Explaining the terms : Soul and Brahman

In the continuation of my previous post, some clarifications of classic terms: Soul and Brahmin, will be my point of interest in this post.

A layman will term Brahmin as a body born in some high caste family irrespective of what are his future deeds. But how can we describe Brahmin as a "body".Anything could  be a deciding factor for describing someone as Brahmin. The factor can be a soul. It can be one who performs spiritual rites. It can be one who has knowledge. It can be one who masters every skill.
Isn't it going too puzzling? To find out what Brahmin is, one has to critically examine each factor which terms someone as Brahmin.

Assume soul to be the  deciding factor. Throughout every generation the soul remains same, only the body changes. And since all the works that body does are outcome of previous works, it means that Soul can do good/bad work in different generations. But Brahmin is supposed to do good deeds only, hence soul can't decide who is Brahmin.

Assume body as a deciding factor.Now the body is made up of 5 elements which are common for all types of individuals. These elements can never decide who is Brahmin. There must be some other term which can certify Brahmins.

It is said that class of family makes someone Brahmin. But the mythology states that many sages were born from diverse origins, like drop of sweat, deer, ant-hill etc. Obviously, no-family origin also made them Brahmins.

Knowledge can't decide someone as Brahmin. There were many Kshatriyas who had unbound knowledge in the past. But since we can't mix the 4 classes of society, there must be some other deciding factor.

Performing spiritual rites and works never make someone Brahmin as the works get impelled by previous birth karmas.

As an example from my previous post, after going through the "9-day long" journey of hardships and struggles, we attain the fruit from Goddess Kali, Laxmi and Saraswati. But since this cycle is repetitive, we have to face this cycle throughout our lifetime. The one who passes this stage every time successfully without bearing in his mind any feeling of self, through the fulfilment of his nature, becomes rid of the faults of desire, attachment, etc., and endowed with qualities of tranquillity, etc., rid of the states of being, spite, greed, expectation, bewilderment, etc., with his mind unaffected by ostentation, self-sense and the like, he lives. He alone, who is possessed of these qualities, is the Brahmana. 
Lastly, it will be wise to say that Brahmin and Soul have no relative connection. The connection of Soul remains with body everytime. But the deeds of body changes, so Soul itself get affected and loses its purity. What the body does at a particular instant makes a person near or far to the state of Brahmana.

Colors of Indian Festive Season : Navratri

The most awaited season in India is the Autumn season. Technically, the monsoon season is known for the economic prosperity which it brings to working-class season dependent people. But months of October, September and November are full of so many holidays (due to festivals) that we somehow forget to acknowledge the concept behind these festivals. Let's now focus on Navratri which is celebrated all over India and Nepal.
I will focus on the mythology and interpretation behind Navratri. I will put light on the concept of Navratri in our lives. Then, I will cover the term 'Brahmana' as it gets closely related to holy fests in India.

STORYTIME:

Let's start with a story written in ancient Indian scriptures which lay the foundation of  Navratri.
A long time ago, there were two brothers who were performing die-hard austerities in order to gain special powers. But Indra killed one of them as he became nervous off their hard work. But the other one goes unnoticed and gained a power which made him unkillable by demons, Gods and humans. In due course of time, he fell in love with a female buffalo and copulated her by changing his form. But he went under the fury of female's brother and was killed. Female buffalo, being pregnant, buried herself in his pyre. But her son got delivered before her death and came out in the mixed form of buffalo and human, named Mahishasur. As he notoriously caused havoc almost everywhere, the three supreme Gods- Brahma, Vishnu, Shiv joined to form a newly formed light called Durga which was the combination of powers of all Gods and Goddesses. She eventually waged a war against Mahishasur which continued for 9 days and nights.

INTERPRETATIONS:

Now comes the interpretations of this 'myth'ology in our lives. At first, it is better to come up with imagery of this story.

The short term Navratri festival represents our long-term fight against egos, evils, negativeness in our lives. We continue to fight against many evils which have possessed us in many ways. We continue to face many ups and downs in this course which many range up to several years (up to infinite even).

Even if we manage to somehow win over it, what we gain is a "void" feeling of victory. This feeling can be filled either by boastfulness (a form of evilness) or goodness. The aftermath of Navratri symbolises the worshipping of Laxmi and Saraswati who are meant to spread wealth, prosperity and wisdom, knowledge respectively. If we manage to trace this path successfully in our lives we realise that life is nothing but a cycle of this time period. All three forms of Goddesses - Kali, Laxmi and Saraswati are combined forms of Durga. We need to embody their skills and power in ourselves, every time we face problems and that '9-day' cycle.

                                                                       OUTCOME:

But many questions arise:
1.  Who is Soul?

Even Vedas say that we transform into a new form which they call as "Brahmana".
2.  But who is Brahmana?
3.  Is it a specific or abstract class?
4.  How can one say that one is Brahmana or not if passes one cycle but not other?

5.  The classification of our society has anything to do with "Brahmana"?
                                                                                                                      .......................contd.....

The recursion of Motivation,Laziness,Success and Laziness.

 

Whenever you get fed up of your continuous failure or your under-performance, the only things that come to your rescue are these 'well-articulated' quotes.
But are these quotes really useful?
Do they really satisfy the purpose for what they are supposed to be meant?
Have you ever listened about a man who was successful by just reading some set of quotes?
Till what extent do these quotes really satisfy the purpose of motivating us?
Believe me, this post is going to a direct attack on fickle-minded people who try regularly to take inspiration from these virtual sources.

Coming to the main content:
'Most' of us have a habit of taking inspiration from every niche of material source possible.It may be any catchy quote, a new success story published in national daily, new biopic of some successful person, a celebrity interview recapping his life, fishy motivation TedX talks or youtube jukebox with remixed motivational songs.
I would never realize how can these handmade stuff scan motivate someone who is reluctant to do anything new on his own?

Let's start with your day. Suppose there are two individuals  living in disjoint localities.Let their names be Cop and Van. Both are medical students who are studying in a reputed college of their country and have admitted there after passing through a tough competitive test. Now both must be having some plan to do  after college. But this is true for Van only who is enthusiastic off Radiology and Imaging course right after it was introduced to all in very first class. Cop has a good sense of understanding new things but lacks an interest in any particular thing. Now as he has to choose something good for his future.
The point is that one type of an individual is taking all the things as the point of interest and thus enjoying his course structure as granted. But another individual is pretty clear what do he want to do.

Now comes the point of this story's relation with my argument against quotes.Since, Cop will resort to copying interest from other people, he will face many difficulties in his path.Even though he may be doing well in his field, but a sense of detachment will always deject him from focusing well towards his target.Van's mind is totally clear of the field for which he was made starting back from his first day in college.He may face more difficulties, but I am sure he will never look down any success story to copy from. He is unique in his own sense.
The conclusion I want to draw is that success without motivation is possible only for top 1% of the top 1% of individuals.Others are just copycats like Cop who choose their field out of interest and struggle hard, become lazy, search for brute force methods, find quotes, motivational movies and lurch for success and achieve it.
The people like Van are those individuals who aren't part of this recursion cycle.They have their own cycle of their success, failure and other things which is unique for him.
Now the choice is yours: which you think that, by fate, is not in your hand, but it is, owing to axiom of your mind's volition, is in your hand, whether we want to be like Van or Cop.