support to divya dEsams

July 12, 2000

srImathE saTakOpAya namaha

srImathE rAmAnujAya namaha

srImathE anantArya mahA guravE namaha

srIman vara vara munayE namaha

dear bhAgavathAs,

In the past few years, we have seen a lot of discussions on the list

regarding support for srIvaishNavA causes. There obviously are a lot

of causes that need support and a lot of ways to support that cause.

Some are (i) lack of people to perform kainkaryam to perumaL in the

temple, solution being supporting the local people financially to stay

there without migrating to the cities (ii) lack of books and/or

financial support for scholars, the solution being financial assistance

to scholars and so on.. One key thing we all seem to agree upon is that

we have the money (due to AchArya/perumAL krupa) to extend financial

support to appropriate causes in India. If we look at all the causes

needing financial support, nothing is more sad than divya dEsams and

AchArya sthalams not having enough money to perform nitya ArAdhanai and

key utsavams. {In fact, adiyEn thinks that it is a shame on ALL

srIvaishNavAs that perumaL, who has come in archa rUpam for our sake is

not taken care of properly, that too because of financial reasons}.

Nothing is supported more easily than the above too. We have had a lot

of

good discussions about this, but very little has been done in this

aspect.

This email is about a solution to this problem.

Currently, there is a very intense effort going on in India to support

the divya dEsams that need financial assistance for daily ArAdhana and

key utsavams. There is a charitable trust caled sowmyanArAyaNa perumAL

emperumAnAr charitable trust that does this. This trust is headquartered

in thirukOshtiyUr and first started by performing samprOkshaNam to the

temple there - Currently, among many other activities, this trust

supports

various divya dEsams. The moving force behind this trust is

srI. thirukkOshtiyUr mAdhavan bhattar svAmi. mAdhavan bhattar svAmi's

family

has the kainkaryam of reciting vEdam and divya prabhandham in the

temple.

He has given that kainkaryam to his brother and spends 100% of his time

in

supporting divya dEsams. An example - He collected several lakhs of

rupees for the srIvilliputtUr samprOkshaNam from various people. He did

not stop at collecting from others - He performed thiruppAvai upanyAsams

DAILY in FIVE places in chennai during last mArgazhi and gave ALL of the

donations from them to the samprOkshaNam. We all know how difficult it

is

to speak for an hour continuosuly - svAmi did that for 5-6 hours a day

at

various places for 30 days to gather money for the samprOkshaNam. Such

is his

dedication to the sampradAyam. He does not work for money - his family's

financial needs are in his words " taken care of by perumAL"!

due to perumAL's grace, a couple of big industrialists in tamizhnAdu

support a lot of causes for divya dEsams. srI mAdhavan svAmi collects

money from people every month and does the folowing

1. He has a list of divya dEsams that are in dire need of money for

nitya kainkaryam (about 35 so far)

2. He collects money to buy the following - rice, dAL, sugar, ghee,

oil, karpUram, incense sticks etc.. for each temple and buys them

3. The industrialists mentioned above give him 2 vans for 4 days at

the beginning of each month with petrol etc.. fully paid for

4. He loads up the vans, takes 3/4 people with him for distribution

and oversight (these could be any srIvaishNava interested in taking

part in this kainkaryam), goes to the diva dEsams.

5. In each divya dEsam, he has a local person that is responsible for

the proper use of these items (In some cases, it is the kOvil

bhattar,

in some cases it is a local commitee, but the bottom line is that he

has someone responsible for the proper use)

6. He gives these items, takes a receipt and gets them signed by the

responsible person and goes on to the next divya dEsam after

worshipping perumAL in the temple.

7. Periodically, depending on the availability of money, he buys

vastrams for the different sannadhis in these temples and replaces

the old ones.

8. For key utsavams, depending on the availability of money, he might

buy special provisions for the utsavam; if he has money left over,

he will give sambhAvanai to the adhyApAkAs.

9. He sends receipts and prasAdams to EVERYONE who gave money

(even if it is 5 rupees) every month regarding the use of the money.

A partial list of the temples he currently supports is some way is

given at the end of this email - These are the ones that are in the

MOST need. It costs between 2000 rupees and 10,000 rupees per temple

(depending on the size of the temple, number of sannadhis etc..) per

month. When adiyEn was in India a couple of months back, adiyEn was

talking to him about kainkaryam etcc., and he had a very good suggestion

-

1. He would like people to "adopt" divya dEsams that need financial

support and provide the money necessary for nitya ArAdhanai.

2. He will provide recipts and prasAdam every month (either mail it

here, or send it to representative/family in India).

3. If donors want any specific kainkaryam (archanai, kalyAnOtsavam

etc..)

he will make arrangements for that too and send the prasadams.

