Brāhmaṇa
Brāhmaṇa · brāhmaṇa, “one who knows Brahman”
Grammar: masculine noun, from brahman (the Veda; the Supreme): “one who belongs to Brahman”, the knower and keeper of the Veda. Brāhmaṇya is the state of being a brāhmaṇa; brahmavettā or brahmavid is the knower of Brahman.
Meaning: one of the first of the four varṇas, whose dharma is the study, teaching and keeping of the Veda, yajña and tapas; the Bhāgavata Purāṇa calls the Veda-knowing brāhmaṇa the mouth and the very form of Śrī Hari.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa speaks of the brāhmaṇa again and again, and most of all of the honour Śrī Hari gives him.
Born from the mouth. Śuka tells Parīkshit that in the Virāṭ form of Śrī Hari the brāhmaṇa is his face, the kshatriya his arms, the vaiśya his thighs and the śūdra his feet (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 1); Brahmā tells Nārada that the learned meditate on the brāhmaṇa who studies the Veda as the mouth of that Purusha (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 5). Maitreya tells Vidura that the brāhmaṇa was born from the mouth of the Virāṭ Purusha together with the Veda, and so he is the chief and guru of the varṇas; the varṇas worship Śrī Hari, their guru, by doing their own dharma with śraddhā (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 6). Svāyambhuva Manu tells Kardama that Brahmā, the form of the Vedas, wishing to spread his Veda-form in the world, created the brāhmaṇas, endowed with tapas, vidyā and yoga, from his own mouth, and created the kshatriyas from his arms to protect them; the maharshis say the brāhmaṇa is the heart of the Virāṭ Purusha and the kshatriya his arm, and so the two protect one another, though in truth it is Śrī Hari who protects all (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 22). Daksha tells Bhagavān Śiva that at the beginning of creation, in the form of Brahmā, Śiva created the brāhmaṇas from his face to protect the Vedas and ātma-jñāna, and that the brāhmaṇas kept jñāna-nishṭhā, tapas and the rules of karma and protected the Vaidika dharma; so Śiva protects them in danger, and he and Śrī Hari have no disregard even for the lowest of brāhmaṇas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 7). Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that from the mouth, arms, thighs and feet of the Virāṭ Purusha came the brāhmaṇas, kshatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras, and that śīla (conduct) is the mark of their varṇa; among the varṇas he himself is the first, brāhmaṇya (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapters 16–17).
His dharma. Nārada Maharshi tells Yudhishṭhira that six karmas are ordained for the brāhmaṇa who knows the Veda: performing yajña, having yajña performed for others, studying the Veda, teaching it, giving dāna and receiving it. His livelihood is of four kinds, each later one better than the one before: agriculture and the like; śālīna, living on what comes unasked; yāyāvara, living each day on what is asked; and śiloñchana, living on the grains that fall to the ground at threshing. Neither he nor the kshatriya should ever live by śvavṛtti, the dog’s livelihood of serving a low person, for all the Vedas are in the brāhmaṇa and the king is the form of all the devatās. The marks of the brāhmaṇa are: the mind under control, control of the senses, tapas, cleanness inside and out, contentment, bearing joy and sorrow, straightness, discerning knowledge, dayā, a buddhi fixed on Śrī Hari, and satya. If the marks of one varṇa are seen in a person of another varṇa, his varṇa is to be known by those marks alone, and not decided by birth (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 11). Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that the brāhmaṇa may receive dāna, teach the Veda and conduct yajña for others, and that the brāhmaṇa who lives on grains fallen in the fields and markets, content, offering his citta to Śrī Kṛshṇa, gains moksha while still at home (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 17). Bhagavān Kapila tells Devahūti that among men the four varṇas are high and the brāhmaṇa best among them; among brāhmaṇas the knower of the Veda is higher, the knower of its meaning higher still, then the one who resolves its doubts, then the one who does his svadharma as the Veda teaches, and highest the one who does it without desire and free of attachment (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 29).
Śrī Hari honours the brāhmaṇa. To the four Kumāras, whom his doorkeepers had stopped, Śrī Hari said that he wears on his crown the dust of the feet of the brahmavettās, which purifies all the worlds, and that the best of brāhmaṇas, the cows and beings without protector are parts of his body, not different from him. The Kumāras answered that he holds the brahmavettās as his supreme deity, and that if he did not protect them the path of dharma would perish, for the world takes what he does as its standard (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 16). Pṛthu Mahārāja, whose rule excepted only the brāhmaṇas and the bhaktas of Vishṇu, told his people that the Veda-knowers worship Śrī Hari as their kuladaiva; that Śrī Hari bowed to their feet and so gained Lakshmī Devī and world-purifying fame; that serving them pleases Jagannātha greatly and brings moksha of itself; that they are the mouth through which havis reaches the devatās; and he vowed to bear the dust of their feet on his crown as long as he lived, for that dust destroys pāpa at once (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 21). Nārada tells Yudhishṭhira that Bhagavān Vishṇu is better pleased by the feeding of a Veda-knower than by homas in the fire; that a place where brāhmaṇas of tapas, śraddhā and dayā gather is holiest; and that even to Śrī Kṛshṇa the brāhmaṇas are a great daiva, who purify the three worlds with the dust of their feet (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 14).
