time and he might not have access to proper water supply to clean his clothes.
So I feel its not a Brahmin or Non Brahmin thing when it comes to hygeine.....education level and socio economic status determines our personal habits.
Because we find NBs eating food from any plate (plate used by others), sipping water from the glass and giving water to others in the same glass, several people eating from the same plate, wearing the same dress for weeks together, wearing lungis which camouflages the dirt effectively and hence does not require washing daily etc., we feel that these practices are restrictive.
Dear Sir,.............. Brahmins are changing just as others are changing.
Cowdung for cleaning panthi is given up but in its place we use dettol mixed water. ..........
OMG! In which century are you living Sir?........... Because we find NBs eating food from any plate (plate used by others), sipping water from the glass and giving water to others in the same glass, several people eating from the same plate, wearing the same dress for weeks together, wearing lungis which camouflages the dirt effectively and hence does not require washing daily etc., we feel that these practices are restrictive.
..........
OMG! In which century are you living Sir?
A big NO to the list you have given. These may be done by the poorest of the poor and not by other nonbrams.