ExpertDabbler

You can be. Except that there’s nothing great about it in today’s context. You did not earn that pride. It’s not a result of years of hard work. Your mom gave birth to you just like my mom.

If you think just because you were born to so-and-so who was a so-and-so there is reason for you to feel proud, then I have no comments on that issue. Having said that, I do not mean that you should feel bad or guilty about being a brahmin too. The sun never feels proud nor ashamed of that fact that it always rises in the east. It’s just a fact.

Psychology calls this as ‘pride by association’. Proud just by being a part of a particular religion, community, race, country, institution, group. This is a deceptively powerful concept. You can find that Nazis, Religious Cults, Islamic Fundamentalists, Political parties, Hyper-nationalists used this trick at some level. I think this comes under the ambit of mind control. To know more about mind control techniques, please search in google for one Steve Hassan.

Motivational Organizations of Multi-level Marketing firms use this trick to retain the gullible members. Once you buy that concept and delve some time on it, you lose all reason to think objectively. It’s just we vs them.

This is the danger of pride of association.

Also, it should be noted that those who feel too proud about their community want to display the cultural identity just as a symbolic measure. If you feel so much attached to your caste, religious or cultural roots, will you go all the way and lead a life as prescribed by your religious texts?

If that is the case, the community which suffers the most will be Brahmins. The way of life prescribed for a Brahmin is so tough that its impossible to find a true Brahmin today.
If you cannot live like the way the texts suggest you to live, what makes you so proud about it? The ancient texts have made clear that the Varnas come into play not by birth but by the deeds a person does. You can know more by reading Cho Ramaswamy’s “Enge Brahmanan”.

To quote Swami Vivekananda from one of his letter

“No religion on earth preaches the dignity of humanity in such a lofty strain as Hinduism, and no religion on earth treads upon the necks of the poor and the low in such a fashion as Hinduism. The Lord has shown me that religion is not in fault, but it is the Pharisees and Sadducees in Hinduism, hypocrites, who invent all sorts of engines of tyranny in the shape of doctrines of Paramarthika and Vyavaharika”.

Just in case any of you guys might need this information, Swami Vivekananda was not a Brahmin by birth. If you choose to ignore what he said because of this fact, it does not reflect anything on me.

I have all the respect and admiration for Brahmin kids who study well and get into Medical and Engineering colleges, IITs and IIMs in spite of the reservation system prevailing here. Way to go.

Reading sanskrit text does not make you or anyone great. Its what you do with that learning that matters.I am against some brahmin priests who will not help me do “thidhi” for my dad because we are not brahmins. Only the less “madi” of them and those who want money more desperately come to my place.

Of course it’s my mother’s fault that I had to put up with this nonsense every year.The way i see it, I think I treated my dad with respect and dignity when he was alive and that’s all there is to it. But I cannot complain more on this because I invite them in the first place. I had to compromise on this for the sake of my mom year after year for whom these things matter.

And even those who come and do professional service have no problems in taking my money or rice or vegetables but not food cooked at my kitchen. Only the knowledgeable among my readers can give answers for these.
If my money is not impure and untouchable, how come my food? Any explanations would be most welcome for i genuinely feel i might be missing some aspect here.

I have experienced this “Nammava” and “Verava” discrimination after coming to Chennai. Again nothing specific to brahmins. I have seen this same “vera aluga” even with my community too especially in Madurai where most of my relatives live.
It’s all the same everywhere where one community members are huge in number in a particular area. If its West Mambalam in Chennai, its Jewellery bazaar in Madurai.

If you can be so unbrahminic in your way of life and thinking just like others like me, there is no reason to feel great about the fact that you are a brahmin by birth.
Just like I cannot feel proud about my community background.

But you and me can do a lot to this society. Go to the Central station and you can see humans cleaning another’s shit in the tracks as if he’s cleaning dust with a vaccum cleaner. Have we not witnessed this? Do we have any answer for him? If we are going to just close our eyes, study hard, do well in GRE and settle down in US of A, that person who is cleaning in central will in no time be converted to a Christian where he can get social acceptance, respect and dignity. In that case do we have any right to talk about religious and cultural identity of India and our pride factor sitting in New York or Washington not to mention the religious conversions that take place in India? I’m afraid no.

May be we can be proud about what we contributed to our society after doing something constuctive to this country and society and our community.

To sum it up, there is no rational reason for you and me to feel proud of being a member of our community. Its up to us to decide whether we consider ourselves as educated, thinking, conscientious individuals and think and act accordingly.