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SVTK

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The following post is self explanatory. I shall comment

on Sri. S. Kaushik's points later.

 

 

-- Parthasarati Dileepan

 

 

==============Sri Sumanth Kaushik's post==============================

 

----------------------------Original message---------------------

 

Sri Dileepna: I had originally intended to send this to the whole

group. But it turned out so long that I did not want to "bore" the

others iwth this much verbage.

 

Hence, I am sending it you only. If you think these points are worth

anything, feel free to repost the whole letter, or parts of it , to

the whole group.

 

Sumanth

----

In his most recent e-mail, Sri Dileepan listed some of the rationale for

SVTK. I agree and support a number of his points, but I some I have further

questions and concern.

 

1. CD-ROM project. I think as a one shot project, this is fine. But I am

really not sure if this is a "money making" project. I think it is good

for all this to be on-line, from the viewpoint of a concept. If we can

sell a few of the CDs and make money, great. But as a vehicle for

propagating religion, I am a bit skeptical. The way we ought to teach

our children our shastras is in our perumal rooms, not in the computer

room. Somehow, for children, computers are more like toys and it is hard

to see how the seriousness and bhakti can come about with something having

"neat" graphics and sound.

 

But that shoulddn't stop the CD-Rom effot. If this brings a greater sense of

devotion in us who make the CD-ROM, that itself is sufficient. We can treat

it as a meditative tool and perform it with all the due reverence.

 

In terms of future efforts, digitizing images, storing books on-line are all

great. These are all worthy and noble from the viewpoint of providing

information

for all. However, I don't see these requiring any capital investment on our part

--

ust our time (which may be even more valuable!).

 

2. Support of S-Vaishnava Publications. I think this is great. Have very little

quibbles

with anything Sri Dileepan wrote. However, the notion of "essay compeitions,

thematic

projects, etc" is something quite alien to our tradition. All the temples in

the major

cities do things like this. Has it really fostered reglion in our youth? I am a

bit

skeptical about that. I feel a lot of this becomes a social club where the

parents

are more the principal "winners" and "losers" than the kids. The last thing one

wants

is SVTK becoming a "club." If we are not too careful, I am afraid

that this will be exactly what will happen.

 

3. Support needy temples. Whereas this is a great idea in concept, I

am not sure if we really ought to get involved in this. In India,

there are govt. sources of funds for temples. The same cannot be said

for our muttams and (often) poor vaidikas and their families. The

muttmas have survived on lands given to them by ancient kings. Now,

the govt. is takinga way a large portion of this wealth. I hear that

the Parakala muttam is facing this problem in Mysore. Ahobila Muttam

also derives its wealth from lands. I am not sure the status of these

lands. If anything, the tides of affairs are turned against the

muttams. I think the tempses are relatively better.

 

Besides, I just think it is very hard, despite all our efforts, to

administer funds 15000 miles away. Groups within India have enough

trouble managing funds 5 km away. We have two levels of trouble to

deal with money going from here (the middlemen, and their

subordinates)

 

4. Budding Scholars. Again, who are we to decide? Suppose we were to

have this double-blind nomination procedure etc., nominated by Jeers

etc, then why not directly give money to the Jeers and let THEM decide

who is worthy and who is not?

 

If an aged poor Vaidika were to write to us and ask us for money, what

will we tell him? We can randombly accept every one who asks for

money, but then, we cannot refuse a request made directly to us either

(atleast I would be hard pressed to say no to someone).

 

Thereforee, why get involved in this business inthe first place. Let

our Jeers whose responsibility is the very administration of our

religion do this. It is their job.

 

I don't think we should have any contact with the money we collect.

When money touches anyone, even Vaidikas, it contaminates. We are not

Vaidikas and for us, this will be even more a source of problem.

 

I just don't think we ought to handle money directly. Religion should

never be a business and if we start disbursing funds, our organization

will become essentially a business of sorts.

 

5. SV in the US. I don't really see a role of SVTK in this business.

Organizing lec. tours etc presupposes there will be people to "tour."

The scholares who come here do not come here with the intention of

"touring." Often they come to visit their kith and kin and very rarely

at the solicitation of an university.

 

Certainly, people should be made aware of important scholars who are

in the country. That we can do. But if people want to get scholars for

having them give upanyasams at their local temples etc, they can do it

in private.

 

Again, can anyone here really have the stomach to refuse funding for

some individual if directly asked? I know I couldn't do it. Why even

get into a situation that allows for such?

 

Carnatic musicians arre part artists, part businessmen. Hence, we can

negotiate with them in financial matters. This is not the case with

religious scholars. I think it is a big mistake to equate the two.

 

 

6. Fund Raising: Here is where I see the primary role of our

organization. Not to use funds, but to collect them. Sri Sampath Rengi

raised a very important issue about V-galai and T-galai, the specific

muttams etc. This is highly relevant.

 

What I see we can do is have all the major muttams under an umbrella

organization. People send money to whichever muttams they wish to. We

AS A SERVICE ORGANIZATION, see that it gets to its proper destination.

 

Why not directly send money? Well, there are tax advantages for those

organizations affiliated with a US registered non-profit organization.

Further, we can take care of the "dirty business" of ensuring the

money reaches its proper destination.

 

This is dirty, thankless business in some sense, BUT truly service.

Now, one need not worry if their money is reaching the intended

organizations. We should report back to people on what the moeny is

doing, provide feedback and reassurance that the money is being spent

well. I don't think this rquires exceptional effort. The publications

etc. from the muttams more than enough establish this.

 

The Jeers of the different muttams can instruct us on how to disburse

the funds. Perhaps they may wish us to remit monthly, yearly, or to

specific organizations. Whatever is decided, it is NOT US who

explicitly handle money.

 

 

SUMMARY

------

 

In short, I am very concerned about handling money and having our

organization be responsible for actual disbursement of funds. We

should merely be a conduit for organization for established

organizations in India.

 

Our role should be only one of service. We should feel happy to do the

dirty work of distributing information, collecting money, seeing that

it gets where it shold get. ALll this requires no funding, no

membership fees, nothing -- except service. This is perhaps thankless.

We may very well remain nameless and faceless, but I think we can be

truly successful this way.

 

Sumanth

 

=================End of Sri Sumanth Kaushik's mail=========================