Menstruation in ancient Hindu texts is
equated with fertility. The mixture of vital fluid of man and the menstrual
fluid of woman results in conception, according to the Hindu lore. They are
the Sita (white) Bindu (drop) of man and the Sona (red) Bindu of woman. The
concept of ovum, as separate from Sona Bindu (menses), did not exist in the ancient
Hindu sacred lore.
In this article, the word 'Sastra' is
used in general terms to include all Sacred and secular Hindu Texts, irrespective of their
origin and time.
Bindu in its cosmic and terrestrial
aspects.---Veeraswamy Krishnaraj, M.D
Supreme Bindu degenerates into Semen
and menstrual fluid (Ovum).
Noumenal Bindu becomes the
phenomena of Semen and Menstrual Fluid (Ovum), according to ancient Hindu thinking.
Ontic Bindu is a Circle with Void
inside--O. The Circle is Sakti, while the Void is Siva. Siva is
Supreme Brahman. Sakti is in a subtle state before it becomes active, florid
and full of life. Think of Bindu as Singularity with no dimension, from which everything proceeds.
Bindu is a point from which radiations emerge in a centrifugal manner and into
which the radiations return in a centripetal manner. It is a point of
emergence and a point of return. It is obvious that this single point is one
and many at the same time. This is the point from which universes emerge and
to which universes return. Bindu is an aspect of Sakti and contains Supreme
Consciousness. The Yogi makes a spiritual journey from the periphery of Yantra
to the central Bindu.
Sri Chakra: Also
known as Sri Yantra.
Yantra is a
diagramatic chart (a restraining instrument, a chart, a machine, a line
diagram, a mechanical device) used by Yogis to visualize, meditate, leave the
physical world mentally, and proceed from the outer world to the highest state
in the spiritual center (Bindu).
Goddess Tripurasundari (TPS--Three-city Beauty;
one form of Sakti)
the central deity (Bindu), sports three forms: Physical (Mudra), mental (Yantra)
and cognitive (Mantra). To attain spiritual union with the deity by way of
involution, one makes an inner journey centripetally from the peripheral
physical world of wakefulness to Savikalpa Samadhi in the domain of
Bindu; all
these are achieved by mental journey layer by layer from the periphery of the
Square wall of Sri Yantra, the domains of 16-petal lotus, 8-petal lotus, outer
fourteen (blue) triangles, outer ten (red) triangles, inner ten (black)
triangles, eight (green) triangles, the central (yellow) triangle and on to
(red) Bindu. As you make this centripetal journey,
you leave the physical world, the body, the tattvas and take only your spirit
and soul to Bindu. The up
triangles
in Sri Chakra represent the male principle (Siva)
and the down triangles the female principle (Sakti). The Central Bindu is the
eternal undifferentiated Brahman and the point of concentration of all
creative forces. There are Four Major Up Triangles
representing the male principle Siva and Five
Major Down Triangles representing female principle Sakti or TPS. The
dominance of the 5 female triangles over the 4 male triangles abides with the
Female Principle. The intersection of these nine triangles create 43 smaller
triangles (14 blue ∆, 10 red
∆, 10 black ∆, 8 green ∆, and 1 central yellow
∆). See the smaller diagram.
Triangle in many cultures indicates
the gender of human or Deity, based primarily on
Escutcheon. Up triangle = Male;
Down triangle = Female. If you see the pattern of distribution of pubic hair
(Escutcheon), the female escutcheon is a Down Triangle with apex pointing down
on the Mons Veneris (Mound of Venus), while the mature male escutcheon tapers
upwards towards the navel as in Up Triangle. Interlocking triangles in Judaism
has many explanations. One such explanation is the layout of directions by the
points and the center. If you see the Hindu Mandalas or Yantras, you will notice
triangles. The up triangle represents a God while down triangle is Goddess.
Escutcheon: Type:
Term. Pronunciation: es-kŭtch′ŏn. Definitions: 1. Pattern of
distribution of pubic hair. By Stedman's Medical Dictionary.
Each Avarana (enclosure) depicts one level of consciousness and or spiritual
knowledge; there are deities at each Avarana with Tripurasundari (TPS) in one of
her many forms. One has to be spiritually fit to make this journey from the
mundane world of wakefulness to the world of Savikalpa
Samadhi, when you become acutely aware of a distinction between you
and Brahman (duality).
When the Yogi goes deeper in his Samadhi, he attains Nirvikalpa Samadhi (lack of
distinction between the Yogi and the Brahman, becoming one with One).
Let me give you examples as to how you
become one with One (disappearance of duality). When you see an apple, in the
mind's eye you become the apple and forget everything else. When you hear music
you become the music. When you are in love you become one with your love.
Go to
MAHAVIDYAS for more details.
Bindu, the
pure counterpart of impure
Māyāundergoes change under the stress of Cit Sakti. Cit = Consciousness
of Siva through Sakti) Siva is the agent and Sakti is the instrument in relation
to Bindu. The five Suddha Tattvas (Siva1,Sakti2,Sadasiva3,
Isvara4,Sadvidya5,) are the functional
aspects of Siva and the evolutes of Bindu. God is prius (Munnavan = முன்னவன்) and creates everything out of non-intelligent
Māyā, which does
not assume priority or parity with Him. Suddha = Pure.
Nada and Bindu are two saktis
(power). Naada (NAda) is sound and Bindu is dot, or point. Nada and Bindu are
the progenitors of Tattvas, the building blocks of the universe. (Sadasiva, Isa,
Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra are collectively called five Sivas.)
Nada and Bindu are a power-pack brimming with energy and readiness to create.
Bindu is a massive state (Ghana-avasthaa) of Sakti. Sakti initially is in a
subtle state in Sakti Tattva, unrelenting in its desire to create and moves to
the state of active manifestation, which is one stage of Bindu (Mahabindu or
Parabindu). This noumenal Bindu lives in Satyaloka and exists in the human
body in the pericarp of the thousand-petalled Sahasrara Lotus in the highest
cerebral center, according to Woodroffe.
Supreme Consciousness divides itself into subject and object in time and
space.--Woodroffe. Causal (kāraṇa)
Bindu Sakti divides again into effector (Kārya) Bindu,
effector Nada and effector Bija. Bindu is
Siva and Bija is Sakti. Nada is the relationship between the two. Nada is action
(kinetic = Rajasik)
and Bindu is static; Nada is white and Bindu is red. There are a lot of
contextual variations
in the interpretation of these terms: Nada and Bindu.
Sakti is Sakti Tattva;
Nāda is Sadasiva Tattva; Parabindu is Isvara Tattva.
For our purpose,
we confine ourselves to Sita Bindu and Sona Bindu.
Skanda Purana says that
Siva-Sadasiva is of the nature of Nada (divine sound) sitting in AkArapIthikA
(Pedestal of the letter A) and Five-letter Mantra
Namasivaya. Parasiva and ParAsakti, ontologically superior to
Nada and Bindu, are Soundless and motionless (NiSabda) and NiSpanda). Sabda =
sound. Spanda = contraction and expansion, vibration, motion. Nada
transforms into Bindu which is Isvara Tattva, the origin of the worlds. Bindu's
abode is Satyaloka, which abides in the pericarp of the thousand-petalled Lotus,
Sahasrara Chakra in the highest cerebral Center, according to Woodroffe.
The Bindu should be worshipped as the inseparable Siva and Sakti (like a grain of gram, which are the two
cotyledons).
Explanation. You need three things to do anything in this world: Knowledge,
Will and Action. Siva is Knowledge, which alone by itself does not serve any
purpose. Siva is Static, just like the computer without the juice. Will and Action are necessary to go forward. Sakti is
the dynamic power of Siva. She is Action; She is the powerhouse. She is the
Mother (அம்மை
= அம்மன்) and begets beings
and universe. Siva is the Father (அப்பன்).
Siva is Sita Bindu; Sakti is Sona Bindu.
One sources tells Parabindu divides into two parts; the right is Bindu, Male, Purusa or Ham and the left is Visarga, Female, Prakrti or sah.
Together Hamsah Mantra is the union of Prakrti and Purusa and the universe
is also Hamsah. Parabindu is Siva- Sakti. Does it not remind you of
Ardhanarisvara, androgynous Siva; left half of the body is Sakti and the right
half is Siva.
Bindu is Vindu (விந்து) in Tamil meaning dot or point,
drop, semen, sperm, mercury, a flaw in the diamond, the middle portion of the
forehead between the eyebrows; circle, Sivatattva--sphere of knowledge presided
over by Siva Jnana Sakti; Pure Maya (Suddha Maaya) according to Tamil Lexicon of
Madras University. Bindu in its supreme state is the nucleus of the
universe (Singularity), from which everything proceeds. Compare it to the
nucleus of the cell, which is an universe unto itself. When the cell and its nucleus undergo apoptosis, they
degenerate and become mushy, waiting for scavenger cells to remove them. Likewise when the cerebral-dwelling Supreme Bindu undergoes "apoptosis or lysis
= Sanskrit Laya = लय" it becomes the (testicular) semen or (ovarian) ovum at a lower
level of existence. Don't expect a scientist to prove or disprove such a
hypothesis. Bindu as a point and semen have creative potentialities; the former
(Bindu)
is at a cosmic level; the latter at microcosmic level. Pundits and Gurus are of the opinion
that Rajas Guna (motion, passion) makes the Bindu degenerate into sperm or ovum.
The Apotheosis of (ontic) Bindu undergoes apoptosis. (Every
cell has a lifespan; it has to die its programmed death; otherwise, the cells
accumulate and give rise to a tumor, cancer, leukemia or malignant growth.
Apoptosis is programmed cell suicide; if this happens too efficiently, there is
grave cell damage leading to neurodegenerative diseases like
Alzheimer,
Huntington
and
Parkinson. Normal body
has a balance between dying cells and new cells. When the cells degenerate but
not renewed or removed, the debris accumulates and compromises its function.)
Apoptosis:
1. Programmed cell death; deletion of individual cells by fragmentation into
membrane-bound particles, which are phagocytized by other cells.
Synonyms:programmed cell death.
Ūrdhvaretas:
ऊर्ध्वरेतस् (Ūrdhva + retas) = (ascending + stream)
Vital fluid, according to Hindu belief, exists in a subtle state throughout
the body. Sukra = White, Silver, Vital fluid, Essence, Semen. Yogis are said to
have the ability to channel the principle of the seminal fluid up the Susumna
Nadi to reach the A-Ka-Tha Triangle. The Yogi goes with Kundalini to the
Triangle, wherein she meets KAmesvara (Siva) for union. The Yogi enjoys both
Bhoga and Yoga upon reaching the Triangle in the Soma Chakra.
The
Sādhaka, thinking of himself as Śakti and the Paramātma as Puruṣa, feels
himself in union (Saṅgama) with Śiva; and enjoys with Him the bliss which is
Śṛṅgāra-rasa, and becomes
Bliss itself, or the Brahman. Śṛṅgāra is the love sentiment or sexual passion
and sexual union. Here Śṛṅgāra-rasa
is the cosmic root of that. The first of the eight or nine Rasas (sentiments)
- viz., Śṛṅgāra, Vīra (heroism), Karuṇa (compassion), Adbhūta (wondering),
Hasya (humour),) Bhayānaka (fear), Bībhatsa (disgust), Raudra (wrath), to
which Mammata-bhatta, author of the Kāvyaprakāśa,
adds Śānti (peace).
What the Yogi enjoys is that supersensual bliss which manifests on the earthly
plane as material Śrīngara. --Woodroffe, Page 219-220, Serpent Power.
All this sexual
connotation is the only analogical way to simplify an
idea of union of individual soul with Supreme Soul with the attendant
supersensual bliss. (It is somewhat similar to the
nuns who become the brides of Jesus Christ or the church.) All this is happening inside the
head. It is all an inner experience. This union results in the flow of Amrta
(Ambrosia) that can be conserved or allowed to trickle down to Manipura Chakra
(via the upper Chakras), wherein it is used for digestive process. They,
who conserve this Ambrosial flow and prevent its descent, enjoy physical, mental
and spiritual health. This sexual analogy is parlayed to give us an idea of the
Bliss that the Yogi enjoys uniting (Yoga) with the Universal Soul.
When sexual urge
finds expression, the circulating subtle substance gathers at the gonads and prostate and
assumes a gross form as opposed to the subtle form of existence throughout the
body. To rise to the level of Urdhvaretas is to prevent emission and facilitate
reabsorption into the body of the stored seeds for in the perfected one it
remains subtle for ever with atrophy of the gonads and involution of phallus --
signs of Urdhvaretas. Because of the subtle nature of Sukra and its pervasion
throughout the chaste body in Urdhvaretas and lack of it in the gonadal and
prostatic fluid, the Yogi smells like a lotus.
(On the other hand, ordinary mortals
(men) smell like goats for obvious reasons: Blame it on pheromones.)
In perfect ones, the seminal energy
rises to become the nectar (Amrta) of Siva Sakti, according to Tantric Texts.This
diffuse radiant energy (Tejas) circulating in the body of the perfected ones, it
is said, they, when cut, bleed not blood but Tejas in the form of semen.
Body odor: is due to
bacterial interaction with the sweat of Apocrine sweat glands in the armpit and
groin of adults stimulated by hormones at puberty and thereafter. This apocrine
secretion serves as the olfactory
pheromone, a chemical by which a dog is
known to hone in on the bitch a mile away.
This ascent of
conserved energy is called Urdhvaretas. The message is orgasm is for the
flesh, and beatitude is for the spirit; between the two, beatitude is superior and
eternal. Physical union is a weak emulation of union of Siva and Sakti. Some
Gurus recommend prolonging the sexual act without ejaculation; thus
conservation of the seed is maintained. Some of the modern pseudo-Gurus of the
East and the West have used this kind of information to build a clientele with a
promise to transform one into a marathon love-machine.
An unproven thought: Since yogis
sit in Lotus and other positions over long periods, they compress the nerves,
and blood
supply to the testicles for hours on end. Over many years of this practice, my
suspicion is that the testicles atrophy. Of course I did not have a chance to
examine them. One can avoid this problem by proper
sitting by western standards. Bicyclists sometimes develop numbness of perineum after prolonged
riding and pressure on the nerves in the perineum. Some feel that the blood
supply to the testicles is compromised, resulting in low sperm count.
By sublimating and conserving sexual
energy, it is said that the vital fluid rises to Sahasrara, becomes Soma, the
nectar of immortality and spreads throughout the lymphatic system eventually
finding its way to the brain where it becomes Ojas and Tejas (Vigor and
splendor), which are essential for obtaining Superconsciousness.
The credit for the recognition of ovum as
a haploid gamete goes to the western physiologists. The celebration and
drinking of perceived menstrual fluid of Goddess Kamakhya by the pilgrims to
the temple goes on yearly for four days. A Deity's life is 12 times longer
than a human and because they drank the nectar of immortality, they live for
ever. A human's life extends to 100 years. Based on this calculation, a life
of one month for the human extends to one year for the deity. What is 1 year for human is
lived for 12 years by the deity. [That is why a deity is
consecrated by
Kumbabishekam (கும்பாபிஷேகம்
kumpāpiṣēkam = Consecration of the idol.) once in 12
years.] Naturally, humans menstruate every month, while the deity menstruates once a year for four
days. Since Kamakhya is the Goddess of Fertility, the women, and men drink the
perceived menstrual fluid to enhance their chances of becoming parents.
Kamakhya Goddess is a cleft in the rock, wherefrom the alleged menstrual fluid
seeps out. Sometimes the earth's iron oxide colors the water red and the
believers cognize this as menstruation. Think of the red bricks which have a
lot of iron oxide, making them look red. Many regard Kamakhya as the Mother
Goddess of earth for the simple reason the water laced with iron oxide runs
red from the cleft. Other times, the priests throw red
powder or liquid on to the cleft, so as to simulate menstruation. The pilgrims
receive two sacraments [Prasada]: a small piece of red cloth [Angabastra] and
red liquid [angadok], which will ensure fertility. It is
worthwhile to remember that devotees get white ash from Ganesa temple, red Kum
Kum from Goddess temple and Sandalwood paste from Gurvayurappan temple.
The cleft is appropriately covered with a red cloth. In the Indian villages
and towns and most of western countries before the advent of feminine hygiene
products, women use/used rags to soak up the menstrual fluid. Think of Eve and Adam who
adroitly covered their genitalia with well-placed fig leaves, after she and Adam ate the forbidden fruit.
Tamil Lexicon
கும்பாபிஷேகம்Kumbabishekam:kumbhaabhi-ṣēka. Consecration of a temple causing the deity
to take up its abode in the idol; கும்பாபிஷேகம்
Ceremony of consecration or purification in a temple. கோயில்களில்
பிரதிஷ்டைசெய்வதற்கும்.
பிரதிஷ்டை piratiṣṭai , n. <
prati-ṣṭhā. 1. Establishing a deity, as in a newly-built temple.
Kamakhya, whose Menstruation is a celebrated Mela.
Kamaakhya is an aspect of the Hindu goddess Sati. A temple in her
honour exists in the Kamrup district of Assam state, India. The temple is one
of the 52 holy Shakti Peethas related to Sati.
According to legend, the goddess Sati burned herself of the sacrificial
fire at her father Dakshya's abode because her father was scornful of her
husband the God Shiva. (This incident gave rise to the custom of sati in
India). In a rage, Shiva began his Dance of Death (tandava) to bring the
destruction of the Universe. The other gods, afraid of their annihilation,
pleaded to Vishnu to prevent Shiva. Thus, wherever Shiva wandered while
dancing, Vishnu followed. He dare not come close to the terrible Shiva, so he
starts hacking with his sword (or Sudarshan Chakra) the corpse of Sati.
Slowly, pieces fall off until Shiva is left without a body to hold. Seeing
this, Shiva sits down to Mahatapasya (great penance). Eons later, when
his hair has grown tangled, the river Ganges emerges from his hair.
There are supposedly 52 pieces of Sati scattered across the Indian
subcontinent. Her vagina is said to have fallen on the spot where the Kamakhya
temple stands today.
The idol in the temple Kamakhya is in fact a large block of granite on
which sindoor (vermillion) is scattered, with a golden mask
representing the goddess. It is a major tourist attraction.
Aug 31, 2011: Discussion of
why segregation and isolation of women having monthly periods is discriminatory, against
women, Hindu religion and egalitarian principles.
Menstrual Taboo was/is universal in its practice. Bible and Hindu scriptures
and their protagonists believe in the isolation of women for the duration of
menstrual period. I submit here respectfully and empathetically the practical
aspects of monthly periods in the Hindu household.
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1 The Lord spoke to Moses,
2 “Tell the Israelites: When a woman gives birth to a boy, she will be
unclean for seven days. This is the same number of days she is
unclean for her monthly period.
3 The boy must be circumcised when he is eight days old.
4 Then she must stay at home for 33 days in order to be
made clean from
her bleeding. She must
not touch anything holy or go into the
holy place until the days needed to make her clean are over.
5 “When a woman gives birth to a girl, she will be
unclean as in her
monthly period. However, she will be
unclean for two
weeks. Then she must stay at home for 66 days in order to be made
clean from her bleeding.
6 “When the days needed to make her clean are over, she must bring a
one-year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon or a mourning dove as an
offering for sin. She must bring them to the priest at the entrance to the tent
of meeting.
7 The priest will offer them in the
Lord's presence to make peace with
the Lord for her. Then she will be
clean from her flow of blood.“These are
the instructions for the woman who gives birth to a boy or a girl.
8 If she cannot afford a lamb, she must use two mourning doves or two
pigeons. One will be the burnt offering and the other the offering for sin. So
the priest will make peace with the Lord
for her, and she will be clean.” Lev 12:1-8
Chapter 15
Bodily Discharges From Men
1 The Lord spoke to Moses
and Aaron,
2 “Tell the Israelites:
If a man has a discharge from his penis, his discharge is
unclean.
3 He is unclean because of the discharge from his penis. Whether it is
chronic or not makes no difference; he is still unclean.
4 “The man who has a discharge makes everything he lies on or sits on
unclean.
5 Those who touch his bed must wash their clothes and their bodies. They
will be unclean until evening.
6 Those who sit on anything he sat on must wash their clothes and their
bodies. They will be unclean until evening.
7 Those who touch a man who has a discharge must wash their clothes and
their bodies. They will be unclean until evening.
8 If a man who has a discharge spits on anyone who is clean, the person
he spits on must wash his clothes and his body. He will be unclean until
evening.
9 When a man who has a discharge sits on a saddle, it becomes unclean.
10 Those who carry such things must wash their clothes and their bodies.
They will be unclean until evening.
11 If a man who has a discharge touches anyone without first rinsing his
hands, the person he touched must wash his clothes and his body. He will be
unclean until evening.
12 When a man who has a discharge touches pottery, it must be broken, and
any wooden bucket he touches must be rinsed.
13 “When a man's discharge stops, he must wait seven days to be cleansed.
He must wash his clothes and his body in fresh water. Then he will be clean.
14 On the eighth day he must take two mourning doves or two pigeons and
come into the Lord's presence at
the entrance to the tent of meeting. He will give these birds to the priest.
15 The priest will sacrifice one as an offering for sin and the other as
a burnt offering. So in the Lord's
presence, the priest will make peace with the
Lord for the man who had a
discharge.
16 “If a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body. He
will be unclean until evening.
17 Any clothes or any leather with semen on it must be washed. It will be
unclean until evening.
18 “When a man has sexual intercourse with a woman and has an emission of
semen, they must wash themselves. They will be unclean until evening.
Bodily Discharges From Women
19 “When a
woman has her monthly period, she will be unclean for seven days.
Those who touch her will be unclean until evening.
20 Everything she lies on or sits on during her period will be unclean.
21 Those who touch her bed must wash their clothes and their bodies. They
will be unclean until evening.
22 Those who touch anything she sits on must wash their clothes and their
bodies. They will be unclean until evening.
23 If her blood touches anything on the bed or anything she sits on, it
will be unclean until evening.
24If a man
has sexual intercourse with her while she has her period, he will be unclean for
seven days. Any bed he lies on will become unclean.
25 “If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days other than her
monthly period, she is unclean.
If her period lasts longer than usual, she will be unclean
as long as she has a discharge. It is like her period.
26 As long as she has a discharge, any bed she lies on or anything she
sits on is unclean. It is like her period.
27 Those who touch these things are unclean and must wash their clothes
and their bodies. They will be unclean until evening.
28 “When her discharge stops, she must wait seven days. After that, she
will be clean.
29 On the eighth day she must take two mourning doves or two pigeons and
bring them to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
30 The priest will offer one as an offering for sin and the other as a
burnt offering. So in the Lord's
presence the priest will make peace with the
Lord for the woman who had an
unclean discharge.
31 “You must separate the Israelites from anything that keeps them from
being presentable to me. Otherwise, they will die because they make my tent,
which is among them, unclean.
