From times immemorial Brahmins have been leading a simple life style and their main profession was priesthood in Hindu temples for meager salaries. A handful of few others might have been well-off, who would have found their way into the Kingdom and involved in praising the kings as poets to earn a little more money. It was only in the 18th century and during British raj that some of the Brahmins were recruited as civil service personnel, which continued for some time after independence with numbers coming down in recent times. However, invariably almost all the priests of different generations of our history have been poor and lived under the conditions of penury. The same trend is continuing even now. Such priests are/were at the mercy of devotees to get paltry sum of 50 paise or one rupee (present rate) as additional income. Their income has been Rs.600/- per month, which makes them to come under ‘below poverty line’ though some increments in some states have been affected i.e. up to Rs.1,500/- p.m., recently, which does not make much difference. If other communities think that holding a priest post is a plum post and a pinnacle to achieve in the social set-up in India and earning Rs.600/- p.m. is a lucrative job then the reservation policy should be first extended to temples.
Whether it be atheists or personnel who belong to other religions, they synonimise Brahmins to Hinduism and target them for everything that is happening in India. Brahmins have been victims of different types of attacks on them by the atheists in India. Under these circumstances the Brahmins are advised to undertake a silent revolution and a non-violent protest by refraining to go to temples and practice priesthood in temples. They can confine themselves to their homes for whatever devotion they have. Brahmins should think several times before continuing the job of priest hood hereafter. They are further advised to provide regular education to their children and look for other jobs, at least, for future generations and don’t depend on priesthood. While those who can afford to forego priesthood may do so immediately. Others can also refrain practicing priesthood in temples and instead attend marriage functions or other ceremonies on a call basis. The latter also can undergo the de-phasing of coming out of priesthood slowly. If these steps can ensure social up-liftment i.e. appointing priests from all communities why not Brahmins initiate this by silently coming out. Alas, at least after this, the Brahmins should be left alone and others should not make them soft targets whenever they feel convenient. If they are still victimized for no fault of theirs then the psyche of our people has to be suspected. If some body is calm, simple and leads a decent life style in spite of being poor the same should be considered as a good trait and others should not have jealousy or become envious of such persons and start attacking them, which would be considered as an act coming out of inferiority complex.
The advantages that Brahmins considered to be having over others are that they are (i) well versed with Sanskrit, (ii) teetotalers, (iii) vegetarians, and (iv) known to lead a simple and pious life. Present day reality is that whoever can excel in these traits can become a priest. Times have changed now. Most of the temples now belong to and are managed by various state and central governments. Some state governments have already announced that temple priests would belong to all castes. In fact reservation policy can be implemented in the appointment of temple staff including that of priests. If the Brahmins still want to continue priesthood then they can compete for the 31% under open category (after deducting 69% reservation) for a salary of Rs.600/-. We should also consider appointing women as priests providing them a week’s holiday every month.
If Sanskrit is a limitation then the hymns may be translated and chanted in the vernacular languages, which is already practiced in several temples in states like Tamil Nadu. Brahmins need not worry as to what will happen to Hinduism if they are not involved in the priesthood. Hinduism has withstood test of times and it can survive very well without them, as no one is indispensable in this world. In spite of reservation policy prevalent in India and the Brahmins foregoing the priesthood also, the Brahmins should be having plenty of opportunities elsewhere and they can bank upon this premise since this world is so vast and we are in the age of globalization. In the present day, priesthood is the last thing that the Brahmins are holding and once they come out of it we don’t have any thing else to point at them or criticize them. If they undertake other jobs they should not be teased or cornered. Once Brahmins do this Hinduism will be in the hands of other castes and it is up to them as to how they take it for future. If these things happen, every thing will be open for every one, in the public places where government has a hand in distribution, and the Hindus need not go for conversion to other religions taking excuse that they are socially castigated. What remains to be seen, however, is even if Brahmins are ready to come out of the temples; others may not allow them to do so due to some ulterior motives. How do we tackle that?
The intricacies of Hindu philosophy are difficult to understand. Our so called hindus are everady to criticize Hinduism because they don’t understand the religion propertly. Hence attempts should be made to simplify and publish books or booklets on Hinduism that are easy to understand. In Tirupati temple lakhs of devotees throng every day. Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam receives crores of rupees donated by devotees. Utilizing this money they can publish and distribute freely a portable Bhagvadgita in all vernacular languages in addition to international languages. Distribution of Bible is considered as secular whereas distribution of Bhagvadgita amounts to communalism as per the misinterpreters of our constitution and some disgruntled politicians. We have to overcome this.
Even now the dalits are not allowed to pass through certain streets/roads in Indian villages of several states. Unless they are private roads this issue has to be addressed first before ensuring any thing else to dalits. We have to find out as to who are these people still having such uncivilized practices. In western countries no human beings are employed to clear the blockage in the sewage systems. In India, however, we are still employing people belonging a particular community to work on the sewage blocks. Either we should abolish this and use machinery to remove such blockages or we should increase the salaries up to Rs.10,000/- for those who are involved in such work. If we do this people belonging to all other communities will come and join to this type work and if others don’t join, then, at least, we will have the satisfaction that the personnel employed for the above work are paid a better salary for the type of work for which no one is coming forward to take up.
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