Posted on: 19 Feb 2015
[This message is regarding the holy thread marriage or Upanayanam ritual in Hinduism. Sons of some close devotees of Shri Swami were initiated by this ritual and Shri Swami gave this message on the auspicious occasion.]
Opponent: Upanayanam means nearing God through worship and hence it should be applicable to all human beings. Confining it to certain castes makes it appear that the ancient sages, who were Brahmins, have been partial. This is highly deplorable, since everybody has equal right to reach God, the Divine Father. In order to clarify this, an answer should be given by Lord Dattatreya, Who being the son of sage Atri, belongs to the caste of sages.
Defendant (Swami): Lord Dattatreya is the absolute unimaginable God, Who entered the medium of a human body that was born to sage Atri. In light of the medium, He is born in the caste of sages. In the light of the inner God Who identified with that body for the sake of the propagation of divine knowledge, He is beyond the concepts of caste, gender, place, time etc. God is always said to propagate the true knowledge (Satyam Jnanam... —Veda). Hence He has no partiality towards any caste or gender while delivering this message through Me, a medium called Shri Datta Swami. Every word spoken here comes directly from Him alone and He alone initiated you also to pose this question. The ancient sages were good Brahmins who propagated the true knowledge of God revealed in the Vedas, in the interest of every human being existing in this world, without any partiality. Gayatri means praying to the Lord by singing in his or her mother tongue, to come near to God. For this, every human being has equal right and this is the message given in the ritual called Upanayanam.
The ritual explains the way to worship God and the form of the unimaginable God, which is to be worshipped. Thus, the ritual itself is the subject [explanation] of the divine knowledge regarding these concepts that are meant for propagation. This ritual by itself is not any special way of worship or any special prayer. So no injustice is done to all the others by confining it only to some people. This ritual only provides information about the form of God to be worshipped and the way to worship. It is not at all the worship of God so none need feel that he or she has lost the opportunity to worship God. This will be made clear on analyzing this ritual to prove that the ancient sages did not do any injustice or impartiality in establishing the true and good tradition.
This should not be misunderstood as the partial favour of Dattatreya towards His own caste. After supporting the ancient sages of His caste, Lord Dattatreya will also condemn the bad Brahmins belonging to His own caste, who never understood a single word in the Veda. They only recited the Veda blindly and propagated ignorant and egoistic concepts that masked the [original] old tradition and misled the public resulting in these divisions within Hinduism. Lord Dattatreya will focus only on the truth everywhere in giving knowledge. Whether someone gets insulted or honoured, He will not care for either. The reader of this message is warned to be cautious in understanding the truth coming from God by rising above the levels of caste, gender etc. The truth cannot be diverted to please or hurt somebody.
The Meaning of Gayatri Mantra
The real meaning of Gayatri Mantra should be understood before we understand this ritual called Upanayanam, which means nearing God through the prayer called Gayatri, which means the prayer in song in one’s own mother tongue. The song is the Sama Veda, the poem is the Rug Veda and the prose is the Yajur Veda. The attraction is in descending order and song is most attractive as said in the Gita (Vedanam Samavedosmi). Even the Bhagavat Gita means the song sung by God. The Gayatri Mantra is not in song and hence this is not the prayer in song. The Gayatri Mantra is a Vedic hymn, which is in the meter called Gayatri (not song), which gives the actual form of God to be meditated upon, worshipped and to be served. Gayatri, Bruhati, Jagati etc., are the names of the Vedic meters like the names of non-vedic meters like Shardulavikriditam, Utpalamala, Champakamala etc. When you consider Gayatri Mantra, you have to take the word Gayatri as the name of the meter only (Rudhi) and not in its real grammatical sense (Yoga). Rudhi means fixing a word to an object without analysing the meaning of the word. Yoga means fixing the word to an object on the basis of the analysis of the meaning of the word. Though Gayatri Mantra involves only Rudhi, you have to take this word in the light of its analytical meaning also to suggest that the prayer should be in the form of a song. The Yoga meaning of this word is protection obtained through prayer in the form of song (Gayantam Trayate iti). Therefore, you should not misunderstand that this Vedic hymn has no connection with its Yoga sense and you should take this word simply in Rudhi sense. You must understand that the Gayatri Mantra also gives a suggestion about a prayer in song. But, mainly it is a subject that gives the actual form of God to be worshipped. Therefore, Gayatri Mantra is only informative giving knowledge (Jnana Prakaranam) and not a prayer giving devotion (Upasana Prakaranam). With this introduction, let us first examine the meaning of Gayatri Mantra (a hymn called as Gayatri).