32 “These are the instructions for any man who has a discharge or an
emission of semen that makes him unclean,
33 for any woman who has her period, for any man or woman who has a
discharge, or for any man who has sexual intercourse with a woman when she is
unclean.” Lev 15:1-33
The view from the West on priests from Vedic period: ref:
Harpers dictionary of Hinduism
In Rg Vedic period, a Brahmana
did not claim any superiority over others. During early Vedic period, anyone
in
the Aryan tribe could become a priest by showing competence. The
introduction of class came about with the social changes, when Saṁhitās,
Brāhmaṇas and Sūtras were composed. The priests of that period possessing
knowledge of the sacred compositions claimed the dominant positions over other
members of the tribe. They took on the privileged positions in the performance
of sacrifices, which was once shared with the Kṣatriyas.
The Brahmanas
extracted guarantees from the ruling Ksatriyas, the title of gods on earth and
claimed direct lineage from Rishis. (This is when the Gotra system started.
More later.) The ruling class upon demand from the
priests granted the priests the right to honor, gifts (dakṣiṇā), freedom from
oppression (ajyeyatā =
state of anything which is not to be hurt or overpowered)
and death penalty (avadhyatā) when they are found guilty of capital crimes.
The
Aryan tribe:
Population genetics of Indians
In a 2009 study of 132 individuals, 560,000
single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 25 different Indian groups were
analyzed, providing strong evidence in support of the notion that
modern
Indians (both Indo-Aryan and Dravidian groups) are a
hybrid population descending from two pre-historic, genetically divergent populations[citation
needed], one of which, referred to as the 'Ancestral
North Indians', 40,000 years ago and the other, called the 'Ancestral
South Indians', 60,000 years ago. The intermingling of ANI's and ASI's
happened in the same period as the ANI's first appeared, 40,000 years ago.[18]
The study also holds, that the caste system grew out of tribal-like
organizations of the Indian society. In another study of 2009 conducted
among 10 Asian countries, Dravidian peoples showed similarities with north
Indians as well as peoples of
Malaysia,
Singapore and
China.[19]Dravidian grammatical impact on the structure and syntax of
Indo-Aryan languages is considered far greater than the Indo-Aryan
grammatical impact on Dravidian. Some linguists explain this anomaly by
arguing that Middle Indo-Aryan and New Indo-Aryan were built on a
Dravidian
substratum.[20]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravidian_peoples
They
also received the exclusive privilege to drink Soma and eat the remains (Uchiṣta)
of the sacrifice. All others were excluded from consuming Soma and Uchiṣta,
because the rest were not holy enough to partake sacrificial sacraments (Prasada). The
priest's wife and cow were declared sacred. (The wandering of the cows on the
streets of India is the reminder of that period.) The learned priest became the
priest of the king, the adviser, and even the prime minister.
I always get a
kick, whenever I touch on the subject of Soma, though I am a teetotalist. Soma (सोम
= சோமரசம்), the most celebrated drink in Vedic India next only to Amrta (அமிர்தம்
= अमृत = Ambrosia = nectar of eternal life), is the
centerpiece of the happy hour of the divine nature with a sacrificial element to
make it acceptable. The Vedic Brahmanas and the gods get together to revel in
libation of this mysterious elixir. Soma is so great it is personified as the
Moon God. Haoma (Soma) of Avasta of Zoroastrian texts gives 'wisdom,
courage, inspiration, exhilaration and immortality.' Who would not want to
imbibe such an elixir? The common folk - us 'the vulgar people'- were denied the
right to imbibe Soma. Soma gave such a kick that the moon god married 27
daughters of Daksa (Naksatras = Lunar Asterisms). One more was added later as
the 28th.
Soma is so potent it is usually mixed
with 'water, milk, butter or barley.' They are like the mixers that we use with
the liquors to make highballs. Before you know it, the imbiber is levitated to
the realm of inebriation and hallucination, according to puerile pundits of
Puritanism. The Hindu Saints of today strongly and vociferously object to 'the
facinorous' it is mind-altering. Hold your horses, your Highnesses on either
side of the aisle. Neither the Puritan Pundits nor the Sanatana Dharma Saints
ever drank this stuff. How would they know one way or another?
Indra walked down to his cellar,
grabbed a vintage bottle, popped it open, drank straight from it without adding
the mixture to it and emptied the bottle turning it upside down. Ref: Satapata
Brahmana. For the next 24 hours, he had bad bouts of nausea. Lucky for him, it
could have been worse.
Rg Veda states that the Soma was
mountain-born, brought down by an eagle and thus regarded as a drink of
celestial origin. No one knows the taxonomy of the plant. The juice extracted
from the plant looks yellow and can give nausea, when drunk without dilution.
Soma is derived from Soma plant- it
doesn't say much. The
plant (Haoma) is 'crushed and killed' between stones (Zoroastrian). While
killing the plant, a great respect is shown to the plant. The native Indians in
the USA
showed great respect to the animal they killed to eat. You have eaten an apple.
You core the apple, by plunging the corer into the heart of an apple. Is it not
cruel? Have you shown respect and sympathy to the apple? Do you show mercy, when
you extract juice from the apple or grapes? Such is the consideration of a true
Hindu or a true human being of all religions?
A
day-to-day act becomes an act of violence and evil for which atonement
exists. How could anyone plunge a corer right into the heart of the apple and
cut such a beautiful creation of nature? That is why all work is evil. Take a
practicing Jain in the extreme. When he falls in the river, his religion
dictates, he should not flail his arms and legs to reach the riverbank but let
the currents take him there. The teaching is that flailing causes violence to
water particles. What is the remedy or atonement for cutting an apple and
eating it? This belongs to obligate or necessary evil to sustain life; atonement
is VaiccuvatEvam (வைச்சுவதேவம்),
which entails making an offering to Visvadeva (விசுவதேவர்)
before taking the main meal of the day. Visuvadevar (Visvadeva =
विश्वेदेवाः = all-gods) is an
Aggregate of all gods, known, unknown, and yet to be known. Puranas recommend eating of grains
older than three years, so (according to Puranas) the old seeds are not capable
of sprouting. In olden days, the sages ate only fallen fruits.
Here is a Christian sentiment:
Bless, O Lord, this food for thy use, and make us ever mindful of the wants
and needs of others. Amen. Contributed by Ed Bailey <bailey@hagar.ph.utexas.edu>
Sautra
refers to Indra, the chief of gods and also Sura,
wine or god. The sacrifice is offered to Indra, Ashvins, Sarasvati…. It is a
purification ceremony for man and god as deemed by the Greeks and Indo-Aryans.
Sacrifice of a castrated bull or draught
mare guarantees prosperity, progeny, annihilation of the donor's foes,
realization of all desires and attainment of heaven. Do they kill bullocks
nowadays as a ticket to heaven? This sacrifice wipes off
the sin of excess consumption of Soma by Indra and the priest. Indra
stole Soma from Tvastr
(think of hijacking of a truck-load of liquor); this resulted in
violent dismemberment of his limbs; they were restored to Indra, when Asvins and
Sarasvati performed Sautramani
sacrifice. It appears there are surgeons in heaven, who specialize in
reattaching limbs to their original condition. This sacrifice has similarities with Abraham’s sacrifice. A prominent
Indian saint says that Sautramani
sacrifice is offered to appeal to the lower forces of deities so that the
sacrifices bring benefits to the sacrificer. What many cannot accept is that an animal
has to die to be food, and bring prosperity to man or restoration of body parts
to god. (Think of this: Man artificially inseminates the cows; many calves are
born; man claims he gave life where there would not have been life; the life he
gave is the life snuffed out by killing of the animal for food; the cycle
goes on; man milks the cows as long as they lactate plenteously; when their life
of lactation is coming to a close, man kills the cow and eats it; man takes the
hide to make useful products; man takes the rest of the animal, grinds it up and
feeds it to other cows and other animals; that is how the cows got the mad cow
disease; man eats the flesh of the mad cow and suffered from
variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.There is no free lunch here;
there is always a payback--this is what Hindus call Karma.)
Whole Foods Market
has started selling meat from
well-treated and compassionately slaughtered animals (the cow says: "killing me softly"). That is progress in the
right direction.
With
such a position of honor, the Brahmana is regarded the essence (Tattva) of the
sacrifice. No one ever thought of provoking him into anger because his anger is
more dangerous than the venomous snake or a terrible weapon.
(Comment:
It appears that the Vedic priests were after all human with human attributes and
frailty. The claim they are gods on earth is defeated by these pompous claims
not backed by good attributes: That they are dangerous and venomous like snakes
does not speak well of them. Here
are the attributes of God Vishnu:
Bhagavadgita 18.42 says: Tranquillity, self-control, austerity, purity,
patience, honesty, knowledge, wisdom, and belief in God are the duty of the
Brāhmana born of his own nature.
End of Comment.)
The
Brahmanas had obligations to commit to memory and transmit the Samhitās to
others. They helped to sanskritize Vedic dialects and provided the medium for
the post-vedic sacred and secular literature.
The true
Brahmana was of a high standard of morals. He was kind, gentle, and exemplary to
all. He had the privilege to perform sacrifices. His living in luxury was taken
care of by the king and dakṣiṇa (gifts and fees). All priests were not equal. As time passed
along, the field became crowded and the lesser Brahmanas took other secular
professions, which brought them down a notch to the status of brahmins, thus
distinguishing them from the priestly Brahmanas.
Along
the way, the priests lost their power and prestige and became the custodians and
priests of the temples and officiating priests of domestic functions; still they
are in high positions of power and prestige. (Comment: They
entered other professions and distinguished themselves to this day.)
Vedic
Times did not have any priestess, though some wives were deputed to represent
their husbands in the performance of sacrifices. According to Hillebrandt,
the
gods seemed to be averse to women being priests. (Comment: This must be one of
those injunctions conceived by men but attributed to God to silence the critics
because of injunctions coming from god himself and perceived pollution from menses. The women by theses standards must
be pollution-free on other days and so should be able to perform as
priestesses. It is not so.)
(Comment:
To be truthful, I am averse to the idea of men priests touch, bathe, rub, wash, dry,
decorate, man-handle the body parts and robe and unrobe the statues or icons of goddesses. What are
they thinking at that moment in time? They are men, right. They are married,
right. They have children, right. We are used to the idea of women examining
and do body search of female passengers behind the screen in the airport. Why
should we not use a priestess do the same when it comes to undressing and
dressing the statue of goddesses. Are we saying, "It is an inanimate statue and
thus cannot make any objection." If that is so, why do we perform Avahana,
Visarjana, Pranapratistha--प्राणप्रतिष्ठा
Consecration of the idol, bringing the living deity into
the idol, invocation of breath, life, and power into the statue.)
End of Comment.
The
monks committed murders with impunity. The worst punishment a Vedic Brahmana received
for murder was loss of his top knot, confiscation of property, and banishment.
Kauṭilya,
the purohita to Emperor Chandragupta was an excellent statesman and an author on
statecraft.
Manu
says that a Vedic Brahmana failing in his sacred duty would be born Ulkāmukha (a
fire-mouthed demon assumed by the departed spirit of a Brahmana who eats vomited
food.
Definition of Brāhmana: One possessed of Brahman.
(Today's
priests are trained and qualified to perform temple and domestic rituals and
rites. I have never seen or heard of one errant priest. They are apolitical and
not involved in any controversies. They are good people trained well in what
they do. But there are many errant, cunning and
licentious pseudo-Yogis; they are dime a dozen. There are very learned Brahmins
and also many learned non-Brahmins, well-versed in sacred texts. You have read
about Pseudo-Yogis engaging in sexual relations with the devotees and caught on
video during their dalliance. Some Indian journalists, always suspicious of
god-men and politicians, plant cameras in strategic locations to catch the god-man enjoying
venereal delights and spiritual ;-) levitations, though they speak of brahmacharya (celibacy) in public.
February 8, 2012:
Video journalists of some
Kannada news channels, covering the proceedings from a vantage point in the
gallery, noticed ministers
Laxman
Savadi and
CC Patil glued to a mobile handset and zoomed their cameras to focus on
what they were viewing.
A close look and
replay of the
video footage showed the duo sitting together and watching sleaze on a
mobile handset belonging to fellow minister J Krishna Palemar. All three
have now quit their ministerial positions.
Robin Lim, an American
woman who has helped thousands of poor Indonesian women have a healthy pregnancy
and birth, was named the 2011 CNN Hero of the Year on Sunday night.
December 11, 2011
When Swami Vivekananda Speaks, everybody
listens.
(Swami Vivekananda's opinion:
Supreme tenets of Hinduism
originated from the ruling kings of different eras. The ritual Hinduism is the
product of Brahmins.
The kings freely gave away and popularized their
teachings. The Brahmins (priests) kept their rituals and their purported meaning
under wraps and practiced them for a livelihood. The Hindu is burdened with
these mindless rituals. Take
Bhagavadgita: It came from the mouth of Krishna, a king and an incarnation of
Vishnu, the God. Take Buddha: He was a prince. He gave away all his teachings
free of charge.
The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Volume 1 [ Page : 452- 453 ] THE
GITA I
Sri U.Ve.Krishnan Swami is a living repository of and a
recognized Sattvic authority on Srivaishnava
sacred lore. August 2011
In a reply to a question touching on the subject of
menstruation, his answer is as follows.
Ladies, during periods,
cannot enter the kitchen orPerumal room or what
(for)
that matter any place in the house. You can allot one room in your house for those
days. Of course she can take care of her child but you will have to provide her
and the child with everything. Fourth day she can enter the house but again
cannot cook. Fifth day she has to take bath in a pond and then can enter all the
places. Life is merrier only when we obey to the dharma sastra. It is His merry
that makes us merrier. ---Sri U.Ve.Krishnan Swamy.
Perumal room
= exclusive prayer room of Srivaishnavites.
Perumal
= பெருமாள் = Person of eminence = Vishnu.
Question 237 by a
Srivaishnavite women
Would like to know the exact reason as to why a lady should not enter kitchen
and cook during the monthly menstrual cycle. I strictly follow this and do not
enter kitchen during these days, though not knowing the reason. The purpose of
this question is many people who do not follow ask me for the reason (for which
I cannot answer) and also they say it is right to enter kitchen and cook. They
feel there is no specific reason for this, for which I don't agree. I am sure
there must be some valid reason.
REPLY:As
I have been writing time and again, the first reason is since the sastras
(Sacred Texts) direct us to do so. Dharma sastras (Rituals, rites, restrictions,
injunctions, rights, expiations...)are the supreme commands of Bhagavan Himself
which we cannot afford to disobey. We can concoct many more reasons for ladies
directed to abstain from household activities during their menstrual cycle. But
we need not go into all those. My suggestion would be - kindly distance yourself
from those who want to question the sastras. Will they dare a contempt of court?
This is much much more serious contempt of Divine order.---Sri U.Ve.Krishnan Swami
Counterpoint
The Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha (Bk. 2—Ch. 18, vv. 2-3) says:
Api pauruṣam ̣ ādeyaṃ
śāṣtraṃ ced yuktibodhakam
Anyat tvārṣaṃ api
tyājyaṃ bhāvyaṃ nyāyyaikasevinā.
Yuktiyuktam ̣upādeyam
vacanam bālakād api.
Anya tṛṇam iva tyājyam
apyuktaṃ Padmajanmanā.
That is, “Even a Śāstra of purely human
authorship should be accepted if conformable to reason. Anything else (which is
unreasonable), even though it be the word of a Ṛṣi, should be rejected by one
who follows reason. The word of a boy if reasonable should be accepted. Anything
unreasonable should be rejected as of no more count than a blade of grass, even
if it be uttered by the Lotus-born (Brahmā) Himself.” On this subject read the
whole of the 14th Chapter of Book II of the Mumukṣu-Khaṇda of this work which
is a glorification of Vicāra or reasoning.
page 288, The Garland of Letters, Gayatri Mantra.
Sir John Woodroffe
The women world over took
the blame for murder they did not commit; punishment is monthly menses. Hindu
mythology. December 21, 2011
CHAPTER V. Dharmasutra of Vasistha
Translation by Patrick Olivelle, pages 264-265.
1. A woman is not independent, the males are her
masters. It has been declared in the Veda, 'A female who neither goes naked nor
is temporarily unclean is paradise.' 1
2. Now they quote also (the following verse): 'Their
fathers protect them in childhood, their husbands protect them in youth, and
their sons protect them in age; a woman is
never fit for independence.'
2
3. The penance (to be performed) by a (wife) for being
unfaithful to her husband has been declared in the (section on) secret penances.
3
4. For month by month the menstrual excretion takes away
her sins. 4
5. A woman in her
courses (periods) is impure during three (days and) nights. 5
6. (During that
period) she shall not apply collyrium to her eyes, nor anoint (her body), nor
bathe in water; she shall sleep on the ground; she shall not sleep in the
day-time, nor touch the fire, nor make a rope, nor clean her teeth, nor eat
meat, nor look at the planets, nor smile, nor busy herself with (house-hold
affairs), nor run; she shall drink out of a large vessel, or out of her joined
hands, or out of a copper vessel. 6
Comment: Woman
in periods
should not bathe, should not brush her teeth and should not
smile: Bad idea from personal hygiene and psychological
points of view. The message is that a hygienic wife with
smiles during periods would invite the husband to engage in
consortium. In order to prevent it, Sastras dictate
she should remain dingy and dirty, spreading gloom and doom
and remaining unapproachable by exhaling halitosis
especially on to her husband who may make advances to her
during periods. Nowadays, the woman just does the opposite,
so that she does not feel alienated every month for 4 days
from her husband and children.
Comment: Here is how a woman had the physiology of menstruation inflicted on her. Indra
the chief of gods killed a Brahmana and ran to women for protection. Indra
asked the women to take a third of the guilt of killing a Brahmana. The women
asked for something in return: We want to enjoy freely intercourse with our
husbands until the baby is born. So be it: said Indra. The assumed guilt shows
up every month as menstruation.
Menstruation-guilt
involuntarily forced on them for unoffered protection to god Indra for Brahmin
killing- in turn casts restrictions: no one can eat the food of a menstruating
woman, who shared a third of the guilt of brahmin killing which they did not
do.]
Comment:
Monthly exsanguinations of the women for four days as life-long punishment for
Brahmana murder they did not commit. In the meantime, Indra, the putative
murderer was sipping soma, keeping company with his sweet wife Indrani in heaven
and presiding over the galaxy of gods. No one is sure whether Indrani suffered
the curse of monthly bleeding.
7. For it has been declared in the Veda, 'When Indra had
slain (Vritra) the three-headed son of Tvashtri, he was seized by Sin, and he
considered himself to be tainted with exceedingly great guilt. All beings cried
out against him (saying to him), 7
'O thou slayer of a learned Brâhmana! O thou slayer of a
learned Brâhmana!' He ran to the women for protection (and said to them), 'Take
upon yourselves the third part of this my guilt (caused by) the murder of a
learned Brâhmana.' They answered, ''What shall we have (for doing thy wish)?' He
replied, 'Choose a boon.' They said, 'Let us obtain offspring (if our husbands
approach us) during the proper season, at pleasure let us dwell (with our
husbands until (our children) are born.' He answered, 'So be it.' (Then) they
took upon themselves (the third part of his guilt). That guilt of Brâhmana-murder
appears every month as the menstrual flow. Therefore let him not eat the food of
a woman in her courses; (for) such a one has put on the shape of the guilt of
Brâhmana-murder.
8. (Those who recite the Veda) proclaim the following
(rule): 'Collyrium and ointment must not be accepted from her; for that is the
food of women. Therefore they feel a loathing for her (while she is) in that
(condition, saying), "She shall not approach."' 8
9. 'Those (Brâhmanas in) whose (houses) menstruating
women sit, those who keep no sacred fire, 9
and those in whose family there is no Vedic Scholar; all
these are equal to Sûdras.'
Gowry and Dowry
O Gowry, where is the promised Dowry?
Dowry would keep you whole, my dear Gowry
I am not a brewery bum to be cheated out of dowry.
My plans for a house and a car went awry.
Where is the promised jewelry?
We brides form an union against this tyranny.
We out of fear are not going to hide in a dunny.
No more is your property what you call my fanny.
Go and complain to your granny.
Carefully you Listen Johnny.
You are an uncouth ninny.
Go work for your own penny,
You a pinchpenny.
You are your parent's sonny.
If you are a truepenny,
Don't live on dowry but earn your own penny.
Composed by Veeraswamy Krishnaraj February 04, 2012
According to data
of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), there were
8,391 reported cases of dowry deaths in
2010. That is just under double the number of cases
registered in 1995 — 4,648 cases. Statistics tell a story, but
not the whole story. For every dowry death
reported, there must be dozens that go unreported. Of the 8,391
reported cases in 2010, although 93.2 per cent were
charge-sheeted, the conviction rate was a miserable 33.6 per
cent.
Dowry has not disappeared. It has morphed. Seema Sirohi, in her
interesting and relevant book Sita's Curse, Stories of Dowry
Victims (HarperCollins, 2003), gives this humorous yet apt
description of dowry as it has come to be today: Dowry has
become a bribe paid to a husband to keep the bride's body and
soul together. A woman is a mere conduit to a ‘good' dowry — the
definition of good being flexible and expandable. The boys are
on sale and there are few discounts in the marriage market.
There is no ‘buy one, get one free' here. It is a transaction
weighted against the woman. In fact, it is a sale where even
after the price is paid, satisfaction is not guaranteed. And
ironically, the sale is never complete with marriage — the buyer
is expected to keep paying in cash and in kind during festivals,
to celebrate childbirth and to mark ritualistic occasions. Any
excuse is good enough to keep the one-way street laden and
moving with gifts.
Touchy as we Indians are about a whole host of things, the fact
that women are still being burned for dowry in modern-day India
should enrage us. Why are we accepting of this outrage, this
insult to the sensibilities of all women? We should be burning
dowry, not women.
Three quacks do 61 tubectomies in two hours, arrested
The three youths lured women of Bihar village into taking part in a ‘family
planning' camp
In an appalling and bizarre incident, three quacks from Bihar's
Araria district carried out no less than 61 tubectomy surgeries within two hours
without any decent medical arrangement. They were nabbed by the police.
On Saturday evening, the three youths, claiming to be associated
with an NGO, lured women from the poverty-stricken village of Kaparfora into
taking part in a “family planning” camp while promising them Rs. 600 and free
medicines.
The youths got down to business by performing the surgeries at
breakneck speed without the benefit of anaesthesia, making the women cry out in
agony. According to some villagers, even the saline bottles used by them were
remnants from past operations.
Dowry
harassment case against man after his wife ends life January 30,
2012
Harassment by a man is alleged to be the reason for the
death of his wife, who hanged herself to death at her residence in BTM
Layout here on Saturday evening.
According to the Madivala police, Kalpana (26), a
home-maker, hanged herself to death in her first-floor residence in
Cashier's Layout some time after 5 p.m. on Saturday, when her husband
Subash Chandra (29), a software professional in a multi-national company
in Domlur, and their one-year-old daughter Anvita had gone to a
neighbourhood store. On his return at 5.45 p.m., Subash Chandra found
his wife dead.
