Guest guest Posted May 20, 1997 Report Share Posted May 20, 1997 Mr. P. B. Anand has asked some interesting and thought provoking questions: >A. What is the role of acharya with regard to our day to day problems? > In many cases, we do like to consult our acharayas on important >matters, but that is an exception than the rule. As an institutional >provision, do we have a system where any person, can approach a religious >leader just for moral support? IS is obligatory for the religious leader >to listen to such person or is it subject to their convenience? I can personally relate to this question, because there was a time in my life where I found the sagely advice and friendship of a Catholic Priest comforting in trying to deal with some of the confusions of growing up in the west. >From what I have observed and read of Acharyas in our community, they have the unique function of teaching the devotee the method of detaching from this samsaram and turning towards the Lord. Such a responsibility would obviously conflict with trying to comfort someone within this samsaram. However, one would think that our priests should take upon this role, as they are about as much a part of loukikam as we lay followers are. However, one must recognize that unlike the priests, ministers and rabbis of western religion, our priests do not have the proper training in peer counseling and psychology that are required to be a mentor or social worker. At best, the most well wishing priest will listen to one's problems, and either suggest a special pooja be done, or will bless the individual while chanting a few vedic slokas and saying a few comforting words. While this certainly provides some solace, it falls short of the sage advice of the western counterparts. I would think that as SriVaishnavism becomes more established in this country, the elders of each community may take upon such a role, giving both comfort and sound advice to the future generation. ---continued--- Daasanu Daasan, Mohan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 21, 1997 Report Share Posted May 21, 1997 I would like to take a stab at this. Not only SriVaishnavism, but the purpose of our religion(Hinduism) is to attain Moksha. If we refer to Bhagvad Gita, Lord Krishna says to Arjuna: "You do the Karma, leave the results to me. " When Arjuna (living in this so called samsaram) asks Krishna, will all the people I care about live in this world after the war and to this Krishna replies: Its not for you to care who will live or die, you do your dharma and karma. These people were living before you were born and will be there after you die. I bring this up because the western religion has a completely different base/foundation. We as hindus, believe that we pay for our sins in this life time or when we are born again. The religion of the West, be it Christianity, or Islam believes that the lord has already paid for their sins. All they need to do is confess their sin, or mistake and thats the repentence. No matter how famous or spread out Sri Vaishnavism is, we can never change the foundation of Moksha. Our priests are trained in the Vedas, to take us closer to attaining our goal of Salvation. Many a times, living in Utah, I ran into Mormons and they always tried to convince me that their religion is the best because of the bishops who care for the people. I remember a close friend of mine(a mormon) did something not supposed to be done, and she went and confessed it to the bishop. The bishop told her to not attend the church for three weeks and even if she did to not take the sacrement or prasadam. Our priests on the other hand would say that we should spend more time in the temple thinking about GOD and going through paschatapam. I think our priests are well trained in what our religion is supposed to depict, our scriptures state that worldly things are useless, what we need is faith and bhakti, this is the primary cause when we are sad because of the materialistic things of this world, they explain to us that materialistic things are not so important. We as humans usually seek help when we feel we have committed a mistake, however small may it be. A lot of times when I was 15 or 16 years old, I would tell my friends or family back in India, that I would not be able to make it because I was extremely busy, though I was not. This may have been a white lie and not cause any harm to anyone, but the day I told that I would not be able to eat, sleep or just be myself. When I would tell my mom that I told a lie, she would not say its ok don't do it next time, she would say when you new you were making a mistake, why did you do it? To this I would answer I don't know, and she would say go ask for forgiveness from who you told the lie to and then go and pray to GOD to give you strength, so you would not repeat it again. This is the basis of our religion. However, one would think that our priests should take upon this role, as they are about as much a part of loukikam as we lay followers are. I would like to differ on that. We should know that our priests have devoted their life to swami seva. As a believer of Hinduism, I believe (this my belief only) that as long as we have utmost bhakti and faith in Swamis decision, we will never be sad or unhappy about the worldly things. This weekend, my husband and I wanted to go to Pittsburg, and our entire family was to accompany us. By the time all of us got ready on Friday, it was too late at night, hence we had to change our plans and not go to Pittsburg. We were all disappointed, but we thought it was best. On Saturday night, something happened that made us realize that it was best to not go. Had we gone, we would have been in trouble in a new place. What we need to do is have faith in GOD, then we need not look for solace or peace from a priest, whose dharma is only to help us have faith in Swami. Being young and having grown up with a very conservative Western Religion, I feel that the future generations, will be able to differentiate better if and only if they feel deep inside them that no matter where they are born, they are Indians and Hindus. Its not written on our face that we are American. I am a US Resident, but everytime I change jobs, or register for classes, I have to show proof that I am a US Resident, this is because its not written on our faces that we are legal residents of this country. Once we identify ourselves as Indians and Hindus, we need to believe that whatever GOD does its for our best. All the above statements are from a mind and mouth of a person (me) who is not very learned when it comes to SriVaishnavism or hinduism. What I share is from my experience and feelings and my talks with Srimati and Sri Jagannath Bharadwaj who are very learned and have been able to explain the meaning of life in a very few words. If I have offended anyone or said something I should not have I do hope that you will forgive my ignorance and pardon me. I certainly would like receive email in reply to this so I can correct myself. Following this elaborate post I have a few questions that I hope that some of you will take a stab at. 1) What is the purpose of life? I ask this because, when I was growing up and even now I read that hinduism is not for converting people. This is the only religion that does not go around converting people. Is this correct? 