Mysuru: Achievers in various fields were presented with Sri Ramanuja Seva awards by Prajnavantha Dalita Yuva Vedike as part of Sri Ramanujacharya Sahasramanothsava and Sri Ramanujacharya Jayanti held at Patrakarthara Bhavan here on Tuesday.
The awards were presented by former MUDA Chairman K.R. Mohan Kumar in the presence of City Congress President R. Murthy, JD(S) Secretary Basavaraju, Muzarai Depatment Tahsildar Yathiraj, Prajnavantha Dalita Yuva Vedike Founder Raghavendra and others.
Those who received the awards are Zilla Brahmana Sangha President D.T. Prakash and Raghuram Vajpayee in the field of social work; Dr. Sujatha Rao – Medicine; Bhavani Shankar – Education; M.V. Ramprasad – Politics and H.N. Yadhunath – Service to orphans.
Speaking on the occasion, Mohan Kumar said that Sri Ramanujacharya in the 11th century itself had fought against the discrimination between the rich and poor, upper class and lower class by saying that everyone was equal and had equal rights.
People who haven’t a clue about the greatness of the Acharya are crawling out of the woodwork. Have they even read one akshara of his works? Acharya did not “fight” against discrimination or anything. He was not a reformer in any sense of the word. He merely restored the correct tradition of the veda.
He did not reject castes or introduce new reforms. Rather, the marga of prapatti can be practiced by all castes according to shastra; thus Acharya allowed it. He didn’t invent the rules. But the shastra bars shudras from learning veda and engaging the marga of upAsaNa. And Acharya upheld this. Quoting the “apashudrAdhikaraNam” of sri bhAshya, Acharya writes:
“The Sûdra is specially forbidden to hear and study the Veda and to perform the things enjoined in it. ‘For a Sûdra is like a cemetery, therefore the Veda must not be read in the vicinity of a Sûdra;’ ‘Therefore the Sûdra is like a beast, unfit for sacrifices.’ And he who does not hear the Veda recited cannot learn it so as to understand and perform what the Veda enjoins. The prohibition of hearing thus implies the prohibition of understanding and whatever depends on it.
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Smriti also declares this prohibition of hearing, and so on. ‘The ears of him who hears the Veda are to be filled with molten lead and lac; if he pronounces it his tongue is to be slit; if he preserves it his body is to be cut through.’ And ‘He is not to teach him sacred duties or vows.’–It is thus a settled matter that the Sûdras are not qualified for meditations on Brahman.”
Little minds writing rampant nonsense about Acharya will not diminish his greatness. Stick to your vivekanandas and leave Acharya alone. He was no “reformer”, social or religious. He merely restored certain practices which were already in practice earlier, but forgotten.