Though the police registered an “Unnatural Death Record”
case then, a dowry harassment case was filed against Subash Chandra
following a statement given by Kalpana's father, Aulla Yadgiri, who
lives in Narsapete in Warangal of Andhra Pradesh, on Sunday.
According to Aulla Yadgiri, Kalpana, “a double graduate
with a bright future”, was driven to the extreme step after persistent
harassment for dowry by Subash Chandra.
“Mr. Yadgiri told us that even though the couple had
been married for two years, Subash Chandra agreed to keep Kalpana in his
house in Bangalore only when the family agreed to pay dowry by
February,” the police said.
Woman kills husband, but walks
free as police allow her plea of self defence
Feb 12, 2012. In a rare case, a woman who
killed her husband after he attacked her in an inebriated state
and also attempted to rape their daughter, walked free after she
was released by the police on the grounds of private defence
here on Saturday.
Usha Rani had problems with her husband
Jothibasu since 1995. There were complaints against Jothibasu in
many police stations stating that he harassed the family
members. The couple had been living separately for several
months with the children remaining under the care of Usha Rani.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/article2883433.ece
It is common knowledge that the educated and liberated Indian women all over
the world including the indigent in India do break the menstrual tradition, go
about their daily life and refrain from criticizing the traditional injunctions
or the promulgators of injunctions (who are always men). Their silence on these inconvenient
injunctions is telling and revealing. It is a kind of get-along rather than
go-along. I find very often men and women offer respect and reverence to the
religious heads in a reflexive manner with rehearsed greetings and obeisance and
go home to do exactly what is convenient for their lifestyles, though their
lifestyles may be contradictory to the injunctions. Hindu tradition demands a whole day to get through the time-consuming rituals; there is no time for
anything else. All these rituals, we are assured, will take us to heaven without
fear of rebirth. I give only two minutes of my time in 24 hours to the rituals.
On top of that, the modern gurus impose their rules: exercise 20 minutes
every day until you develop a good sweat; perform Yoga exercises; eat in moderation, lose weight; drink eight
glasses of water; drink in moderation; go easy on red meats; eat fish, grains,
vegetables, nuts and fruits; sleep eight hours a day. I am a teetotaler and a strict
lacto-vegetarian. I find I lost weight without exercise by eating after my
dinner 4-6 tablespoons of yogurt everyday. Yogurt somehow increases the
metabolism and keeps the weight down. This is what science and scientists call
empirical knowledge.
There are only 24 hours in a day. How could a person do all these things,
work eight hours a day, earn a living and perform all these injunctions like Sandhyavandanam etc?
சந்தியாவந்தனம்cantiyā-vantaṉam.
,n. < id. +. Morning, noon
and evening prayers.
Sandhyavandanam is offering of prayers to the sun at dawn, noon and dusk (prātaḥsaṃdhyā,
mādhyānika, sāyaṃsaṃdhyā) with recitation of Gayatri Mantra,
Vedas, performance of rituals....
There is a difference of opinion among Acharyas whether Srivaishnava women
can or cannot chant Gayatri Mantram and Vishnu Sahasranamam.
There are umpteen different ways and configurations to wear the Sacred Thread (பூணூல்
= Yajñopavītam
यज्ञोपवीतम्)
according to the type of activities: Ceremony for the dead forefathers, answering calls of nature, sexual
intercourse, prayer.... When pheromonal impulsions rise to an inexorable level
and kick in, a devout dvija (துவிசன் =
द्विज =
twice-born = Brahmana, Ksatriya, Vaisya, = Priestly class, warrior class,
Trader class) has to rearrange the configuration of his sacred thread before he
engages in coital consortium. This kind of minutiae in the precise prosecution of
injunctions takes a toll on the observant practitioner. He also has to bring
into view a mental calendar he refers to when and when not to do what he wants
to do. He has to chant sacred verses. Then he has to contend with the proverbial headaches on the part of the
spouse, the giggling clamor and the keyhole snooping from the tots turned
sleuths in the extended family and the most annoying knocks on the door.
Remember, Indian kids tuck their parents in bed and go to sleep later. A little
exaggeration of course. Some of
the smart ones leave the key in the keyhole to frustrate the tots on a tear.
Don't forget, thankfully the Sastras provide atonement for unintentional omissions and
commissions.
Here is the procedural aspects of ritual intercourse in an observant family.
Brhad Upanishad
VI.4.21.: "Then he spreads apart her thighs, saying 'Spread yourselves apart,
Heaven and Earth. After having inserted the member in her, after having
joined mouth to mouth, he strokes her three times as the hair lies, saying 'Let
Vishnu make the womb prepared. Let Tvastr shape the various forms. Let Prajapati
pour in. Let Dhatr place the germ, the seed for you. I Sinivali, give the seed;
give the seed, O broad-tressed dame. Let the two Asvins crowned with lotus
wreaths place the seed.'
-Translation from Sanskrit by Dr. Radhakrishnan, the Philosopher Statesman. Some minor
modifications are made.
Between pre-coital pilates to ensure suppleness and agility, recalling the
Kama Sutra posture for the night, rearranging the sacred thread for the
encounter, visualizing the calendar for appropriate days for congress, chanting
of Mantras during congress, contending with the proverbial headaches, the tots
on a tear, the parents' insistence to produce a grandchild soon, the bangs at
the door, the barking of the dogs, the snooping by the kids as to what their
favorite uncle is doing, and the solicitous enquiry by the in-laws about his
nightly ritual acts, it is a wonder that he is able to create sparks in the
bedroom. The sparks
indeed fly, the lights shine brighter, the rows of her teeth shine like the
white jasmine flower buds (மல்லி) from behind the
parted lips, and the erstwhile closed eyes
suddenly open wide showing the whites.
The observant man on the verge of ritual coital consortium utters these words from
the sacred texts: Brhad-aranyaka Upanishad, Sixth Chapter, Fourth Brahmana.
Before the encounter, he has to contend with very many rituals as prescribed in
the Upanishads. All the tots in the house with stethoscopes or ears placed on
the walls of the room know when their favorite uncle is ready to perform his
sacred injunctions and chantings. The parents and in-laws desirous of having
grand children are anxiously waiting for the sacred ceremony go
uninterrupted and the blessed event take place. Sometimes, with all
these rituals conducted punctiliously to the letter of the sacred texts,
the spouse gets restless, his body goes flaccid, the tots lose their
interest and the parents and in-laws are frustrated. The damsel in
distress tells her husband, "போங்க, சும்மா பேசாதீங்க, பண்ரத விட்டூட்டு”
(= go get on with it, don't talk idly, leaving it undone."
Translation from Sanskrit to English is by Dr. Radhakrishnan. Some minor
modifications are made.
The Principal Upanishads By S.
Radhakrishnan. pages 321-330
Procreation
Ceremonies
V1. The earth is the essence of all these beings; of earth, the essence is
water; of water the essence is plants; of plants the essence is flowers; of
flowers, the essence is fruits; of fruits, the essence is man;
of man the essence
is semen.
Verse 2. And Prajapati (the Lord of people) thought
within himself: Come, let me make a firm basis (abode) for him.
So he created
woman. Having created her, he revered her below. So one should revere the
woman below.He stretched out for himself that which projects.
With that he impregnated her.
Woman below: Male-superior
position in sexual relations. The woman is the base. Man and woman are called
Aranis (
अरणि
= அரணி =
tinder-stick). The friction of the upper stick over the stable lower stick
creates fire. Very poetic!
V3.The woman is the sacrificial pit. Her lower part is the altar, her hairs
the sacred grass used in sacrifice. The two labia are the fire. Vajapeya
sacrifice makes man gain a world. With knowledge of sacrificial elements
pertaining to a woman, and subsequent encounter with the woman, man obtains the
good deeds of woman. Without the knowledge of the sacrifice, encounter with the
woman will result in his good deeds going to her.
Dr. Radhakrishnan comments as follows. Atharva Veda is reflected in the
Upanishad. There are charms to compel a woman to yield her love, prevent
pregnancy, or bring it about when desired.
Sexual act is a ritual performance.
V4. Brahmanas, not in the know of the afore-mentioned sacrifice, go forth
from this world impotent and devoid of merit.
V5. With or without touching it, he should recite: Whatever semen of mine has
spilt on earth, plants, water, I reclaim it. Let vigor, luster, and glow come to
me again. Let the fire and altars be found again in their usual place. Having
done this, he should take on his ring finger and rub it between his breasts or
eyebrows.
V6. Now if one should see himself (his reflection) in water, he should recite
the following hymn. In me, may the gods bestow luster, vigor, fame, wealth and
merit. This, verily, loveliness among women, when she has removed her soiled
clothes. Therefore, when she has removed her spoiled clothes, and is lovely he
should approach and speak to her. (Comment: I assume that this man is not
married to this woman.)
V7. If the woman does not grant him his desire, he should buy her presents.
If that does not work, he should beat her and overpower her with power and
glory, he should say, I take away your glory. Thus, she is devoid of her glory.
(Comment: This does not look or smell good.)
V8. If she grants his desire, he says, With power and glory, I give you
glory. Thus the two become glorious. (Comment: It appears power and glory are
the exclusive property in the male domain; the woman, on submission, gets part
of his power and glory.)
V9. If one desires a cooperative woman, who may enjoy love with him, he
should insert his member into her, joining mouth to mouth and stroking her lower
part, he should recite, You that have come from every limb, who have sprung from
your heart, you are the essence of the limbs. Distract this woman here in me, as
if pierced by a poisoned arrow. (Comment: Recitation during this extramarital or
premarital congress, appears to be an atonement for his errant behavior.)
V10. Now the woman whom one desires, thinking 'May she not conceive' after
inserting the member in her, joining mouth to mouth, he should first
inhale and then exhale and say, With power, with semen I reclaim the semen from
you. Thus she comes to be without semen. (Comment: Wishing away unwanted
pregnancy by incantations. There is a prevailing idea in the old sacred texts,
that holding the breath prolongs congress. It does not sound good because one
needs more oxygen at that moment in time. Holding breath makes the blood more
acidic, lowering the Ph.)
V11. Now the woman whom one desires thinking , May she conceive, after
inserting the member in her, joining mouth to mouth, he should first exhale and
then inhale and say, With power, with semen, I deposit semen in you. Thus she
becomes pregnant. (Again, by incantation, he can make her pregnant.)
Infidelity and remedy
V12. If a man's wife has a lover he (the husband) hates him (wishes to injure him)
let him put fire in the unbaked earthen vessel, spread out a layer of reed
arrows in an inverse order, and let him offer (in sacrifice) in inverse order
these reed arrows soaked in clarified butter, (saying)
You have sacrificed in my fire,
I take away your in-breath and out-breath, you so and so. You have sacrificed in
my fire. I take away your sons and cattle, you so and so. You have sacrificed in
my fire. I take away your sacrifices and meritorious deeds, you so and so. You
have sacrificed in my fire. I take away your hope and expectation, you so and
so. Verily, he departs from this world impotent and devoid of merit, he whom a
Brahmana who knows these curses. Therefore one should not play with the wife of
one who is learned in Vedas, who knows this, for indeed he who knows this
becomes preeminent.
You have
sacrificed in my fire= Remember woman is a sacrificial pit.
The illicit lover has sacrificed in the husband's pit. You had illicit liaison with my wife and
deposited your seeds into her.
(Spells and incantations were familiar practices in the age when the
Upanishad was composed.)--Dr. Radhakrishnan.
13· Now, when the monthly sickness comes upon one's
wife, for three days she should not drink from a bronze cup nor put on fresh
clothes. Neither a low-caste man nor a low-caste woman should touch her. At the
end of three nights after bathing she should be made to pound rice.
Comment: Menstruation and purification
Sometimes it is interpreted kaṁsena pibet; she should
drink from a bronze cup.
The rice is intended for the sthālī-pāka
ceremony.
After three-nights she should bathe, put on new clothes
and prepare the rice for the ceremony.
I4· If one wishes that
his son should be born of a fair
complexion, that he should study the Veda, that he should attain a full
term of life, they should have
rice cooked with milk and eat it with clarified butter, then they should be able
to beget (him).
Comment: A recipe for begetting a son with fair
complexion. It is a common belief in Tamil Nadu that smearing the body parts and
face with turmeric helps removal of unwanted hair and prevents the body from
becoming darker.
http://www.bewellbuzz.com/general/benefits-of-turmeric-for-skin-and-more.
Brhad-Aranyaka Upanishad:
Page 326 The Principal Upanishads, Translation by Dr. Radhakrishnan.
Verse VI.4.18.
Now if one
wishes for a son, learned, famous, a frequenter of assemblies, a speaker
of delightful words, that he should study all Vedas , that he should
attain full term of life, they should have rice cooked with meat and eat
it with clarified butter, then they should be able to beget (such a
son)--either veal or beef.
In Vedic times eating beef was prevalent among
Brahmanas, though
at present time almost all the older Brahmanas do not eat beef or
chicken. Some of the younger brahmins in nuclear family eat meat and or
chicken either at home or in the restaurants with or without the
knowledge of their parents. I know of brahmin military family male
members eat non-vegetarian meals. There are some very strict
lacto-vegetarian Brahamana military persons known to me. There is a joke
among Hindus in America that only Indian cows are sacred and local cows
are fit for consumption. A Brahmana is one who observes injunctions and
worships the sectarian deity everyday. A brahmin is one who does not
perform rituals and lives like any other person. Brahmana is the real
thing; a brahmin is a few notches below the real thing. The males of a
Brahmana family who have not chanted Gayatri Mantra and observed the
attendant rituals for a few generations lose the Brahmana status. The
ladies are forbidden to chant Gayatri Mantra in strict Brahamana
families. They are not allowed to listen to Gayatri Mantra chanted by
the male members esp. when they are having periods.
15· Now if one wishes that his
son should be born of a tawny or
brown complexion, that he should study the two Vedas, that" he should
attain a full term of life, they
should have rice cooked in curds and eat it with clarified butter, then they
should be able to beget (him).
16. Now if one wishes that his son should be born of a
dark complexion with red eyes, that he should study the three Vedas, that he
should attain a full term of life, they should have rice cooked in water and
eat it with clarified butter, then they should be able to beget (him).
17. Now if one wishes that his daughter should be born,
who is learned, that she should attain a full term of life, they should have
rice cooked with sesamum and eat it with clarified butter, then they should be
able to beget (her).
Comment:
While the Upaniṣad
seems to grant the privilege of learning and scholarship to women, Sankara
points out that this learning is limited to domestic affairs. Even Sankara, the
towering figure in Monism did not recommend education of woman.
The other
commentators follow Sankara whose view conflicts with ancient beliefs and
practices.
18. Now if one wishes that a son, leamed, famous, a
frequenter of assemblies, a speaker of delightful words, that he should study
all the Vedas, that he should attain a full term of life,
they should have rice cooked with
meat and eat it with clarified butter, then they should be able to beget (such a
son)--either veal or beef.
Comment: Evidently meat was permitted on certain
occasions. Anadagiri points out that this
permission was due to local conditions.
Prenatal conditioning of the child's
character is advised.
19. Now, toward morning, after having prepared clarified
butter according to the mode of the sthālī-pāka he takes of the
sthālī-pāka and makes an offering (saying), to fire, hail, to Anumati, hail, to
the radiant sun, the creator of truth, hail. After having made the offering, he
takes up (the remnants of the cooked food) and eats. Having eaten-- he offers
(the rest) to the other (his wife). After having washed his hands and filled the
water vessel, he sprinkles her thrice with it (water) (saying), 'Get up from
here, Viṣvāvasu; seek another young
woman, a wife with her husband.'
sthālī-pāka: literally, a pot of cooked food. Anumati:
the feminine personification of divine favor. See R.V.
20.
Then
he embraces her, (saying), 'I am the vital breath and you are speech; you are
speech and I am the vital breath. I am the Sāman
and you are the Rg, I am the heaven and you are the earth. Come, let us strive
together, let us mix semen that we may have a male child.'
21. Then he spreads apart her thighs,
(saying) 'Spread yourselves apart, 'Heaven and Earth. After having inserted the
member in her, after having joined mouth to mouth, he strokes her three times as
the hair lies, (saying), 'Let Viṣṇu
make the womb prepared. Let Tvaṣṭr
shape the (various) forms. Let Praja-pati pour in. Let Dhātṛ
place the germ (the seed) for you. O Sinīvāli, give the seed; give the
seed, O broad-tressed dame. Let the two Aśvins
crowned with lotus wreaths place the seed.
Sinīvāli = the deity delightful to see.
'When the human father thus emits him as seed into the
womb, it is really the sun that emits him as seed into the womb ... thence is he
born, after that seed, that breath. In Buddhist canonical literature three
things are said to be necessary for conception, the union of father and mother,
the mother's period and the presence of the gandharva. The gandharva corresponds
to the divine nature which is the primary cause of generation, while the parents
are only the concomitant causes. For" Aristotle, 'Man and the Sun generate man.'
Rūmi
says: 'When the time comes for the embryo to receive the vital spirit, at that
time the sun becomes its helper. This embryo is brought into movement by the
sun, for the sun is quickly endowing it with spirit. From the other stars this
embryo received only an impression, until the sun shone upon it. By which way
did it become connected in the womb with the beauteous sun? By the hidden way
that is remote from' our sense-perception.' In a very real sense, the
commandment is significant, 'Call no man your father on earth; for one is your
Father, which is in heaven.' John VI. 6. 3. Comment by Dr. Radhakrishnan.
22. 'The (two) Asvins twirl forth a flame with the (two)
attrition sticks of gold. It is such a germ that we beg of you to be brought
forth in the tenth month. As the earth contains the germ of fire and as the
heaven is pregnant with the storm, as the air is the germ of quarters, even so I
place a germ in you, so and so.'
Comment: The fire sticks are the man and his wife. Man
stabilizes the lower stick and churns the upper stick on the lower stick to
create sparks. The churning of the sticks stands for consortium.
23· When she is about to bring forth (give
birth) he sprinkles her
with water (saying) : 'Even as the wind agitates a lotus pond on every side,
even so let your foetus stir and come out along with its chorion. This Indra's
fold has been made with a covering enclosed around. O Indra, cause him to come
forth the afterbirth along with babe.
This hymn is uttered for successful parturition.
24. When (the son is) born, after having prepared the
fire, after having taken (the baby) in his lap and having put curds and
clarified butter in a bronze cup, he makes an oblation again and again with
those curds and clarified butter (saying), 'May I increase in this (son) and
nourish a thousand in my home. May fortune never depart from his line with
offspring and cattle. Hail. I offer to you mentally the vital forces that are in
me. Whatever in my work I have done too much or whatever I have done here too
little, let Agni the all-knowing, the beneficent, make it fit and good for us.
Hail.
25· Then putting his mouth near the child's right ear,
he says thrice, 'speech,' 'speech.' Then mixing curds, honey and clarified
butter he feeds him out of a spoon of gold which is not placed within (the
mouth) saying, 'I place in you the earth, I place in you the atmosphere, I place
in you the heaven. I place in you everything, earth, atmosphere and heaven.'
Comment : Giving honey to a newborn baby
is dangerous because it causes botulism. I wonder how many babies were lost in
this manner. I must admit that a tad of honey on the finger is all that a
newborn eats.
26. Then he gives him a name (saying), 'You are Veda.'
So this becomes his secret name.
27· Then he presents him to the mother and gives him her
breast saying: 'Your breast which is unfailing and refreshing, wealthy,
abundant, generous with which you nourish all worthy beings, Sarasvati, give it
here (to my wife for my baby) to suck from.'
28. Then he addresses the mother (of the baby) : 'You
are Ilā,
descended from Mitra and Varuṇa.
Being a heroine, you have brought forth a hero. You who have given us a hero for
a son, be you the mother of (many) heroes.' Of such a son they say, 'You have
gone beyond your father; you have gone beyond your grandfather.' Verily, he has
reached the highest point in prosperity, fame and radiance of spirit, who is
born as the son of a Brāhmaṇa
who knows this.
Ilā:
Anadagiri identifies Ilā with Arundhatī,
the wife of Vasiṣtha,
the son of Mitra and Varuna.
Vīre:
may be taken either in vocative or locative, radiance of spirit shining in the
face. No contempt for the body is indicated. Porphyry's statement of his master:
'Plotinus, the philosopher of our time was like one ashamed of being in a body,'
will not get the support of the Upanisads.
Sacred thread of three strands worn by the Twice-Born stands for many triads;
one such excellent triad is to be pure in thought, word and deed. Another triad
speaks of Isvara, Cit and Acit of Srivaishnavites. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas stand
for another triad.
There is a
proper way a Vedic twice-born (a male; females have no such privilege) introduces himself to his interlocutor (or
interviewer, usually a religious person):
Gotra, Sutra, Shaka, and Pravaras. The conventional
western way is First, Middle, and Last names.
I am Mr. So and So of X Gotra, of Y Sutra, of Z Shaka and of seven
pravaras: A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
Gotra: Patrilineal (Y Chromosome) descent from
one of the Saptarishis (seven Seers): Kashyapa, Atri, Vashishtha, Vishvamitra,
Gautama, Jamadagni, Bharadwaja. There are several assortment of Rishis such as
Bhrigu, Atri, Angirasa, Vasishta, Pulastya, Pulalaha and Kratu. They are the
mind-born sons of Brahma, the god of creation. The son belongs to the Gotra of
his father. The women belong to the Gotra of their father and take on the Gotra
of their husbands after marriage.
Brahma originally had five heads. Siva cut off one of his heads for lying.
Brahma and Vishnu tried to find the ends of the fiery column of Siva, Brahma
flying up to find the upper end and Vishnu burrowing into the earth to find the
lower end. Brahma came to Siva and reported with a (talking) flower bearing a false
witness that he found the upper end. Vishnu came later saying that he could not
find the lower end. Siva discovering the lie cut off the lying head of Brahma,
banished him from the pantheon of gods; degraded, banished, and humiliated,
Brahma, on the order of Siva, never had temples built for his worship.
(There is one Brahma temple in India.) Siva pronounced that Vishnu would be His
equal in every respect.
Siva married Sati, the Granddaughter of Brahma and the daughter of Daksa.
During the wedding ceremony, Brahma was imbibing the beauty, grace and divinity
of his granddaughter. He felt a sexual attraction towards her and the mounting
tension resulted in copious discharge of semen in his Dhoti or loincloth, which
was noticed by all the guests in the party. Siva's fury knew no bounds, but He was
prevented by others from attacking Brahma.
