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RE: Priests-NA

From the Bhakti List Archives

Vidyasankar Sundaresan • October 29, 1996 


I think it would be better if priests in NA stick to their respective
sampradAyams in the sankalpams etc. After all, in India, the general
population attends the pUjA at SrI vaishNava temples, and the priests
there do not change their traditions to suit smArta or other
sensibilities. For that matter, there is a large section of smArtas whose
sankalpam for sandhyA-vandanam has SrIman-nArAyaNa prItyartham instead of
SrI parameSvara prItyartham. And it is important to remember that in
most Siva and Devi temples in south India, the worship is done according
to Saiva Agamas, by Adisaiva priests, not by smArtas. 

Most of the general temple-going population would not even know if
SrIman-nArAyaNa prItyartham is different from SrI parameSvara prItyartham
or not. They would continue coming to the temple in either case. The
smArta population that would notice such a thing would anyway support the
temples, whether dedicated to Siva or to Vishnu. I thought that temples in
this country tend to have different sannidhis, with one main sannidhi
dedicated to a particular God. Why not follow the respective sampradAyams
at each sannidhi? Is there pressure from people on the temple governing
committees to change? 

Regards,
S. Vidyasankar