Unimaginable God always Enters A Living Body As Medium
The Gayatri Mantra is:
Aum Bhuh Bhuvah Suvah| Tat Savituh Varenyam|
Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi| Dhiyo yo Nah Prachodayat|
Its real meaning is:
Aum = this denotes the absolute unimaginable God as per the Brahma Sutra (Tasya Vachakah...). This is a mixture of three letters AUM indicating the three powers of creation, maintenance and destruction representing Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Thus, this stands for the unimaginable creator.
Bhuh Bhuvah Suvah = these three words (called as Vyahrutis) indicate the three components of the creation. Bhuh (Bhuloka) means inert matter or power called Lakshmi of Vishnu. Bhuvah (Bhuvar Loka or Dyu loka or Jyotir Loka) means inert energy or power called Parvati of Shiva. Suvah (Suvar Loka or Svar Loka or Svarga Loka) means heaven in which various desires are enjoyed indicating the three attributes or gunas meaning awareness or power called Saraswati of Brahma. These three are the components of the whole creation or the human body in to which the unimaginable God enters and identifies with it for the sake of devotees to propagate divine knowledge.
Dhimahi = we meditate upon
Varenyam Bhargah = the greatest part of the creation. The word Bhargah means radiation or energy or power, which created this creation and therefore, this word directly means creation. The greatest part of the creation or Para Prakruti is the awareness as told in the Gita. But, the awareness is not independently available and requires a living body for association. This awareness is already indicated by the above said word Suvah. The living body associated is said by the above two words Bhuh and Bhuvah. By mentioning Suvah (awareness), automatically the Bhuh and Bhuvah (matter and energy) are mentioned. Hence, the word awareness always means a living body associated with awareness.
Tat Savituh = (the greatest creation) of that creator. The word Savita by yoga means creator. This word by Rudhi means the Sun. To deny the Sun (by Rudhi) the word that (Tat) is used here indicating that God and not this Sun.
Devasya= (that creator) who created this world for play or who is shining with the power of creation. The first sense means that the ultimate aim of this creation is the entertainment of God as said in the Veda (Ekaki...). The second sense means that the substratum of this power of creation is God like the Sun for the power of sunlight.
Up to this, the arrived conclusion is that the unimaginable God always enters a living body as His medium with which He identifies with it. This means that God will not enter the inert objects, which have no awareness (Natasya Pratima— Veda). The inert objects can be worshipped by the beginners as representative models (Pratika) of God but not objects of direct worship, which can be living alone in which God directly exists. The conclusion up to this is that you cannot meditate upon or worship or serve the unimaginable God directly. You can worship only the medium (Bhargah) in to which God enters and identifies with it.
Human Medium only Suitable for Preaching Knowledge
Yah (Yo) = who (such unimaginable God)
Prachodayat = initiates
Nah = Our
Dhiyah (Dhiyo) = Intelligence (the faculty, which does sharp analysis of the knowledge heard and makes true conclusions)
This last part shows that mere living being like bird or animal is not the medium since knowledge cannot be given by these living beings. The knowledge can be given by human being only as said in the Gita (Manusheem tanum...). Every human being cannot give divine knowledge so efficiently like Krishna, Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva etc. Hence, a specific human being alone in which God exist is referred here, who is called Sadguru. This ritual Upanayanam is also done just before sending the child to the Sadguru or Spiritual preacher and hence this practice also supports this interpretation. Since the knowledge given by Sadguru is highly analytical pacifying the activity of intelligence of everybody, such knowledge is special and excellent called as Prajnanam by which alone God is to be identified (Prajnanam Brahma… Veda).
You should not say “the word Savita means sun only since the Veda says that you should worship sun as God (Adityam Brahma Iti). Hence, we should meditate upon the light of sun (Bhargah) since it is very difficult to see the sun directly”. The reason is that the sunlight cannot give the spiritual knowledge like the power of sadguru giving the actual knowledge. The Veda quoted by you is misunderstood by you. The meaning of the Veda quoted by you is that you should worship the sun assuming the sun as God. The meaning of the word ‘Iti’ is the assumption. If sun is directly God, the word ‘iti’ should be absent. Moreover, the Veda says that this sun worshipped by you is not God (Nedam tat...). The sun can be worshipped by a beginner assuming as God, who is the representative model (Pratika) of God and not directly God. The word ‘Savita’ used here in the sense of Rudhi indicates certainly the sun, who by his rise removes the darkness that induces sleep or ignorance. The sunlight thus, favours the process of grasping of knowledge from Sadguru and hence the sense of Rudhi should be also taken as side meaning. In the main meaning, the ‘savita’ should be taken in the sense of Yoga only to mean the creator or God. You can take the overall meaning as receiving knowledge from Sadguru in the time of sun rise.
