Search:
Bhakti List Archives

Dilipa Dasan's idea of renovating temples

From the Bhakti List Archives

Vijay Srinivasan • December 14, 1995 


Dear Friends:

This topic is indeed very dear to me.  I have had considerable number of 
discussions with knowledgeable people both in India and here.  However, the 
renovation of temples is only a smaller subset, but (yet) an important aspect, 
of a broader initiative that I think is expected of all asthikas.

Improving sanitation in our temples, creating an economical and a clean 
facility for our stay in our divaya desams (with an opportunity to experience 
the vedic way of life), continuing education for the archakars (to keep up 
their enthu & quality), an extra source of income for the archakas outside the 
jurisdiction of the Govt., creation of scholarships for encouraging studies in 
vishishtadvaita etc. are some of the broader issues I have in mind.  We must 
have a goal, where say by the year 2010 we have 25 vedic scholars of high 
quality and a similar number of scholars specializing in shastras like mimasa, 
tarka etc.,  Consider the days just 50 years ago - How many Mahans blessed our 
land of bharat.  Today it is indeed sad that priestly duties and scholarship in 
our religion and philosophy do not attract the cream of our youngsters.

The first step in my opinion is to get all the madathipathis together in a 
conference and they should spell out their goals addressing all the broader 
issues.  The conference should culminate in outlining schemes and a frame-work 
for achieving those goals.  This will definitely raise the overall awareness.  
Our efforts can fit into that overall frame-work.  But all these ideas may turn 
out to be too far fetched.  But I am sounding them so that the ideas may 
percolate and if the Lord wills it will become a reality.

In the short term each one of us can adopt a temple and we can begin supporting 
that temple in the following ways:

(i) Establish contacts with the priests and try to assess their needs.

(ii)Visit that temple while in India.

(iii)Make contacts with a reliable local philanthropist.

(iv)Provide help in basic areas like lighting, sanitation, drinking water, and 
facilities for nitya-aradhanam for the Lord.

I am looking forward to hear other ideas on the subject.


Vijayaraghavan Srinivasan