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Re: REQUEST : Can some one identify the characters in the story?
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To: srh@rbhatnagar.csm.uc.edu
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Subject: Re: REQUEST : Can some one identify the characters in the story?
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From: Sankar Jayanarayanan <kartik@Eng.Auburn.EDU>
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Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 00:27:21 -0600
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ReSent-Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 17:10:11 -0500 (EST)
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ReSent-From: SRH Editor <srh@rbhatnagar.ececs.uc.edu>
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ReSent-Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.961030171011.2683A@rbhatnagar.ececs.uc.edu>
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ReSent-To: ghen@netcom.com
Gopal wrote:
[..]
> the boy comes back and tells his mother what happened.
> she asks him to return to the sage the next day with
> an answer. the boy says to the sage, in front of all
> his desciples, without hesitation: 'oh sage, i have
> told you about my mother. but, her having served
> many men, she herself does not know who my father is,
> and so says she'
>
> the sage is impressed at the honesty of the women and
> the boy, and declares that there is no better qualification
> for learning vedas than being honest, and takes him as
> his desciple. the boy later becomes a great rishi.
>
> gopal
Hari Krishna Susarla replied:
> This is from one of the Upanishads. The boy's name is Satyakama Jabala
> (sp?). I believe he was given the name Satyakama, and his mother's name was
> Jabala. So, his mother told him that his name was Satyakama Jabala. When he
> truthfully told the details of his origins to his guru, the guru accepted
> him even though the details of gotra, etc. were not known, and it could not
> be known for certain if the boy was indeed born into a brahmin family.
>
This is what the conclusion *appears* to be. The actions of the sage seem
to suggest that he would have accepted the boy as his disciple even if he
were a shudra.
But Shankara disagrees with this conclusion. Shankara in his Brahma Sutra
Bhashya argues that the fact that Satyakama passed the "honesty test" proved
that he was not of shudra parentage! In other words, absence of shudra-hood
was demonstrated by the fact that Satyakama had come honest, for no born shudra
would have dared to utter such a truth!
> regards,
>
> -- HKS
>
-Kartik
