more and more on "cleanliness in temples, dd"

[Guest guest]

Dear members,

 

One member who is corresponding with adiyen on subject

of "cleanliness in temples" (after reading adiyEn's

posts last week) sent one private message asking

adiyEn about how we can have "preventive cleanliness"

in temples, DD, mutt, ashram etc. He is asking very

good questions and so adiyen is thinking it good idea

to reproduce excerpts (with that member's permission

of course) for discussion if other members are also

interested:

 

He is asking following (his own words):

 

(1) "We are asking how to keep our temples, mutts

clean but it is more important I think to ask how to

prevent them from becoming unclean?"

 

(2) "It is one things to talk about creating awareness

of cleanliness in temples/dd/mutts etc. (like your

well-conceived "CITTA-SHUDDHI" project) and quite

another thing to prevent un-cleanliness or un-hygiene

in such holy places."

 

(3) "Let's ask ourselves what are the principal causes

of uncleanliness in temples, dd etc.. Is it the

crowds? No. If crowds by themselves create

un-cleanliness how is it that mosques and churches

where also people throng in great numbers, how they

are comparatively so free of un-hygiene or trash?

 

(4) "I personally think the biggest cause of

un-cleanliness in temples/mutts is the practice of

cooking inside the temple ("talligai") and the need to

maintain a holy-kitchen ("madapalli"). This practice

is something unique only to our religion by which

places of worship have unfortunately also over the

years been turned into places of eating buzzing with

activity all the time. (I believe that the historical

beginnings of this practice can be traced back first

to SriRamanujacharya, but I may well be wrong here).

In church, synagogue or mosque people come only to

pray; they do not expect to eat. Why in Hindu temples

things should have been made different, is one of

those questions of temple history that one can

endlessly speculate on but still be very unclear

about!

 

(5) "Once you bring the institution of a kitchen into

the temple or mutt precincts, naturally, next you will

also be forced to accommodate within the same

temple/mutt area the need for a mass dining-space

where pilgrims have to consume what is served to them

("prasAda-viniyOga"). Next you also need a washroom of

sorts where they can wash after eating the "prasAdam".

Then you also need a dish-washing area adjacent to the

"madapalli". Then you need a place to dump trash like

"donnai", "yechhyilillai" and kitchen left-overs. Once

you dump these left-overs somewhere in the vicinity of

the temple-area you can bet it will attract cows and

all sorts of vermin. You need next a store or a larder

within the temple… and it goes on endlessly.. . and

all what you have created from the start is more and

more opportunity for fouling the place and creating an

unclean mess that is evident today in our

temples/dd/mutts. (Sri.Ramanujacharya may have allowed

"madapalli-s" into temples with the noblest of

intentions i.e. out of a caring attitude for poor

pilgrims, but then he may not have fully foreseen the

long-term public-hygiene implications of his decision

then).

 

(6) "I feel the only way to create cleanliness in our

temples and mutts is to first prevent un-cleanliness.

And that prevention can be enabled only by rooting out

opportunities for creating a mess inside the temple

precincts. And for that to happen it is important that

temples do not serve anything more than "symbolic"

prasAdam to pilgrims and limit whatever is served to

"theerthamsatari", "tiru-thuzhAy" and perhaps a

piece of sugar-candy ("kalkanndu") rather than

serving, as they all today compete to do, wholesale

quantities of "pooLiyOdharai", "dOddhyOnam",

"chakkarai-pongal", "vada-mAlai", "panchAmrutam" etc.

 

(7) Distribution of "pooLiyOdharai", "dOddhyOnam"

etc. must be left entirely to the private initiative

of philanthropic devotees who can be told they are

most welcome to carry on the noble task of

pilgrim-feeding and poor-feeding well outside the

temple area and jurisdiction and for which separate

arrangements may be made.

 

(8) Another cause of un-cleanliness and un-hygiene in

temples/dd is the practice of "archanai-thattu" being

offered to the deity. It is usually alright if

devotees are permitted to offer one or two flowers to

adorn the deity as a symbolic offereing. But if you

think about it deeply, is it really necessary? After

all the deity is already well adorned with

"pushpa-alankAram" and often the flowers offered by

devotees is just piled up one over the other by the

archakar on the "archa-murthy"… sometimes even

drowning the deity out of sight. Why cannot devotees

enter the sanctum without carrying the burden of the

archanai-thattu… i.e. coconuts, banana, floral

garland, camphor, betel-nut and leaves etc.? Why can't

devotees be encouraged to enter the sanctum with

nothing more than their bare heart and devoted mind?

Why don't they be encouraged to spend the few moments

they are in the presence of the deity in absolute

silence, contemplation and prayer? Rather what we find

in the sannidhi is commotion of all sorts…

"archana-thattu" sounds, the crack of coconuts being

broken, the archakar preoccupied in keeping count of

archanai-tickets, slashing of floral garlands,

yelling, jostling …At the end of it all what do we

get? Unclean interiors in the sanctum, smelling

sometimes of rotten coconuts, decaying betel leaves,

withered flower-petals strewn all over the floor,

attracting insects and beetles and cockroaches even in

the main sannidhi! How nice it would be instead if in

the sanctum-sanctorum we were all allowed to

concentrate on the main "archA-murthy" and not on the

"archanai-thattu"? How nice it would be to hear the

archakar reciting a few pasurams more instead of

listening to him all the time yelling at devotees

about coconuts, "pazham" or to take their

"archanai-thattu-s" back? How nice it would be to have

the floor of the sanctum dry and clean instead of

having it sloshing with coconut-milk and withered

flowers and scattered betel nuts? My feeling is that

our sampradayam actually emphasises devotees that do

well to offer coconuts, flowers, fruits etc. to

perumAl in their respective homes as part of their

"ijya-arAdhAna" and not to offer them wholesale at

temples. I don't know about this, maybe I'm wrong. But

it is certainly another cause of a great amount of

litter in our temples and mutts."

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Dear members, all points raised above are good points

but adiyen is unable to respond to them adequately as

adiyen does not have proper gnyAnam. So adiyen is

offering to group for comments.

 

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama:

 

Sri. Samptah/ Sri.sudarshan's recent posting is based on good observation

in our temples.

 

Good News is that , in many temples, Archarkas are no more taking Archani

thattu, and pradsadams have also become symbolic

..(this may be due to economic reasons)

 

one more thing if we observe is that our culture is becoming more and more

religious and less and less

spritual. this is the root cause of all problems we face.

 

our Acharyas, based on sound rooting of philosphy, vedanta have

given a beautiful front-end call religion, which is mishandled badly.

 

People throng to temples on saturdays , Jan 1st, vaikunda ekadesi wherein

there would be no one on normal days.

a common , gross level person always attaches materialism to worship and

thier number is alarmingly increasing.

 

this is quite evident from overnight cult gurus, 'grant anything' swamijis

increasing day by day in addition to lot of "Bakthi"?? Literature in the

market which gives quick fixes like what devata to be worshipped to buy a

house, what pooja to be performed to settle a house dispute etc..

 

Where we have come?

 

It is our responsibility to teach our children and others that we should

love God and not fear him, pray God and not ask him

and he is the one to be enjoyed and it is his duty to worry about us and we

should leave everthing to Him..

 

It needs good mind conditioning from school level. I dream of lot of

Patasalas(Like Ahobila Mutt oriental schools) coming up in future which

inculcate values , religion, Vedanta etc.

 

i sincerely Prostrate to our Emberumanar who could make all thease things

Happen

 

Dasan

 

K.M.Narayanan

 

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[Guest guest]

On this subject

 

--- narayanan.k.m wrote:

> Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama:

> > Sri. Sampath's recent posting is based on good

observation in our temples.

> one more thing if we observe is that our culture is

> becoming more and more religious and less and less

> spritual. this is the root cause of all problems we

> face.

 

Sir, perhaps you are right. As a religion gets more

and more organized amd turns "Establishmentarian"

(adiyen learnt that big word recently; adiyen does not

like it at all but it seems to convey exact meaning

what adiyen has in mind, so adiyen is using it), as a

religion gets more and more organized the less

"spiritual" it seems!

 

dAsan,

Sampathkumaran

 

 

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