One of the reasons, but by no means the only reason, I started this thread was to take a look at the obnoxious and totally out of the pale tendency of some members to smell the gutter whenever their views were challenged. That is why I named the thread the way I did. Not only they see gutter in any progressive thought or argument, they, unfortunately, drag the early SV social outlook, something that deserves better, into the gutter w
Unfortunately, this is a fight true SVs had to fight right from the inception of SV tradition. A true SV is Periya Nambi who didn't give a damn about the prevailing Brahminical majority view. He boldly performed the last rights for his friend and fellow student, Mara Ner Nambi, a dalit, for which Periya Nambi was chastised by his fellow Brahmins. It is acharyas like Periya Nambi who deserve our reverence and whose example we must follow.
In due course of time, the hand of the bigoted SV Brahmins was strengthened. So much so, the great Swami Sri Desikan himself fell into the pit of Varna supremacy ideology. To him, an NB SV is like a temple cow, can be given deference, but nothing more for he is not a Brahmin. This is the depth of hateful varna thinking SV Brahmins had fallen into in a short span of roughly 300 years. SVs fell into the depths of hateful varna ideology from an expansive and all inclusive Bhagavatha tradition of the Azhvars exemplified by verses such as the following:
எந்தை பிரான் தனக்கு அடியார் அடியார் தம் அடியார் அடியார் தமக்கு
அடியார் அடியார் தம் அடியார், அடியோங்களே.
திருவாய்மொழி 3.7.9
Just count the number of அடியார் azhvar uses and think about its significance. Don't give or fall for the cock and bull stories of some so called SVs, they espouse the very opposite thinking Azhvars emphasized.
Take a look at the above snippet one more time if you care for common decency, the Azhvar says he is the servant below seven layers of servants of the first servant of Sriman Narayana. He does not say that any of them needs to be a Brahmin. Yet the Vadakalai patron saint Desikan dismisses all this as mere hyperbole and an NB, however great he may be in his bhakti, is still a temple cow, a mere cattle, to be respected to the extent a cow can be respected.
This is the depth to which SV tradition that started with reasonably progressive ideas had fallen to within roughly 300 years. The vadakalais took the thenkalais with them into the ditch and today, both kalais are casteist, a far cry from the early Acharyas like Periya Nambi, let alone the Azhvars. What we see today among SV brahmins are excuses. Instead of taking the ideas espoused by the Azhvars and early Achars forward and making them proud, the later and present day SV Brahmins have taken them down into the hateful vile pit of varna dharma and have made a mockery of Azhvars and the early acharyas.
The tragedy is the complete reversal of the ideals, the what could have been, given the revolutionary ideas of Azhvars and the early Acharyas. Something sublime was later tragically turned into a descent into jAti supremacy abyss hastened with vengeance by the likes of Desikan. Today, the descendants of the jAti supremacists have taken over SV tradition so completely that if the Azhvars and early acharyas were to time travel and come face to face with present day SV Brahmin community, they will be hounded out as hateful people and be accused of distorting their own age old vision -- Azhvars misrepresenting their own ideas, LOL.
Now, if it was one flouting or falling short here or there one could argue successfully that it is just a random aberration, but, as I have shown in post after post, there is a repeating long pattern here. Azvars and acharyas say accept everyone irrespective varna, and these SVs don't want to even sit next to them. Acharyas say give and take knowledge, these guys say don't come near us to study anything. Early SVs accepted women even as Azhvar, and the present day SVs keep them as far away as possible. Not only Azhvars, the early acharyas say accept their ஸ்ரீபாததீர்த்தம் and these guys say you can't have பெருமாள் தீர்த்தம் before all the barhmins have taken it. The list is long as I have shown.
These SV Brahmins are rank hypocrites, for all the lip service they so proudly provide, they will be the first to hound out NB Azhvars if they were to show up here and now. Kulasekarazhvar will be asked to stand all the way back in Udaiyavar sannithi. Nammazhvar will be asked to stand outside his own sannidhi in Azhvar Thirunagari because he is NB. Allowing Thiruppanazhvar into the temple will be such a great affront that the orthodox SV would rather not enter the temple ever again.
I do believe we would be living in a different society if the ideas professed by the Azhvars and promoted by all acharyas in the beginning and by Thenkalai acharyas for as long as they could manage, found resonance and taken hold. Unfortunately, it was the bigoted ideas of the likes of Desikan that gained acceptance among SV Brahmins, and so it was, not only SV was doomed, biut the only hope of progressive reform was doomed as well.
p.s.
as always, every idea I expressed here is based on actual texts. I am willing to go toe to toe if any reasonable rebuttal is offered. All ad hominems and pointless meta-data comments will be ignored.