Brahmins to Propagate Spiritual Knowledge
Thus, this Gayatri Mantra is only giving the knowledge of the object to be worshipped (Sadguru) and the way to worship (prayer in song) and this mantra need not be a song. If we say “Worship God by song”, we can simply speak this statement and we need not sing this statement as song. You need not say “why is this Mantra chanted by Brahmins only?” The answer is that the purpose of chanting this mantra again and again (called as Japam) is only to remember this main point of the spiritual knowledge to be propagated by Brahmins in the society in that old time when Sanskrit was the mother tongue in the entire country. Thus, this chanting is not at all the prayer in song to God in which every human being has equal right. The duty of propagation of spiritual knowledge is given to certain community called Brahmins. This duty has no treasure hidden in it so that you can oppose that such treasure is allotted to certain group only. Teaching community is given the duty of educating the public. The other communities like engineers, doctors, soldiers, businessmen, agriculturists also co-exist with equal dignity. Of course, the teaching community is given some special respect by the society. If you are fond of such respect only and not money, you can join that community. In such case, why people are always fond of the professions other than teaching? God said that the duty is assigned to the caste not by birth but by the qualities and actions (Guna karma vibhagashah… Gita). Sūta, born in low-caste, is made as the president of a great sacrifice in the forest Nymisha by sages as said in the Bhagavatam. Shabari, an untouchable is worshiped by keeping her photo in the prayer rooms in the houses of Brahmins even today. The feet of statutes of Rama and Krishna, who are non-Brahmins, are washed by Brahmins even today. Ravana, a Brahmin, is condemned as demon due to his sinful qualities and actions. This is our real Hindu tradition established by the sages, who were Brahmins. You should not say “Brahmins confined this ritual to their caste only”. The reason is that Brahmins extended this ritual to the castes of Kshatriyas and Vyshyas also. You should not say “Brahmins denied this ritual to Shudras and untouchable castes and thus made injustice to other castes”. The reason is that this ritual is also denied to the ladies of their own caste. If there is some real hidden treasure in this ritual, will they harm the people of their own caste? These logical answers prove that the Brahmins (ancient sages) never showed any partiality at any time in establishing our sacred tradition. This ritual is only a training of the subject, which should be propagated in the society and is given as duty to some interested people only. The subject of this ritual, which is worshipping the God through prayer in song, is not to be denied to anybody.
Some people are selected and are given training to propagate the necessity of the use of antidote of malaria by everybody in the society. Due to this propagation, all the public uses that antidote. Any citizen in the public can complain if the antidote is denied to him or her. No citizen in the public complains that the opportunity to propagate against the Malaria is not given to him or her! Nobody comes forward to join the training of propagation or to join the duty of propagation, disturbing his or her job. Mere propagation has nothing in it. Everything is in using the antidote propagated. Similarly, there need not be any hiss in not giving the opportunity to propagate about the form of God and the mode of worship since as a result of the propagation, everybody understands the form of God to be worshipped is only contemporary human incarnation and worships it through prayer in song. Everybody gets the fruit of propagation, which is the antidote medicine and the fruit is important and not the propagation of fruit.
You should not say “why have you extended this ritual to Kshatriyas and Vyshyas only and not to Shudras, untouchables and women of all castes including Brahmins?” The answer is that the ladies of all castes are engaged in the house hold duties and Shudras are engaged in the duty of service of the public in the society as per the Manusmruti (Ethical scripture in Hinduism). They do not have leisure to do the propagation of the knowledge. The untouchables or the fifth caste people do not exist at all as per the scripture since only four castes are mentioned by the scripture. The sinners of all the four castes were boycotted by the society for the sake of reformation like an undisciplined student. The serious sin committed by them was killing the cow in its old age after drinking its milk, killing the bull in its old age after its service in the agriculture (thank God that the retired public servants today are not done like this by the Government) etc. This punishment is only for their reformation and not for vengeance. Therefore, the untouchable is by the sin and not by birth. In fact, no caste is by birth. Devotees like Shabari in this fifth caste are worshipped by all even today. If the sin is discontinued by realization, the punishment should disappear. The truth should be recognized in the absence of emotion and blame. The boycotted student always blames the management of the school without the attempt for realization. The lowering of respect for any caste or individual comes from the sin committed and not by birth. The highest sin is non-violence (Ahimsa paramo Dharmah). Killing a living being for food is the highest sin when God has given the proteins etc., in the vegetables in plenty and the medical science also says that the synthesized proteins from animals are not good since the primary proteins in the vegetables are better for health. An individual or a caste should demand the respect by avoiding the sin and following justice. Without this, blaming the sages is like the blame on the management of the school by a boycotted student, who does not realize the mistake committed by him or her.
