the question of conversion into the "brahmin fold"

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Varadhan,

As usual your lucid presentation made for delightful reading. I pray that

you continue translating such important scriptures and make to known to

'pamara jana' like adiyEn.

 

I seek a small clarification w.r.t the taking some "ithara janas" into our

fold. I have a friend who is an Iyengar from Hassan. His great grandfather

seems to have told him they were "Jain converts" and that they joined the

gothram of their "Acharya" who was a gruhastha(a Swayamaacharya swamy). He

however, does not have any documentation supporting this belief. Could this

be a myth..? The family ofcourse observes Vaishnava austerities.

 

dAsan.

 

 

Message: 5

Tue, 13 Nov 2001 19:24:53 -0800 (PST)

<tavaradhan

the question of conversion into the "brahmin fold"

 

srImathE SaTakOpAya namah

srImathE rAmAnujAya namah

srImathE anantArya mahAguravE namah

srImathE vara vara munayE namah

 

 

dear bhagavathas,

 

the question that was raised by a member of the list

"whether it is true that ramanuja converted many

non-brahmins into brahimns" needs further discussion.

 

First of all, the classification "brahmin" is

birth-based only (in practice - in this context,

it does not matter what srI bhagavad gIta says).

Given that as a qualification, there can be

no "conversions" into the brahminical caste.

 

The important question that naturally arises is

whether

being a brahmin is in anyway better/worse with

respect to the goals that devotees pursue. Our

srIvaishNava AcAryAs, starting with the AzhvArs

(only 3 out of 11 are known to have been born into

a brahmin community) through svami maNavALa

mAmunigaL have taught us, and demonstrated to us

through their actions that there are no differences

whatsoever among srIvaishNavas, let alone narrow

caste based differentiation.

 

 

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[Guest guest]

dear srI. srIkAnth,

> I have a friend who is an Iyengar from Hassan.

> His great grandfather

> seems to have told him they were "Jain converts" and

> that they joined the

> gothram of their "Acharya" who was a gruhastha(a

> Swayamaacharya swamy).

 

Caveat: The following is a possible scenario only -

 

The following is a possible scenario, probably a

plausible scenario in the above case. I am assuming

that his grandfather was repeating what he heard

from his elders.

 

History shows that a lot of "hiNdus" converted into

Jainism. When that happened, some brahmin families

might have converted into Jainism. Given that the

Jains do not accept the vEdAs, these families might

have given up the vEdic practices common to brahmins.

When rAmAnuja was in karnAtakA and brought numerous

people into the srIvaishNavite fold, some of these

families might have changed their religion to

srIvaishNavam. As a result of coming back into the

fold, they might have resumed the birth-based

practices (i.e. brahminism in this case).

 

Varadhan

 

 

 

 

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