Caste Identiy and Vedanta

[Guest guest]

Dear Rajesh,

 

It does not matter to me at all whether you are an

Iyar Iyyangar Mutaliyaar PiLlai  Sarma or

whatever. To me these caste identities are things

from which we have to free ourselves. The anma in

itself does not have a caste identity. But what

surprises me is that  as one who is Advaita

Vedanti you should  not only claim as an Iyer but

also restrict you spirituality only to certain

texts and to the negligence of others and thus

showing a certain ABSENCE of OPENNESS, a

restrictive selectivity displaying a PREJUDICE.

 

I read many  Vedantic texts and pour over Kaivalya

Navaneetham of  Tandavarayar, Vedanta IlakkaNam of

Caccitanantar , the Amirtacaram and Tatvamirtam

of  of Tattuvarayar and so forth. One of the 

themes that emerges there is the notion of Brahman

as NirguNa, and hence Brahman as FREE of any

identifying and particularizing GUNAS or FEATURES

and to which Ramanuja was very opposed.

 

My puzzle is: How can  a person who identifies so

closely with a certain sociological identity and

organizes his spiritual life with that caste

identity well entrenched,  will ever understand

the notion of Nirguna Brahman and hence the

essence of Vedanta?

 

By this I do not mean to criticize you for calling

yourself an Iyer and what not. You are free to do

so and at the same interact rationally with us.

But such a way of Being constitutes to me

something OPPOSED to the TRUE Spirit of Vedanta

that demands the DISSOLUTION of caste identities

and becoming FREE thereby.

 

 

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