[Advaita-l] Religion that I am born into

[Srikrishna Ghadiyaram]

hariH OM !!

--- "M. S. Ravisankar" <ravi at ambaa.org> wrote:
> 
> 4. If I am not mistaken, there are formal and
> informal mechanisms in both
> shaiva and vaishhNava religions to undergo
> conversion. Only the smArta-s do
> not have anything. In the series on Sankara
> sampradaya, we see that so many
> smArta-s embraced ramanuja's philosphy and embraced
> vaishhNava religion.
> 

Is it because the smarthas believe taht others can not
be 'made' equal smarthas by conversion ? 

Is it because the smarthas reserved it to only those
born to Brahmana parents ? Is there some thing in the
present day sampradaya other than Brahmana orientation
? I do not see other 3 caste people saying they are
'smarthas'. 

I get some feeling that probably by converting people
of any caste to vaishnava sect, they made it equally
accessible to all people, irrespective of their caste.

Is it bacause people who respect the Sankara Advaita
Vedanta do not any way care someone's endorsement of
what they are. 

Is it because the followers of smartha sampradaya
believe everyone unless specifically converted to
other sampradayas are smarthas ?

Om Namo Narayanaya !!

Srikrishna


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