Yajna Means Serving Cooked Food to Satguru
The prayer verse (Muktavidruma...) composed by learned scholars, later on, on Gayatri is in the meter called Shardula vikriditam, which is a non-vedic meter and hence, this verse was not written by the ancient sages. Still, the verse was written by learned scholars of the Vedas, who were different from the blind reciting Vedic Scholars and hence the meaning of this verse was also in the line of sages. The five faces of Gayatri described here indicate the five elements. The three eye sights (Trikshnaih) indicate the three attributes or gunas indicating the awareness. Both these constitute the medium, which is specific human being because it is said that a crown with various gems is on the head along with the moon (Indunibaddharatnamakutam). Moon represents the mind that creates doubts. The gems are the brilliant concepts of analytical conclusions derived from the intelligence. This indicates the special divine knowledge expressed by Sadguru through words preaching the divine philosophy (Tattvartha varnatmikam). Up to this, the intelligence indicating the knowledge (Jnana Yoga) and the mind indicating the devotion (Bhakti Yoga) are described, which constitute the worship or theoretical service to God through the medium. In the final stage, the practical service to God (Karma Yoga) is to be done, which alone can give practically the fruit in return. This service or action is indicated by the ten hands standing for the ten senses of body involved in the action always.
After worshipping the Sadguru through prayers in songs with devotion, who is recognized through knowledge, you have to serve Him practically. Knowledge and devotion are theoretical and service is practical. All the three are important since theory alone results in practice. The practical service to Sadguru is preached to the child through the process of lightening the fire to cook the food in the service of Sadguru. The Veda says that one should approach the Sadguru with wood in hand, which is needed for lightening the fire (Sa gurumevabhigachchet samitpanih...). Theory generates practical service and the practical service alone generates fruit. Cooking the food with the help of wooden fire (Laukikagni) and supplying it to pacify the hunger fire (Devatagni or vaisvanaragni) present in the stomachs of hungry people is the real sacrifice called Yajna. The word Yajna means worshipping Sadguru with the cooked food. The root word Yaja means worship. The word Agni comes from the word Agri, which means the beginning. This means that you should worship Sadguru by serving the food in the beginning. The Sadguru giving the divine knowledge is said to be Agni (Agneyo vai...) by the Veda. The first hymn of the first Veda also says that Agni means the priest or the deity to be worshipped in sacrifice (Agni mile...). The Yajurveda also starts praising the wood that is used to lighten the fire for cooking the food (Ishe...). It is said that the ghee should be submitted to Agni. This means that the food associated with ghee should be served to Sadguru. Here the word ghee does not mean the ghee alone, but, the food associated with it and this meaning is derived from the concept of Lakshana mentioned in the scripture.
This ritual is in Sanskrit language since Sanskrit was the mother tongue of sages throughout India. But, at that time also there were other countries in the world with different languages other than Sanskrit. Nearing God through prayer song and service to the spiritual preacher is common procedure to any human being in any country. Since God is the creator of the entire earth, who is not partial to any single language and can know any language due to His omniscience, the universal policy should be that anybody in any country of the earth can pray God through the prayer song in his or her mother tongue to become near to the Universal Father. If the prayer should be only in Sanskrit to please God, God should have made such policy that Sanskrit stands as single universal language in the world from the creation onwards. The same established policy can come to present India having various states with different languages and therefore, everybody in India can worship God through a prayer in song in his or her mother tongue. This ritual in Sanskrit is thus justified in view of its implementation in the old time when Sanskrit was the mother tongue throughout India.
[Circulated on March 07, 2015] Lord Dattatreya has supported the good Brahmins so far. Now, He starts scolding the bad Brahmins, who claim themselves as the Vedic scholars just by blind recitation of the Veda without knowing the meaning of a single word of it. Lord Dattatreya is God and hence is not partial to any caste since all human beings belonging to all the castes are His children only. He appreciates the merit to encourage a meritorious child and condemns a wrong child for the sake of rectification only and not with vengeance.
Therefore, this ritual contains only the description of form of God (Sadguru) to be approached for receiving the spiritual knowledge from Him before doing the propagation of the spiritual path. It is just like an employee in the health department examining a booklet that gives the details of the training programme in which the employee will be trained to propagate against malaria. Neither the booklet, nor the training programme is the antidote medicine of the malaria. Similarly, this ritual Upanayanam gives information about Sadguru, who is to be approached, praised and served for receiving the spiritual knowledge that is to be propagated. The Gayatri hymn in the sense of Rudhi gives the explanation of the medium of God to be worshiped. The word Gayatri in the sense of Yoga gives the message that you should praise the God through song. The Agni karyam (lighting the fire) indicates the process of preparation of fire for cooking to offer the cooked food to Sadguru. The Upasthana hymn indicates the service in offering drinking water to Sadguru. Since the Gayatri hymn is not properly understood as the description of the contemporary human incarnation, people have taken the word Savita for the sun in the sky. Of course, it is very difficult to accept another human being as God due to ego and jealousy towards a co-human being. Till then, some inert object is to be worshipped as the representative model of God (Pratika). Same thing happens here also since these so called Vedic scholars never explained the meaning of Gayatri hymn. They have taken the Savita as the inert sun in the sky and established the tradition to worship sun in the morning standing before him in the sunrise.