Thus, Brahma was never in the good books of Siva, Who is the Yogin of Yogins
and the God of gods according to Saivite tradition. I am sure others in the know
are going to point the finger at Siva who went on a hot pursuit of Mohini,
spilling His vital fluid on the earth which transformed into veins of gold and
silver in the womb of the earth. I am a devotee of Siva, Vishnu and Mother
Goddess; I don't
believe any legitimacy in these cockamamie stories. Their value is teaching us
important lessons. Siva always says that Vishnu is on par with
Him. Why would not Saivites and Vaishnavites listen to Him and be nice to each
other?
Assuming all this is true, for the Dvijas to claim heredity from the mind-born sons of a lying and
licentious Brahma is regrettable indeed. Mind is seat of thought, which goes on
to speech and deed.
As our genes are hereditary, could lying be inherited? If that is a possibility, some of the injunctions
are plain
lies. The Dvijas are the descendants of the lying and lascivious mind of
Brahma. Did they consider that burden? Though Brahma had the frailties of a
human, he is the most learned god of the Vedas. Could all these fabricated stories of
errant gods be lessons in morals to men?
Sutra: सूत्र
= Ceremonial rules. Ritual (kalpaकल्प
= body of rules on ritual).
Manual of aphoristic rules.
Shakhaa: शखा = Branch of
Vedic School; Affiliation to a specific school.
Pravara: प्रवर = Lineage
= Series of most excellent Rishis (who
belonged to his Gotra).
Here is a fictional situation for comedic ends.
Please be informed, that if Mr. So and So goes for a college admission or job
interview, this impressive but supercilious and highfaluting introduction--
however feigned, humble, sincere or indifferent it is-- will
put the interlocutor ill at ease and ruin the interlocutor's day.
Humility is not built in Abhivadanam (अभिवादन =
அபிவாதனம் =
apivātaṇam).
The words of salutation are weighty with high Gotra, famous
Rishis who jostled with gods, affiliation to a super-supreme (like today's
prestigious colleges) school, and magical
rituals of high-born Rishi.... A hurried or exasperated
interlocutor may spit out the words out of shear exhaustion, "Are we done with
the introduction?" To claim heredity from a famous Rishi who supposedly
lived eons (millions of years) ago is really a challenge to and a test of our
intelligence and credulity and magical thinking on his part. Most likely the
interviewer has less credentials, as it is the case with me. Getting admission
or job depends on other earthly qualifications, that you can confidently and
truthfully put in your resume. To be truthful, I am jealous of these people with
highfaluting credentials, which I do not have. If I pretend to be a highfaluting
fool, I will be discovered in one nanosecond. That is because, the interlocutor
will ask me for some minutiae, I am not aware of. Such is the elaborate scheme of
things to exclude me from the elite club and keep me at a distance. I have been discovered time and again
as an outsider when I did not walk the walk and talk the talk with special
caste-specific inflections, words, phrases, clothes, mannerisms..., though I had all the stuff. You
have to have a sectarian dictionary on hand to know what they are talking about.
Now I understand there is no Manipravala dictionary available in the store. You
have to learn from the Acharyas over years. You
could be a professor of and Ph.D in Tamil and heard and read everything in the
library, and yet you stand there listening to the sectarian talk in
Manipravalam,
your head spins like a hard drive and comes up empty and your comprehension is
next to null. It is common knowledge you have to be born, belong, brought up and
move in a particular sect to understand and speak bastardized Tamil as spoken by
the sectarians. The pretenders are discovered, exposed, laughed at, shunted and
ignored because the dress, and the mannerisms are a giveaway. So is the case
once one opens the mouth. When I open my mouth, I lose every time and that too
miserably. I developed an inexplicable complex which defies characterization. I
have many times tried to engage today's Brahmins on my outings on religion and
politics. They are resistant in conversing (with strangers) and keep it as short
as possible. They are polite and fade away faster than the snow flakes falling
on hot hood of a car. Buttonholing them for my education is like pulling
teeth. Remember that different castes have caste-specific way of naming the
children. That is another giveaway of one's caste. They will ask you politely,
"What is thy good name?" The answer spins the sectarian wheels in their heads and elicits a polite attempt to withdraw from your presence, as if you
are a carrier of plague.
It is very easy to spot the Indian parents and in-laws
on visitor's visa
in the malls, temples, eateries, supermarkets, stores, streets, vacation
spots.... You can many times tell the religion, the sect... from the dress, the
configuration of the sari, the sectarian marks on the forehead. They are usually
from 45 to 70 years of age. Their favorite spots are Statue of Liberty,
Rockefeller Center, NY museums, White House, Washington, Lincoln...monuments,
the Smithsonian, Grand Canyon, Disney Land.... You can be sure you won't catch
them dead or alive in an orphanage or an opera house but can spot them in living
colors in the Bronx and San
Diego zoos. Some are very friendly and kindly and give you their business cards. I give
away my card with my web site details printed on it. They flip it around, look
it over again, sport a quizzical look, put it
in the pocket, or give it to the spouse and promise to email me with a
feedback. I never received one feedback. Daksa excoriated Shiva once by saying
that giving his daughter (Sati) to Shiva in marriage was like teaching Vedas to
a Sudra. In like vein, they may wonder what this blackguard is doing writing on
Bhagavadgita.
Manipravalam
is a mixture of Sanskrit and Tamil, politely called a Hybrid.
I am slowly learning Manipravalam from the internet articles.
Sri Krishnan Swamy, Explicator of Srivaishnava lore
Abhivaadanam
is a polite humble introduction of one self performed during prostration. It
identifies one self with reference to the pravara, gotra, sutra and the branch
of veda. We belong to the lineage of three rishis (pravara), we belong to a
rishi by hereditary (gotra) in performing rituals we follow the method of a
rishi (sutra) we belong to the stream of a studying brahmam through a particular
veda (sakha) . this is a general explanation of the terms we use. I am not aware
of specific gotrams.
Comment:
Heredity means
transmission of genes from parents to children. How could one be sure that the
present generation of Twice-Born are connected by genes to the Rishis, who were
born of Brahma's mind many many eons ago? Some Royal Rishis belong to this
category. No one I know of can trace their heredity beyond a few hundred years
into the past.
Abhivaadanam
= अभिवादन =
அபிவாதனம் = apivātaṇam = Greeting, salutation,
n. < abhi-
vādana. Respectful salutation which describes the name and lineage of the
person who salutes.
[In India, skin tones can take you to places or deny admission, earn
adoration, adulation and approbation or disapprobation. My father was a light-skinned, clean-shaven Brahmin-looking person fluent in
local, national and international politics living in T' Nagar in the 1950s, 60s,
and 70s. He went to the Siva-Vishnu temple or next door assembly hall daily to listen to the
pundits and Brahmins talk about religion (and politics rarely). My father never practiced
religion at all but visited holy places. He never spoke ill of gods; if he
stumbled upon an idol, he would pay respects and go on his way. The Brahmins
always gave him respect and treated him well. They used to wonder and talk in
whispers who that Brahmin (look-alike) was. They assumed he was a Brahmin
because he was light-skinned and had an Indo-Aryan look. All Indians like the wheat
complexion or the color of tender mango leaf (மாயிலை
நிறம்). He never opened his mouth and
told any of them his name or caste. He died in late 1970s a light-skinned
Brahmin in the eyes of the dark-skinned Brahmins. The prevailing attitude at
that time was, 'If he is light-skinned, he must be a Brahmin until proven
otherwise.' He never went into the Sanctum
Sanctorum on his own accord unless he had to tag along with us and I never knew him worship any god in his life. My family never
celebrated any religious events in our household. Yet we were Hindus; go figure
that. He stayed in Tiruvannamalai and listened to Ramana Maharishi. He was
rather a closet philosopher than an idolator. And he never taught me any
Hindu philosophy. He went to Gandhi Ashram once and stayed there for a
few months. People took to him and Gandhi personally asked him to join the
Ashram. He lived in Rishikesh for several months and rubbed shoulders with
mendicants, yogis and foreigners. All this he did without much Moolah on hand.
He was living on donated food, I assume. We never questioned him about it.
Every time he came back home, he looked like a stick. He had a wanderlust and
came home for good when the lust weakened and the bones became weary. In good
old days, god-men (hermits) wandered with no money, holding a stick and kamandalam (Today's bottle
of water) and somehow managed to live. Nowadays, this is
impossible. My feeling
is that he wanted to become a Sannyasi or a recluse. Some modern Indians try
hard to become anchorites in the dusk of their lives but fail miserably and come
back home in tatters.
These Seers or Rishis were born of Brahma's mind. we are told by the
geneticists that humanity did not come from mind-born Saptarishis but from
womb-born Black African
Adam and Eve, who are our true ancestors. The Rishis were figment of imagination;
they were born like all of us; or they were great men, nothing more and nothing
less.
Anthropologists say our ancestors were Orang, Gorilla and Chimp. We have come
up to the level of The Buddha and Jesus Christ. What our next stage is in this
evolution, no one knows.
Out of
Africa
Brahmins, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas, and
Sudras did not emerge from the body parts of god, but originated from the
African Adam and Eve.
According to the Out-of-Africa model, developed by
Chris Stringer and Peter Andrews, modern
H. sapiens evolved in Africa
200,000 years ago. Homo sapiens began migrating from Africa between
70,000 – 50,000 years ago and eventually replaced existing hominid species in
Europe and Asia.[60][61]
Out of Africa has gained support from research using female mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
and the male Y chromosome. After analysing genealogy trees constructed using 133
types of mtDNA, researchers concluded that all were descended from a woman from
Africa, dubbed Mitochondrial Eve. Out of Africa is also supported by the fact that
mitochondrial genetic diversity is highest among African populations.[62]Wikipedia
A Brahmana of Vedic Times or an
Atavistic Brahmana of today introduces himself in a snobbish, pompous, highfaluting,
superior-than-thou flamboyance, whereby he diminishes everyone around. Bhagavadgita
talks about (the quality of) Brahmin as follows.
śamao damas tapaḥ śaucaṁ kṣāntir
ārjavam eva ca jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ
brahmakarma svabhāvajam 18.42
18.42: Tranquillity, self-control, austerity, purity,
patience, honesty, knowledge, wisdom, and belief in God are the duty of the
Brāhmana born of his own nature.
Our Ancestors were black Africans: We are what we are today
because of mutation of African genes. Every human being, including the
lily-white, blue-eyed, blonde-haired, peachy-peach Northern European on earth, has the African
lurking inside him; the Saptarishis born of Brahma are a figment of fertile imagination,
fed with Pancha Gavya and Darbha grass. That is mythology advanced as real by
the believers. There were sages but they were not born
of Brahma's mind but of human wombs. What are we--chopped liver? For a person to introduce himself, saying the five or seven
eminent seers--the mind-born sons of Brahma-- belong to 'my ancestry' is really over the top.
This claim galls me.
Most of the people lose track of their ancestry, antecedent to great great
grandfather, unless one is born in the royal family. To claim ancestral
affiliation with seers going back several thousand years is imperious
haughtiness, self-conceit, and arrogance (இறுமாப்பு).
I am sorry this
may sound sacrilegious; but Hinduism insists on Truth
Alone Triumphs (सत्यमेव जयते
= Satyameva Jayate from Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.6)--Krishnaraj
Satyam
eva jayate nānṛtam, satyena panthā vitato deva-yānaḥ yenākramanty ṛṣayo hy
āpta-kāmā yatra satyasya paramaṁ nidhānam. 3.1.6 Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad
Truth
alone conquers, not untruth. By truth is laid out the path leading to the gods
by which the sages who have their desires fulfilled travel to where is that
supreme abode of truth. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan
It
appears that Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya is believable because the Acharyas were
living persons with historical documentation. Once a person becomes a true
Srivaishnava, he is accepted into the fold irrespective of his caste.
The full affiliation of a brāhamana consists of (1)
gotra, (2) pravaras (3) sutra (of Kalpa), (4) shakha.
(Example :) A brahmana named 'X' introduces himself as
follows : I am 'X', of Shrivatsa gotra, of Āpastamba sutra, of Taittiriya shākha
of Yajurveda, of five pravaras (the most excellent Seers) named Bhārgava,
Chyāvana, Āpnavan, Aurva and Jāmadagnya (This example is based upon the example
given by Pattābhirām Shastri in the introduction to Vedārtha-Pārijata, cf.
ref.).
Here I am, a pallid pensioner compared to the pompous
pundit.
(I am Veeraswamy Krishnaraj, claim
my ancestry from African Adam and Eve, and wear Indo-European genes as most
Indians are excepting the tribals by DNA
testing; no eminent
seer or seers belong to my nondescript ancestry, heredity and circumstances. I don't claim high Gotra,
eminent Pravaras, Sutra or Shaka.)
Take the Master Painters of the
West. They painted Adam and Eve in their image: tall, handsome, very white.... I
heard some say they are with the angels while (they said) others were
with apes. We all heard that time and again. The very idea that other people belonged to category of apes did
not impress on them that their own forefathers were apes, monkeys or whatever.
The real Adam and Eve were black Africans.
While the gotras were classified initially according to
nine (?) rishis, the pravaras were classified under the names of the following
seven rishis:
Agastya
Angirasa
Atri
Bhrigu
Kashyapa
Vasishtha
Vishvamitra
These are some of the grievous errors and misinformation in the Sacred and
secular Texts,
perpetuated day in and day out befuddling the public and keeping the rest of
humanity in their place. I do see it serves an
important function in that men and women belonging to the same Gotra should not
marry, thus ensuring genetic diversity. Seven degrees of separation of same
Gotra allow the couple to marry.
In India Astrology plays a big role in deciding who
marries whom. Many astrologers in big cities charge hundreds of Dollars or
thousands of Rupees to forecast the future, foretell the timing of marriage,
compatibility.... Once they know you are from America, the fees goes up very
high to several hundreds to thousands of dollars.
No
arranged Hindu marriage takes place without Astrology. Many
young women are ostracized, branded and excluded from
marriage on the basis of astrology that the would-be bride
would bring death, pain or penury to the prospective
husband. The astrologers make tons of money by convincing
the credulous to perform expensive rituals of atonement and
pacification of demiurges.--Krishnaraj
Here is
what a Brahmana Nobel laureate (Dr.Venkatraman) says about
astrology.
CHENNAI: Nobel laureate
Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan provoked a few and enthralled many with his talk
on 'The Sceptical Scientist' in the city on Thursday. He termed
astrology and
alchemy fake disciplines that depended on the power of suggestion and said
homeopathy was
based on belief. Terms like 'positive and negative energy' used by various
"quacks were complete mumbo jumbo" and had no precise meaning, he said. Science,
he added, had a particular definition of energy.
Universities
on the forefront for equality of genders.
The Hindu
paradox: Hinduism, chock-full of goddesses and yet men's pernicious
dominion over women.
JANUARY 23, 2012. Despite increase in women's upward mobility, dismal
sex ratio, female infanticide, sexual harassment and female child labour
were worrying indicators, according to N.
Manimekalai,
Secretary, RAWS
(Regional Association of Women's Studies), and Head,Department of Women's Studies,
Bharathidasan
University. At a day-long workshop on ‘Relevance of Women's
Studies in the Present Context' that the RAWS conducted earlier this
month, speakers opined that violence against women was a manifestation
of patriarchy and that the society did not protect them. The violence
had its roots in denial of economic rights, they said.
Menstrual segregation is one such misinformation and malpractice.
It appears that the isolation of women during their monthly periods is
Sanskritic Brahmanical introduction to the south. Menarche is a celebrated event
in Tamil Nadu. The goddesses including women are brimming with Sakti,
which has to spill and thus undergoes attenuation and expression in menstruation. Of course, the physiology was never been understood
in the olden days. This is one proof among others that some of the sacred texts
were interpolations by limited men. The lack of insight into physiology in olden times equates
menstruation with ovulation. Ovulation was never even thought of, in the ancient
sacred or secular texts. What they saw in a woman is what they
believed in. I did not expect them to know, because the medical science was
still in early stages. This sacerdotal observation is a kind of WYSIWYG. They saw the
monthly bleeding in the female; it must be a letdown from rising pressure of Sakti. This
happens in a monthly cycle. That is why the Bindu is named 1) Sona (red) Bindu
of the goddess for the later discovery of ovum and 2) Sita (white semen) Bindu of
Siva. When these Bindus unite, the whole universe of beings and matter are
created. When the goddess is brimming and spilling Sakti (power) in the form of
menstruation, some temples are closed for a few days every year. The temples
have elaborate calendars to forecast the yearly menstrual periods. To be a
little silly and questioning, I have this query. Since deities have a 12
month lifespan for every month lived by human, the deity has periods once in 12
months. That being so, the deity should have periods for 4X12 = 48 days. How is
it the pedantic priests, pundits and ritualists assigned only 4
days of menstruation, instead of 48 days for the deity? The simple reasons for
this shortened periods are they cannot keep the temple closed continuously for 48
days and they never really believed that menstruation is part of the physiology
of a goddess. All this indicates that this segregation of women during periods are
man-made and arbitrary.
Waterboarding and other
Perceived mischief in the temples, according to Vishnu and Sri
When the priests pour cold water and milk,
fruits, ... on the idol's head, they do so nonchalantly. Man, stop it, I can't
breath; go slow. It is waterboarding. At least put an oxygen mask on Me and pour
the water or milk. Thank you. Sri residing on My chest complains bitterly of
chills and all
the discomfort she is putting up. I voice Her concerns and suggestions.
Next time you pour on Me water or milk,
make sure it is lukewarm, you hear Me. Stop those bananas; they are gooey and
stick to my skin. One day I saw a pieces of banana blocking the noses of Sri and
Padma. Why do you buy zillion gallons of milk and pour it on Me and let it run
into the sewer? Why don't you donate the milk and fruits to the needy in My Holy
name? Haven't you seen protein-malnourished children? I am a very parsimonious god; be frugal on what you spend on Me. I
have not yet paid my debt fully to Kubera. I even considered declaring bankruptcy. You
know I am Govinda, the lover of cows. How can you and I call Me Govinda,
when you waste their milk by gallons every day?
Don't you know the episode, when Sri
morphed into a cow of Chola king and fed Me residing in the anthill and thus
sustaining Me. That being so, I don't like milk going to waste.
If you cannot stop doing these things, at
least collect the milk, water, fruits in a special tank and use it as fertilizer
in the temple garden. I see, it costs money and is not feasible.
Next time, you throw the petals on My
Feet, do so gently, take off the stems from the flowers; those stems give me
sore legs. You are not counting the number of times you throw those pointy stems
on My Feet. You know I have been standing ever since you installed me in the
temple. It is a miracle my feet are not swollen from dependent edema. I want to be free of those armor plates. It is too hot in this
confined place. No fans, no AC; I am sweating; the heat is oppressive.
Besides, those plates are too heavy and don't fit me well.
For a change, put on the plates, the
garlands, all my garments, accouterments and weapons and stand in the sanctum
through the night. You will know what I mean. (You call this love and devotion
to Me.)
The Pitambaram, I am not sure, I like any
more. I counted the number of silkworms that died so I can wear these nice
silks. It bothers me to know zillions of silkworms died on my behalf. Can I wear
plain cotton clothes from now on, PLEASE? I am a vegetarian and that being so,
why would I kill silkworms to wear their silk?
Sri does not like
to hear the name of Bhrgu Muni around My Sanctum; Sri does not enjoy Bhrgu
kicking on My chest, while she was residing on My chest. Worst of all
while I was massaging the kick-foot of Bhrgu, Sri was massaging my feet. It
looks bad; people call it bad optics nowadays. I am the Lord of the Universe.
What prompted Me to massage the offending foot of Bhrgu Muni? Only I can answer,
no one else. I am not telling anyone. It is ;)
embarassing.
Sri, Bhu, and Nila simply don't like
men-priests touching them while they bathe them. How is groping different from
these ceremonial acts? I command you to employ trained priestesses to do the
same. Of course, if you insist, the women-priests can take off during their
menses.
The gods are confined to small sancta
and get locked up in the night with no movement of air. It is very
claustrophobic in there every night. I set free all the souls today or tomorrow;
now how could you lock Me up in the small sanctum every night, denying Me the
freedom of movement.
Another myth advanced by the purists is that gods do not like
women being priests, because they menstruate every month. I have an objection
about men-priests man-handling the body parts of a goddess while they undress,
scrub, rub, clean, bath, dry, dress, and decorate the goddess, all behind the
screen. That too in the very presence of the god, the Consort of the goddess.
The priests are not that close and intimate physically even with their own
wives. Would they dare do the same ritual acts to their wives? If they do them
on their wives, they will be declared persona non grata. Is it not
objectionable? Why should we not have a priestess care for the idols of
goddesses? Why don't we start training them for these important duties? I
believe in a living goddess in the temple. I want Her to be treated with respect
by a priestess. The idols are not mere objects, but living deities.
Pranapratishta-infusion of breath into them- has made them alive. The priests
say it. Then why are they man-handling them?
The question arises whether temple becomes an
isolation area for the menstruating and polluting (தீட்டு) goddess. Yes,
it does, as the Kamakhya Temple is closed for a few days every year. Purity is
godliness. Then why are we saying a goddess is impure for four days in a
year? Goddesses and gods are a special breed of beings. Their physiology must be different in every way. Why do we have to anthropomorphize a Goddess and give
her a human physiology and human frailties? I am told that Brahman moves without
being seen, walks without legs and sees without eyes. So the Goddess must be
creating this universe of beings and matter without a physical womb. I have been told that a
deity appears to a devotee in the familiar forms he or she is used to or
desires.
We (man) cannot imagine a god or goddess without human attributes. To make
the menstruation of goddess pseudo-realistic, the priests drench the goddess
with red liquid and red kum kum. When the priests brand goddess polluting
without saying it explicitly and
prevent people offering worship to the Goddess by closing the temple, we should not give too much credence to the
injunctions. The priests give away the divine menstrual liquid and bits of the
red rag to the devotees, as sacraments. To give a false prasada in the name of
a goddess is regrettable indeed. They know sacraments are not
real but an unreal symbol; the real, as in a woman, is polluted in their opinion.
Now we see the acuteness of situation, because men decided a woman
with a primordial pollution (a periodic serial polluter) cannot be a priestess.
When they shut down a Goddess during presumed periods, what is an earthbound woman after
all? A powerful goddess cannot keep Her doors open and an injunction-bound woman
cannot keep her doors open either.
There is a custom in Dvija
households in India that the
menstruating woman is ostracized, segregated, shunted, secluded and secretes
herself out of sight in a zenana (seclusion room). This is a very discriminatory practice in my
opinion and this burden is placed on the woman and the family by inconsiderate
men, who wrote the injunctions many eons ago. Did they touch base with Sri, Uma,
Sarasvati, Durga, Kali, Valli, Devayanai and other women, before they wrote the
injunctions? No, they did not. Menstruation is ThIttu (தீட்டு in Tamil =
Pollution). The men imposed this restriction on goddesses and the women. The woman is
polluted for 5 days every month and after childbirth. The Sastraic code writers
branded themselves the Pollution Control Board to stem the tide of pollution
emanating from a menstruating woman in the household. There are millions of
households in India and therefore millions of menstruating women. The whole of
India is polluted, going by the injunctions. What about the women who happen to
have precipitous periods while visiting the temple? Is the temple polluted?
Should the temple authorities ask for declaration of purity while the women
visit the temple? There is no end to this mindless injunction. Look around: pollution of
air, water, oceans, lakes; the
mosquito larvae infested puddles; dog-dos; all kinds of air-borne garbage daily.
That is pollution they are willing to live with. Many post menopausal old wives,
who went through the rigorous punishment themselves before, figuratively flog
the younger women and drive them into the impure isolation room, or to the concealed
well (space)
between the platform (திண்ணை) and the wall. During
my school and college days, I saw many a woman sitting in the space counting
hours going into days until she becomes pure by taking a shower. The widowed
woman is a constant inhabitant in the perimeter of the house. As we walked the
streets, we could count the number of menstruating women and
the widows. Yes, I lived in Dvija neighborhood.
Family values and baffling
traffic: Oprah awed by Indian ‘paradox’--elders respected and widows
abandoned.
“What most impressed me here was the family tradition in the country
and the fact that you take care of your parents, your grandparents,”
said the media moghul, who turned up at the Jaipur Literature Festival
wearing a yellow-green embroidered salwar paired with ankle grazing
western styled pyjamas. She said
she was all the more surprised by the fact that women who lose their
husbands can be discarded in a country where families do so well to take
care of their elders. “I couldn’t understand this paradox that a country
where families have so much love for their elders could discard its
women just because they did not have husbands,” she
said. http://www.thehindu.com/arts/books/article2823176.ece?homepage=true
The passersby know the lady of the house is
polluted for 5 days. If she happens to be a widowed menstruating woman, she is
further punished to have her head shaved, wear white sari, cover her head out of
shame, shed jewels and sit out on the verandah throughout her widowhood. Thank
god, we do not have female genital mutilation in India. The
dead men, not wanting their women married again, established these injunctions
against the women, who had to suffer for decades without a meaningful
companionship. The idea is that the defeminized (and dehumanized) widow is
made to look as unattractive as possible so the eligible men would avert their
eyes. Discriminating and liberal men of this age can see misery and the beauty
through the veil. Most people walking on the street particularly avoid seeing
the widow for fear that a widow is an immobile sphinx doling out bad
luck. Heartless people call them by the pejorative word Mundai (முண்டை
= मुण्ड
= a widow with a shaven head). When Indian men get angry with women and
their wives, out come the pejorative words BemAni Mundai (பேமானி முண்டை =
shameless Widow). In actuality, the men curse themselves and say, 'I would rather
be a widower than married to this shameless woman.' Even the crows lose respect for such a
widow and constantly cry and assemble a mob of cawing and mocking crows before
the poor widow. The crows look at her with their heads cocked to one side and
the beaks turned up in an act of supreme condescension. She is showered not with
homilies but with contumelies for her silent suffering. The widow is compelled
to mourn until her death, submit herself to humiliating head shave once a month,
forgo chewing Pan (I don't recommend it but sometimes I do chew.), makeup, fun
things, and flowers excepting sectarian marks on the forehead, shed all her
jewels, wear only white saris, and desist from participating in festivities,
marriages and Upanayana ceremonies. Her body, mind, soul, thoughts and speech
fade, wilt and die. Some but not all of these persecutory
practices have been dropped in recent times. The widow is barely tolerated, and
regarded as anathema during marriage ceremonies. They usually sit out in a
corner out of sight of the bride and groom during the ceremonies. Soon after attaining
widowhood (thank god, Sati is no more, thank the British), the newly-minted
widow is surrounded by well-meaning womenfolk exhorting her to tolerate her
widowhood with fortitude and seek no remarriage. They embrace, grab, shake her, and shed rivers of tears on her.
Many women join, as in the case of rented mourners around a dead person, a custom in villages, in the
wailing sessions. They make her sit on a stool or floor; a near, dear and close female relative utters
words of wisdom and Mantra of solace and rips (cuts) the marriage badge and
chain (மாங்கலியம்,
தாலி =
माङ्गल्य)
off the widow's neck. It is like removing the wedding ring with camouflaged
disdain. The husband dies; how is it her fault? Why does she have to
suffer for the rest of her life as if life without him is no life and should be lived in
misery, squalor, and neglect? Widow's remarriage is unthinkable, while widower
is actively encouraged to remarry. The need for companionship and comfort for a
woman is not a consideration.
I understand connubial fidelity between living husband and wife; what I don't
understand is why the living should extend sexual fidelity to the dead, esp.
when the widow is in her preteens, teens or early 20s. Thank God, the dead man did not
insist on Sati. Sati is entering the funeral pyre of the dead husband and burnt
alive. The widower goes about marrying again, while he, when dead, does
not allow the widow the same privilege. The hand of death in its rigor mortis
does not loosen its grip on his living wife and restricts her mind, speech, movements and choices. This just shows basically the double
standard of men. I found that the children of some widows are very reluctant, reticent and
recalcitrant about allowing their mother to marry a second time; this
I see in all countries and societies. They simply don't like strange men laying
their hands on their mothers. The feeling is very primal. I know of happily married widows or
divorcees. I have seen men proactively woo wealthy widows. I have seen men who
seek and regard widows an easy pick for their pelvic passados. I know of young
men practicing and honing their Kama Sutra skills on the widows before marriage in the
villages. It must be the same in towns too. Things are changing
slowly even among Indian women: divorcees and widows are marrying again.
In Vedic times, Sati was a mimetic ceremony. The widow climbed on the pyre,
lay beside her husband for a few minutes, climbed down with the help of a
relative and watched as the pyre was set on fire. Sati in its tribal
Indo-Germanic form existed in Europe, when the living wife was led into the burning pyre
so that she accompanied her chieftain-husband to Valhalla. --page 273, Harper's
Dictionary of Hinduism by Margaret and James Stutley.
The next sacerdotal ceremony of humiliation is a visitation from a barber,
who dutifully shaves the beautiful locks of the angelic woman with the eyes of
doe; this inhumane transformation makes her two year old cry all day long, who
hesitates at the unseemly and unnatural sight of his or her mother and withdraws
from her out of primal fear: Is she an ogress out to hurt me? The men wielding
the heavy hand of injunctions and the
colluding old wives are smug in their belief they followed the Sastras without
one hair out of place--their hair intact and in place, and the widow's pate
sheared, showered, smeared and covered. Mercifully, a saivite widow is allowed to wear the sacred ashes
of Siva and the Vaishnavite woman red Srichurnam. That indicates their only refuge is god who
-they believe- may defer to the men not wanting remarriage of the widows.
The men do all this in the name of tradition, Sastras and god, whose wishes, the men don't know
and yet vociferously espouse. They
never themselves spoke to God but take the Sastras written by limited men as sacrosanct,
according to some perceived irreligionists. In Hindu tradition, to say that the Sastras were
written by men is sacrilegious. They are timeless. They were not even written by gods but were
uttered by gods. The Dvijas claim that the Sastras were uttered by God Himself and His words were
committed to memory and latter put down in writing. When Manusmriti declares
that a Ksatriya (ruling king) is one fourth human being and a Sudra is one sixteenth, how much
trust you can put in some of the religious texts with separate and unequal injunctions? It is very obvious that these unsavory
and inhumane statements were written by the twice-born to keep others
subservient. These
men read god wrong when it comes to women. The widow does not become a lifeless
zombie at the death of her husband but is made so by the conspiratorial
injunctions.
The Brahmanas are the gods on the earth.
There is a Mantra chanted by the haughty-naughty ones, the purveyors of heftily daft
injunctions. Here is what Dubois
(1770-1848) says about the Brahmanas controlling God.
It is a common belief in Hinduism that the fire god carries oblations from
sacrifices to the gods, who, if not for the Brahmin-conducted sacrifices, would
starve out of existence; therefore, the gods are afraid of the Brahmins who have
the power to withhold sacrifices. That brings gods to their senses and under the
power of Brahmins. Some say that the Twice-born got the gods by the gonads: no
sacrifice, no sustenance for the deity. In Vedic times, the twice-born provided Soma (Inebriant and
Hallucinogen) to the chief of gods, Indra and he in return sent rain from the
heavens. This is a kind of barter like today's guns for dope, that goes on the
south of the border. The saints of today sturdily refute the claim that Soma was
an inebriant and a hallucinogen. How would they know? They never drank it. Soma
is locked away in the cellars of Indra. Indra has been angry these days: He is
sending floods ravaging many countries. Nov 2011: Chennai is the latest victim
of Indra's wrath. Remember he sent torrential rains, when
Krishna told His devotees that they should forget about worshipping Indra.
Krishna had to hold a mountain (Govardana) for the poor cowherds and cows to
take shelter under the levitating hill.
A view from the West: Abbe Dubois in his own words in
green.
Abbe Dubois
(1770-1848) a Christian Missionary from France was one of the most astute Hindu
watcher in Tamil Nadu, India and an acerbic commentator. He did feel that
Mantras neither induced vibrations nor oscillations of Spirit nor obtain realm
of peace. He most of his time was watching the Hindus so much so that he did not
have time and that he converted in his own words only "two
to three hundred converts, 2/3rd were 'pariahs' (his words) or beggars and the
rest composed of Sudras, vagrants and outcastes of several tribes." He
was frustrated that Roman Catholicism contaminated with caste system prevailed
among the converts. The converts consulted the astrologers and purohitas
(priests), practiced Hindu manners and customs in marriage. He had a particular
annoyance at the Brahmin community then, who regarded themselves the sole purveyors
of Mantras, which 'enchain the power of gods themselves.'
Gods thus bound by chains were afraid of Purohitas who
declared themselves as 'Brahma gods or gods of the earth.' He quotes a
Mantra familiar to Purohitas: Page 139-140 Chapter:The Efficacy of Mantrams, Book
Title HINDU MANNERS CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES.
Devadhinam jagat
sarvam,
Mantradhinam ta
devata
Tan mantram Brahmanadhinam
Brahmana mama devata
Variation of the same Mantra.
देवधीनं जगत् सर्वः मन्त्राधीनं च देवता
| ते मन्त्रा ब्रह्मणाधीनां तस्माद् ब्राह्मण देवता ||
Devadhīnaṁ
jagat sarvaḥmantrādhīnaṁ
ca devatā|
te mantrā brahmaṇādhīnāṁtasmād brāhmaṇa
devatā||
Which means, 'The universe is under the power of gods;
the
gods are under the power of Mantrams;the Mantrams are under the power of the
Brahmins;therefore the Brahmins are our gods.' 'The
argument is plainly set out, as you may see, and these modest personages have no
scruples about arrogating to themselves the sublime title of Brahma gods or gods
of the earth. When one points out to the Brahmins that these much-vaunted
Mantrams do not produce startling effects in the present day, they reply that
this must be attributed to the Kali-Yuga, a veritable age of iron when
everything has degenerated. -- words of Dubois.
page 140. The most famous and the most efficacious mantram
for taking away sins, whose power is so great that the very gods tremble at it,
is that which is called the gayatri. It is so ancient that the Vedas themselves
were born from it. Only a Brahmin has the right to recite it, and he must
prepare himself beforehand by other prayers and by the most profound meditation.
He must always repeat it in a low voice, and take the greatest care that he is
not overheard by a Sudra, or even by his own wife, particularly at the time when
she is in a state of uncleanliness. (monthly periods).
The following are the words of this famous mantram.
ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः ।
तत् सवितुर्वरेण्यं ।।
भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि ।
धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् ।।
Oṃbhūr-bhuvaḥ-svaḥ
tatsavitur vareṇyaṃ
bhargo devasya dhīmahi
dhiyo yonaḥ
pracodayāt
Gayatri Mantra: Om, earth,
atmosphere, and heaven, we meditate on the adorable glory of the radiant sun;
may he inspire our intelligence—translation
by Dr. Radhakrishnan.
Coming back to the menstruating woman with a live husband, she is allowed to
attend to the baby. The poor husband is left high and dry on the
now-deserted marital bed with a pining woman, her color drained from head to
toes with sallow (பசப்பு) cheeks in a desolate room. This five day hiatus takes a toll on the
forlorn wife,
deprived husband who is near and yet so far away and the confused tots. This Pasappu
(sallow complexion) has nothing
to do with menstruation.
Tirukkural (திருக்குறள்) in its section on love speaks of
Pasappu (பசப்பு),
a spreading and an enveloping sallow complexion in young women brought on by separation
from their husbands or lovers. Here are the verses on Pasappu. The terminal cases
of Pasappu befall young married women whose husbands are away to work in the
petroleum countries for months and years.
The author of this work who lived in Tamil Nadu more than 2000 years ago in
the present day Chennai is called endearingly Tiruvalluvar
the saint-poet, who was a weaver by trade. Valluvar was not a Dvija or
twice-born as the higher castes are called. His work, Tirukkural minus couplets
on Love is part of the curriculum in Tamil Nadu schools.
Separation from her husband causes love-sickness and Pasappu in the young
married girl, who engages in soliloquy.
The verses in Tamil were downloaded from Madurai Project but
compound words were
edited by me for easy reading and comprehension.
Sanskrit: Compounds galore (Have you ever tried to read Sanskrit passages. To be truthful, the mile-long Sanskritic
compound words are
an eye-full and a mouthful; while I try to pronounce this mile-long sentence, I
go gaga and appear dotty, my mind goes numb, my teeth chatter, my tongue
gets twisted, my mouth becomes dry and I begin panting for breath.)
A damsel in terminal distress and her complexion shows.
நயந்தவர்க்கு நல்காமை நேர்ந்தேன் பசந்த
என்
பண்பு யார்க்கு
உரைக்கோ பிற.
1181
Verse 1181. Separation causes in me a sallow complexion, which I am unable to
tell my congenial lover, who is away from me. Whom am I going to complain to?
நயந்தோர் nayantōr ,
n. < id. (பிங்.)
1. Friends, companions; மித்திரர். 2.
Husband, as one who loves; கணவர்.
அவர் தந்தார் என்னும் தகையால் இவர் தந்து
என்
மேனி மேல் ஊரும் பசப்பு.
1182
Verse 1182. This enveloping sallowness rides on me with pride because my
lover caused it (and set it upon me).
Verse 1184. I think only of him; I talk only about him. How could I ever be
away from him? Could my sallow complexion be a deception?
உவக்காண் எம் காதலர் செல்வார் இவக்காண் என்
மேனி பசப்பு ஊர்வது.
1185
Verse 1185. My lover has gone somewhere; here and now, my body has gone sallow
on me.
விளக்கு அற்றம் பார்க்கும் இருளே போல் கொண்கன்
முயக்கு அற்றம் பார்க்கும் பசப்பு.
1186
Verse 1186. Darkness is waiting and watching for the lights to go out. As the
embrace of my lover leaves, sallowness is watching and waiting to embrace me.
Verse 1187. I was in embrace with him in the bed. I peeled off from his embrace; in that
instant, sallowness took me in the hollow of its hand.
பசந்தாள் இவள் என்பது அல்லாள்
இவளைத்
துறந்தார் அவர் என்பார் இல்.
1188
Verse 1188. 'She went sallow', so they say (as if blaming me for no fault of
mine). there is no one to say (in empathy with my condition) he abandoned me
(causing my sallowness).
பசக்கமன் பட்டாங்கு என் மேனி நயப்பித்தார்
நல் நிலையர் ஆவர் எனின்.
1189
Verse 1189. Because he (Mr. Congeniality), who nurtured my love, prospers on account of
separation from me, let my body go sallow so as to invite derision.
(prosper = going to work and making a living.)
பசப்பு எனப் பேர் பெறுதல் நன்றே நயப்பித்தார்
நல்காமை தூற்றார் எனின்.
1190
Verse 1190. As long as townsfolk do not engage in banter about absence of my
congenial lover, It is quite alright that they banter about my sallowness.
Diagnosis Pasappu
By திருவள்ளுவர்
What are the signs and symptoms of Pasappu (பசப்பு)?
1) You can see the Kondai (கொண்டை = coiffure)
in disarray. Come 5PM, she pretties up and waits for her lover to bring fresh
string of flowers on his way back home from office. (Everyday, it is a common
sight in Hindu households at 5P.M. that the young married women look
shower-fresh anticipating arrival of their husbands with a bunch of flowers for
her to wear on the coiffure. The men look 'bushed' (tired) at 5PM but the women
look great.
2) She is snappy at everyone during daytime for lack of companionship with
office-bound husband.
3) She spends time before the mirror looking at her complexion drain from
face to foot. Pasappu is firing on all cylinders and draining her batteries.
4) The little tots in the household tease her about her daytime sour puss and
blossoming face at twilight. She is really an evening blossom. The tots snicker and call her castor-oil-countenance
(விளக்கெண்ணெய் மூஞ்சி =
Pouting, sullen
countenance from drinking castor oil with attendant diarrhea). They
tell her she has been sucking lemon and eating raw ginger. They call her
raw-ginger-eating monkey (இஞ்சி தின்ன குரங்கு).
It is a monthly custom which children hate, to be forced to drink castor oil
by the mother so that the GI tract is purged and purified. Yes, my friend, I had
the treatments during my childhood with attendant projectile diarrhea. We never knew the fateful day when the
feared event would strike us. Usually it is on a weekend, when the mother pulls
up from behind you with a castor oil bottle. I still get nausea thinking about
it. That whole day is ruined for the kids, who perforce spend time in the
!@#$house. Now you can imagine the kind of faces we carried around during
sadistic castor oil treatments.
5) The mother-in-law chides her for not helping her in the kitchen but going
into oscillating moods in the day time. The newly-wed is groping around sizing
up the in-laws, outlaws, tots, teens, toads, and turncoats in the bridegroom's family.
6) She is lost in space engaging in mental soliloquy. Getting married to a
man, a stranger until the day of marriage, is a stress in its own right; living with a
newcomer in a new family constellation all of a sudden who does things to her
she was never used to, adds to the stress, though it could be a welcome change
in her life. All these put together cause her soliloquy.
7) She collects all the mail bearing her newly-minted husband's name, holding them close
to her breasts. It is so obvious, it pops the eyes of the tots out of their
sockets.
8) She keeps her fingers on the dial pad but resists the temptation to call
him in the office; she is afraid she would disrupt his work and he may chide her.
9) The tots tease her about her transformation at 5 P.M and being nice to
them in play activities. She has to keep the tots in good humor so they won't
complain about her to their uncle and she could use them to run errands for her.
10) She vainly looks through the barred windows expecting to see her husband
walk in any time. Tots are not far behind her mimicking her anticipatory forays
to the barred windows.
11) The first smile for the day dawns on the face at the sight of her
lover, who hands the flowers to the waiting wife. DIL (Daughter-in-law)
worked out a treaty
with the tag-along tots
that they would leave her alone when her husband is around.
12) She is ready with tiffin (snacks) and tea for the 5 P.M. tete-a-tete, all
decked up in flowers, jewels, perfume, sandalwood paste, red Kum Kum, fragrant mouth
and everything else to drive her lover into a tizzy.
This may be her second meal after her breakfast. She skipped her lunch.
What is lunch without him around? The kids were treated to snacks beforehand
so as to keep them away from her encounter with her lover.
13) She is ready for her husband to take her to the local temple, a moment of
privacy with him, she relishes.
14) She insists that he takes her for a movie alone without the tots and
in-laws tagging along with them.
The Sastras
inflict on them injunctions as to when they can and when they cannot consort,
which is marked on a mental calendar with an YES or NO on each box; with all the
restrictions in place and under scrutiny and enforcement by intrusive in-laws, it is a miracle, the couple lead a normal married life.
They have been trained to behave.
In-laws, parents, uncles, aunts, siblings, cousins... snoop on them. There is no
privacy; everything is out in the open. The only time the couple celebrate their
privacy is when they move into a new house or immigrate to America. They
naturally lose the advantages of joint and extended family.
The
relatives and visitors in India do not call and come but show up at the door or
barge into the house through the open doors, have a chat, a meal, a stay
overnight, a breakfast and then leave, all for no apparent reason. Things have
eased a bit now that they have the mobile (the cell phones). Every Indian
including low-wage earners carry a cell phone today; they should call first
before showing up at the door. When a
visitor comes into the house unannounced, the homeowner asks, what the purpose
of his visit is (என்ன விஷயம் = What purpose, business, matter?) and out comes
the answer, 'சும்மாதான் வந்தேன் = (summathan vanthen). It means, 'Leisurely,
I came without any purpose or work'.
Tensions
build and spill on other household members and the office co-workers with the belief that in the menstruating woman, sakti
builds and spills as menstruation. [The office workers attribute the
irritability of the boss or co-worker to his temporary widowerhood on account of
polluting spousal menses [மாமிக்கு தீட்டு, அம்மாவுக்கு தீட்டு)]
and suspended intimacy. The other
men and in-laws keep a tab on the married couple's strict adherence to Sastraic
man-made
injunctions. They make the woman scrub, clean and polish the room (rarely with a
tad of cow dung for ceremonial reasons. confirmation needed.), once the monthly periods are over. Cow
dung is purifying and menstruating woman is polluting. Go figure that.
It is a
common occurrence that infants of indigent parents sometimes with attached umbilical cords come into the
emergency room of the hospital with florid case of tetanus because infants were sleeping
on bare floor smeared with cow dung obviously contaminated with tetanus spores.
It has become imperative that pregnant women receive tetanus boosters during the
second trimester of pregnancy to protect the newborn. This cow dung injunction
and its purported purity are killing a lot of babies. Anything with cow is pure
and sacred. Cow is the 'ladder' to heaven. Go to the countryside and see round
pancake-like cow dung patties stuck on the walls. When the patties dry, they are
used in cooking fire. You might have seen this scene in "Amazing Race",
when the contestants made cow dung patties mixed with hay and stuck them on the
wall to dry. Yes, it is amusing, and fun to watch at a distance when your
olfactory apparatus is parked on the leeward side.
It was not uncommon that the sticklers and imbibers of Panchagavya with a heavy dose of cow dung come down with diarrhea, and kidney
ailments. All these things go unnoticed or conveniently ignored in the name of
religion in a country, where health is
compromised in the name of injunctions. The wise West is right in pooh-poohing
this practice but should not gloat over the Hindu eating Panchagavya laced with
cow dung. Take the beef-eating westerner. It is not uncommon that the beef is
contaminated with cow
dung E.Coli and gives rise to Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, renal shut down and
death esp. in hamburger-eating young children and old people in the west. Cow
dung as a ritual food or as a contamination, accidental or due to carelessness
in processing hamburger patties is eaten. Nowadays, with emphasis on hygiene,
the cow dung is omitted from the menu (Panchagavya) and is substituted with
honey and the like. Most of the modern Hindu households don't even know what Panchagaviya is and how to make it.