The key issues in supporting divya dEsams seem to be the following

(i) no conduit for money to reach India

(ii) no contacts that are appropriate and responsible in India

(iii) trust factor - how do we trust that the money is used properly

issues number 2,3 are addressed by what srI mAdhavan svAmi does. issue

number 1 can also be easily solved - There is a mechanism by which the

trust can open an account in a bank in India (let us say UTI bank, since

adiyEn is familiar with the process in this bank). This bank has

partnerships with a major bank in the US. All we need to do is send a

cheque monthly to the american bank (just like any other cheque we

send!)

and the money will be credited to the Indian account. Of course,

automatic payments can be made every month too. So, issue 1 can also

be easily solved.

adiyEn would like to see the amount of interest in this - More than

one person can obviously adopt a divya dEsam - There are a LOT of

utsavams that need to happen too - A person may choose to adopt

some/all utsavams in a divya dEsam once the daily ArAdhana is taken

care of.

adiyEn would like interested bhAgavathAs to email me of their

interest, and adiyEn will start the process of setting up the

accounts etc.. adiyEn will just be involved in setting this up and

after that, srI mAdhavan svAmi will take care of everything in

India. adiyEn wil be helping him if there is any issue that needs to

be addressed outside of India.

Also, adiyEn requests bhAgavathAs to give their thoughts so that we

can come up with a better process - After all, 2000 rupees is 50

dollars, 10000 rupees is 250 dollars - For most of us, 50 dollars

a month is not a big amount, or for that matter for many,

250 a month. adiyEn is sure that, among the 250 or so members of

the bhakti list, we can come up with enough people to adopt about 3

5 divya dEsams to start with.

adiyEn will attempt over the next few weeks to write on each of

the divya dEsams listed below.

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan,

Thirumalai anandAnpiLLai varadhan

--list of divya dEsams/AchArya sthalams

1.sri sathyamurthy perumal temple thirumayyam,

2. sri jagathrakshaga perumal temple-thirukkoodaloor

3. sri ranganathar thondaradipodi alwar -thirumandangudi

4. sri gajendra varadar and kannan temple - thirukapisthalam

5. sri andalakkum ayyan - adhanur

6. kolavalvil raman - pullambhoodhangudi

7. sri jegannadhan perumal -- nathan kovil

8. sri hara saba vimochana perumal -- thirukkandiyur

9. sri dhamodara narayanaperumal -- thirukkannangudi

10. sri thalaichanga nanmadhiyaperumal - thalaichangadu

11. thirunangoor thiruppathigal 11 temples

12. thirukkurayalur - sri ugra narashimmaperumal (birth place of sri

thirumangai alwar)

13. thirumangaimadam - sri veeranarashimmaperumal sri thirumangai

vallithayar

capital and thathiyaradhanai divya kshethram of sri thirumanga alwar

14. thiruvali sri lakshmi narashimaperumal

15. thirunagari - sri kalyana ranganathr sri thirumangai alwar

16. madhura mangala sri vaigunda nathar embar(avathara kshethram)

17. kanchi sri ulagalandhaperumal temple with 5 divya desam and deepam

for 4 temples

18. kothangulam - chikkal kadaram the birth place of swami manavala

mamunigal

19. kondhagai birth place of sri thiruvaimoli pillai sri

deivanayagaperumal temple

July 13, 2000

Thiruvengada jeeyar thiruvadigale Saranam.

Dear Bhagavatas,

thanks to Sriman TA Varadan for the long message he has sent on providing

financial support to divyadesams. actually this is to be done by the entire

hindu community as Lord Vishnu is one of the most worshipped deities fror

hindus.

I hereby request sriman varadan et al. to kindly include Thiruninravoor

divyadesam to their list of DDs to be funded. This DD badly needs funds. i

will very soon send u all a mail giving some details of the temple's

needs.

Donating a rupee to a DD in need is billion times better than paying for

thousands of kalyanotsavam and other special poojas in the richest hindu

temple.

Unlike ISKCON temples, most of the SV temples are government temples and

are not run by any SV organization. Hence negligence of state is very much

seen in these temples.

dasudu

vishnu

http://www.iitian.com : An Extraordinary place for Extraordinary people

July 13, 2000

srImathE saTakOpAya namaha

srImathE rAmAnjAya namaha

srImathE anantArya mahA guravE namaha

srIman vara vara munayE namaha

dear bhAgavathAs,

adiyEn has received emails from many bhAgavathAs regarding support for

the divya dEsams. Some bhAgavathAs were enquiring about more divya

dEsams and if they could be added - thiruppuliyoor and thiruninRavoor -

adiyEn does not think that there would be a problem in supporting those

temples too. adiyEn will, when adiyEn talks to srI. mAdhavan bhattar

svAmi this weekend, ask him about the 2 specific divya dEsams mentioned

above.

adiyEn madurakavi dAsan,

Thirumalai anandAnpiLLai Varadhan

July 14, 2000

Sri:

SrimathE GopAla DEsika mahAdEsikAya nama:

Sriman Varadhan:

It is very nice of you to come up with a proposal to support our divya dEsams.

adiyEn would like to share some of schemes already followed in some of the

temples in

South India that adiyEn knows of.

In Sri Lakshminarasimhan temple in PonviLaintha kaLathur (near OtthivAkkam),

there is a nithya ArAdhanai scheme where each AsthikA sets aside a fixed amount

as suggested by the temple (committee). The devotee picks the day for the

ArAdhanai.

The earned interest is utilized to sponsor the nitya ArAdhanai for that day. The

day

may be of importance to the devotee, the day may be a birthday, wedding

anniversary or

someone's ninaivu day (in memory of). There is also sponsorship for the entire

Dhanur

mAsam pujAs. You could extend this to nitya viLakku kaimkaryam. adiyEn is one of

the many many participants in the temple.

Once the deposit is made, the kaimkaryam can go on.

There are other temples that are following similar schemes.

vacaka dosha: kshantavya:

adiyEn

govindarajan

varadhan wrote:

>

> srImathE saTakOpAya namaha

> srImathE rAmAnujAya namaha

> srImathE anantArya mahA guravE namaha

> srIman vara vara munayE namaha

>

> dear bhAgavathAs,

>

> In the past few years, we have seen a lot of discussions on the list

> regarding support for srIvaishNavA causes. There obviously are a lot

> of causes that need support and a lot of ways to support that cause.

> Some are (i) lack of people to perform kainkaryam to perumaL in the

> temple, solution being supporting the local people financially to stay

> there without migrating to the cities (ii) lack of books and/or

> financial support for scholars, the solution being financial assistance

July 14, 2000

Dear Sriman T.A.Varadhan,

It is nice to note about the ongoing efforts to support some of the Divya

Desams. Please send me the address and contact no:of the trust you had

mentioned, so that I can forward my contributions in cash/kind to them.

I am also in total agreement with Sriman.Vishnu's respone to the above

posting that:

a) DDs need to be supported by the Hindu community in general.&

b) There are other Divya Desams which also need the community's support.

Can I place a few suggestions to the recommendations contained in your

posting:

1)As regards "conduit" for reaching money to India, instead of creating

fresh systems or form new trusts, can we not activate and support existing

setups like "SVSS" who already have a presence.May be SVSS will have to

"market" itself aggressively.

2)As regards "adopting" temples, while primafacie it is a good idea, the

problem could be that some of the not so well know DDs could get left out.

It would be better if funds are collected by one agency and equitably

distributed.

At this point I am tempted to once again draw the attention of all members

to my earlier postings on "Funding of Srivaishnava Causes". I feel that the

present arrangement being pursued may suffer from the following drawbacks:

1) It tends to be adhoc. I sincerely feel that we can achieve better results

by opting for a cohesive,focussed,well organised & planned programme of

action.

2) Under the present system of funding there are every chances that causes

about which we have not heard of may get left out. A broader and across the

board participation would ensure an equitable and need based distribution of

funds.

3) By broadbasing, undercurrents of Kalai affiliation,Acharya

affiliation,Place affiliation etc. can be evened out and a sense of fairness

for the cause can prevail.

4) By time and again referring to the same base of bhakthas, over a period

of time we may tend to develop "fatigue".It is high time that we started

looking at a broader base of bhakthas who may be interested in doing

kaikaryam.Can we not think of one bhakatha referring another bhaktha for the

cause?

5) All of us would have heard of the adage "it is better to teach a person

to fish than to give him a free fish for lunch". I am of the firm opinion

that we also need to look at options of "making money" for the cause.

The various srivaishnava causes crying out for our attention could fall

under the following categories,viz:

1) Support to Divya Desams & other abhimana sthalams.

2) Support to Scholars, & to others who support the siddhantam.

3) Support for the study of our Siddhantam, Support for publishing

Literature on our Siddhantam.

4) Support for charity to the needy and underprivileged who are not as

fortunate as us.

Some time back when I was in Thoopul, one of the bhattars commented "Swami

Desikan did Unchavrutthi during his life time. We are carrying on the lines

shown by him even today".What a sad reflection on us!

I would normally not have re-raised this subject, but for a feature in

yesterdays T.V regarding a small girl by name "Palak" & aged about 10. This

girl wanted to save a boy ( about the same age but from a poor family) with

a congenital heart problem. Since the operation cost was put at around

Rs.70,000/-, she gave a solo music performance to raise the required fund.

