Picture Gallery Page 1Brahma-Bharati October 1995

The keynote address (full text) byRamanath Sharma

A question askedby a twelve year-oldgirl at the morningsession was, inmany ways, an eye-opener. What couldI, as a brahmana,possibly contributeto my youn-ger

generation? This question, though the-seare not the exact words in which it wasasked, forced me to practically abandon mywritten text of the keynote and proceedwith the idea of making our younger gen-eration understand the meaning of being aBrahmana in simplest possible ways. It wasan important question, and is directlyrelevant to what we do at the BSNA.

To my mind, it is the samskara, morethan anything else, that this little girl willcontribute to her younger generation.These samskaras will enable her youngergeneration to not only easily understabndand appreciate the ideals of Brahmanas,but also practice them.

There is a lot of misconception about whoa Brahmana is. The obligatorily essentialqualities of a Brahmana are: no self-pity(adainya), non-dependence (svaatantrya),persuit of knowledge (vidyaa), whichenables him to know what is good from evil(avivveka), lack of greed (alolupa), humili-ty (vinaya) and desire for welfare of all liv-ing creatures (sarvabhuutahita). This wasthe Brahmana of Ancient India. Stud-yingand teaching was his occupation, since hewas not greedy his needs were very limited.He had a very austere life style.

Brahmanism is not a religion. Abrahmana is a Hindu and so are a vastmajority of Hindus in India and elsewherein the world. What is Hinduism? A Hindubelieves in the trinitiy of a god-head. Heworships idols. He believes in the Karmictheory and rebirth. In fact, he believes notonly in rebirth but also in reincarnation(avataara). The world in which he is borncarries all the trappings and temptationswhereby actions, past and present,depending on whether they accrue merit ordemerit, can be responsible for prolongingbondage,or speeding up release. A Hindualso believes in "release" (moksa) from the

cycles of rebirth. Actions can be two-fold:day to day existential actions and actionswhich are special, those which accruemerits and prepare one to receive fruits ofthose merits, the ultimate being releasefrom the Samsaara 'worldly existence'. Abrahmana was not supposed to be satisfiedwith the day to day existence in the world.He indeed had higher goals. His goal was tobe one with the supreme.

A Brahamana is one who resides in theSupreme; a Brahmana is one who knowsthe Supreme (brahman). This Supremebeing is divested of all qualities andactions. He is the material cause of all universe, heis the all-pervading spirit of the universe,the essence from which all created thingsare produced and into which they are allabsorbed. This is the heavy definition ofBrahman, the Supreme. In simple terms heis all pervading god who creates everyoneand everything. He is within us as the self(atman). He is beyond this individual self,and that is why, HE is paramaatman 'thesupreme self' or the SUPERMAN. ThisSUPERMAN is the role model of a trueBrahamana, so named because a Brahmanaoriginates from, stays in pursuit of, andobtains unison with, that SUPERMAN. It isno surprise that the Indians have dentifiedhim as 'that is YOU (tat tvam asi)', 'I amHIM (so' ham), or even HE is (our own)SELF. Identifying with the Supreme sinceone has him within, then poresentsnoproblem. But isn't everyone part of theSupreme, Couldn't everyone identify withHIM, pursue HIM, be one with HIM? Theanswer is yes. Then what is so special abouta Brahmana? What is special is what thesociety in ancient India identified with,required of, and desired in, a Brahmana. Itwas the conduct andoccupation which,within the ancient Indian societies,distinguished a class of ancinet Indians asBrahmanas. It was purely on the basis ofstandard of conduct and occupation that aBrahmana was classed as Brahamana.Later on, birth also became one of therequired variables. After all, the sons ofBrahmanas were alsoBrahamanas. Thecaste as the soul identifying mark for aBrahmana became established, especially inview of the conduct and occupation of otherclasses of the ancient Indian societies. Abrahmana pursued knowledge, and withhumilityconducted himself for the welfareof the society at large. The society, for

reasons of their extremely exemplaryconduct and austere life made themheroes. They almost became supermen.But the fact remains: a brahmana is onewho possesses knowledge, is non-greedyand with humility conducts himself for thewelfare of the society.

This society in which the Brahmanaswere born had classed itself into fouroccupational classes of Brahmana, Ksatri-ya, Vaishya and Shudra. This was a syst-em which, having reached its peak of org-anizational structure, became a closed so-ciety. A society which accepted Hinduismas its DHARMA and restricted its membe-rship to be strictly by birth. Every idealway of life, or religion, a society adopts,later on develops rituals. Unfortunately,every religion and society has to its basiccore more of ritual ideals than basic ide-als. In reality, world religions are surpris-ingly identical in their basic ideals.Hinduism once established also developedrituals. What was once an occupationalgrouping of four classes was, subsequentto birth becoming the sole basis ofmembership, became the caste system. Nowonder, a religion such as Hinduismwhich excels in ritual exuberance does nothave any ritual relating to conversion.

In this day and age a Brahmana can stillbe a Brahmana. In fact there is nothingwrong in knowing and carrying out theideals of ancient brahmanas. Being a brah-mana does not simply mean to live by theGanga, study the Vedas and livingby andoff the rituals. Being a brahmana is morethan this. It is living a life dedicated to thepursuit of knowledge, non-greed andwelfare of fellow human beings. It is a lifewhich has its merits and rewards cons-equential to the world beyond. We are bra-hmans and so are our children, but what isthat which we uniquely possess and whichcan be conducive toward under-standingand enhancing the brahmanical tradition?In a single word, the answer has to be theSamskaara 'a body of subcons-ciousingredients conducive to understand-ing,practicing and furthering of a particu-larway of life'. Call it certain fluids whichserve as casings for certain intellectual-behavioral genes which when excited willbe more conducive to not only understandbut also be appreciative of what brahman-ism in particular, and Hinduism ingeneral, is.

The convention supplement

Prof Sharma and anattentive Mr.Choubey

Brahma-Bharati October 1995 Picture Gallery Page 2

Dr. Ram Chaudhari- morning session Prof. Onkar Dwivedi- morning session

Ms. Preti Chaturvedi, Dr. Laxmi Chaturvedi,and Mr. Anand Chaturvedi- morning session

Dr. Shyam Narayan Shukla- morning session

Mr. Anoop Bhargava- opening remarks Mr. Kailash Sharma- opening remarks

Picture Gallery Page 3Brahma-Bharati October 1995

Ms. Anuranjita Tewary and Mr. Rajesh Pandey-cultural program

Deepak nritya- cultural program; dancers: Mss RachanaChoubey, Juhi Dubey, Rashmi Pandey,Neha Shukla,Nidhi Tripathi, Anjali Tripathi, Anuranjita Tewary (noteveryone in the picture)

Ms. Rachana Choubey-morning session Dr. Anita Dubey, Dr. Pradeep Shukla, andMs. Sharad Tewary- keynote session

Dr. Satya S. Pachori- morning session Dr. Hans Upadhyaya-morning session

Brahma-Bharati October 1995 Picture Gallery Page 4

Ms. Neha Shukla and Ms. Juhi Dubeycultural program

The two meetus at the picnic-Ms. Juhi Shukla and Ms. Juhi Dubey

Ms. Vidhi Misra-cultural program

Ms. Ruchika Bhargava-cultural program

Mr. Ramesh Pandey, the Hollywood Yogi- as Michael Jackson and himself-cultural program

Ms. Madhuri Dixit-cultural program

Ms. Sarika Sharma-cultural program