The twice-born households were gorging on Panchagavya in the distant past but
happily omitted the cow dung as one of the ingredients today. On that measure, there is also a lessening
of awareness of Hindu traditions and philosophy. Food contamination is a
constant threat in the modern world and the west: Cow dung contamination of
ground beef, surface contamination of Cantaloupes with Listeria, Salmonella
contamination of peanut butter and chicken meat, Trichinosis with pork products,
Hepatitis A contamination from improper hand washing of food handlers, drinking
unpasteurized milk contaminated with Brucellosis and Bovine TB, drinking water
in the wild from streams contaminated with bird droppings (Giardia and
Crypto.)....
When you walk the streets of any city or
village, you can see puddles with mosquito larvae, flying debris of all kinds,
cow dung, human waste, open sewers (with concrete slabs) and other unspeakables. The believers take dips in the unchlorinated temple tanks with stagnant water in the name of injunctions and
vociferously defend the sacredness, purity of water in the temple tank, and Ganges
river which is polluted with sewage, dead bodies and other flotsam.
(Panchagvya [பஞ்சகவ்யம்]: cow dung1, Cow urine2,
Cow milk3, Cow curds4, Cow ghee5. I am positive that the religious people and
strict followers of Sastras stopped eating the cow dung panchagavya. Nowadays,
the informed gave up on cow dung5 and substituted it with other hygienic edible
products.) The cow dung substitute can be raw sugar cane (Jaggery;
வெல்லம்). When there is one unworthy injunction in the Sastras like the recommendation
of Panchagavya, it is more than likely there are many more of its kind.
If there are teenage girls in the household or if it is a joint family, this
isolation room for the woman in menses becomes the 24/7 refuge almost everyday of the year for the fair sex. The
room may hold a few women in the joint family as tradition-bound outcasts. Many educated
woman in modern families both in India and abroad conveniently
ignore this age old custom and keep pace and peace at work and home. The indigent women
go to work no matter what their menstrual situation is. They have no
choice but to work
through the menstrual periods to make a living. The Sastras did not have
forethought that things would change over eons, women would be going to work,
and they could not afford to take off 5 days every month, esp. when they are the
main bread winners.... Texts written by men could not have anticipated the
industrial revolution and all the modern marvels so much so the texts were not
timeless as claimed by the believers but applicable to that moment in time and
to the knowledge available at the moment, the injunction was written. The college girls cannot afford to take off 4 or 5 days a
month from attending classes during the menstrual days. Their studies would
suffer. No one in the right mind holds the menstruating girls from attending
schools or colleges. If they hold the girls from attending classes, they are
doing them a disservice.
Where is one going to find a pond for his wife and
daughters in the city of Chennai so they can take the ritual purifying dips and ablutions
after the monthly periods come to an end? There are umpteen dirty puddles and no clean
ponds for ritual ablution of the wife and daughters. Tell me, who would want to
bath in and drink water from the same pond if all the town's menstruating women
regularly dip themselves and inconsiderate men wash their bottoms in the pond after
defecation. Why don't we try a nice
shower or in the worst case scenario for the indigent to use the roadside tap water?
The Indian poor are gradually getting educated about quality food, hygiene,
education, frivolous injunctions.... It is a common observation that the maids
in the rich households look as good and clean as the owners. What about the menstruating Dvija-student woman living abroad
with four roommates in a one room
shared apartment? The woman taking a ritual ablution abroad in a
clean pond or lake will invite the ogling men, and police ready to issue a summons.
It is common knowledge that the Canada Geese flying over ponds and lakes in the
USA contaminate the water with their droppings containing pathogens:
Crypto..., Campylobacter, E.coli, Listeria,
salmonella.... They are protected by law and so can make doodoos anywhere and
everywhere. Children and adults sporting in pond water in the USA have
contracted these infections. Thank God for chlorination. The geese love golf courses and every year they bring more of their
friends to make more doodoos. Such a pond with bird droppings carries pathogens.
Who would want to dip in the pond with that knowledge on hand? Take a shower
from chlorinated tap water.
There may not be a pond for miles. Now
that the woman has all the modern conveniences and feminine hygiene products in
the market, why don't we dispense with these restrictive Sastraic injunctions
which demand ostracization, isolation, confinement, compliant comportment and a
dip in the pond? I never heard of a menstruating Dvija
women or any other women belonging to other castes infect anyone in or outside
the family with any diseases. There is one exception: A woman with Aids or
venereal diseases can infect others during periods or even otherwise. Who
brought the diseases home in the first place? It is most likely the man. Of
course having pubic louse or for that matter head louse is a sure way of
disseminating louse in the family and other contacts.
It is patriarchal Sanskritic Brahmanic (ritualistic) culture and tradition that imposed all
sorts of restrictions on men and more pointedly on women.
If we allow her to take care of children, we are letting a
polluted women [தீட்டு] take care of them. How is
it that our children do not deserve a clean woman but adults do? The two year
old child does not have a clue why his or her mother is shunted to and secretes
herself in a room for five days every month. You cannot hold a two year old in
the polluted room for more than five minutes; he would be running around the
house spreading the pollution, when he or she seeks the comfort of father,
grandmother or grandfather. I want to ask the rule makers whether this lady in
the isolation room has her own toilet facilities. Even middle income people
cannot afford to have attached bathrooms in India. She may have to sneak into
common bathroom when no one is looking.
In India, the tradition even for the modern and progressive-minded Dvija is
not to allow a Sudra colleague or friend into the kitchen because a Sudra is a
polluter or handler of pollution. Just take a look at the toilet in that house.
A clean Sudra would not stick his head in there, let alone empty his cistern or
colon. In bad old days, a visit from a Sudra is a major catastrophe, a
pervasive pollution of the household. The whole house is sprinkled, cleaned,
swabbed and dried before normality returns. Expect everyone to take a shower,
once the Sudra left. Thank god he left; hope he never returns. Besides
pollution by Sudra and his visit, it is too much work for the women in Dvija
household to get things back to normal. Some men relaxed the rules because they
worked and bonded with the non-dvijas. Some Dvijas never associated with the
non-dvijas outside of the office. Traditional women in Dvija households
discouraged their husbands and sons to bring non-dvijas home. As modern India is
emerging from old tradition, there is more social and marital alliances between
Dvija and non-dvija households.
Forget about the ubiquitous
Indian-style squat toilets with no support handles on the walls, which, if
present, is always crawling with bugs and bacteria. They are a
misery; one with creaky joints cannot squat, defecate, wash the posterior with
water from the 16-ounce mug and get up to a standing position. Indian men
consider cleaning the toilet beneath their dignity. Recently built
houses and good hotels have western style toilets. The star-studded hotels have
decent toilets clean like the operating rooms, everything spick-and-span.
Indians have a code in washing the butt: left hand for washing and right hand
juggling the 16-ounce water mug. Sometimes the water tap is placed on the left hand
side, which makes it that much more difficult. Thus the tradition is to eat with
your (fingers of the) right hand and wash the posterior with the left hand. The
left hand (பீச்சைக்கை
pīccai-k-kai), whether it is clean or unclean is polluted because of its contact with the
butt and the right hand is the pure hand. One
should not use the left hand to handle things esp. prayer accouterments and eat
with. Since
most people in India do not use soap and water after posterior ablution, the
cleanliness of the hands are suspect. When we were children (1940s), we did the doodoo
out in the open fields and washed the butts in the channels with running water from
the wells fitted with electric pumps or mechanical thingamajigs drawn by
bullocks.
Hospitals in India have a high
burden of infections in their intensive care units and wards, many of which are
resistant to anti-biotic treatment, according to the Global Antibiotic
Resistance Partnership (GARP)-India Working Group and the Centre for Disease
Dynamics, Economics and Policy (CDDEP).
“A large proportion of the hospital infections are easily
preventable with increased hospital infection control, including stepping up
hygiene practices, such as frequent hand-washing,” says Dr. Ramanan Laxminarayan,
director of CDDEP and vice-president at Research and Policy at the Public Health
Foundation of India.
“However,
hospitals in India often do not follow infection control practices.
This leads to the spread of disease. In response to the growing burden of
HAIs (Hospital Acquired Infections) in India, the Global Antibiotic
Resistance Partnership is issuing several key recommendations that aim at
reducing the prevalence of HAIs including increased hand-washing, use of
isolation rooms for infected patients and use of gloves and gowns”, the report
said. Sep 27, 2011 Thehindu.com
It is very common to observe the mother encouraging forcefully the child with dominant left hand to switch to right-handedness. It is next to sacrilege to raise a child with left hand dominance,
reserved exclusively for posterior ablution. Children are warned that they
should not receive, give anything or write with the polluted left hands.
Persuasive gentle knuckle rapping with a pencil is
one of the commonest
corrective measures employed by mothers.
In olden days (1960s-70s-80s), the Indian traveler had two essential things
in his carry on bag: A 16-ounce mug for posterior ablution and a bottle of
pickle. No Indian is worth his name, if he does not eat rice and yogurt
(தயிர்ச்சாதம்) with a generous scoop of his favorite pickle. Now that Desi pickle is available everywhere, one rarely carries
it. But the ubiquitous traveler's aid--the famous ablution mug-- is still a
constant companion of the Indian road or air traveler abroad who abhors wiping the arse
with the toilet paper but is screaming happy to pamper his butt with run of
water from a mug. He cannot do the walk with remnants of the excrement still
clinging to his anus and do the talk with others. By the way, washing butt with
water and hand washing with soap and water are very hygienic. Some have codes in
personal hygiene. Nowadays modern households with western style toilet has an
attached water spray to wash the posterior. It is better to spray the butt clean, smear and cleanse the ass with shaving gel, rinse again
with water from the spray, dab it dry with toilet paper and top it off by
cleaning hands with soap and water in the sink. O man, it is heaven on earth to
walk around with a clean arse. Hey, now his ass is
Indian-clean, meaning that he has the cleanest ass in the immediate vicinity.
Now you can see he walks with a jaunt and talks with confidence. He has a
solicitous look about him: Hey man, my ass is clean; is yours as mine? The Indian is particular in
keeping his face and ass clean; a speck of !@#$ in the rear end is catastrophic.
It is simply a clean and hygienic case of face and anus fixation.
In England in the 1960s, where I was in training, it was an unsaid practice
in the hospitals not to hire South Asians as operating room orderlies. The
British knew that the Indians wash their butts and then do not use soap and
water to cleanse the hands. Add to that long nails. That is a recipe for disaster and the infection rate
in postoperative patients were directly linked to the clean-ass orderly with
contaminated hands and unclipped nails. It is a common practice to swab the
noses of the doctors, nurses and every employee in the nursery, when a baby in
the nursery comes down with staph. infection. My colleagues and I have been
swabbed a few times; I managed to stay clean. Some people are chronic carriers
of staph. in the noses. I treated a child who came down with SSSS
(Staphylococcal Scalded Skin Syndrome).
I have seen in my practice infants wiped with 'wipes' have a beefy-red raw
bottoms, when the mothers with a hyper-sense of cleanliness go at it with vigor.
I advised the parents to dip the infant's butt in a bowl of lukewarm water
(Check the temperature of water by immersing your hands) after defecation to
clean the bottom. It is the Sitz bath for the infants with sore bottoms.
Medically speaking, the menstruating woman is clean as long as she washes her
hands with a detergent of any kind. I know of a Brahmin family when the husband under treatment for tuberculosis moved around
the house with children and adults and yet the menstruating wife had to sit out
for four days in an isolation room. The wife and children of this person with TB took
prophylactic anti-tuberculous medication because of their intimacy with the said
person. With due high regard, sensitivity, respect and empathy, I am asking who the
potential polluter is in this family. Who wrote the rules? It is the men
who did.
The protagonists should not hide behind Sastras and
handicapping injunctions. I have a question. Vishnu is Srinivasa; His body is the abode of Sri, who
lives very close to Him on His chest. Where is She going to go and secrete
Herself for 5 days every year? Yes, Her body is made of
Suddha Sattvam (Pure
Empyreal A-prakritic Parakritic substance) and yet
She is a woman, whose sine quo non is menstruation. Lakshmi asserts She
would never leave Bhagavan even for one nanosecond. Did Sastras think of it?
Take Lakshmi Narasimha; I never saw Lakshmi leave Her perch on His left thigh
and secrete Herself in a nook. I am seeing Valli and Devayanai standing by
Skanda and never saw them leaving Him for 5 days at a time. Take Meenakshi
Temple in Madurai. Does the famous temple become a Pollution Colossus five
days every year? How would the lowly men determine the pollution periods of the
highest Goddess in the land? How did they arrive at the exact dates of the
yearly periods of the Goddess?
Sometimes the temple authorities close the temple a few
days once a year, claiming that the goddess is having Her periods. That is how
the high-born delude themselves and others. The Sakta tells that mother Goddess
is here, there, and everywhere; She is all-pervasive; She owns the whole
universe, the men, the women, all beings and all things. She is in me, you, her,
him and it. She is in the atom and inside the atom. That being so, there is no
place she can secrete Herself because of (nonexistent) periods. How could She
ever hide Herself? Man has anthropomorphized the gods and goddesses and
gave them physiology and attributes of human beings. Don't the deities have different non-human
divine physiology?
Suddha Sattvam:
Pure goodness; Pure Empyreal A-prakritic Parakritic substance. A deity's body is
not derived from Prakriti of which we are made of. Prakriti is a combo of Sattva,
Rajas and Tamas (goodness, motion and passion, darkness). The deity's body is
Sattvic (pure goodness), A-prakritic (not material), Parakritic (supreme
substance), and Empyreal (heavenly).
Since the Goddess is made of A-prakritic Suddha
Sattvam, Her constitution is different and not earthly. That being so, why
should we believe that Her body has the same physiology as the Prakritic
earth-bound woman?
Suddha
Sattvam: Sattva, Atisattva, Parama-sattva,
Śuddha-sattva, and Viśuddha-sattva, are five different forms of Caitanya.
The Devi is Herself Suddha-Sattva.
Woodroffe,
The Serpent Power, page 279
In old days, a long long time ago, child marriages
were common among Brahmanas and others. We by conscience, compassion for the girls and law fight
child marriages. It is still taking place. We
stopped Sati, thank the British. Sati is throwing oneself on the dead husband's
funeral pyre; widowhood is Sati in slow motion among Indian women subjected to
mindless injunctions.
News dated Sep 12, 2011 on the
prevalence of Child
marriage at present.
Continuing their drive against child marriage, officials in Perambalur district have
rescued seven more under-aged girls over the past week.
While four marriages that were scheduled over the last week were
stopped by the officials, three others who were already given in marriage were
rescued and handed over to the Childline in Tiruchi.
Sheik Saleh al-Fawzan, one of Saudi Arabia’s most influential clerics, has
backed a religious ruling that allows fathers to arrange marriages for their
daughters “even if they are in the cradle.” But he drew the line when it came to
sex, writing in his fatwa that husbands cannot have intercourse with their child
spouses “unless they are capable of being placed beneath and bearing the weight
of men.” Al-Fawzan’s ruling—which comes on the heels of the Justice Ministry’s
legislative attempt to regulate marriages between prepubescent girls and men—has
spurred a confrontation between the Saudi government and the country’s powerful
conservative clergy. According to Saudi media, the Justice Ministry would fight
to set a minimum age for marriage in the male-dominated, Islamic kingdom—but
it’s not clear how much power al-Fawzan’s fatwa would have in the case. --Cheat
Sheet July 30, 2011
We are trying to
eliminate caste among us, going against The Laws of Manu. Ask Ambedkar,
who wrote the Indian constitution. He burned a copy of The Laws of Manu,
so highly regarded by inveterate and recalcitrant followers, and converted to Buddhism. A
Dalit [Dr. Ambedkar,
formerly a student at Columbia University, NY] takes the honor of having
written the constitution of India: We the people.) Some domiciled so-called educated
Indians of higher caste shamelessly blocked Columbia University from
establishing a chair in the name of Ambedkar
simply because he was a Dalit (oppressed class).
Do you think that these prejudiced nincompoops will get any
vimōcanam (विमोचन
= விமோசனம்vimōcanamvi-mōcana.Deliverance, liberation; absolution, as from sin)?
We are up against
unsavory, unfriendly, deleterious, unworthy and defunct Sastraic injunctions, which are against egalitarian principles. Why don't we eliminate this notion that a woman is
polluted and unclean during her (normal physiological) menstruation? Some of these Sastraic injunctions are the product of the polluted minds of the bygone era. If
man can hold the ordure in his colon and rectum, does Arati, Avahana, Pranapratistha, Visarjana... and still call himself
physically pure, one should not hesitate to call a woman pure, if she manages
her periods in a hygienic manner. The priests are sattvic people, strict in the
kind of food (Sattvic food) they eat and avoid eating odor-causing Tamasic and
Rajasic foods like
garlic. The attitude of men also shows and perpetuates
the notion that women are naturally polluted, and were and are second class
citizens, who have no say in what men mete out to them. To adhere to irrelevant
and harmful practices in the name of a religion is foolish indeed. The placement of the mother
in the isolation room for four or five days definitely plays a havoc on the psyche of the two year
old youngsters. You can see the two year old attempting to drag the mother by
her hand out of the room.
In a big star-studded Indian hotel of international standards, some foreigners were
enjoying themselves in the properly chrlorinated pools. The Hindu men would not
enter the pool because the women (that too
Mlecchas = foreigner,
barbarian: Sanskrit-English Dictionary) were causing pollution by their very
presence in the pool.
Mleccha:
म्लेच्छ.
As defined by Sir John Woodroffe, The Serpent Power page 275.
This is a contemptuous term which has descended
from the days when the stranger was looked on as an object of enmity or
contempt. Just as the Greeks and Chinese called anyone not a Greek or a Chinese
a "barbarian," so Hindus of the Exoteric School call all non-Hindus, whether'
aboriginal tribes or cultivated foreigner, Mlecchas. Mlecchatā is the state of
being a Mleccha. It is to the credit of the Sākta-Tantra
that it does not encourage such narrow ideas.
I bet they did take a shower in the hotel before they ventured into the pool.
Men think like this: When a boy or premenstrual girl is in the pool, it is ok to
enter the pool; but the pool with adult women is a forbidden zone. What if she
is menstruating? What they did not know is that boys do urinate and sometimes
defecate in the pools. Of course, the hotel has a poop scooper to scoop the
fecal flotsam with a net on a pole and to vigorously scrub the water with
chlorine.
It is common knowledge that the original Sastras underwent modifications and
interpolations by zealots. The Sastraic content at present is not wholly genuine but an
adulterated product. In some instances or certain passages, it is the product of a sick mind: Certain portions of the
Laws of Manu. It is as if Manu had sudden attacks of irrational mental escapades, when he
put the stylus to the palm leaves. It may be the toddy or Soma that clouded his mind. We have to pick and choose what is good
in Sacred texts in the interest of humanity at
large.
Some writers are half-drunk, when they put the pen on the paper. Without the
influx of the inebriant into the system and its perfusion through the mantle,
thoughts do not form and the pen does not exude ink on paper or the fingers do
not fondle the keyboard. I am a teetotaler.
Sri Krishnan Swamy says that the division in Srivaishnavism into
Vadakalai and Tenkalai has no currency anymore. To add credence to his statement, the Swamy
must not wear Tenkalai Namam as he usually does, but find a suitable compromise
Namam to wear. In like manner, ostracization and isolation of women during
their monthly periods do not warrant enforcement by man-made injunctions. It
definitely was not divine in origin because consorts of the gods or goddesses
did not secrete themselves in a nook or cranny out of sight of the Gods. If they
did, they did not do it on their own but at the insistence of male gods or men.
On 2nd thought, it is not the god, but man who imposed these injunctions.
I am thankful that the menstruating women had not to take a dip in the ocean,
which is an impossibility in a land-locked place;
that would have been catastrophic in view of the fact that a shark can apprehend
one drop of blood in the ocean a mile away. Pond, by nature contaminated with
bird droppings, is no different, because the
fish come after blood, crusted impetigo and other skin sores and nibble on them.
Religiously permitted Pollution of Sacred Rivers
The sacred rivers--in
name only--are clogged with clay idols year after year for millennia.
[GANESH CHATHURTHI IS THE BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION OF
LORD GANESA.]
Celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi and improper immersion of the
clay idols in the sacred Rivers of India.
Thehindu.com: Sep 13, 2011. A day after idols of Lord
Ganesha were immersed in the Yamuna, water production at two of the Capital's
water treatment plants had to be scaled down on account of pollutants floating
in the waters.
Separate enclosures for immersion needed
“Immersion of idols, flowers and other material of religious
significance leads to pollution and a lot of these things block the filters of
the water treatment plants. Because the quantity of pollutants is so high, we
have no option but to stop or scale down production as is the case,” he added.
This immersion-injunction is causing untold contamination of rivers. Stop
polluting India's rivers. They are no more sacred, as they are filthy.
When Sati's dead body was subjected to anatomical dismemberment by Vishnu,
her womb fell on a hill (in Guwahati) in Assam. The hill turned blue upon impact
and so was named the Blue Hill (Nila parvata). There is no Murti (Idol) to
worship. The object of worship in the sanctum is the large cleft in the bedrock
representing the Divine Genitalia. The water flows from the cleft and the Divine is
worshiped with flowers and red liquid.... The devotees touch the
Yoni-cleft-deity and drink water from the spring. Sometimes the water runs red
from the mixture of the water with Iron Oxide or external application of things
red. End.
The middle chamber leads to the sanctum sanctorum
</wiki/Sanctum_sanctorum> of the temple in the form of a cave,
which consists of no image but a natural underground spring that flows through a
yoni-shaped cleft in the bedrock.
During the Ambuvaci festival each summer, the menstruation
of the Goddess Kamakhya is celebrated. During this time, the water in the main
shrine runs red with iron oxide resembling menstrual fluid.
Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamakhya_Temple
Ambubachi Mela, also
known as Ambubasi festival, is held annually during monsoon in the Kamakhya Devi
Temple at Guwahati, Assam. In 2010, the beginning date of Ambubachi Mela is June
22nd and the festival ends on June 26. The Ambubachi festival is closely related
to the Tantric cult and is also known as Kamakhya Devi Puja.
It is believed that Goddess Kamakhya goes through her
menstrual cycle during these days and therefore the temple remains closed
for three days. Ambubachi Mela is also known as Ameti or Tantric fertility
festival and is a four-day Mela (get together). [As you may notice,
the Indian tradition wrongly believes that days of menstruation are the
fertility period. They did not know anything about ovulation because they
believed in what they saw--menstruation. They had no idea of mid-cycle
ovulation. --Krishnaraj]
[Here is the link that
tells you the likely days of ovulation following the periods: http://www.americanpregnancy.org/gettingpregnant/ovulationcalendar.html]
ambuvācī --->Ambubachi
Mela = “the issuing forth of water,”
. Mela = gathering = Festival. Mother Earth is issuing forth the
water from the cleft in her body due to monsoon rains, which is celebrated as
the menstruation of Sati, whose Genitalia according to sacred lore fell on the
hill in Guwahati. It is a celebration of Mother Earth who is prolific and
giving. As America celebrates the earthly mother (Mother's Day), the Mother Goddess worshippers
worship the Divine Mother Earth. This temple during the once yearly
celebration of Ambubachi welcomes worldwide pilgrims of all colors, hues,
nationalities, religions, Mother Goddess worshippers, and Tantrics. --Krishnaraj
It is widely believed that Goddess
Kamakhya goes through her yearly menstrual cycle during the Ambubachi days. The
temple remains closed for three days in the year – the menstruation period.
