People to perform religious ceremonies.

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhakthi group members :

 

Coming from a long line of PurOhithAs

before that word got a limited meaning and

living next to temple priests for many years,

I agree fully with the spirit of the observation

of Sri KrishNamaachAri .PurohithAs and Bhattars

respected each other , but rarely stood in for

each other.Here in this country , the clear dearth

of PurOhithAs puts a pressure on temple priests.

Some times the consequences are sad , since

some of the priests are mesmerized by the

additional revenue . Others fully understand

their prime role and serve the community in

other areas out of the acute need for officiating

in such functions .

 

There is no simple solution to this problem .

Only the availabilty of the two categories

in the future will ease this demand

as the Indian communities here grow. The situation

is somewaht similar to few decades ago , when

the village-based people got English education and moved

to careers in the cities like Madras , the purohiths

of those familes also migrated to Madras to

"tend to their flocks " .

 

It is also possible that number of "Scientists,

Engineers , Professors " living here now would

devote more attention to these Vaidhika karmAs ,

become knowledgable and extend their services

to others just like the volunteering of

Sri KrishNa Kalaale recently to handle GrahapravEsam

function at Sri Mohan Sagar's new home .

 

The functions and the duties of these two

important groups of people ( Purohiths

and priests ) are quite distinct

and different .

 

My grandfather was a "Bruhaspathi " and

was expert in Yajur and Saama Veda PurOHitham .

He was revered .He was known as Poundarikapuram

Brahaspathi.

 

My father as the first son followed that line.

His constituency consisted of people , who

would wait for him for days to perform the important

functions and bless them .He explained to them the

meaning of the ManthrAs and will not let them

rush thru any function . They welcomed that .

They knew that he had their auspiciousness

and hitham in mind and went in front ( puram )

to seek it in the saasthraic way .

 

My next door neighbors were from the illustrious

Bhattar families , who were AaradhakAs of

Sri Oppiliappan . They were Purohiths to The Lord

and performed agni kaaryams and other kaimkaryms

to him . Some of them were learned in VedAs.

The late Sri Varadaraja bhattar of Oppiliappan Koil

learned Yajur Vedam from my grandfather .BTW , Parasara

Bhattar , the son of KuratthAzhwAn was the purOhithA

to Lord Ranganatha .

 

In summary the training , knowledge , anushtAnams

are indeed quite different for the two categories

of People such as PurohithAs and Archakaas of the Lord .

It is also approriate to remember that in India itself ,

the old fashioned PurohithAs are hard to find and

Purohitham has become like any other profession

with revenue generation and market development

as key goals .Their scholarship level of suthrAs

and ahnika granthams are far from satisfactory .

 

V.Sadagopan

 

 

---------- Forwarded Message ----------

 

"Krishnamachari, N.", INTERNET:krish

TO: OM, INTERNET:bhakti

DATE: 11/12/97 1:42 PM

 

RE: People to perform religious ceremonies.

 

Sender: bhakti-errors

Received: from lists1.best.com (lists1.best.com [206.86.8.15])

by dub-img-10.compuserve.com (8.8.6/8.8.6/2.8) with ESMTP id NAA03455

for <75041.3037; Wed, 12 Nov 1997 13:41:52 -0500 (EST)

Received: (from daemon@localhost) by lists1.best.com (8.8.5/8.7.3) id KAA13533

for bhakti-errors; Wed, 12 Nov 1997 10:25:19 -0800 (PST)

Message-Id: <199711121825.KAA13533

"Krishnamachari, N." <krish

People to perform religious ceremonies.

Wed, 12 Nov 1997 13:13:19 -0600

BestServHost: lists.best.com

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain

Sender: bhakti-errors

Errors-bhakti-errors

bhakti

 

I have followed the correspondence relating to priests for performing

some of the religious ceremonies. I hope what I am adding here is

viewed in a positive sense. It is not intended to adversely comment on

any thoughts expressed so far.

 

In my experience, I feel there is a difference between the purohita

function and the priest function. The training for the two functions

are distinct and different from each other. Even though in this country

because of the limitation in resource availability we have the temple

priests essentially also functioning as purohita-s, this does not

necessarily mean that they are the also the ones who are trained for the

purohita function. When an attempt is made to put together a list of

people qualified to perform the different ceremonies, this needs to be

kept in mind.

 

Also, when we look for people competent or trained to perform the

religious functions, I

have found some non-vaishNava priests (smartha priests for instance)

have been very good in their knowledge of purohitam as well.

 

-dAsan kr*shNamaAchAryan

..