All the subject of this ritual is only a booklet giving information about the training programme. The training programme is praying and serving Sadguru to receive the spiritual knowledge for propagation. None of these steps is the actual antidote medicine of malaria. The actual antidote that is supplied to every human being is the spiritual knowledge that preaches everybody to praise the God through prayer song and serve the contemporary human incarnation (Sadguru). Due to the foolishness of the stupid Brahmins in the latter times, everything is mis-projected and misunderstood. An employee of the health department does not know the English language and hence did not understand the booklet or the subsequent training programme since both were in English. He foolishly propagated that the booklet and the training programme give the antidote medicine and propagated that those, who attended the training programme alone were benefited with the medicine. Naturally, this will enrage the general public. Same thing happened in Hinduism. The foolish Brahmins in the middle age were called Vedic scholars, who simply recite the Veda without knowing its meaning. Their mind was blank filled with ignorance of the Vedic meaning and egoism of their birth in the dynasty of sages. Due to this they propagated totally wrong knowledge. They propagated, “this Gayatri hymn is a special prayer to please God and this ritual Upanayanam is restricted only to pious people like us born in the caste of Brahmins. You are not pious and therefore, you are not eligible for this ritual”. By this, all the other castes got hurt and developed enmity to Brahmins. Suppose, that foolish employee, who did not know English propagates that only the employees in the health department are eligible to take the antidote medicine and hence the programme of training was conducted to them only in which the medicine is given, what will be the reaction from the entire society?
The wrong interpretations of Gayatri and Agnikaryam (lighting the fire) have completely destroyed the whole sanctity of the ancient tradition of sages. The Gayatri in Rudhi is for attaining the knowledge of the form of God and the same Gayatri in yoga means the mode of worship, which is the prayer as song on God. The misinterpretation resulted in confusion because the Gayatri in Rudhi is taken as Gayatri in Yoga. This means that the Gayatri hymn, which gives the information about mediated God, is taken as the prayer on God. Since the meaning of any word in Sanskrit was not known to these scholars, both Rudhi and Yoga are utterly flopped. The Rudhi is destroyed because nobody enquires about the meaning of the Gayatri hymn. The Yoga is destroyed because the Gayatri hymn is only chanted like prose, not at least as poem and never sung like a song. All this misinterpretation destroyed everything due to lack of knowledge of any word at least. The interpretation of the employee of health department, who does not understand any word in English while everything is conducted in English only, is similarly horrible.
Englightening of Agnikaryam
In the same way, the Agnikaryam is also misinterpreted. The word Agni is taken as the ordinary wooden fire by these foolish scholars. The word Ghrutam (Ghee) is taken as the pure ghee without any associated food. They have evolved totally the wrong meaning and concluded that you have to submit the pure ghee to the wood fire and burn it. Such burning of ghee in the wood fire was supposed to be the Yajna or sacrifice. The word Agni was clearly defined as purohita (priest), Yajnasya Deva (the deity to be worshipped in the sacrifice by serving the cooked food), Rutvik (the guide of the sacrifice), Hota (the person submitting ghee i.e., food with ghee to his hunger fire) and Ratna Dhatama (the best source of gem like aspects of spiritual knowledge) in the very first hymn of the first Veda (Rugveda). Due to ignorance of the definition of Agni, the wood fire was selected for service. Service must be always done to a living being. These people misinterpreted that angels take food through fire (Agnimukhah… Veda). Since they have not understood the real meaning of the word Agni and mistook it as wood fire, they ended in this conclusion. The word Agni means Sadguru. All the angles dwell in Him and are pleased if He is pleased. TheVeda says that the Sadguru, who knows the meaning of the Veda (Vedavidi) and the ultimate spiritual knowledge (Brahamane) is the shelter of all angels and if He is worshipped, all the angels are worshipped (Yavatervai...). The word Tailabhisheka (oil bath) is meant for applying the oil on the head of Sadguru since the head becomes very hot after delivering the deep knowledge and on applying the oil, which is the best conductor of heat, the head becomes cool. This word is again foolishly interpreted to pour the oil on the head of inert statue. All the inert food materials are created by God for the sake of living beings only. But, remember that a living being is not created as food for another living being especially the human being blessed with intelligence to do analysis. These foolish priests go against the divine will and are subjected to the anger of God by such ignorant interpretations. The atmosphere is highly polluted when the ghee is burnt in fire and causes lot of damage to humanity. Such people, who performed such misinterpreted sacrifice, are really demons, who destroy the humanity through such pollution. In the Bhagavatam, the sage Kapila, who is the human incarnation of God condemns burning of ghee in fire. In the same book, you can see that Lord Krishna advises the wives of certain foolish Brahmins (who are going to burn the food in fire) to serve the food of sacrifice to His friends, who are hungry. He says in the Gita that the food given to hunger fire called as Vaishvanara, is none other than Himself (Aham Vaishvanaro...). The wood fire is not the object of worship (Upasya), but, is only instrumental to perform the sacrifice by using it in the process of cooking (Yajna sadhanam).
These idiotic middle age Brahmins were condemned by the Veda and other scriptures also. The Veda says that such a scholar is a divine animal (Devanam Pashurahaha). The animal hears and grasps the sound when you talk something but does not understand anything since it does not know the language. Similarly, these divine animals also recite the Veda and hear the sound only without knowing any word of it. Shankara quoted this Vedic statement in His commentary to criticize such Vedic scholar performing sacrifice by blind recitation of the Veda (purvamimamsaka). The scripture related to the Veda also says that such a Brahmin is like a cooli, who carries on your luggage for a small wage without knowing any item in it. The scripture says that a priest is like the cooli, who carries on a bag of gold on his head for a small wage of few rupees (svaranabharaharah) without knowing that very precious gold is in it. God, the author of the Veda scolded these pseudo Brahmins in advance since God has the knowledge of future being omniscient. At least, now, these bad Brahmins should change by stopping spending time for blind recitation of the Veda and divert that time to learn the Sanskrit language and to understand the scriptures. At least, they should implement this right policy in the case of their children so that they are helping their children to become near to God. Otherwise, they are harming their children since they were harmed by their fathers!
Misinterpretations Lead to Coversions & Enimity Towards Brahmins
The real essence of the ritual must be understood properly, which is masked by several misinterpretations and misunderstandings created by the middle age Vedic scholars, who recited the Vedas without understanding the meaning even at the basic level. This ritual called Upanayanam is taking the child near to God and this meaning is well known to any Sanskrit scholar. Every human being has the right to approach God. The birds and animals have no such opportunity due to undeveloped intelligence and corresponding language. Shankara told in the beginning of His commentary on the first Brahma Sutra itself that every human being having good qualities, having analytical approach, having no desire for any fruit and having desire in God only is eligible to know and approach God. He specifically mentioned that caste, gender etc., have no significance in this context. Even the Gita says that God is the divine Father of all human beings (Aham Beejapradah Pitaa) indicating that every human being has equal right to approach God. The Gita specifically mentioned that even women of all castes and Shudras have right to approach God (Striyo vyshyaah tathaa shudraah...). Under such circumstances of this true concept, you cannot confine the concept of Upanayanam to a specific ritual, which is denied to women and Shudras. You cannot confine this ritual to males of Brahmin, Kshtriya and Vyshya castes only. “Perhaps, this ritual is extended to Kshtriyas, since they are powerful rulers. Perhaps, this ritual is extended to Vyshyas, who are very rich and supply any material through business”. Such doubts followed by revolution were bound to rise when foolish interpretations of acts by middle age Vedic scholars were projected. All women and Shudras insulted due to forced non-eligibility became enemies to Brahmins, who are the law makers. Such jealousy in some hearts broke the unity in Hinduism. There is no need of mentioning the enmity from the untouchable fifth caste. The traditions in Hinduism were established by the great ancient sages, who were male Brahmins. Hence, the enmity to male Brahmins turned as enmity to sages (since sages were male Brahmins) started resulting in caste-split and sex-split. Ladies of Brahmin caste alone kept silent due to fear and respect towards their fathers and husbands. Both these splits grew like serious diseases and weekend Hinduism. Some of the effected persons started migrating to other religions like Islam, Christianity etc., where such splits are not seen. All the religions are equally sacred and are the ways to reach God and there cannot be any special attraction or any defect in any religion. Hence, you need not reject your religion and take up any other religion. You need not reject your religion assuming some defect in it, which is only the creation of certain conservative scholars of your religion. Such defect cannot be rubbed on your original religion and based on such misunderstanding you need not leave your religion.