What is one month for us is one year for the
deities.--Krishnaraj
People in large numbers wait outside the temple on the fourth day, when the
temple will be opened. Sanyasins and Pandas from around the country assemble at
the Kamakhya temple during this period. Women who fervently want children pray
to the deity.
Large number of devotees make a mad rush when the temple reopens to receive the
unique ‘prasad (Sacrament)’ which is small bits of red cloth, which is
supposedly moist with the menstrual fluid of Goddess Kamakhya. It is considered
highly auspicious and powerful esp. to the ones wanting to conceive.
The door of the Kamakhya Temple was closed from June 22 to June 26, 2011 in
accordance with the rituals of Ambubachi Mela. It is believed that the
presiding goddess of the temple, Devi Kamakhya, goes
through her annual cycle of menstruation during this time. The prasad (Sacrament)
is distributed in two forms - angodak and
angabastra. Angodak literally means the fluid part
of the body - water from the spring. Angabastra means a piece of red cloth used
to cover the stone yoni (Womb and External genitals) during the days of
menstruation," said N K Sarma, the secretary of Ambubachi Mela. http://charshaktidham.blogspot.com/
Besides these, why does not our Sastra think of people beyond the Indian
subcontinent? Obviously, the code writers of Sastras were not aware of the
Eskimos, the Europeans, the Chinese....Obviously, Manu did not know they existed.
If they knew, they were called Mlecchas. The Hindi derogatory word for foreigner
is 'Ferengi’. The Tamil word, not derogatory, is Parangi (பரங்கி). There
is a hill by the Chennai Airport by name Parangi Malai (பரங்கி மலை = the Hill of
the foreigner), once occupied allegedly by St. Thomas . The most orthodox Indian men during the British Raj
took orders from and had to serve under British men; they never had the courage to tell the women of the
British officers to go and jump in a lake or a pond to purify themselves before showing up
with their husbands in the office or public functions. And they went home and
shoved their daughters and wives into the isolation room. That is moral tepidity
and cowardliness towards authority and a wanton exercise of authority on
compliant women of the household.
It
appears that sastraic injunctions are fungible. Fungibility (flexibility) is
warp and woof of Hinduism, which is its strength. Lord Rama's backbone is
divine, ethical, moral
and legal; Bhagavan Krishna's backbone is divine and fungible. Krishna stole the Parijata tree from
Indra's garden. If you think Krishna needs a tree desperately for Himself or
Sathyabama, you are wrong. He owns the universe. Why would He steal a tree? It
just goes to prove that what you have is not yours
but Bhagavan's; you have a temporary custody of it. What He giveth, He taketh away.
Krishna is the Thief who steals the hearts of His devotees.
Sastras were written neither on stone nor on water. They came down by word of
mouth, which demanded prodigious memory. Memory sometimes fails and a wrong word
substitutes for the right word. This process continues over generations and
Sastras change with unintended consequences. There were and are charlatans,
pseudo-pundits, misogynists, racists, casteists... in Hinduism; they rewrote some
texts in Sastras, interpolated many verses, interpreted some wrongly and left
their infamous fingerprints. These Stylus-wielding nincompoops scratched on the
palm leaves aberrant verses, which were not the intent of the original authors.
Sacred texts are regarded as unwritten and un-produced but were recited by gods.
Example of interpolation.
The Brahma Sutra devotes
a whole section (9) 1.3.34 to 38 on the topic of disqualification of Sudras for
Brahma-knowledge. Janasruti, a previously documented Ksatriya (warrior
caste) but now
mistaken for a Sudra (menial worker) was grief-stricken to hear words of disrespect. Of all
birds, a flamingo derided Janasruti for lack of Brahma-knowledge and he
ran to Raikva in grief. When Raikva saw grief written all over the face of
Janasruti, Raikva called him a Sudra for the word Sudra also means "grief." The Sudras are prohibited from offering
sacrifices, but not acquiring Brahma-knowledge. A well-known Sudra of
Mahabharata is Vidura, born of
Vyasadeva and a palace maid
and is known to
have mastered Brahma-knowledge. Birds like Swans, the high-flying
geese, flamingos are synonyms for high spirituality. Vyasadeva reminds me of
some of the celebrities, whose pheromonal pelvic proclivities, levitations,
passados and outreach extend
beyond the marital bed. This hanky-panky in the palace is no different from that
in the world of cinema, Hollywood, Bollywood, Kollywood, Governor's mansion in
the USA, India and elsewhere.... A governor and a god-man in India were caught
in video in their respective love nests, the Governor being pampered from head
to foot by nubile well-endowed, suitably exposed sinuous sirens and the god-man engaged
in spiritual levitation with a disciple.
It is common in Hindu mythology that elements, birds, beasts, trees... can
talk. A talking flamingo is one of those articulate birds.
A case of interpolation in Brahma Sutra as opined by
none other than Swami Sivananda, a Tamil Nadu-born Doctor who became a Samnyasi
with utmost credentials and who took fencing lessons from an untouchable, known
undeservedly, disparagingly and disrespectfully in the past and sometimes
in the present a Pariah (பறையன்),
at whose feet Swami Sivananda (a genuine Brahmana) fell to the surprise of many for the simple reason
the Untouchable was his Guru.
Sugasya
tadanadarasravanat
tadadravanat
suchyate
hi
I.3.34 (97)
Suk:grief;Asya:his;Tat:that,namelythatgrief;Anadarasravanat:
fromhearinghis(theRishi’s)disrespectful speech;Tada:then; Adravanat:becauseofgoingtohimi.e.toRaikva; Suchyate:is referred to;Hi:because.
The whole of this
Adhikarana about
Sudras together with the preceding
one about the Devas
appears to be an
interpolation of some later author.
page106 Brahma Sutra translation by Swami Sivananda.
Swami
Vivekananda, the Light in the sky of Knowledge, who introduced Hinduism to America
(12 January 1863 – 4
July 1902), says the following:
(Supreme tenets of Hinduism originated from the ruling
kings of different eras. The ritual Hinduism is the product of Brahmins.
The
kings freely gave away and popularized their teachings. The Brahmins
(priests) kept their rituals and their purported meaning under wraps and
practiced them for a livelihood. The Hindu is burdened with these mindless
rituals. Take Bhagavadgita: It came
from the mouth of Krishna, a king and an incarnation of Vishnu, the God.
Take Buddha: He was a prince. He gave away all his teachings free of charge.)
(Some twice-born in the USA have an antipathy
towards Swami Vivekananda and this has been expressed in the web sites because
of his fearless attitude in telling like it is. --Krishnaraj)
The Complete Works of
Swami Vivekananda Volume 1 [ Page : 452- 453 ] THE GITA I
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Swami Vivekananda
was born a KAyastha (Scribe; Mixed caste). KAyasthas descended from King Chitragupta according to
one account. Swami Vivekananda never identified himself as a Brahmana but as
a Kayastha. They are variously known by others as mixed caste, Superior
Sudras, or clean Sudras. Brahmins generally resisted the inclusion of
Kayasthas in their broad category. KAyam (காயம்) in Tamil and KAya (काय)
in Sanskrit mean body, meaning that this caste originated from the
body of god. Brahmanas originated from the mouth; the Ksatriyas from the
shoulders/arms; Vaisyas from the thighs and Sudras from the feet. Naturally and
accordingly they talk the talk, cross the swords, raise grains and walk the
walk. From the scientific point of view, we all originated from Black
African Adam and Eve. Tradition says a thought arose in the mind of Brahma (Chita/Chitra)
and produced KAyastha from the body of Brahma in secrecy (gupta). The Scribe
is known as Chitragupta.
Endogamous marriage within race, caste, tribe, and group
established similar features within each one of the distinct groups.
KAysthas became scribes on the dictate of Brahma,
according to a legend. Chitragupta is the scribe who keeps track of the
merits and demerits of each and every soul and reports to the Lord of Death
(Yama = யமன்), who doles out rewards and punishments after death.
Polluted minds exude pollution. Pure souls pour pure
nectar.
Here are
the verses from the Laws of Manu, incompatible with modern days and ways.
Laws of Manu
11.85. By his origin
(from the Mouth of God) alone a Brahmana is a
deity even for the gods, and (his teaching is) authoritative for men,
because the Veda is the foundation for that.
The tragic truth is
that some Dvijas in the USA believe that they are god among men.
[Obviously this verse
was written, endorsed, quoted and celebrated by the ones, who got hold
of this straw of false superiority and have no other floatation devices in
the sea of Samsara. Examples of Brahmana: Ramakrishna Paramahamsa; Ramana
Maharishi, Swami Sivananda. Brahmana refers to one with God realization. Nammalvar was a God-realized person
(bhagavat-sākşātkāra),
though he was a Sudra by birth. He is one of the most prolific poets in Srivaishnavism, who wrote extensively about
Paramapadam.
Nammalvar is one of the most quoted poets in Sri Vaishnavism.] One text says
that he was born 3102 B.C. The real date was C.A.D.800. Nammāḷvār (நம்மாழ்வார்
= (நம் + ஆழ்வார்) = (our own + one immersed in god).
Remember the verse: ...therefore
the Brahmins are our gods.
Devadhinam jagat
sarvam,
Mantradhinam ta
devata
Tan mantram
Brahmanadhinam
Brahmana mama devata
Laws of Manu-- A one-man pollution control
Board.
11.127. One fourth (of the penance) for the
murder of a Brahmana is prescribed (as expiation) for (intentionally)
killing a Kshatriya, one-eighth for killing a Vaisya; know that it is
one-sixteenth for killing a virtuous Sudra.
Though the weight of
the crime by a Brahmana is the same, the punishment doled out depended on
caste of the victim. The Brahmana perpetrator killing a Brahmana gets full
(100%) punishment. Brahmana killing a king gets 25%; killing a vaisya,
12.5%; killing a Sudra, 6.25%. Thus Brahmana is a full human being; a king
1/4th human; a Vaishya 1/8th; a Sudra 1/16th.
Manu of the Laws
of Manu regards a Sudra 1/16th human; a trader 1/8th; a king 1/4th; and a
Brahmana a full 100% human.
The accused and victim
Punishment
Brahmana killing Brahmana
100% full punishment (Brahmana is 100%
human.)
Brahmana killing a king
25% of full punishment (King is 1/4th human.)
Brahmana killing a Vaisya (Trader)
12.5% of full punishment (Trader is 1/8th
human.)
Brahmana killing a Sudra (Menial worker)
6.25% of full punishment. (Menial worker is
1/16th human.)
The Accused and his crime
Compensation
Brahmana killing an adulterous Brahmin woman
Compensation given by the convicted is a
leather bag
Brahmana killing an adulterous queen
Compensation given by the convicted is a bow
Brahmana killing a Vaisya adulterous woman
Compensation given by the convicted is a goat
Brahmana killing a Sudra adulterous woman
Compensation given by the convicted is a
sheep
With this kind of punishment and compensation, there is no incentive for a
person not to indulge in all kinds of nefarious activities. Manu has
made it easy for the highest caste to get away with murder; if caught, it
costs a sheep, a goat, a bow or a leather bag. There is no mention it
has to be a Gucci bag. If a queen is killed by a Brahmana, the king should be compensated
with at least a Gucci Bag from the perpetrator. Not so by the rules of Manu. The perpetrator can
get away with murder by throwing a bag, bought on the sidewalk, to the king.
The truth of the matter was the king's guards immediately killed the
perpetrator and his accomplices.
To put complete trust in Sastras is inadmissible in a modern
society. The Sudra becomes 1/16th human in the same way an African American
during slavery was regarded three-fifths of a human being.
The Deracinated African:
The three-fifths
compromise was an agreement between Southern and Northern states reached
during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, during which the basic
framework of the United States was established. Under this compromise, a
slave was counted as three-fifths of a
human
being for the purpose of taxation and representation in Congress. As a
result, slave-owners
and the Southern states got a deal of political clout.
Brahmin's Saliva is a panacea for many
and varied skin diseases. 2011
Got Skin Disease; I heard of a universal cure, which will save a visit to the
Dermatologist and hundreds of dollars and Rupees. The cure is not a lotion,
potion, ointment....You have to have a complete trust and roll over the Banana
leaves containing leftover food eaten by Brahmins in a Government-run temple in
Karnataka. I am a devotee of Krishna Paramatma and though this event takes place
annually there in His Temple, I have the regrettable duty to report it. It is the Brahmin's saliva in trace amounts and the condiments in the
food which cure a person of skin diseases. This 500 year practice is wholesome
and sanitary for the believers. The official position on this is not to
interfere with age old custom. Hundreds of devotees from the backward castes
took part in the ritual.
But there was a dissenter coming from the oppressed caste (Dalit = Oppressed
= Pariah = பறையன்: a pejorative word = actual meaning is Drummer who announces
on the village streets.), who saw superstition, humiliation, perpetuation of
caste system, unhygienic practice,.... Luckily for him, the leftover food does
not contain chicken bones, ribs, animal bones because Brahmins do not eat dead
animals as food in public. Vedic Brahmins did eat beef and some priests even
today eat goats sacrificed to Mother Kali. Some modern Brahmins do eat
non-vegetarian food as a matter of convenience and taste, esp. in the West.
The low-caste and other believers thrashed him (and dumped him over a Banana Leaf--I just made it
up). I am sure the thrashers were not Brahmins, because they, by
tradition, are pacific people and do not believe in violence. Another reason I
believe the miscreants are not Brahmins because a Brahmin touching a Pariah is
unheard of unless the Brahmin is a physician. Oh, I see, the dissenter can be
hit with a stick; that is non-polluting to the hitter. The bare-chested hitter
here is not a Brahmin, Ksatriya or Vaisya because I do not see a sacred thread
across his chest. My assessment is that the man was beaten by fellow caste
members, who go along with the custom. It is unlikely that the perpetrators were
instigated by the Brahmins. No Brahmin compelled any
non-Brahmin or Dalit to show up and roll over the Banana leaves. They were free
to stay home. They are other castes below
Brahmins but above the Dalits. He filed a complaint with the police against the
bare-chested and non-threaded thrasher-in-chief, the cohorts and the minister and vowed to take the case to the Supreme
Court.
There are goondas (professional thugs) in every city; one can hire them for
nefarious activities.
"While the ritual itself was sickening, Karnataka Chief Minister Sadanand
Gowda's response clearly indicted that he would not be the one to crack down on
such inhuman practice.
Instead of condemning the practice, Gowda said it was typical ritual that has
been going on for several years. He said he would look into the matter and a
decision on discontinuing it would be taken only after consultations."
"How can the government promote discrimination based on caste? The Brahmins
are served food in a separate dining hall while people representing other castes
are served food in the general dining hall. Then, these people roll over the
leftovers of the Brahmins. This is ridiculous. It is happening right under the
nose of the government," political historian Dr A. Veerappa said.
The practice is called Made Snana.
December 1, 2011.
I saw in the villages and towns in the 40s, 50s... that
Banana leaf was used as kind of non-stick bed sheet for a person who had burns
and or festering and oozing skin diseases. The Banana leaf is spread on the
floor or bed smeared with oil and the patient with burns and or sticky and
oozing skin disease was laid over it. The modern petroleum-laden dressing over
burns: fugetaboutit. This Banana and Oil bed sheet was superior because patients
did recover from their diseases. But I don't recommend asking a Brahmin to spit
on the poor patient though a Brahmin's saliva is believed curative for skin
diseases.
http://www.womenpriests.org/traditio/unclean.asp
Women, Church and Change
Through their anti-sex mania, the Fathers
of the Church aggravated the fears of women's ritual uncleanness.
Church leaders were anxious that such uncleanness might
defile the holiness of the church building, the sanctuary and mainly the
altar.
In a climate that increasingly looked on all aspects of sex and procreation as
tainted with sin, theologians considered that an
‘unclean creature’ like a woman could not be entrusted with the care of God's
sacred realities.
Prohibitions based on the presumed ‘ritual uncleanness’ of women have remained
in official Church Law for the last 700 years.
Knowing this background, we need not be surprised to find
that the vast majority of Fathers, canon lawyers, theologians and Church leaders
were of the opinion that such a ‘ritually unclean’ person could not be entrusted
with the ministry of the Eucharist.
It is clear that this social and cultural bias invalidated their judgment as to
the suitability of women for ordination.
These laws were made even more onerous and complicated in the
rabbinical
traditions that followed. The consequences for women were:
Every month, there were seven or more days during which she was ritually
unclean.
She needed purification at childbirth; after the birth of a son a mother was
unclean for 40 days, of a daughter for 80 days (Leviticus 12,1-8).
A taboo against women during pregnancy and menstruation was common among many
nations in early pre-Christian centuries. Not only were women considered to be
“impure” during these periods, but in danger of communicating their impurity to
others.
“Contact with the monthly flux of women turns new wine sour, makes crops
wither, kills grafts, dries seeds in gardens, causes the fruit of trees to fall
off, dims the bright surface of mirrors, dulls the edge of steel and the gleam
of ivory, kills bees, rusts iron and bronze, and causes a horrible smell to fill
the air. Dogs who taste the blood become mad, and their bite becomes poisonous
as in rabies. The Dead Sea, thick with salt, cannot be drawn asunder except by a
thread soaked in the poisonous fluid of the menstruous blood. A thread from an
infected dress is sufficient. Linen, touched by the woman while boiling and
washing it in water, turns black. So magical is the power of women during their
monthly periods that they say that hailstorms and whirlwinds are driven away if
menstrual fluid is exposed to the flashes of lightning” from Pliny the Elder,
Natural History, book 28, ch. 23, 78-80; book 7, ch. 65.
Already in 241 AD
Dionysius, Archbishop of Alexandria, wrote to say that: “menstruous women
ought not to come to the Holy Table, or touch the Holy of Holies, nor to
churches, but pray elsewhere.” This was a rare voice in the eastern part of the
Church in which, after all,
women deacons
served in all dioceses.
The real problem came from the West, from the Latin speaking dioceses of
North Africa, Italy, Gaul and Britain.
The local
Council of Carthage in North Africa (from 345 AD) introduced rules imposing
abstinence from intercourse on bishops, priests and deacons.
Local Councils in France:
Orange (441 AD)
and Epaon (517
AD), decreed that no women deacons were to be ordained in their region. The
obvious reason was the fear of menstruous women defiling the sanctuary.
Pope Gelasius I
(494 AD) objected to women serving at the altar.
The diocesan
Synod of Auxerre (588 AD) decreed that women had to cover their hands with a
‘dominical’ cloth in order to receive communion.
The Synod of
Rouen (650 AD) forbade priests to give the chalice into the hands of women
or to allow them to help in distributing communion.
Bishop Timothy of
Alexandria (680 AD) laid down that couples should abstain from intercourse
on Saturdays and Sundays and on the day before receiving communion. Menstruous
women may not receive communion, may not receive baptism or visit the Church at
Easter.
Bishop Theodore
of Canterbury (690 AD), ignoring Pope
Gregory the Great's
letter to his predecessor, forbade menstruant women to visit a church or
receive holy communion. Mothers remained unclean for forty days after giving
birth.
Bishop Theodulf
of Orléans (820 AD) forbade women to enter the sanctuary. Also: “Women
should remember their infirmity, and the inferiority of their sex: and therefore
they should have fear of touching whatever sacred things there are in the
ministry of the Church.”
Women may not touch any sacred vessel. The birth of a child carries a double
curse: “There were two commandments in the (Old) Law, one pertaining to the
mother giving birth, the other to the delivery itself. With regard to the mother
giving birth, when she had given birth to a male child, she was to refrain from
entering the Temple for forty days as an unclean person: because the foetus,
conceived in uncleanliness, is said to remain formless for forty days. But if
she gave birth to a female child, the space of time was doubled, for the
menstrual blood, which accompanies birth, is considered to such an extent
unclean that, as Solinus states, fruits dry up and grass withers at its touch.
But why was the time for a female child doubled? Solution: because a double
curse lies on the feminine growth. For she carries the curse of Adam and also
the (punishment) ‘you will give birth in pain’. Or, perhaps, because, as the
knowledge of physicians reveals, female children remain at conception twice as
long unformed as male children” Sicardus of Cremona,
Mitrale V, ch. 11.
The new Code
of Canon Law (1983 AD) saw many improvements in the status of women in
the Church. While it retains the prohibition against the ordination of women,
and reserves even the lectorate and the ministry of acolyte only to men, it
finally reversed the Church's position by stating that women, ‘by temporary
deputation’ may fulfil these ministries in the Church.
Women may be readers of Sacred Scripture during liturgical functions;
Mass servers;
commentators during the Eucharist;
preachers of the Word;
cantors and singers, either alone or as members of a choir;
leaders of liturgical services;
ministers of baptism;
distributors of Holy Communion.
Dharmasutra
by Vasistha
1. If a
Sûdra approaches [has sex with] a female of the Brâhmana caste, (the
king) shall cause the Sûdra to be tied up in Vîrana grass and shall
throw him into a fire. He shall cause
the head of the Brâhmanî [brahmna woman] to be
shaved, and her body to be anointed with butter; placing her naked on a black
donkey, he shall cause her to be conducted along the highroad. It is declared
that she becomes pure (thereby). 1
http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe14/sbe1424.htm
Dharmasutra Translation by Patrick Olivelle:
Dharmasutras are
sometimes contradictory.
page 176. 2.4.2: There is no corporal punishment, when men are involved in
adultery with actresses or the wives of minstrels, for such women lure these men
and stir people with great self-control.
2.4.4. ...their menstrual flow washes away their sins.
2.4.6. In the tenth year a man may dismiss a wife who bears no children, in
the 12th year a woman who bears only daughters and in the 15th year a wife of
all of whose children die; a wife who is sharp-tongued, however, he should
dismiss immediately.
Comment: The composers of Sastras did not think of the
possibility that man can be at fault in his failure to impregnate his wife. They
did not even know that man is responsible for the sex of his child from the
standpoint he is the one who makes the X and Y chromosomes.
2.4.7 to 10. Condensed. A widow with no son can bear a child with a
brother-in-law with the consent of elders; this leviratic union is forbidden on
barren woman, unwilling woman.
Page 177. A Brahmin having sex unknowingly with
Chandala woman, eating her
food, and receiving her gifts falls from his caste. He sinks further to her
level, if he knows her so.
Chandala = The lowest of the low. A person born
of a Brahmana and a Sudra.
Here is a paradox. One set of injunctions brand woman polluted because of
menstruation. Another set of injunctions says that menstruation purifies a woman
from sins and sexual violation. Menstruation makes them immune from defilement.
