The Proud Brahmin

[Krsnanatha]

Once in a moderate sized village in India there lived a very successful smarta Brahmin. He had been trained from the time of his youth in the various mechanical aspects of Vedic ritual and was thus practically flawless in their execution. Similarly he had been specially schooled in the perfect intonations for the chanting of a seemingly endless stream of mantras and was expert at knowing when and where the appropriate chanting of such mantras should take place. He was always impeccably dressed and even inconsequential movements of his body were choreographed so that even his picking up a piece of paper appeared to the casual observer to be of a ballet like quality. Yet despite so much training and apparent sukrti he was internally simply a showman and an arrogant and even occasionally mean spirited one at that.

He would carry on a running internal dialogue with himself during his waking hours silently condemning the pathetic fault ridden positions of nearly ever person he met. He quite fancied that he was most magnanimous to regularly intermix with the "ordinary" populace as they undoubtedly gained tremendous karmic benefit by even a brief encounter with him, thus was his personal estimation of superiority.

One afternoon he went to a private spot near the river to take care of the necessary functions of the body and to take his afternoon bath. After doing the needful for the first time ever, quite contrary to his smarta training he turned and glanced at the mound of waste he had just excreted. He quickly turned away, a sneer of revulsion bending the contours of his face when he heard a little voice calling from behind.

"Excuse me but could you kindly explain the justification for your immense sense of pride?!" The small voice queried. The Smarta Brahmin turned and saw, to his utter amazement that the voice had emanated from the pile of stool. His befuddlement was just sinking in when the voice continued,

"Of course you sneer at my repulsive and disgusting condition but I'll be pleased to remind you that but a few hours ago I was a beautiful thali of wonderful Maha Prasada and now after only a few hours of association with you!, behold the wretched condition I find myself in."

[Guest guest]

please explain. I can't understand this joke

[gHari]

From recent VNN article about Srila Govinda Maharaja writing prayers to Srila Prabhupada:<blockquote>After Srila Prabhupada had established ISKCON and returned to India he came to stay at the Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, Nabadwip to be with Srila Sridhar Maharaj. Srila Govinda Maharaj recalls, "We were serving some breakfast to him. He was sitting at the table and Hari Charan Prabhu was serving and I was directing, bring this, bring that. Then Prabhupad said, "Please Govinda Maharaj sit and take prasadam with me." I was thinking, he is a very great paramahamsa, it would not be correct for me to sit at the same table as him and so I declined his invitation. Then he said with a grin on his face, "Oh you think you will lose your caste because I have been associating with the mlechhas." Immediately I bowed down to him and sat with him and took prasadam."

</blockquote>

[Guest guest]

did u copy this one from an antihindu, antibrahmin site?

not all brahmins have such mentality. Its bad to make a generalised joke at others.

[Krsnanatha]

Actually this parable was told to me at the LA temple by an older disciple of Srila Prabhupada. This person was well travelled in India and told it in the context of the cultural similarity of jokes. Specifically the requirement of some ironic twist to broadside the listener. He said he was told this "joke" by a native of India, a hindu and more importantly a member of the brahmin community.

Odviously it is not my intent to disrespect the brahmin class. The story does simply point out that even within a generally well respected class of human beings there may in fact reside some charlatans and that their exposure is generally appreciated by society at large.

For the reader who fails to understand the cultural cross over, this would be something like a western representative of Christianity (fill in your own choice of name here) being shown, through the device of humor to be the fallible human they undoubtedly are.

[Krsnanatha]

Thank you Ghari Prabhu. I also laugh everytime I retell this story, despite the fact that I have done so numerous times.

I remember a devotee once offered the thought, "If ordinary humans are capable of reducing us to tears of laughter can you imagine how funny Krnsa is?"

That's an " act " I certainly hope to someday catch.