Source: halleyji
This is from a 3yr old video. He has said such content as recently as two days ago. So I am not making it up and all this is public content. It is the traditional stance on Equality as well. Vouched by many other Acharyas. Approximate Translation of Jeeyar’s talk follows:
People keep getting into fights with each other in the name of politics, in the name of caste or in many cases in the name of religion. What shall we do? Shall we remove castes instead? (kula nirmoolana) There are many movements today in the society. They say caste (kulam) is opium. It needs to be eliminated. You keep hearing of such in newspapers. If you remove it will caste go away? Will it just vanish?
Those of you sitting in the audience here. Some are short. Some are tall. Some are fat. Some are thin. Why should you all have some many variations? Why can’t you all be exactly the same? Can you be like that? Is that even possible? All should be of the same size. All should have the same weight. What sort of an injustice is this? One of you is 30kg and another one here is 70kg. Why don’t you all be the same? Just like how that is not possible in a very similar vein you can never have a society with just one single caste or kulam. There will be so many differences in the society. So much variety.
There may be distinctions. But there should not be infighting and feuds. That is what we must desire. Each person will be distinct from the other one. But they both shouldn’t harbor any enmity or bitterness for each other. There is a sanskrit/telugu word called Bhedamu. Bheda. It means difference and it also means infighting. Only one of those meanings should stay the other is not desirable i.e., one meaning of Bhedha should stay - that of being different or retaining one’s distinct identity. It is not about me saying it should stay. It will stay. But today we are degenerating to an ideology which says we will eliminate all differences but at the same time we are cannibalising each other. They are misguiding the society with such an ideology.
For most of us we just take such ideologies at face value. We don’t delve deep. Lot of us don’t even have the capacity to intellectually engage with such. If somebody says something in a nice friendly way we fall for it and appreciate it. You worship or deify your Dharma but at the same time respect or acknowledge the other person’s Dharma. You worship your Gods and respect the Gods of others. Worship or take pride in your caste (Kulam) But respect other castes. Adore your mother. Respect the mothers of others around you. At the same time you can’t say all women are the same. In the same vein, It is absurd to say all mothers are the same hence anyone can be my mother. It is absurd to say all fathers are the same. They are all fathers after all. That is an absurd thought. Neither is it advisable or desirable for the society. Worship your father. Respect the father of others around you. Respect. Don’t worship. Worship your mother. Respect the mothers of others. Give respect to all. But need not worship them. This distinction is important. You need not worship everyone. But respect others. We worship Vishnu. We don’t worship Christ. We won’t insult Christ. We respect Christ. We won’t worship Shiva. But we respect Shiva. You can worship God in whichever form you please. There may be many other forms of Gods. Others may worship. Respect their choice. You need not insult their Gods.
Source: https://t.co/I3Ki4s8sLM
Now Jeeyar Swami may have given contradictory statements before or after this. But his basics are rock solid on this topic as evidenced in multiple discourses on this topic. He is a tridandi sanyasi afterall. He knows his stuff. Many seers have said very similar ideas on this topic. Current Puri Shankaracharya, Karpatriji, Maha Periyava, Jagadguru Chandrasekhara Bharati of Sringeri etc. They all are Dharmacharyas afterall. They know their basics best.
Note no one is talking of Kula Vrutthis here. That train left the station a while ago. So everyone knows that piece. But Kulam is not about Vrutthi or profession alone. No one knows how to solve for this quintessential Hindu conundrum. So it’s alright. Take a chill pill. They know what they are doing. Equality is good as a buzz word. Theory vs Reality gaps exist. Infact some say theory itself is weak. That’s a debate for another day.