Swami Dayananda Saraswathi, a human incarnation of God could stop such conversions from Hindu religion to other religions by proposing this ritual (Upanayanam) to every caste irrespective of birth. He established that the caste system is based on qualities and actions of an individual only and is not based on the caste by birth. This concept is already established in the Gita (Gunakarma Vibhagashah). Swami Dayananda certainly protected Hinduism from such dangerous fast conversions. Such reformation of the concept certainly rectified the mistake from that date onwards, but, the injustice done in the past due to lack of reformation stands as a black spot on Hinduism, especially on the ancient sages, who established such act of tradition. The answer from Lord Datta to this remark is that the ancient sages always established the correct tradition because they were very good scholars of the knowledge of the Vedas. The present tradition as it is was established by the sages only and there is no trace of mistake in the present tradition. The mistake lies only in the interpretation of the ancient tradition, which is continuing even today. The middle age Vedic scholars were confined only to blind recitation of the Vedas without knowing even the meaning of one word, they recite. Such rigid and egoistic fools established certain misinterpretations of the tradition, which resulted in cracking the foundations of this great and sacred Hindu religion. Their ignorance of true meaning of the Vedas mixed with egoism of their birth in the dynasty of such great sages resulted in the appearance of foolish misinterpreted tradition. The public thought that this foolish tradition was established by ancient sages only and hence started criticizing them. Based on this, some converted their religion, but, several retained in this Hindu religion baring their insult patiently, keeping firm faith on their religion. On the occasion of this message, such women of all castes, Shudras and so called untouchables are to be specially congratulated and should be appreciated. Blessed are such women, such shudras and such untouchables, who had firm faith on the message of the Gita that one should die in his or her own religion only without conversion into other religion (Svadharme nidhanam shreyah...) and remained in their own religion. I dedicate this message to such good human beings having unassuming patience for standing in their own religion for all these generations.
Meaning of Purusha
First, let us take classification of human beings in to males and females, which is more ridiculous than the classification based on caste system. The caste system was based on qualities and actions of a specific human being and we can understand it to some extent at least. The classification based on gender is perfectly meaningless since such classification is based on the difference between certain external muscular modifications of the body. The word Purusha means the all pervading awareness called individual soul in the body (Puri shete iti). Therefore, the word Purusha means the individual soul, which is the pervading awareness in the human body irrespective of its minor muscular modifications. Hence, any human being can be called as Purusha. The awareness is the finest part of nature (Prakruti) and is called as Paraprakruti or purusha. The remaining part of the nature is called as Aparaprakruti, which is represented by this body and is simply called as Prakruti. Both these parts of nature i.e., Purusha and Prakruti together are called as the creation. The creator beyond this creation is called as Purushottama. This is one type of classification. In another type of classification, the Purushottama and Purusha are one and the same indicating the creator. In this second classification, the awareness is only Paraprakruti and not Purusha. By this, both Para and Apara parts of nature become one part only called as Prakruti or creation. The second category is Purusha indicating the creator. In both these classifications, the minute muscular modifications of the body do not affect the classification in any way. Male or female can be called as Purusha existing in the body. The Gita says that how one Purusha can kill anybody? (Katham sa purushah paartha...). Do you take the word Purusha here only as the male fighter and not the female fighter? Hence, the word Purusha and also other words in masculine gender indicating the individual soul mean any human being irrespective of gender. Certain foolish scholars say that the philosophy is only for male human beings! As per the second classification every human being irrespective of the gender is Prakruti only since both Para and Apara are parts of Prakruti only. Hence, you cannot call any human being as Purusha since Purusha is God only.
The Veda says that the so called male human beings of the humanity are also women and wives of God only (Striyah satih ubhe pumamsa aahuh...). In this context, it is nice to remember the conversation between Tulasidas and Meera. Tulasidas told that women are not allowed to sleep in his cottage and hence denied shelter to Meera. Then Meera asked “Till now I am thinking God Krishna only as Purusha. Are there Purushas in our human beings also?” In both these classifications, God is denoted by the word Purusha or Purushottama because the unimaginable God incarnates in human form in this world and such visible human incarnation alone can be shown as the address of God. Famous women like Gargi, Maitreyee, Sulabhayogini etc., were great scholars in philosophy. Even the deity of knowledge, Goddess Swaraswati is unfortunately a woman only! Even in this ritual, the hymn called as the mantra of Gayatri deity, who is praised in the meditation verse is a woman only. How do you restrain the women to meditate upon the Goddess Gayatri, who is also woman? While worshipping the divine Mother, you are offering the holy thread (Yajnopavitam) to Her while doing the 16 modes of worship. In such case, how can you negate the same holy thread to women? In Ramayana, there is a verse said by Hanuman that Sita will come to a lake there for doing evening worship or Sayam Sandhya Vandanam (Imam Shiva jalaa meti...). Scriptures say that in very old times the women were also having this ritual performed to them. In such a case, why is this change in the case of women? The sages only made this change in the beginning of this Kali age.