Page321. 28.1-3. Condensed. A woman violated sexually is purified by her
menstrual period.
28.5: Every woman is enjoyed by Moon god,
Gandharva and Fire, before
they go to men; thus they are free from taint.
Gandharva
= A celestial musician.
page 322. Vasistha Dharmasutra.
28.7: Condensed. Triadic Sin and fall of a woman from her caste: Killing her
husband, killing a Brahmin, and getting an abortion.
28.5. Condensed. The mouth of a goat and horse, the back of the cow, feet of
a Brahmin, and a woman are pure all over.
Page 250. Dharmasutra by Vasistha.
1.24. A Brahmin may take 3 wives, a warrior (Ksatriya) 2, a trader (Vaisya)
and menial worker (Sudra) one each. [Of course, those days, the king maintained
a harem.] A man can marry a Sudra woman at his own risk: No rituals or
ceremonies, caste corruption by infusion of Sudra blood, exclusion from heaven
after death.
1.32. When a girl is bartered for a cow and a bull, it is labeled a 'Seer's'
marriage. When a man has premarital sex with a woman of same caste, it is 'Gandharva'
marriage.
[Gandharvas are celestial musicians. They and their spouses (Apsarasas)
believe in 'Open marriage which nowadays typically refers to
a marriage in which the partners agree that each may engage in extramarital
sexual relationships, without this being regarded as infidelity'. As you see,
Open Marriage was in existence from time immemorial.]
1.34. When a man forcibly abducts a girl, violently putting down any
opposition, it is 'Ksatriya' marriage. [This was a common occurrence in olden
days among the rulers.]
1.36. When a man negotiates a price and purchases a girl for money [or
goods], it is the 'human' marriage. Purchase is defines as follows: Therefore,
the groom should give one hundred cows together with a chariot to the bride's
father.
Black Laws
of the Manu Smriti Against
Dalits and Women
S. L. Virdi Advocate
On December 25th 1927,
Dr.Ambedkar burnt Manusmriti
http://www.bhagwanvalmiki.com/manu-smriti.htm
Manu
divides Hindus into four varnas i.e. casteism. He not only divide Hindus into
four varnas, he also grades them. Besides prescribing rank and occupation Manu
grants privilege to swarnas and imposes penalties on the shudras.The status of
the Shudras in the Hindu society as prescribed by Manu the Law-giver and the
Architect of Hindu society. There are so many Codes of the Manu Smriti against
the Shudras and Women which are below:
1. For the
welfare of humanity the supreme creator Brahma, gave birth to the Brahmins from
his mouth, the Kshatriyas from his shoulders, the Vaishyas from his thighs and
Shudras from his feet. (Manu's code I-31,)
2. God
said the duty of a Shudra is to serve the upper varnas faithfully with devotion
and without grumbling. (Manu 1-91) Manu is not satisfied with this. He wants
this servile status of the Shudras to be expressed in the names and surnames of
persons belonging to that community. Manu says:
3. Let the
first part of a Brahman’s name denote something auspicious, a Kshatriya’s be
connected with power, and a Vaishyas with wealth but a Shudra’s express
something contemptible. (Manu II. 31.)
4. The
second part of a Brahmin’s name shall be a word implying happiness, of a
Kshatriya’s (a word) implying protection, of a Vaishya’s a term expressive of
thriving and of a Shudra’s an expression denoting service. (Manu II. 32.)
5. A
hundred year old Kshatriya must treat a ten year old Brahmin boy as his father.
(Manu 11-135)
6. The
Brahmin should never invite persons of other varnas for food. In case, the
latter begs the Brahmin for food, the Brahmin may give them some left-over. Even
these left-over must be served not by the Brahmin but by his servants outside
the house. (Manu II2).
7. He who
instructs Shudra pupils and he whose teacher is a Shudra shall become
disqualified for being invited to a shradha. (Manu III. 156.)
8. A
Shudra is unfit of receive education. The upper varnas should not impart
education or give advice to a Shudra.It is not necessary that the Shudra should
know the laws and codes and hence need not be taught. Violators will go to as
amrita hell. (Manu IV-78 to 81)
9. "Let him not dwell in a country where the rulers are Shudras." (Manu IV. 61)
10. He
must never read the Vedas in the presence of the Shudras. (Manu IV. 99.)
11. Any
country, where there are no Brahmins, of where they are not happy will get
devastated and destroyed. (Manu VIII-20 to 22)
12. A
Brahmana who is only a Brahman by decent i.e., one who has neither studied nor
performed any other act required by the Vedas may, at the king’s pleasure,
interpret the law to him i.e., act as the judge, but never a Shudra (however
learned he may be). (Manu VIII. 20.)
13. The
Kingdom of that monarch, who looks on while a Shudra settles the law, will sink
low like a cow in the morass. (Manu VIII. 21.)
14. Any
Brahmin, who enslaves or tries to enslave a Brahmin, is liable for a penalty of
no less than 600 PANAS. A Brahmin can order a Shudra to serve him without any
remuneration because the Shudra is created by Brahma to serve the Brahmins. Even
if a Brahmin frees a Shudra from slavery the Shudra continues to be a slave as
he is created for slavery. Nobody has the right to free him. (Manu VIII-50,56
and 59)
15. A
Shudra who insults a twice born man with gross invectives shall have his tongue
cut out; for he is of low origin. (Manu VIII. 270.)
16. If he
mentions the names and castes of the (twice born) with contumely, an iron nail,
ten fingers long, shall be thrust red hot into his mouth. (Manu VIII. 271.)
17. If a
Shudra arrogantly presumes to preach religion to Brahmins, the king shall have
poured burning oil in his mouth and ears. Manu VIII. 272.)
18. A
Shudra who has an intercourse with a woman of the higher caste guarded or
unguarded shall be punished n the following manner; if she was unguarded, he
loses the offending part; if she was guarded then he should be put to death and
his property confiscated." (Manu VIII. 374.)
19. A
Brahman may compel a Shudra, whether bought or unbought, to do servile work for
he is created by the creator to be the slave of a Brahmana. (Manu VIII. 413.)
20. No
Shudra should have property of his own, He should have nothing of his own. The
existence of a wealthy Shudra is bad for the Brahmins. A Brahman may take
possession of the goods of a Shudra. (ManuVIII-417 & X129)
21. A
Brahman may seize without hesitation, if he be in distress for his subsistence,
the goods of his Shudra. The Shudra can have only one occupation. This is one of
the inexorable laws of Manu. says Manu. (Manu VIII. 417)
22. A
Shudra who wants to just fill his stomach may serve a Vaishya. If he wants a
permanent means of living he can serve a Kshatriya. But if he wants to go to
heaven or wants higher or superior birth in the next generation he must serve a
Brahmin. (ManuIX334 & 335)
23. The
most sacred duty of a Shudra is to serve the Brahmins, always, reciting the
words "Brahman" with utmost devotion. Such a Shudra will get salvation.
Otherwise he will die a worst death and will go to the worst hell. (Manu X-121)
24. But
let a (Shudra) serve Brahmans, either for the sake of heaven, or with a view to
both (this life and the next) for he who is called the servant of a Brahman
thereby gains all his ends. (Manu X. 122.)
25. The
service of Brahmans alone is declared (to be) an excellent occupation for a
Shudra for whatever else besides this he may perform will bear him no fruit.
(Manu X. 123.)
26. They
must allot to him out of their own family (property) a suitable maintenance,
after considering his ability, his industry, and the number of those whom he is
bound to support. (Manu X. 124.)
27.
Brahmins to give Shudras food leftovers, old torn clothes, spoiled grain and old
utensils (Manu X-125)
28. No
superfluous collection of wealth must be made by a Shudra, even though he has
power to make it, since a servile man, who has amassed riches, becomes proud,
and, by his insolence or neglect, gives pain to Brahmins. (Manu X. 129.
29. A
Brahmin shall never beg from a Shudra, property for (performing) a sacrifice
i.e., for religious purposes. All marriages with the Shudra were prescribed.
Marriage with a woman belonging to any of three other classes was forbidden.
A Shudra
was not to have a connection with a woman of the higher classes and an act of
adultery committed by a Shudra with her was considered by Manu to be an offence
involving capital punishment. (Manu XI. 24.)1, 2 ,3, 4In the matter of acquiring
learning and knowledge Manu’s successors went much beyond him in the cruelty of
their punishment of the Shudra for studying the Veda. For instance, Katyayana
lays down that if a Shudra over heard the Veda or ventured to utter a word of
the Veda, the king shall cut his tongue in twain and pour hot molten lead in his
ear. Manu’s law book and its strict compliance by the Brahmans, it may be
summarized that men and women are not born equal. There is no room for
individual merit and no consideration of individual justice. If the individual
has the privilege, it is not because it is due to his/her personally.
The
privilege goes with class, and if it is his/her good luck to enjoy it, he/she is
destined to be born in the privileged class. On the other hand, if an individual
is suffering in a class, it is because he belongs to that class. Thereby,
logically speaking from Manusmriti’s point of view, the suffering of Shudras and
women is because of their being part of their caste and sex respectively. Manu’s
‘social order’ breeds 'social out-caste,’ which in turn dishes out ‘social
injustice’ to the underprivileged. Narda’s ‘Smriti’ (law book), openly advocate
slavery, but since Varnashram (a creation of caste system by the Manu) was
critical and deviously interwoven into religion, to subjugate the Shudras
through superstitions like opium to an addict, the Brahmans let the slaves
die."5From-Casteism: The Eighth Worst Wonder by Dr. S. L. Virdi, Pages-39-43)
References: 1.
Dr.Babasahib Saheb Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches, Vol. 5, Page 113 to 115
2. Kovena, Toward Emancipation, Page 57, 62
3. S.L.Shashtri, Manu Simiri ki Shav Preksha, concluded, Page 54 to 155
4. Author Coke Burnale, Hindu Polity (The Ordinances of Manu) concluded.
5. G.S.Thind, Our Indian Sub Continent Heritage, Page 145
Black Laws against the Women - Casteism and Degration of Women
1. Every
woman must be loyal, faithful. obedient honorable to her husband even if he is
blind, deaf, dumb, old, physically handicapped, debauchel or, gambler and
neglects his wife and lives with his concubine(s). If the husband is unhappy, it
would be the fault of his wife. If he cries, she should cry. If he laughs she
should laugh. She can only answer humbly to his question. She should not on her
own put any question. She should eat only after her husband eats. If he is
beating she should not react, but fall on his feet and beg him to pardon her,
and kiss his hands and pacify him. If the husband dies she should burn herself
to death on his funeral pyre and go along with him to the other world and serve
him there in this manner. (Padma Purana)
2. Women
are fickle minded. Never believe them. Friendship with a women is just like
friendship with a wolf. (Rig-Veda 8-33-7)
3. A
virtuous woman is one who dies on the funeral pyre of her dead husband and
avails the privilege of serving her husband in the other world. (Atharva Veda
18-3-1)
4. Woman
is the source of sorrow. At birth she makes her mother weep. At the time of the
puberty she makes her parents weep. At the time of the marriage she makes all
her family members and relatives weep. In youth she commits lot of blunders and
brings bad name to the entire family, relatives and Varna. She tortures the
hearts of her parents, husband and other family members. She is called 'DARIKA'
because she is source of sorrow to all.
(Aithareya
Brahmana)
5. Women are liers, corrupt, greedy, and unvirtuous. (Manu II 1)
6. Even
for a woman, the performance of the sanskaras are necessary and they should be
performed. But they should be performed without uttering the Veda Mantras."
(Manu II. 60)
7. It is
the nature of women to seduce men in this (world); the wise are never unguarded
in the company of males. (Manu II. 213)
8. For
women are able to lead astray in (this) world not only a fool, but even a
learned man, and (to make) him a slave of desire and anger." (Manu II.214)
9. One
should not sit in a lonely place with one's mother, sister or daughter, for the
senses are powerful, and master even a learned man." (Manu II. 215)
10. A
Brahmin male by virtue of his birth becomes the first husband of all women in
the universe. (Manu III. 14)
11. Women
not care for beauty, nor is their attention fied on age; (thinking); (it is
though that) he is a man, they give themselves to the handsome and to the ugly.
(Manu IV. 14)
12. By a
girl, by a young woman, or even by an aged one, nothing must be done
independently, even in her own house." (Manu IV. 147)
13. In
childhood a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when
her lord is dead to her sons; a woman must never be independent. (Manu IV. 148)
14. She
must not seek to separate herself from her father, husband or son; by leaving
them. She would make them both (her own and her husband's) family incompatible.
(Manu IV. 149)
15. A
Brahman must never eat food given at a sacrifice performed by a woman. (Manu IV.
205)
16.
Sacrifices performed by women are inauspicious and not acceptable to god. They
should therefore be avoided. (Manu IV. 206)
17. A girl
must be under the care of her father . . . in youth under the care of the
husband and in old age under the care of her sons. But she should never be free
and independent. (Manu V. 148)
18. She
must always be cheerful, clever in management of her household affairs, careful
in cleaning her utensils and economical in expenditure. (Manu V. 150)
19. Him to
whom her father may give her, or her brother with the father's permission, she
shall obey as long as he lives and when he is dead, must not insult his memory.
(Manu V. 151)
20. The
husband who wedded her with sacred mantras is always a source of happiness to
his wife, both in season and out of season, in this world and in the next. (Manu
V1. 53)
21. Though
destitute or virtuous, or seeking pleasure elsewhere, or devoid of good
qualities, yet a husband must be constantly worshipped as a god by a faithful
wife. (Manu V. 154)
22. No
sacrifice, no vow, no fast must be performed by women, apart from their
husbands. If a wife obeys her husband, she will for that reason alone be exalted
in heaven. (Manu V. 155)
23. At her
pleasure let her (i.e. widow) enunciate her body, by living voluntarily on pure
flowers, roots and fruits, but let her not when her lord is deceased, even
pronounce the name of another man. (Manu V. 157)
24. But a
widow, who from a wish to bear children, slights her deceased husband by
marrying again, brings disgrace on herself here below, and shall be excluded
from the seat of her lord (in heaven). (Manu V. 161)
25.
Responsibly the father who gives not (his daughter) in marriage at the proper
time. (Manu IX. 4)
26. A
woman must always maintain her virtue and surrender her body to her husband
only, ever if she is married off to an ugly person or even a leper. (Manu IX.
14)
27.
Through their passion for men, through their mutable temper, through their
natural heartlessness, they become disloyal towards their husbands, however,
carefully they may be guarded in this (world). (Manu IX. 15)
28.
Knowing their disposition, which the Lord of Creatures laid in them at the
creation, to be such, (every) man should most strenuously exert himself to guard
them. (Manu IX. 16)
29. When
creating them, Manu allotted to women (a love of their) bed, (of heart) seat and
(of) ornament, impure desires, wrath, dishonesty, malice, and bad conduct. (Manu
IX. 17)
30.
Killing of a woman, a Shudra or an atheist is not sinful. Woman is an embodiment
of the worst desires, hatred, deceit, jealousy and bad character. Women should
never be given freedom. (Manu IX. 17 and V. 47, 147)
31. Women
have no right to study the Vedas. That is why their Sanskars are performed
without Veda Mantras. women have no knowledge of religion because they have no
right to know the Vedas. The uttering of Veda Mantras, they are as unclean as
untruth is." (Manu IX. 18)
32. All
women are born of sinful wombs. (Bhagavad-Gita IX 32)
33. The
husband is declared to be one with the wife, which means there could be no
separation once a woman is married. (Manu IX. 45)
34.
Neither by sale nor by repudiation is a wife released from her husband. (Manu
IX. 46)
35. To a
distinguished, handsome suitor of equal caste should she have not attained (the
proper age) (i.e. although she may not have reached puberty). (Manu IX. 88)
36. A
wife, a son and a slave, they three are declared to have no property: the wealth
which they earn is (acquired)for him to whom they belong. (Manu IX. 416)
37. None
of the acts of women can be taken as good and reasonable. (Manu X.4)
38. Day
and night women must be kept in dependence by males (of their families), and, if
they attach themselves to sexual enjoyments, they must be kept under one's
control. (Manu XI2)
39. Her
father protects (her) in childhood, her husband protects (her) in youth, and her
sons protect (her) in old age; a woman is never fit for independence." (Manu XI.
3)
40. Women must particularly be guarded against evil inclinations, however
trifling (they may appear); for, if they are not guarded, they will bring sorrow
on to families." (Manu XI. 5)
41.
Considering that the highest duty of all castes even weak husbands (must) scribe
to guard their wives. (Manu XI. 6)
42. A
woman shall not perform the daily sacrifices prescribed by the Vedas. Then
according to IX.37 if she does it, she will go to hell. (Manu XI. 36)1, 2, 3, 4
From- Casteism: The Eighth Worst Wonder by Dr. S. L. Virdi, Pages-39-43)
References:
1. G.S.Thind, Our Indian Sub Continent Heritage, Page 146 to 151)
2. Author Coke Burnale, Hindu Polity The Ordinances of Manu) Concluded 3. Kovena,
Toward Emancipation. Page 57, 62, 72, 73
4. S.L.Shashtri, Manu Simiri ki Shav Preeksha concluded page 54 to 155.
Vedas
No one is
to argue critically about vedas because religion has originated from them. Any
nastika (non-believer) or critic of the Vedas, who "insults" them on the basis
of logic, is worthy of being socially boycotted by "noble" persons. Women, that
is, even women belonging to Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya varna are not
entitled to upanayan and the study of the Vedas. For them, marriage is
equivalent to upanayan and service of their husbands is equivalent to the study
of the Vedas in the gurukul. Even if the husband is morally degraded, engaged in
an affair with another woman and is devoid of knowledge and other qualities, the
wife must treat him like a god. A widower is allowed to remarry but a widow is
not. Besides, women are not considered fit for being free and independent. They
are to be protected in their childhood by father, in youth by husband and in old
age by son. They should never be allowed by their guardians to act
independently. A woman must never do anything even inside her home without the
consent of her father, husband and son respectively. She must remain in control
of her father in childhood, of husband in youth and of son after the death of
her husband.
Ramayana
In Ramayana, Ram kills Shambuka simply because he was performing tapasya
(ascetic exercises) which he was not supposed to do as he was a Shudra by birth.
Mahabharata
In Mahabharata, Dronacharya refuses to teach archery to Eklavya, because he was
not a Kshatriya by birth. When Eklavya, treating Drona as his notional guru,
learns archery on his own, Drona makes him cut his right thumb as gurudakshina
(gift for the teacher) so that he may not become a better archer than his
favorite Kshatriya student Arjuna!
Bhagvadgita
The
much-glorified Bhagvat-Gita, too, favors varna-vyavastha.When Arjuna refuses to
fight, one of his main worries was that the war would lead to the birth of
varna-sankaras or offspring from intermixing of different varnas and the
consequent "downfall" of the family. On the other hand, Krishna tries to
motivate Arjuna to fight by saying that it was his varna-dharma (caste-duty) to
do so because he was a Kshatriya. In fact, Krishna goes to the extent of
claiming that the four varnas were created by him only.
Dealing with the question of wages to the shudras:
X – 124.
They must allot to him (shudra) out of their own family property a suitable
maintenance, after considering his ability, his industry and the number of those
whom he is bound to support.
X – 125.
The remnants of their food must be given to him, as well as their old clothes,
the refuge of their grain and their old household furniture.
X – 129.
No collection of wealth must be made by a shudra even though he be able to do
it; for a shudra who has acquired wealth gives pain to Brahmana.
XI – 6. One should
give, according to one’s ability, wealth to Brahmanas learned in the veda and
living alone; (thus) one obtains after death heavenly bliss.
XI – 261-62.
A Brahmana who has killed even the peoples of the three worlds, is completely
freed from all sins on reciting three times the Rig, Yajur or Sama- Veda with
the Upanishad.
Thus in
Hinduism, there is no choice of avocation. There is no economic independence and
there is no economic security. Economically, speaking of a shudra is a
precarious thing.
Successors
of Manu made the disability of the shudra in the matter of study of veda into an
offence involving dire penalties as:
XII. 4.
If the shudra intentionally listens for committing to memory the veda, then his
ears should be filled with (molten) lead and lac; if he utters the veda, then
his tongue should be cut off; if he has mastered the veda his body should be cut
to pieces.
The Manu Code of Laws (the revered book of
Hindus) stated 2000 years ago :
"No collection of wealth was
to be made by Shudras (low caste) even though he /she may be able to do
it, for a Shudra who has acquired wealth gives pain to Brahmin, and that a
Brahmin may appropriate by force the property of Shudra" (Manu Smriti X, 129)
"Sri Brahma (God the
Creator) had intended from eternity that the Untouchables should be born slaves,
live as slaves and die as slaves" (Manu Chapter 19, #413)
The credit for the recognition of ovum as
a haploid gamete goes to the western physiologists. The celebration and
drinking of perceived menstrual fluid of Goddess Kamakhya by the pilgrims to
the temple goes on yearly for four days. A Deity's life is 12 times longer
than a human and because they drank the nectar of immortality, they live for
ever. A human's life extends to 100 years. Based on this calculation, a life
of one month for the human extends to one year for the deity. What is 1 year for human is
lived for 12 years by the deity. [That is why a deity is
consecrated by 
There is a custom in Dvija
households in India that the
menstruating woman is ostracized, segregated, shunted, secluded and secretes
herself out of sight in a zenana (seclusion room). This is a very discriminatory practice in my
opinion and this burden is placed on the woman and the family by inconsiderate
men, who wrote the injunctions many eons ago. Did they touch base with Sri, Uma,
Sarasvati, Durga, Kali, Valli, Devayanai and other women, before they wrote the
injunctions? No, they did not. Menstruation is ThIttu (தீட்டு in Tamil =
Pollution). The men imposed this restriction on goddesses and the women. The woman is
polluted for 5 days every month and after childbirth. The Sastraic code writers
branded themselves the Pollution Control Board to stem the tide of pollution
emanating from a menstruating woman in the household. There are millions of
households in India and therefore millions of menstruating women. The whole of
India is polluted, going by the injunctions. What about the women who happen to
have precipitous periods while visiting the temple? Is the temple polluted?
Should the temple authorities ask for declaration of purity while the women
visit the temple? There is no end to this mindless injunction. Look around: pollution of
air, water, oceans, lakes; the
mosquito larvae infested puddles; dog-dos; all kinds of air-borne garbage daily.
That is pollution they are willing to live with. Many post menopausal old wives,
who went through the rigorous punishment themselves before, figuratively flog
the younger women and drive them into the impure isolation room, or to the concealed
well (space)
between the platform (திண்ணை) and the wall. During
my school and college days, I saw many a woman sitting in the space counting
hours going into days until she becomes pure by taking a shower. The widowed
woman is a constant inhabitant in the perimeter of the house. As we walked the
streets, we could count the number of menstruating women and
the widows. Yes, I lived in Dvija neighborhood. 
