Another followup on this topic mainly to highlight how seeming contracdictions were reconciled by our preceptors/acharyas (teachers/Gurus).
Vazhvum Vakkum is a phenomenal work by Dr. M.A.Venkatakrishnan swamy. Basically it collates all the small incidents and episodes that were interwoven with the traditional commentaries for the Azhwar pasurams (songs) thousand years back. He has painstakingly collected, catalogued and published it. I was browsing through that and found one episode that triggered the cross mapping between my previous post on caste.
Without going into specific references (refer to the book for that), this broadly deals with the rule/law as per Manu Smriti. Apparently there is a rule which is as follows:
In a singe person pathway in the jungle (thorns etc away from the pathway preventing people walking outside the pathway), a brahmin has the right of way over everyone else! Going even further, even if a full term pregnant women(even a brahmin one) is coming opposite a brahmin she is supposed to give way for him!! I know this is going to infuriate lot of people from either the casteist or feminist perspective.
This was the same discussion that happened in Srirangam approx 1000 years back. I believe Nanjeer was at the helm and one of the disciples put in the question as to how this rule is compatible with the Srivaishnava philosphy of eveyone being the same in god's eyes. Nanjeeyar replied the following
(1) We dont know the context, reasoning and the environment which might have prompted the rule. Without that we can only approach it in a prejudiced manner.
(2) The rule does not prevent the brahmin to give way to anyone leave alone a full term pregnant women out of compassion !! So where is the issue?
Basically, this means that all differences apart, if you keep compassion at heart (as most of our acharyas did), this will overcome most of the apparent contradictions.
Vazhvum Vakkum is a phenomenal work by Dr. M.A.Venkatakrishnan swamy. Basically it collates all the small incidents and episodes that were interwoven with the traditional commentaries for the Azhwar pasurams (songs) thousand years back. He has painstakingly collected, catalogued and published it. I was browsing through that and found one episode that triggered the cross mapping between my previous post on caste.
Without going into specific references (refer to the book for that), this broadly deals with the rule/law as per Manu Smriti. Apparently there is a rule which is as follows:
In a singe person pathway in the jungle (thorns etc away from the pathway preventing people walking outside the pathway), a brahmin has the right of way over everyone else! Going even further, even if a full term pregnant women(even a brahmin one) is coming opposite a brahmin she is supposed to give way for him!! I know this is going to infuriate lot of people from either the casteist or feminist perspective.
This was the same discussion that happened in Srirangam approx 1000 years back. I believe Nanjeer was at the helm and one of the disciples put in the question as to how this rule is compatible with the Srivaishnava philosphy of eveyone being the same in god's eyes. Nanjeeyar replied the following
(1) We dont know the context, reasoning and the environment which might have prompted the rule. Without that we can only approach it in a prejudiced manner.
(2) The rule does not prevent the brahmin to give way to anyone leave alone a full term pregnant women out of compassion !! So where is the issue?
Basically, this means that all differences apart, if you keep compassion at heart (as most of our acharyas did), this will overcome most of the apparent contradictions.
Contradictions are the basic breathe in everyone's life. Is it not?.
ReplyDelete