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Should one follow his dharma or his intuition?: thirumazhisai

From the Bhakti List Archives

K. Srinivasan • January 9, 1997 


All the versions of the thirumazhisai story are basically in agreement.
It is the inferences that differ.

Before one calls those brahmins good or bad, we have to see why they
did that. They believed in the power of the vEdhic recitals. That is why
they were reciting it. To be consistant, they had to "believe in it fully"
including the statement that, if a person of the low caste heard these,
his ears had be filled with molten lead, tongue pulled out etc.
Can they just disbelieve parts, and believe the rest?
Should they become responsible for "some one else" torturing
the poor low caste person?

They must have considered it their dharma to recite vEdhas only in the
absence of any low caste person. In Sri Ramanuja's life history
itself one sees a similar incidence. Yadhavaprakasha thinks that
killing Sri Ramanuja in Varanasi will not bring him sin. Dying in Varanasi,
will bring moksham. He will be helping a  soul liberate itself. It is a
service. So no sin.

My personal opinion is that Sri Ramanuja clearly questioned the
"full blind faith" in vEdhic scriptures. (Others like Mahavira, Gauthama,
Basavanna even rejected them.). The Sri Vaishnavas
(followers of Sri Ramanuja) trying to re-establish the "full blind faith"
in vEdhic scriptures must be of recent origin.

adiyEn

K. Srinivasan (of Quebec).