All people can become priests-my humble opinion - FACT CORRECTION

[Guest guest]

sri:

 

FACT CORRECTION

 

Saaththatha Vaishnavas are doing kainkaryams (helpers) in THaayaar

sannidhi in Srirangam.They are NOT priests.

Sarathy

ramanuja, "rvv21" <ranjan> wrote:

>

> Dear members, praNAmams

>

>      If I may, I would like to offer a couple of my observations

> about this gained from visits to our beloved Sri Rangam Kovil and

> from my simple reading of Ramanuja Gita Bhashya.

>

>      On going to the Thaayaar Sannidhi (Lakshmi's shrine) at Sri

> Rangam, I noticed that many of the archakars there

were 'shaathaadha

> shrivaishnavas' (Sri Pritesh Swamin, in Tamil that refers to Shri

> Vaishnavas who do not wear the sacred thread).  I understand that

> they are privileged to have this position in the Sri Rangam kovil

> since Ramanuja's time, it's not because of any government quota or

> anything like that.  So Sri Vivek Swamin, indeed it would appear

> that our acharyas and elders have allowed non-brahmins to become

> priests for centuries.  Let us get our information correct before

we

> make a blanket statement such as "non-brahmins cannot become

> priests" which certainly does not seem to have any basis if my

> observations at Sri Rangam were correct.  Learned members, please

> correct me if I misunderstood what I saw.

>

>      What is also another issue is whether other communities are

> allowed to have the sacred thread, and there definite cases of

even

> western europeans being given both yagnyopaveetam and

samashrayanam

> by our own Sri Vaishnava acharyas - anyone can search on the net

to

> check this is true.  So let us also not presume to make judgements

> on this, as that is effectively discrediting the Sri Vaishnava

> acharyas who initiated those people.  'Varnashrama dharma' is one

> thing, but 'bhaagavata apaachaaram' is (or should be) a much

bigger

> thing to worry about.

>

>      Regarding Sri Vivek swamin's point about 18:47 of Bhagavad

> Gita:  "Doing ones own duty, even if faulty, is better than

adopting

> that of others" does not mean 'shUdras should not do a brahmin's

> job' or anything like that: according to Ramanujar's Gita Bhashya

it

> means that we should not presume to take up the difficult process

of

> jnaana yoga and control of the senses when karma yoga is what we

are

> more innately suited to by virtue of our connection with prakrti. 

> Please refer to Swami Ramanujar's commentary and learned members,

> again please correct any mistakes in my understanding.

>

>      I would hope our Sri Vaishnava community at least, would have

a

> bit more sensitivity to the issue of non-brahmins serving in

temples

> rather than a knee-jerk reaction of condemnation.  Nothing is

quite

> as black and white as we think it is... although I am not Indian-

> born or raised and therefore not qualified to comment on the

> intricacies of caste politics in India, I would at least ask us

all

> to approach this issue with the compassion that is meant to be a

> hallmark Sri Vaishnava lakShaNam.  Let's leave such judgements to

> the acharyas who understand the true significance

> of "varNa", "jAti", "dharma" and all those things better than we

lay-

> ShriVaishnavas do. I hope I have not offended anybody.

>

> sarvAparAdhAn kShamasva

> namO nArAyaNAya

> Ranjan

>