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Dear Sri Pannvalan Ji,

It has taken several days for me to read and reread your posting several times before understanding the crux of your posting. I believe that you have touched upon something very central to the issues facing Hinduism today. I hope I can, in a small way shed some light on this.

1. First of all, one needs to seperate our modern 'secular' life (for a want of better word), with our Hindu life based on Varnashrama system. The latter system seems to have worked admirably for a long time, till the time when the fissures and fractures within had allowed for others to invade India and/or other religions to find space and home here.

2. Ever since the British came in, as a society we were divided and ruled and as such a large portion of our intelligentsia were exposed to the 'new' ideas of the west, which seemed fresh and in vogue compared to our traditional ideas, which did not seem to serve the emergence of the modern world very well.

3. So a lot of our leaders who were educated abroad carried these ideas to be implemented for a 'new modern' India. This created new traditions, such as Arya Samaj etc., who eschewed the Varna Dharma. So was a new national constitition adopted to eshew the Varna system.

4. This essentially undercut the foundation of our religion as practiced for a long time. Hinduism has come to be viewed as Brahminism, and in this context, I think the connection to our scriptures by the vast majority of Hindus were lost. People could not identify with the old system anymore.

5. This is also the reason why we have so many different sambradhayams, who relentlessly, almost mindlessly are clinging to the facade of their philosophies. This has become a different world, where a Brahmin is no more respected, a Sudhra still does not know where he fit in, but I see either of them at work either as my boss or my employee. Where is the moral code that tells me how to treat others in such circumstances? So, vegetarian Brahmins keep away from the non-vegetarian Sudras in the place where they are supposed to mingle together to forge ahead as one class of Indians.

6. So, this is the issue. Who are we at the secular place of work? Who are we at home? Where does humanity fit in? Can we function as a society anymore and prosper if we do not think ourselves as Indians first?

This confusion is what is at play. We have to choose: either we live in a modern world and accept it within the bounds of our values and culture or we reject it at the cost of being passed by. It is our choice.

Maha Periaval's words are divine. But I have not found one person yet so far, who quotes Him, completely changing his lifestyle to follow His words. I am starting from a very simple request of him to not collect Varadhakshinai. And out of His love for us, He has even said what is the 'minimum' expected of us. I do not think a majority of us would today fit that bill.

So, again I ask: who are we? Some say that if you are born in India but have left then you are not a Brahmin anymore. Some say that if you marry outside of the clan you are not a brahmin anymore. Some say if you do not follow the minimal nithya karmas, you are not a brahmin anymore.

So, then. who is a Hindu? If I believe that everything said in all our scriptures as something that happened, then am I Hindu? What if I believe in only a portion of the fantastic stories? What difference does it make?

Faith, ultimately, by definition can not be held up for scientific proof. But at the same time, one can not insist that all faith based concepts can be scientifically provable.

So, when one argues about proof and faith in one sentence, one then essentially argues about entities that belong to two completely different Universes. It is like comparing a moon rock with some milk on earth.

Pranams,
KRS