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Re: in need of a priest

From the Bhakti List Archives

Mohan Sagar • November 10, 1997 


Sri Krishna Kalale writes:

>I put this on the net instead of directing only to you to highlight a point
>to the people on the network.  It is clear from Mohan Sagar's email that
>there is a dearth of qualified priests belonging to the srivaishnava
>sampradaya.  Pretty soon our community in the USA has to do something about
>this so that in each city atleast two priests are sponsored and invited to
>stay in US.  One day this is going to happen. Hope it is soon enough.  We
>have to organize well here in US regarding this.

>If nothing works out,  I can myself perform a grihapravesham ceremony for
>you to the extent of my knowledge, in a srivaishnava sampradaya.

Sri Kalale, my sincere thanks for your kind offer to come and perform this
function.  Had I known sooner that you are familiar with the ritual I would
have happily consented to this.  But, as I stated in another posting, with
Perumal's Grace, we have managed to procure the services of one Sri
Jaganathachari of Chicago's Sri Venkateswara Temple.

My little dilemma has raised an interesting issue, though, as is indicated
by Sri Kalale above. It takes me back to a discussion we had several months
ago about encouraging our priests to become more involved in the community
of their heritage.  While I know that several SriVaishnava communities are
taking active steps to involve priests at their respective temples in
traditional activities, I would concur with Sri Kalale that a more organized
approach needs to be taken to ensure that qualified priests are made
available to the larger SriVaishnava community in the US as a whole.  This
would not only be good for we lay followers, but would also serve to
encourage the priests, whose traditions have seemingly become diluted by
years of service in the more generic Hindu Temples, to reacquaint themselves
with the philosophy and culture in which they are trained.

While I also would like to see qualified SriVaishnava priests in every town,
I would like to propose that a good first step would be to compile a list of
traditional SriVaishnava Priests who are already here, and who would be
interested in making their service available to the members of our
community. My use of the term "traditional" is rather intentional here, for
I would like to compile a list of those individuals who would support the
sAmpradayam oriented attitudes of the members of this forum, and who would
be willing and able to lead us in activities that conform to our traditions
and beliefs.

I would be happy to compile this list, with the help of all of you in this
forum, and provide it as a posting to everyone.  I have already started the
list by collecting the names and temples contained in the responses from
this past weekend.  I would appreciate the thoughts of the more erudite
members of this forum, though, before I proceed further.

adiyEn,

Mohan