In the olden times most of the food was only fruits, roots etc., and cooking was rare. When the occasional cooking was done to prepare certain dishes using grains, both the husband and wife participated in such action called as Yajna, which is feeding the great guests. Hence, both husband and wife had equal leisure and hence participated in the Yajna and daily worship spending equal time. Later on, as the Kali age progressed, the cooking has become compulsory on every day and the house hold duties are also increased. One of these two has to completely attend such duties and in such case that person cannot perform the divine worship with peaceful mind. Women, being more patient opted such house hold responsibilities in which the husband has half share of responsibility. The husband took the option of performing the divine worship and obviously half the fruit of such worship goes to wife. This is indicated by the acceptance of another extra holy thread from the hands of his father-in-law on behalf of his wife as seen in marriage function. Such a provision can be also seen in the traditional incident when one becomes sick, the ritual of performing the worship in the morning and evening is taken up by some relative on his behalf. Even when a soul is departed from this world, his or her heirs do the rituals, which are conducting the prayers to God for the welfare of the departed soul. The inability to spend time in worship provides such facility especially when you enjoy the fruit of service from the other side. In this way, Shudras were also mutually benefited by the divine worship performed by Brahmins because they were involved in the public service of the society. Society is a big home only. The four castes were evolved due to such classification of duties (Karma) based on their interests (Guna). The Gita, the scripture that appeared in the time just before the beginning of Kali age also says that the classification is based on qualities (interests) and actions (Professions). In such case, how can you say that the duties are assigned on the basis of birth in the caste? We see that the son of a teacher may not be interested in teaching but may be interested in defence-service.
Profession to be Based on Qualities
Opponent: The profession should be allotted as per the caste by birth since the qualities (interests) come from the dynasty of ancestors through genes and this is the scientific concept.
Defendant: When the profession is given based on qualities, the person born in that caste is not denied. We say that a person having interest in teaching and capability to teach should be selected as teacher. In such rule, we did not say that the son of a teacher having interest and capability in teaching should not be selected since he is son of a teacher. Our rule says that if there is quality, the profession should be given whether he is a son of teacher or not. Among such candidates the competitive interview makes the final selection. According to gene theory, the son of a teacher will have highest competence and get the selection. Hence, there is no injustice in the rule that the profession should be given based on the competence of the qualities.
Opponent: Since the gene theory is correct, you can call the sons of all the teachers only to the interview for selecting a teacher.
Defendant: Even if others are called, they will be naturally rejected based on your gene theory. In such case, why do you worry on this point? In the science, the theories are changing. Tomorrow gene theory may be proved wrong. Hence, the way of our rule is correct in all the times. Moreover, it is said that in the age of Kali, due to immorality spread everywhere, there are 5000 castes (Kalau Panchasahasrani jayate varna sankarah...). In such case, how many genes of which type are present in an individual? It is impossible to estimate this. Hence, our rule is very safe in any situation.
Ravana born in the caste of Brahmins was killed due to his wrong qualities and wrong actions. Rama was non-Brahmin, but, still He is worshipped and the Brahmins wash the feet of His statue and drink it as sacred water. Sūta was born in the family of low-caste and was made as the president of a great sacrifice done by the sages. The photos of Shabari, Kannappa are even now worshipped in the worship rooms by Brahmins and both of them belonged to the untouchable caste. All these examples prove that the strong qualities and interests (Samskaras or vasanas) from previous births prevail over the effects of genes. A samskara is associated with the soul and gene is associated with the external body.
Opponent: How do you explain the untouchable of the fifth caste, when you say that you are worshipping the devotees born in that caste?
Defendant: You are speaking about the 5th caste. The Veda speaks about 4 castes only. In such case, there is no 5th caste originally. All the sinners from the 4 castes were abandoned from the society. Therefore, there is no 5th caste, which was abandoned as untouchable in toto. The untouchable is not due to vengeance. It is only a way of rectification and reformation. A student is very mischievous and not reformed by any punishment. In such case, the teacher boycotts him or her from the class. This is not vengeance. This is only a sincere effort for reformation. Once the student is reformed, he or she is allowed back in to the class with all love and respect. Therefore, the above devotees are such reformed souls and hence are even worshipped even today. Again, the egoistic middle age scholars showed untouchable irrespective of their qualities and actions. The son of an untouchable need not be untouchable. In the olden days, killing a buffalo or a cow after drinking its milk and killing a bull or a he-buffalo after doing the agriculture in the old age was considered as the greatest sin. People in any caste doing such serious sin were boycotted from the society as untouchable. Such punishment should not be permanent and such person, if transformed, was allowed back in to the society and the issue of such a person cannot be untouchable by birth. This was the ancient tradition of sages, which was totally misinterpreted by the ignorant and egoistic middle aged Vedic scholars. Killing any living being for food itself is the highest sin and killing a living being which served you is unimaginable sin. Such unimaginable sin was punished in very serious way by boycotting such sinners of all the four castes in the name of untouchable. This is punishment for the sin and not to be carried on from generation to generation. Again, based on the gene theory, you should not say that the untouchable will generate untouchable issue only. As per the above said arguments, it is not acceptable unless the sin is clearly identified. This is the reason why devotees born in untouchable family were honoured by the sages. The middle age scholars without knowledge extended the punishment even generation to generation without any analysis because they did not have knowledge of the Vedas. You should not rub the foolish tradition of these ignorant so called Vedic scholars on the heads of ancient sages, who were real Vedic scholars respecting the merit everywhere in every time.
(To be Continued...)