pathetic sight of srivaishnavas

[Guest guest]

I totally agree with Shri balaji venkateshan. I felt the same when I had

visited the Divya Desams in and around Kanchipuram. It is really a sad state

of affairs. While we in the Bhakti group try to raise funds for

samporkshanam and other mega festivals for different perumals, we should

also strive to, to something for such temples. My humble suggestions would

be members of the group to adopt a temple of their choice and start helping

these great Divya Desams, in their own little way.

 

Organizations like TVS and other srvaishnavas have helped only the prominent

temples like parthasarathy temple etc, but what about the others.?? It is

defenitely upto us to help these temples out and contribute in our own

fashion . Littel drops of water make an ocean. So let us all start by

contributing atleast a dollar a day to some divya desam and help them with a

day's oil for perumal vilakku or probably even a mazham of flowers.

 

The problem I have also noticed with some temples is, when yo usend money to

a trust or a commitee, they do not disperse it properly and eventually ends

up unused. So I think we all should do as much as possible when we visit

these temples or probably send some funding to our relatives in India,

requeting them to use the money for a DD of our choice.

 

Like Shri balaji has said, there might not be many archakas left to do the

Nitya Aradhana for our beloved Lord Sriman Narayana and the temples

obviously will become dilapated.

 

I am not sure where to start and certainly welcome some direction from the

revered members of the group and am willing to contribute as much as

possible for this cause, for what we have today, tomorrow and forever is due

to the grace of the Divya Dampathis and it is defenitely our duty to make

sure that his place of worship lasts forever as well.

 

As for our great Government, all they are doing to make the situation worse

is to take over the temple lands and make sustenance for the temple and the

priests extremely difficult.

 

I have never participated in any discussions in the past due to my lack of

spiritual knowledge. However, reading Balaji's mail as well as reading some

earlier mails from members of this group has stirred my emotions.

 

I apologize to all members if I have written too much . All views expressed

are mine alone.

 

Adiyen

 

Jayakrishna Vijayaraghavan

 

 

 

>balaji venkateshan <balaji_venkateshan

>pathetic sight of srivaishnavas

>Tue, 20 Jul 1999 04:27:32 -0400 (EDT)

>MIME-Version: 1.0

>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

>

>namo narayana,

> whenever adiyen visits any divya desam,more than the joy of having

>the darshan of perumal , it is the sorrow of seeing the plight of

>srivaishnavas

>that troubles adiyens mind.

>At kanchi varadaraja sannidi, there was a sri vaishnava smearing the 12

>tirumans and begging alms inside the sannidi itself.

> some orthodox srivaishnava boys are driving autos in kanchipuram

>

> at tiruninravur , the archaka was very sad that no one is coming to

>temple and hence he is not getting even a single paisa as dakshinam.he

>was having a lot of family problems,but his devotion to perumal was

>stopping him from moving away from the place.

>

> at kanchi , there is no one to light a lamp in divya desa

>temples(except

>ulagalanda perumal and varadan).the archaka at astabujagaswamy temple

>is 70 years old and comes to temple on a bicycle pedalling a distance

>of 4

>kms at this ripe age.all for a bare 500 rupee income.

>

> at ulagalanda perumal koil , a vaishnava was seeking alms from

>devotees.to adiyens surprise , this person was the archaka of thayar

>sannidi.

>

>The archakar of a temple says that all this is because of

>nastikatvam.because people are running after babas and anya devatas

>hence places like shirdi and puttaparthy are flourishing while our

>temples are in a pathetic sight.unfortunately many sri vaishnavas who

>reside in srirangam itself , visit perumal koil barely once in 6

>months.adiyen feels that if all those srivaishnavas who rarely visit

>temple, visit temple regularly , not only will our temple culture be

>rejenuvated , but the archakas also will get some money as part of

>aarti collection.

>adiyen always requests friends the following "stop watching

>cinema.watching cinema costs 20 rupees for a cinema ticket , spend the

>same

>towards bus fare or train fare for going to kanchipuram or some other

>divya desam.to and fro ticket is only 20.what ever money is spent

>towards

>cool drinks say 5 rupees can be given to archaka.this is a great

>social

>service.but no one listens to these words"...

>

> donating 100's or 1000's may be and surely is a problem , especially

>in india , where a person has to literally fight for survival. but

>donating 50 rupees per month is not at all a problem.after all cable

>t.v connection costs 150 rupees.this is not adiyens views but these are

> what archakas at all temples are lamenting.adiyen is sharing the above

> thoughts , because adiyen is very afraid that if archakas of

>vaishnava temples continue to live in poverty , then one fine day all

>archakas ,one by one will leave their professions and look for some

>other jobs.no

>one will be prepared to become an archaka.hence temple culture may be

>lost...even the worse may happen.archakas may start serving shirdi

>sai baba sannidis also.

>

> regards

> balaji

>

>

>

 

 

_____________

Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com

[Guest guest]

In some of the recent postings, the "pathetic sight of SriVaishnavas" was

metioned. adiyen would like to add his two cents worth..

 

Last November/December during my visit to India, adiyen visited SriRangam, and

for the first time visited th sannithi for Sri Nathamunigal and Venugopalan. The

bhattar had noticed that adiyen was fresh from samashrayanam, and asked if some

financial support could be had towards the day-to-day kainkaryams for Perumal.

To cut a long story short, i send some amount to this sannithi, actually to the

bhattar. He in turn uses and as a token of thanx sends the kumkumam, manjal etc.

to my parents or self. Everytime i receive the prasadam, it gives a sense of

satisfaction, since there are no typical Perumal koils here, Perumal himself is

sending his prasadam.

Since, the temple is outside of India, u do not get a tax-deduction, but is that

what actually matters? If the bhattar is able to light the lamp, or feed his

family, what more can one ask for in life? I am sure that all of us have

experienced this sometime or the other, when we have gone to a temple, and

handed the pushpam and/or pazham (flowers and fruits). The moment the bhattar

adorns the flower on Perumal and/or Thayar, we are so proud and happy that

Perumal chose to wear the flowers we gave. Now if u could do this on a regular

basis, either supply enough oil for the lamp, or rice or whatever, what

kainkaryam is better than this??

 

For those of you who are new to the bhakti list, u may not be aware of the

organization that we have in place here, called SriVaishanava Seva Sammithi,

wherein, u can name an organization (matams), or temples or certain kainkaryams

and send ur donations (tax-deductible), directly from your bank checking

account. Smt. Nagu Satyan, Srimans K. Kalale, P. Dileepan and R. Rajaji are key

personnel that u may want to get in touch with. They have discussed this several

times , but the response has not been that great. Maybe, this is an opportunity

to join the group, and make a donation to the place of ur choice. Maybe this is

where a part of the answer is for the question on the pursuit of wealth. If u

were making enough money (i am sure all of us claim, we do not get paid enough

for what we do), why not divert some towards these kainkaryams, and not feel as

guilty?

 

adiyen, ramanuja dasan

(srinivasan)