The story of Jvala 

All Glories to HDG  Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Goswami Maharaj

All Glories  to HDG Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada

The scriptures speak of different births as ordinarily from the womb of the mother,  The second birth is the one called twice born initiation and the thirdis for the  brahmin qualified to perform fire sacrifice. The  warrior (Kshatiya) and the farmer (Vaisya) class are generally  denied the third birth while the Sudra and those lower  caste are not allowed both the second and the third birth.One is born in a caste according to the stock of his previous sins. According to sins accumulated, the brahmana may sometimes have to take arms as a warrior and further sin would demote him to take up agriculture work  and looking after cows as his duty. In the Mahabharatha, it is stated that in the beginning  at the time of creation, all were  firstly born as brahmanas but by their individual actions became denigrated to the other lower castes  as the present state. In the Srimad Bhagavat it is stated that due to offences against the Supreme Lord and failing to perform His worship ,the brahmana had slowly been demoted to the lowest Sudra class in stages. Although in Geeta, the  Lord  states that the four orders of castes were created by me according to their quality and work ,still in the Mahabharatha in certain places , one's birth caste does not determine the quality of one 's work as  proved in the conversation of the serpent Nahusha and Yuddhisthira Maharaj but rather the nature of a person with his quality of work. Not only in many places as in the Mahabharatha but  even in the seventh Canto of the Bhagavatam, this is the the verdict used in determining the caste of a person. Further in the Agamas and the Pancharatra spoken by Lord  Narayana described  as the Vadanuga Scriptures there is allowance  for Brahmana initiation accordingly as discussed previously and this can determine  the  present stance of a person and there is no evidence in scriptures contrary to these proposition. The succession  of a group  many a time become  endangered because of lack of representation. In giving or maintaining  foster children, the rules are variable as one to be selected for the higher caste may come from subordinate sources. This can be seen  gain in the revolution of ideas generated by the Buddhist and Jain beliefs whose succession had become somewhat stunted which obviously need not be discussed more at length. We understand from very ancient commentaries of the Pasupatya that some  tradition  allows those initiated into the Rudra mantra to become a brahmin and no less and even now those descending from that order enjoy that advantage and are known as Brahmanas, A similar  group of those of the Pasupata beliefs even after some  generations keep the title of brahmana. The commentator states that in Bharatha many such groups were  prevalent  and our present discussion is in opposition to all such deviance. Stories of such type which are against the scriptural norm are there and the Historical records and Puranas are witness of such stories. In the Chandopgya Upanishad there is the story of  son of Jvala or story of one who was likened to a brahmana his caste being unknown. Here though his caste was not known his nature was taken into account to determine his caste. Many to debate this use of nature in analysis  have tried different types of concocted thinking to oppose it. At this juncture it is opportune to state the fact that how the commentator Ananda Giri established the fact that Jvala was no other than a chaste lady and was definitely  twice born demonstrated his great scholarship without  a doubt.  Sankaracharya too after Ananda Giri had given his commentary but it varied greatly from the explanation and succession  of Vyasa as Sankaracharya mostly expanded on the secondary meanings while neglecting the direct meaning. Mahaprabhu thoroughly explained the vivartavad proposed by Sankara as the imposition of mind ,body consciousness on the pure soul. However, Sankara was never in favor of a second imposition on the pure soul in his argument on the nature of Brahman. Nevertheless ,his guru Vyasa on the transformation of energies or parnimanavada put Sankara in a quandary in his stoic statements on the non transformation of Brahman  still by hook or crook he ventured to show that his vivartavada explanation was the actual import of Vyasa's verdict. Ananda Tirtha in contrast was never in favor of Sankara's explanation and in fact verbally refuted it. Sankaracharya mostly neglected Vyasa exposition in the written Puranas having his own brand of  contrary beliefs. It was first Madhav Muni who saved the day by again reinstating the mood of Vyasa. But one scholar from Bardhaman district wrote to us expressing his disappointment and sent his opposing points to the Gaudiya the contents of which are discussed below. As the Gaudiya is set at following the pure philosophy of Mahaprabhu on devotion and are never in cahoots with the vivartavada of the impersonalist .The essay  or the commentary of Sankaracharaya  reads: 

We can perceive that in the Chandogya  Stuti ,Haridramut Gautama   realising that Jvala, mother of Satyakama  not knowing the caste that he was born in and deducting the cause as the mother 's infidelity   still became overcome by the honesty and simplicity of Satyakama that he bestowed on him the rituals of the brahmin order  .  I am not satisfied with this as the Chandogya upanishad 4/4/2   The 'Bahu bhartr grhe 'has been explained as knowing many husbands inferring that Jvala was not chaste but the opposite  Sankara has commented in this manner:    I was attending to many guests in the house of my husband   and hence being busily engaged in such menial service I had no time to think  of my birth caste .It was at that time I gave birth to you in my youth. At that time your father had already passed away and because of that I felt very insecure and lost. That is the reason I did not know what caste you belonged to .I only know that my name is Jvala and your name is SatyaKama Jvala.    Next is the commentary of Ananda Giri where there is no mention of the words bahu bhartr stri   

I was with a fixed mind was busily serving the guests in my father's house and such that I did not inquire   about my birth caste. The fact is as a young girl whose nature is generally shy this was factor in my not asking .then the question crops up why did you not ask your father  but the fact is he passed away when I was young. Then why not others on this matter?   After father passed away I became very lost and insecure and immersed in my sorrow did not ask any others so what I know is I am Javala and your name is Satya Kama and if the Acarya asks you about your caste tell him that you are Satya Kama Jvala.   From the above commentaries we can understand that if a girl is lamenting for her husband that sort  portrays her as of a good character.

The fire stove, grinder, sweep, mortar and the heavy pounding stone and the water jug are all termed as Suna(panchasuna)  because all these articles when used in a general household usually ends up  killing    many thousands of very  tiny creatures. Five types of sacrifices are performed in order to rid oneself from the implications of all such sins .The first is brahma yajna or studying and teaching the sacred scriptures. To give water oblations to the forefathers is pitr yajna  .To engage in fire sacrifice for the demigods is deva yajna and to offer food to the lower creatures and the guests. The  Brahmans usually performed all these  sacrifices as a daily ritual     .Previously in ancient times ,the service to  guests  from outside was compulsory for every household and if this was to be  done properly .The consequences   of an angry guest would  be  that the guest would take all one's pious activities on leaving while the culpable host  would in return have to take up their sinful activities. The word bhavah caranti  was interpreted to mean  knowing many other men .In contrast if this was the case  that the word bahunaaham   had definitely to be used so the present word  used is bahu which only  implies the service of many people and not any other. In short ,the word bahu used in conjunction does not imply that she was a prostitute of sort. The commentary of Ananda Giri testifies to this while in, Sankaracharya 's case she was depicted as a woman of character. The whole idea of this analysis  is that one should never skip the original direct meaning and  instead  take up some concocted  secondary meanings  or simply  strive  to adjust with the scriptures one's own ideology for that cannot  be the way of true scholarship.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog