Darshan at Sholingur Yoga Narasimhar

[Guest guest]

Dear Vaishnavas,

 

I had the great privilige to have Darshan of Lakshmi

Narasimhar and Yoga anjaneyar at Sholingur on

02.01.03, and I wish to bring to your views the

following on the conduct by the Archakas and the other

happenings.

 

1) There are more than four archakas in the Lakshmi

Narasimhar Sanithi and the behaviour of them was

attrocious ( I feel sad to use these words but I

cannot help it).

 

2) At the first instance they do not guide and help

the pilgrims in the right way. One of the archakas was

found sitting at the entrance and behaving in a

irresponsible way for pilgrim queries. He was doing

kainkariyam for Thayar Sannithi. Darsanam for the

perumal and Thayar was permitted in alternative times

only and not together inspite of the rush of the

pilgrims and the fact that one of archakas was found

in slumber and giving irresponsible answers.

 

3) To my possible extent I gave Rs.50 as my offering

for the archakas and this was not adequate for them

and they DEMANDED more. I was forced to give them my

piece of mind. The whole affair gave the projection of

a money spinning racket and there was a middle man who

is a non archaka who is taking inventory of the

collection and deciding how the distribution should

take place.( All this happening in front of the

pilgrims) I hopelessly tried to perform a archanai and

the archaka was not even aware of what I was

mentioning on the Gothram, Star or anything. Halfway

through I stopped and he also stopped and gave me some

prasadam and asked additional Rs.10 for the prasadam.

 

4) In the chinna malai I even heard the archakas

exchanging some very bad and abusive remarks on the

posture of Sri Renganathar.

 

In the chinna malai ( Anjaneyar Sanithi)There is one

senior archaka who is continuing to have some value

system but I heard the junior archakas literrally

abusing him and calling him by names in front of all

the pilgrims.

 

I finally gave my piece of mind to one of the archakas

that his collection per minute on an average works out

to more than Rs. 30 which will add up to more Rs.5000

per day on a average and inspite of that they are

still not satisfied. I also added that Perumal only

can save them from the state they are in.

 

While in the ground in the entrance to the temple

another form of money spinning was going on. There was

some illegal gambling and people were involved in

throwing rings on some money bundles. I have seen that

this is the modus operandi in all the bigger temples,

either this type of gambling or the lottery racket. It

appears there is a bigger team at the back ground. The

objective here seem to be to drive the people who are

involved in temple services ( Auto drivers, flower

vendors etc ) into this racket and then later use them

for different anti temple activities in the long run.

 

Let us all make a note of this pattern and do our

little part to remove these anomalies.

 

Let us do our little part.

 

Cheers,

Suresh

==============================================

PS:Moderator's Note:

Rather thatn just talk about things and how they are,

Let us take this oppurtunity to talk about what can be done,

and who can get involved?

 

Who are the authorities to whom we can bring this to?

==============================================

[Guest guest]

Sri:

Srimathe Ramanujaya nama:

Dear Suresh and saha bhAgavathAs,

Humble pranams to all. I had a similar bad experience at

Sholingur(and Srirangam)when I visited india last time. I got so

upset that I scolded the archakas in Yoga Narasimhar sannidhi.

They openly ask for money. They give nice welcome to those who give

money. We put roughly Rs 200 in the thattu itself(we put less in

hundi) thinking that archakas hardly get any money to even support

their families. When he asked for more,I couldn't keep my mouth shut

and gave him nicely infront of the public. It's a real disgrace to

our community and normally people will judge by mere one incidence.

It was so crowded and the temple gets lot of money through prasadams

(Rs 10 per head)alone. Since my cousin was goody goody type I had to

scold on his behalf also. Finally I even lost interest in

sevichifying the Lord.

 

I totally had different plans and didn't even dream that I

would visit Sholingur very next day of my visit and the following day

Tirumala and Tiruchanur. If this is the case at Sholingur,I was

dreading my visit to Tirumala. So I thought of returning back to

Madras. But I guess He wanted me to see Him and fortunately I had a

peaceful sevai of Him. But then in Srirangam temple,in NammAzhvAr

sannidhi the bhattar is asking for more money. First I was hesitating

as it was NammAzhvAr's sannidhi but the bhattar was nagging,then I

gave him one lecture. I was half-heartedly nearing the garbhagrham.

But the sight of Him made me forget all these nonsense for some time.

My own younger sister is giving me an advice in the temple "nobody

dares to question,why are you bothered about all these wrong doings?

leave them to destiny. your theoretical knowledge will not work in

this practical world and you better listen to me". Unfortunately I

never had any connection with any of these e-groups. Somewhere there

is a loophole and we need to sort it out. These are all actually big

divyadesams and I guess the archakas are quite well paid. I visited

kancheepuram on garuda sevai and I was barking like an alsation in

front of Ramanuja sannidhi which was closed.

 

Whoever visits these divya desams should report what's

happening there and how the conditions are regarding the temple

maintainance and management and also take pictures of the temple. For

every two/three divya desams,there should be some person(volunteers

needed here only)who would visit once/twice a month to keep check on

the temples. But the problem is nobody wants to get involved in all

these fights. We need some people who can raise their voices. We need

young minds and young blooded youth to tackle such issues with

knowledgeable people(in our sampradAyam)to maintain the temple

cultures. I can only ask my first sister(who is like me in audacity)

to go and visit one divya desam and give updates. Hope some measures

can be taken to avoid such problems in future. Does anyone have the

database on temples' authorities?

 

Best Regards

AzhvAr EmperumAnAr Jeeyar TiruvadigaLE saraNam

NC Nappinnai