The surgeon on the seeing the girl's enthusiasm agreed to perform the

operation free of cost. Today Palak has created a trust with whatever money

she had collected and is going on giving performances to collect more money.

This has resulted in 6-7 more poor boys getting medical facility (for

cardiac problems) which they could otherwise not have imagined.Can we not

emulate Palak.

Adiyen

K.Lakshminarayan.

______________________

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July 14, 2000

Dear bhagavathas,

This is in response to posting by sri Lakshiminaryanan krishnaswami.

When I was in india sri satagopan & others were doing the kaimkaryam of

producing cds on the divya desams & acharya emperumanar. I think we need to

aggressively market these in india. when i asked people in parthasarathy

perumal koil if they know about this cd program they said they didnt know.

In USA there is a system, which most bhagavathas living in US would have

noticed, which advertises for some CD or cassettes of old songs. may be we

can do the same with the local cable operators in india. this way it'll cost

less than advertising in the big commercial channels. the money from the

proceeds can be given either to madhavan swami or a similar trust(if we are

forming one) to handle the nitya aradhana(atleast) of the DDs. may be we can

do the same in US. I dont think every body will donate but a lot of people

will buy things. this is my humble suggestion.

Adiyen,

Anand.

July 14, 2000

Srimathe Ramanujaya namaha

Sri Varara Muniye namaha

Dear Varadhan

Adiyen Gunaseelan wish to add some info about the some DD's current

situation . On seeing the mail I am sure that everyone will be enticed

towards the Kaimkaryam and let me pray that this one fulfills the basic

need of the DDs which are in bad shape. I do know about srI. thirukkOshtiyUr

mAdhavan ,as adiyen was little bit involved in the Thiruvali Thirunagari ,

thirukkurayalur and Mangaimadam kaimkaryams . As my mother is from Thiruvali

Thhirunagari we are very involved with the ThiruMangai Alwar's kaimkaryam. I

do know that nithya kaimkaryam at Thirunagari and Thiruvali has been going

well under the guidance of Embar thirumaligai families . Utsavams as

Karthigail Karthigai, Vedupari, Nangoor GarudaSevai.. are going well under

His blessings and from hing involvement from various families.

Small description about Nangoor DDs

-----

And I do know about the situation of Nangoor(9 almost) DD Perumal's nithaya

aradhanai ,as one of my relative is doing the aradhanai daily for 4-5

temples. Its really pathetic to see the situation where 4000 andanar

families lived once . If any one wants to have a dharsan of Perumal in these

DD , I feel Nangoor Garuda Sevai time is the best occasion (thai masa

Ammavasai) and on all other days you have to be really lucky that the

battar's aradhanai time( once in morning and once in evening) matches with

your visit.

Exception :

Annankoil(thiruvella kulam) - Madhava Battar resides in the same place and

he will take care of all your needs and the service rendered by him is

excellant.

Narayana Perumal Koil (Manimada koil) , Vaiguntha Vinnagaram & Parthan Palli

you can be sure of His Dharsan.

This is the situation adiyen have seen 5 monhs back and dont know whether it

has improved a lot in the recent months , I doubt it.

Also adiyen have personally seen the improvement in the Kurayaloor temple

after the Samprokshanai for which srI. thirukkOshtiyUr mAdhavan was the key.

Earlier , belive me ,it was very bushy and even dangerous to go inside the

temple. This is the first temple where Thirumangai Alwar will do

Mangalasasanam(around 2 pm) before strating His journey to Nangoor

GarudaSevai.Adiyen have seen the temple under that circumstance only and

hence the impression and now it has improved a lot and you can have a

Dharsan of Ugra Narasimhar beautifully.

I do know and visited the Mangaimadam temple this Jan/Feb '00, even during

Alwar's Mangalasasanam it was very difficult for the Ghosti to sit and

recite. I hope( I may be wrong) the Perumal( Yoga Narasimhar) is in

Balalayam for long period(4-5 yrs) . I do know that srI. thirukkOshtiyUr

mAdhavan has been taking various steps in completing the kaimkaryam but I am

not too sure about the current plan.

At the end Adiyen do wish to enroll myself for this program reg the DD

kaimkaryam , Adiyen do prefer Thiruvali Thiunagari if blessed.

I know that I have over poured due to my Alwar's involvement and let me Pary

to Him that this Kaimkaryam be fulfilled by His blessings

Thirumangai Alwar Thiruvadigale Saranam.

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan

Gunaseelan

varadhan [varadhan]

Wednesday, July 12, 2000 8:51 PM

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