Why Traditional Gurus?

Dear Hindus,

If you fall sick, do you go to an authentic doctor, or just eat medicines prescribed by a random person on social media?

If you want to understand a scientific research paper, would you approach a scholar in that field, or would you assume anybody and everybody to be a scholar and start believing in whatever they say?

If you want to learn Business Administration, would you learn from an authentic college, or would you learn from strangers on social media? Even the best books can't teach you MBA fully. Only qualified experts can. 

Be it theoretical knowledge, practical knowledge or health, we always seek only authentic sources.

Why then do we not do the same thing in Sanatanadharma? How come people seek knowledge from strangers without verifying their authenticity?

When we do not know something, why to make public posts, seek answers from everyone, and get confused and/or misled?

We have traditional pathashalas. People respect them but don't want to study there. We have traditional gurus and paramparik acharyas of authentic sanpradayas. But people don't want to seek them either.

People want knowledge, but are so greedy that they don't care about authenticity. And after all these failures to support traditional gurus and Acharyas, when they get into any problem, these same people immediately ask

"What have traditional gurus and Acharyas done to save dharma?"

There's no bigger hypocrisy than this.

As long as people ignore traditional gurus and seek knowledge from anybody and everybody,

1. Misconceptions and misunderstandings about Sanatanadharma will only keep on increasing.

2. Conversions away from Hinduism will keep on increasing.

3. Traditional, authentic gurus and institutions will continue to suffer and continue to be helpless.

4. Fake scholars who have read books and interpreted based on their little knowledge would keep on increasing.

5. Anti-Hindu interpretations of Hindu scriptures would continue to rise.

6. The lives of great saints and scholars who spent their entire lives in protecting scriptures by giving the correct interpretation through commentaries and sub-commentaries would go waste.

Hence, dear friends, stop being greedy for knowledge. If you don't know certain things, it's absolutely OK. No need to learn from random people who pass on their comments after self-interpreting. No need to self-interpret and present yourself as a scholar in front of everyone.

If you have a Guruparampara, cite your Poorvacharyas. If you don't have a Guruparampara, seek one instead of competing with the millennia old tradition mandated by the scriptures themselves.

All Itihasa and Purana unanimously show us one thing - service to a Brahmana reaps much greater karmic merits than service to anyone else. Why? Is it because others are iNfErIoR?

Others are indeed inferior and that inferiority will be elaborated and explained in this post. Are others inferior simply because they don’t have a Brahmana surname? No. The inferiority lies in Tapobala - penance. 

A Brahmana’s tapobala is much much higher at birth itself than any other lineage’s. But is birth alone the sole retaining factor for tapobala and Brahmanatva? No. Birth followed by practice of Shastras according to one’s Varna is paramount to retain oneself in one’s Varna of birth. A Brahmana must lead a life of the sort that would involve greater austerity and religiosity than other Varnas as even the normal rules and regulations of the Shastras which apply to a Brahmana will be much greater in terms of responsibility for him than for anyone else. Why is this? Because the Brahmana's Prarabdhakarmpahala mandates that he do all this to retain his position as Brahmana. 

it is for this reason that the Shastras will prescribe the maximum rules for Brahmanas. The do’s for a Brahmana are not as great in number as the dont’s.  A person born in a Brahmana lineage who does not perform his Nityakarma and does not maintain all the necessary shuddhi for that Nityakarma to bear fruit (moral and personal hygiene prescribed in the Shastras), will cease to be a Brahmana and will become a Brahmabandhu.

When you serve a Brahmana, you are serving one who was born with Brahmanatva and is retaining his Brahmanatva by the rigorous practice of the Shastras.  Simply serving someone with a certain Brahmin lineage’s surname does not mean that you are serving a real Brahmana. You may even be inadvertently serving a Brahmabandhu thinking it is a Brahmana. Given that a Brahmana leads the sort of life that allows him to retain the tapobala of his forefathers, he becomes worthy of being served, you will only stand to gain by serving such a person in whatever capacity Varnashrama allows you to serve him. In this regard, you must note that a Brahmana’s blessing too will carry so much more power as will his curse.

Why must the Brahmana do all this? After all, being a materialistic people who look for returns in all things, one will ask - what is the benefit in a Brahmana being this way? 

A Brahmana manifests to take others' sins to expiation, and ensure that wherever his feet touch, only sattvaguna shall dominate over that land. His presence in a land is supposed to end so many sins in that land, that only good people will be born there, diseases won't come there, all Varnas follow their duties according to the Karmic reasons for which they manifested from Brahma and his creations. A Brahmana can be capable of absorbing such sins ONLY IF he follows his Dharma and NEVER otherwise. 

A Brahmana's purpose for existing is to help other creatures move closer to Bhagavan - it is called the First Varna for this reason that its truest members can expiate others' sins more than any other living creature can. And this also makes it doubly difficult to retain one's Brahmanatva after being born in a Brahmana lineage, for the necessities to retain this position are humongous in nature and difficult. Yet it is possible and those of these lineages must strive to do this. 

When you hear the term Brahmana, start training yourself to make the distinction of -  Person born in a Brahmana lineage and nothing more, or person born as a Brahmana and living as one as well. If you come across the former kind, note that touching their feet too is a sin as they have lost their Brahmanatva and have neither moral nor spiritual sanction to bless anyone. They will only pass on their sins to others and gain their sins in turn if they have anyone touch their feet. The same reasoning of birth + way of life applies to all other Varnas. A Kshatriya too must be born a Kshatriya and perform Nityakarma after Upanayana (ceremony of the Yagnyopavitam). Same goes for a Vaishya. 

And the Shudra is a by birth itself and must follow Shudratva as shown in the Shastras (which involves service to the members of the other Varnas who are properly retaining their Varna status by practising their karma as per Dharmic morals). A Shudra can fall further if he/she becomes adharmic - they can turn into Chandalas and avarnas. And eventually Mlecchas. Any once-Dharmic lineage can turn into Mlecchas - one lineage of Yayati's own sons have turned into Mlecchas. The Mahabharata also says that beyond the western deserts of Bharatavarsha near the lands of the Ramatha, Shudras and Mlecchas are kings of that land. Thus, falling into avarnatva is very easy. Retaining Varna is very tough but must be done for good things are always going to be tough to do but must be done nevertheless.

Don't be too proud of your surname. A surname speaks only about your forefathers. It says little to nothing about you whatsoever.