2) What is Nari Dharm? Tulsidas Ramayana states that a woman's duty is towards the family. But then if women read the bhagvad gita, are we to follow krishna and his teachings? 3) How would non Sri Vaishnava's convert to Vaishnavism? We don't have baptism.. When we don't convert people, then how can we say that this religion willl be extremely popular? Only the people born as Sri Vaishnava's will know about it, unlike other Western religions. Forgive my stupid questions but just have to ask, because in my opinion, being a SriVaishnava is for two reasons and these can be wrong. 1.. if you go for the arrange marriage for the two parties to start on a common ground 2,, To worship lord Vishnu. I thankyou all for your time to read this post and answering an ignorant person's questions. Thanks. Manjula V. Sriram Programmer Analyst Rockwell Automation Milwaukee, WI 414-382-0530 ---------- Mohan Sagar[sMTP:msagar] Tuesday, May 20, 1997 8:26 PM bhakti Social aspects - part I Mr. P. B. Anand has asked some interesting and thought provoking questions: >A. What is the role of acharya with regard to our day to day problems? > In many cases, we do like to consult our acharayas on important >matters, but that is an exception than the rule. As an institutional >provision, do we have a system where any person, can approach a religious >leader just for moral support? IS is obligatory for the religious leader >to listen to such person or is it subject to their convenience? I can personally relate to this question, because there was a time in my life where I found the sagely advice and friendship of a Catholic Priest comforting in trying to deal with some of the confusions of growing up in the west. >From what I have observed and read of Acharyas in our community, they have the unique function of teaching the devotee the method of detaching from this samsaram and turning towards the Lord. Such a responsibility would obviously conflict with trying to comfort someone within this samsaram. However, one would think that our priests should take upon this role, as they are about as much a part of loukikam as we lay followers are. However, one must recognize that unlike the priests, ministers and rabbis of western religion, our priests do not have the proper training in peer counseling and psychology that are required to be a mentor or social worker. At best, the most well wishing priest will listen to one's problems, and either suggest a special pooja be done, or will bless the individual while chanting a few vedic slokas and saying a few comforting words. While this certainly provides some solace, it falls short of the sage advice of the western counterparts. I would think that as SriVaishnavism becomes more established in this country, the elders of each community may take upon such a role, giving both comfort and sound advice to the future generation. ---continued--- Daasanu Daasan, Mohan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 22, 1997 Report Share Posted May 22, 1997 Mrs. Manjula Sriram writes: >Not only SriVaishnavism, but the >purpose of our >religion(Hinduism) is to attain Moksha. Our priests are trained in the Vedas, to take us closer to attaining our goal of Salvation....>our scriptures state that worldly things are useless, what we need is >faith and bhakti, >this is the primary cause when we are sad because of the materialistic >things of this world, >they explain to us that materialistic things are not so important.... My compliments to Mrs. Sriram on her interesting analysis of the contrasts between eastern and western ways of thinking. I concur that most of the religions that make up Hinduism have the common goal of teaching a path to moksha, and that our priests are attempting to support us in these efforts. However, it takes a great deal of spiritual and emotional maturity to recognize the importance of faith and bhakti and the temporal nature of this world. Most of us, especially as teenagers or young adults in the US, have a number of other thoughts in our naive minds that can take us onto all different kinds of tangents, which are not only contradistinctive to our spiritual nature but indeed can be dangerous from a worldy perspective, as well. Parents often try talking with their children about these matters, but such discussions can only lead to arguement. In my view, what is needed is some sort of objective mediary who can present ideas based on our spiritual teachings that can re-direct an individual back to the correct path by showing him/her that our strength and purpose are in Perumal alone. While it is true that priests are dedicated to Bhagavad Kainkarya, we should also recognize that they too have spouses, children and probably also undergo wome of the ups and downs of life that we do. Be that as it may, however, their priestly duties and training justifiably keep them away from taking on the added burden of serving as counselors. That is the reason I suggested that some of the veterans in our community serve in such a capacity, being mentors and role models for the younger generation. I am sure that many of them are doing just that in a spiritual/sampraday-yic sense, but I think that sometimes providing simple common sense advice and solace could also be a big help to many people, both young and old, in dealing with the struggles of life in the modern world. Daasanu Daasan, Mohan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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