When the brāhmaṇa who brought Rukmiṇī’s message reached Dvārakā, Śrī Kṛshṇa, foremost of those devoted to brāhmaṇas, came down from his throne, seated and worshipped him and pressed his feet, and said that he bows his head again and again to the knowers of the Veda who are content with what comes of itself, firm in good conduct, peaceful, without ahaṅkāra, doing good to all (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 52). Sudāma, his poor brāhmaṇa friend, marvelled that the husband of Lakshmī had embraced him and served him like a devatā because he was born a brāhmaṇa; Śuka says that the brāhmaṇas are the lords of Śrī Kṛshṇa, the Deva of devas, and that whoever hears of his brāhmaṇa-bhakti gains bhakti and is freed from the bond of saṃsāra (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 81). In Mithilā Śrī Kṛshṇa told the brāhmaṇa Śrutadeva that the brāhmaṇa is foremost of all beings by birth, tapas, learning and contentment, and still more one who worships him; that this four-armed form is not dearer to him than the brāhmaṇa, for the brāhmaṇa is the form of all the Vedas and he is the form of all the devatās; that those of poor understanding worship only the pratimā and the tīrtha and insult the brāhmaṇa, his own form; and that the brāhmaṇa sees him in everything (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 86).
Worship in the brāhmaṇa. Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that he is worshipped in Sūrya, Agni, the brāhmaṇa, the cows, the Vishṇu-bhakta and all beings; in the excellent brāhmaṇa, by honouring him as a guest (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 11). He may be worshipped without guile in a pratimā, purified ground, fire, the sun, the waters, the heart or a brāhmaṇa; and whoever steals property given for a devālaya or for a brāhmaṇa’s livelihood is born a worm in excrement for ten crore years (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 27).
Dāna to brāhmaṇas. The Yādavas spent their lives protecting cows and brāhmaṇas and gave them gold, silver, beds, garments, deer-skins, blankets, chariots, elephants, lands and food (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 3). To please Mahādeva the gopas gave cows, gold, cloth, honey and sweet food to brāhmaṇas with śraddhā (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 34). At Kurukshetra the Yādavas gave adorned milch cows to brāhmaṇas, fed the best of them and ate with their leave (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 82). Before the end of the Yādavas Śrī Kṛshṇa told them to have svastivācana done and honour the brāhmaṇas with cows, land, gold, cloth, elephants, horses, chariots and houses, for the pūjā of devatās, brāhmaṇas and cows is the highest cause of welfare (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 30). Bali‘s father Virocana loved brāhmaṇas, and knowing the devas who came in the guise of brāhmaṇas, still gave them his own life as dāna; and Bali, having vowed to give to a brāhmaṇa, would not go back on his word (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 8, Chapters 19–20).
Insult and śāpa. Vena forbade the brāhmaṇas yajña, dāna and homa and demanded their pūjā for himself; he insulted them, and by the śāpa of the brahma-knowers he was slain; then the Veda-knowing brāhmaṇas performed the abhisheka of Pṛthu and praised him (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapters 14–15, 21). The son of Śamīka Maharshi said that the unworthy kshatriya was only a doorkeeper appointed by the brāhmaṇas, and pronounced the śāpa on Parīkshit (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 18); and Parīkshit received that śāpa as Īśvara himself come to give him vairāgya (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 19). Śrī Hari did not set aside the śāpa of the Kumāras on Jaya and Vijaya, for that śāpa too was his will (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 16), and Śrī Kṛshṇa withdrew his own race under the pretext of the brāhmaṇas’ śāpa (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 4; Skandha 11, Chapter 30).
Related terms: Varṇa · Brahmavid · Brahmarshi · Dvija · Veda · Dāna · Śāpa
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapters 18–19; Skandha 2, Chapters 1, 5; Skandha 3, Chapters 3–4, 6, 16, 22, 29; Skandha 4, Chapters 7, 14–15, 21; Skandha 7, Chapters 11, 14; Skandha 8, Chapters 19–20; Skandha 10, Chapters 34, 52, 81–82, 86; Skandha 11, Chapters 11, 16–17, 27, 30