We all have our cups... your folly is in thinking that all cups are the same...
So yes, the cup can be seen as either half-full or half-empty, but it depends on which cup one prioritises... and when one calls himself a brahmin, it is not that difficult to identify the cup...?
I think your query is a product of misplaced identity...
Regards,
sapth,
it takes a lot of courage to call someone a fool, but you have bestowed this honour on me. i will accept in the best of intentions, and perhaps in the shakespearean understanding of this term.
sir, i hope, i do understand you and many others including vrs mani who opened up this thread. after all, coming from the same background, i think, at one time or the other, the generations of the 50s through 70s, in their quest for upward mobility came flat against such conflicts, and each dealt with their own solutions.
because, as a community, we do not have a pope. and because as a community, we do not have the uncompromising koran.
i think this is a blessing for us. for we as TBs are not encumbered by some 'out of touch' mutt-head preaching to us, the impossible, and invoking in every action, a sense of guilt.
our survival strategy, has been, i think, based on the three 'C's - convenience, comfort and cash. i would beseech you to look at your own life, and count the instances, where your ancestral brahminism as you think been handed down to you, and your daily activities.
you wake up in the morning, have your morning coffee (no no for a brahmin, for coffee is a mleccha drink, and heaven forbid, brought here by those muslims).
at a time, you brush your teeth with a tooth brush & tooth paste. or maybe you still stick to the neem. glory to you if you do. otherwise, join our club.
you have a self applied க்ஷவரம், which is a no-no. you should have patronized the services of a நாவிதன், for in the process of cleansing yourself of hirsuteness, and paying for it, you are fulfilling a lost karma, which you deliberately and wilfully cast aside everyday. all in the name of convenience.
i will not go into the details of your ablution, where unlike according to the vedas, as to how you should squat, and dispose of your waste, you accept the western concept of sitting (and committing blasphemy by reading the newspaper - insulting our beloved Lakshmi Devi) - and pay homage to mr. crapper every day, another mleccha.
you sir, put on your pant and trousers, and perhaps a jetty. where is your கோமணம்? do you realize that even if you have a கோமணம், the blessedness of this holy garmentino is negated by the dhobi polluted starched pant and shirt?
you take the car which is ok, for this வாஹனம் was not thought of in the vedic age. before that, perhaps you have a cereal or toasted bread for breakfast - bread, which is a creation of yeast - for the first time you are being a true brahmin - you are consuming the base root of the soma juice.
you rub shoulders at work with not only every caste, but religions which did not even exist per the vedas. is it acceptable? i do not know.
you have a teenager at home. does not matter, if it is a girl or boy. instead of chanting hymns every night, they are listening to mirchi f.m. or its foreign equivalent. watching t.v. - another instrument unknown among the vedicists.
if you have a boy, conveniently, at the right age, to keep up your prestige in the community, and to ensure that he gets a good bride, you perform the poonul. does not matter, that the kid does not say abhivadhey every day. does not matter, that he cannot even pronounce it. does not matter that he cannot even remember his gothram. you, sapthajhiva, have done the true tamil brahmin thing of inculcating brahminism in your son.
........ and so on we go. you too sir. unless you live in a humble abode, holding a gurukula of brahmin youths, having your head shaved in அப்பள குடுமி, and your entire body including your pubic hair shaved every அமாவாசை which i am sure you do not, you too are a cohort of my folly.
which is why, i said, that perhaps, we both should interpret a 'fool' who practices such follies, in the medieval european understanding of this word.
the bottom line, is that you and i, belong to the same club.
cheers
ps. as my dear friend KRS says, we all differ only the percentages. looking forward to hearing from you, as well as from KRS. i miss him here.
