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by Jayaram V
The Vajrasuchika Upanishad belongs to the Samaveda. This upanishad
occupies a very important place in the social and religious history of India. Its significance lies in the fact that in a very convincing and inductive way it attempts to dispel the notion that a person becomes a Brahmana not by his birth or knowledge but because of his enlightenment and inner character.
A person becomes a Brahmana not because he hails from a family of Brahmanas, or caste of Brahmanas, or because he has the knowledge of the scriptures and can perform religious rites and ceremonies, but because he has realized Brahman, the Highest Truth itself, in his very self. His experience and understanding of Brahman is not indirect but direct. Since he has seen Brahman in his very self he becomes a Brahmana.
According to this Upanishad, a Brahmana is a person who has the living presence of Brahman in himself, who has overcome all the human imperfections and weaknesses and who has removed completely from his being the impurities of consciousness to become One without a second.
It is not mere elevation and transformation of the subtle body that gives him the status. It is not his intellectual capability, his mental agility or physical beauty of color and form that gives him the identity, but his realization of the highest truth. It is not the ego that takes pride in its knowledge and ostentatious display of its authority over the scriptures, but its very absence.
Vajrasuchika Upanishad is a reminder of the basic truth contained in the ancient scriptures to all those who take pride in their birth, but are devoid of the finest qualities that qualify them to be true Brahmanas. It cautions those who believe that since they belong to a particular social or religious background, they have a right over certain privileges.
It exhorts the younger minds ready to enter the world of Brahman that their prime duty lies in perfecting themselves morally and spiritually in order to realize Brahman and become qualified to be true Brahmanas.
It gives hope to those who are willing to make supreme sacrifices in order to realize their inner selves, whatever be their background and whatever be their past.
And if we examine this text in the context of the extreme caste prejudices that prevailed in ancient India and made the Hindu society into such a weak and divided group, we realize what Vajrasuchika Upanishad attempts to clarify and define in order to put the caste system in the proper perspective.
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