Fw: [Guruvayur/Guruvayoor] Dalits: A solution

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna,

 

Hindu Traditions we say better in the world. But we have some major flaws too. one of the main thing that we are facing is castesam. Hindu should be one in unity and not different .then only others will recognise us.Speaking on the subject is very much.But how far is acting on it.

 

Our spiritual leaders,politicians and other organisations should realise this fact before reaching to a pragmatic situation where it is out of control.I mentioned in one of my previous mail regarding this before looks in to the Others roof we should first look into our roof.It may have lot to make right.

 

Not discussing more as our discussion in this forum should be more related to Bhakthi than other topics as some of the members pointed out before.

 

I request pl post this type of discussion through ayurvidya as we can widely discuss with out disturbing Bhakthi group.

 

Pl go through the below same.

 

 

TROY, MICHIGAN, December 20, 2006: (HPI note: The following appeared as a press release written by Navya Shastra and sent out through Religion News Service.)Navya Shastra, the international Hindu reform organisation, has issued an apology to the Dalit communities of India. The organisation issued the apology after consulting with Hindu activists and its own Dalit members. It reads:

We, at Navya Shastra, deeply regret and apologise for the atrocities committed on the sons and daughters of the depressed communities of India, including the tribals, the "untouchables”, and all of the castes deemed as low. We shamefully acknowledge that the ideals of varna and its practical manifestation in castes (jatis), promoted and encouraged the notions of inequality, lesser and greater, high and low, superior and inferior among human beings. An ideal that does not aspire for equality of human beings is not worthy of being an ideal. Caste and varna have relegated many to a degradingly low

status. This was a divisive, inhumane and a ruinous social construct. Navya Shastra fully recognizes this and rejects unequivocally as heinous and despicable varna and caste together with all Shastras and theories that endorse them or support the unjust and demeaning social hierarchy that these imposed on the Indian society. Navya Shastra understands that all Hindus cannot be equals when such theories are still amidst us. We ask for forgiveness for what our forefathers did in the past to directly and indirectly contribute to any and all indignities heaped by one human being upon another in the name of Dharma and God, and which some among us continue to do even in this enlightened era. The depressed and lowest castes have been the keepers and protectors of our oldest and most ancient traditions and wisdom. They have kept in practice

the traditions that have become foundational to what we call "mainstream" Hinduism today. Some of the tribal languages, spoken even today, have provided the substratum for many of the spoken and classical languages of India. Most of our mainstream indigenous medicinal, agricultural, craftsmanship and other knowledge systems owe their origins to the knowledge and practices that have been propagated and retained within these castes over millennia. The folk performing arts were and are the main sources of input into the classical and popular art forms. We want to celebrate and fete all these traditions on this day, and pay homage to them. These traditions form the very foundation on which the Indian civilization stands today.

Request to go through the site. http://www.shastras.org/

 

With Love,

Sree

 

With Love,Sree

----- Forwarded Message ----nbnair2000 <nbnair2000guruvayur Sent: Thursday, 21 December, 2006 11:39:59 PM[Guruvayur/Guruvayoor] Re: Dalits: A solution

 

Swami SaranamThank you Veenaji for the wonderful collection of materials on suchnoble souls. All those project are really adorable, laudable. However, for the present so called "Dalit Issues" there should be someurgent and wide-ranging actions from one and all – Institutions andindividuals – concerned with Hindu Religion and Hindu Dharma. It isall India issue and we have to take it with all the seriousness itdeserves. We should wakeup from this slumber.I again repeat what Krishna Prasadji is exhorting through a quotationin his signature: (As Poojya Gurudev said it) "Open your eyes. Burstyour shell. Spread your wings and fly!"And let us not forget to take our less fortunate brothers and sistersalong with us!Regards nb nair.guruvayur@grou ps.com, "Veena A. Nair" <veeus18 > wrote:>> Dear members,

after reading the flurry of emails in response to thesubject of Dalit Hindus being refused entry into a temple, I thoughtI should share with you how one man can make a difference in thelives of people. For a few years now, every Sunday, here in the U.S.,I have been watching video recordings of lectures delivered byPandurang Shastri Athavaleji, called "Dadaji", in a Geeta paathshalain Bombay. Every Sunday morning starting from 1942, until his death 2years ago, he would talk on slokas from the Geeta or the Upanishads.His lectures were always tailored to suit the commen men; most of themembers of Swadhyaay group are business men, Gurjaratis dominatingand then some Maharashtrians and South Indians. With Dadaji's death,like everything else, the group has seen differences within andpressures from outside and become involved in some controversies. ButI would like you to read some of the work Dadaji did during hislifetime

(compiled from > different websites):--> > ============ ========= ========= ========= =====> "Pandurang Shastri Athavale was born in the village of Rohanear Bombay. His grandfather, Laxman Rao, was a renowned scholar andBrahmin and regularly, against the public opinion, visited Dalits toexplain the Bhagavad Gita. He saw his grandfather taking a bath uponreturning from such a trip, was surprised and posed the question thatif in the Bhagavad Gita the Lord exclaims that God exists within allhuman hearts then how can anyone including the so-called'untouchables' be considered inferior to anyone else? He becamedetermined to see the God within others and from thenceforth becamethe proponent of "In-dwelling God."> When Athavale was twelve years old, his grandfather set up anindependent course of study for the young boy with individualtuition. In 1942, he started to give discourses at the Shrimad

Bhagavad Gita Pathshala, a school set up by his father. Beginning inthe mid-fiftees, an increasing number of young professional such assolicitors, accountants, physicians, engineers, teachers etc inMumbai area were attracted by Rev. Dadaji's ideas. > He picked nineteen of the young men among his early listeners andhad lengthy and intense discussions. He inspired city-based professionals to go to the villages of Saurashtra region of Gujaratfor a fortnight on Bhaktipheri (devotional tours or visits), with anintention to make the villagers aware of human brotherhood and toshake them off their cynism which had crept in everywhere. Eventuallybhaktipheri was to serve as key to mobilizational activities of Swadhyay. Though initially cynical, these city-bred youngprofessionals went to Saurasthra (north Gujarat).The original tricklebecame a stream in a short time. Over the course of 2 decades Dadajiinitiated several

projects (see below) in Bombay and Gurjarat:> > > Yogeshwar Krishi:> > It is the practice of collective farming of a single field(normally of three to five acres) in a village by the villagers whoeach offer devotional labour, possibly for one or two days percropping season. The resulting crop belongs to no one except God. Noone can claim ownership of the produce. The labour input is theoffering of the peasant in their role as priests. The wealthgenerated by the sale of the output belongs to God and henceApaurusheya or impersonal. Shrambhakti (labour contributed asdevotional offering) is the key instrument for generation of internalresources. The benefits of the harvest are redistributed in thevillage for common good as well as individual need not as loan orcharity, but as divine grace (prasad). The recipient is under noobligation to repay it and definitely no interest has to be paid

onsuch sums. Giving and receiving of these sums is done so discreetlyand with such subtle grace that it removes any sense of> inferiority on the part of recipients.> > > Shree Darshanam:> > Shree Darshanam or (vision of prosperity), where swadhyayeesfrom about twenty villages come together to work on a single largefarm of twenty acre or more. The produce of such divine communes, nowabout two dozen in number, is redistributed for the larger good ofthe community, even outside the villages involved in the experiment.But more than the economics of it, the idea is to build selflessrelations among the neighbouring villages, inspire the people tosublimate their egos, and extend the inclusiveness of community,cutting across deeply rooted primordial affiliations.> > > > Matsyagandha:> In a similar manner, Swadhyay has brought a cultural andsocio-economic

transformation to the fishing communities living inthe coastal region of western India, extending from Goa to Okha. Thestereotypical image of these children of the sea, sagarputras inSwadhyay idiom, was typical of marginal and disinherited groups.Aggressive, adventurous and sturdy, they were notorious for heavydrinking, gambling, smuggling and all kinds of petty and majorcrimes. They were despised by others for their profligacy and fortheir supposed criminal tendencies. > These children of the sea, started offering a portion oftheir earnings (normally a day's catch each month) at the feet ofGod. Soon enough they had substantial resources. A productive use oftheir capital and skill (sailing and fishing) had to be found.Ultimately suggestion came from Dadaji that with these funds,belonging to no one but God, they could buy motorised boats, moreefficient tools and tackle. Fishing could be their way to expresstheir

devotion to the Creator. The sagarputras treat theseMatsyagandha boats as floating temples. A crew of six to tenswadhyayee fishermen is onboard each boat. Fishing goes on all yearexcept for a three-month pause during the monsoon period which isused for repairs and refitting the boats. > The volunteers are many more than the Matsyagandha boats. Noindividual fisherman gets a chance for more than one trip (of 24hours) in a year. And when the boat is docked during the monsoon, theseamen among the swadhyayees take over the job of repairs andrefitting the boats. The experiment in generating impersonal wealththrough fishing on motorised boats and trawlers, and dredging sandfrom the estuary bed, is similar to Yogeshwar Krishi. There is noemployer and no employee; there are no owners and no workers; nonehas claim over what he has willingly offered to God. Each fishermanand seaman is a pujari, while he is on his floating

temple. Thedisbursement of wealth created by Matsyagandha is similar to that ofYogeshwar Krishi. To date there are one hundred vessels and few moreare added each year.> > > Loknath Amruthtulyam:> > To restore the temples to their original role as socio-economiccenters of the village, Swadhyay has taken a new initiative ofnon-sectarian temple-building called Loknath Amrutalayam. Built fromlocally available material and with voluntary labour of theswadhyayees, Amrutalayams are simple, semi-permanent structureswithout walls, but mostly with gardens around them. Each couple inthe village, irrespective of caste origin, gets a chance to work aspriest (pujari) for a few days in the year. Villagers gather inAmrutalayam every morning and evening for prayers. A Hindu can recitethe Geeta with the same freedom as Moslem the Koran or Christian, theBible. After the evening community prayer, the

assembly discussesindividual and collective problems and attempts to sort them outinformally. It reviews the progress of Swadhyay activities running inthe village. At regular intervals the swadhyayee villagers offer toGod a portion of their earnings; they do> so anonymously and voluntarily. The collections so received aredistributed to the needy as benediction (prasad) of God , and thesurplus is spent on infrastructural needs of the village as a whole.> > > Vrikshamandir> For Dadaji, trees were living testament to the omnipresence ofGod. A large piece of barren land is acquired, swadhyayees fromfifteen to twenty villages around and from neighbouring towns firstrehabilitate the land, dig wells for its irrigation, and then dig thepits for saplings.Finally the day arrives when at a given time,thousand of swadhyayees, from far and near, stand with a saplingin their hands to lower them into the

pits. In about fiveminutes, planting of an orchard of, say, forty acres, is complete. Once a Vrikshmandir is set up, swadhyayees from neighbouringvillages and towns take turns tending these saplings and treesfor twenty-four hours, twice or three times in a year, in aspirit of devotion as pujari. As a result, large plots oftotally desolate and barren land are now turning into beautiful lush green orchards, where the survival rate of plants is claimed tobe nearly one hundred per cent. The first> Vrikshmandir was raised in July 1979. These orchards unitingthe rich and the poor, the high castes and the low castes, theerstwhile neighbourhood enemies, the learned and the illiterateinto closely knit fabric of Swadhyay brotherhood. A work of thismagnitude under the government social forestry scheme costsmillion of rupees, with a high loss rate of plants and numerouscomplaints against it from those who are supposed to

be its beneficiaries.> > > ============ ========= ========= ========= ==> In 1996, Dadaji was honoured with the prestigious RamonMagsaysay Award for community leadership; and in 1997, he receivedthe prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.> > These are real projects involving ordinary people like youand me. They have made tremendous difference to the lives of thepoor, the alcoholics, and the so-called 'untouchables' . I have metpeople here in the U.S. who have participated in some of theseprojects or visited these villages to see the transformation firsthand. This is a good example of making a difference without resortingto laws, bills, bandhs or protests. Dadaji explained that "the trueworship of God consists of taking the divine thoughts of the Vedasand Bhagavad-Gita to others in a selfless manner. One's intellect isan incomparable gift from God. It is up to us humans to

use this giftto take these divine thoughts to the masses".> > > Om Namo Narayanaya.> > > > ____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ __> > > http://mail. >

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