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RE: support to divya dEsams

From the Bhakti List Archives

Gunaseelan Venkatachary • July 14, 2000 


Srimathe Ramanujaya namaha
Sri Varara Muniye namaha

Dear Varadhan
Adiyen Gunaseelan wish to add some info about the some DD's current
situation . On seeing the mail I am sure that everyone will be enticed
towards the Kaimkaryam and let me pray that this  one fulfills the basic
need of the DDs which are in bad shape. I do know about srI. thirukkOshtiyUr
mAdhavan ,as adiyen was  little bit  involved in the Thiruvali Thirunagari ,
thirukkurayalur and Mangaimadam kaimkaryams . As my mother is from Thiruvali
Thhirunagari we are very involved with the ThiruMangai Alwar's kaimkaryam. I
do know that nithya kaimkaryam at Thirunagari and Thiruvali has been going
well under the guidance of Embar thirumaligai families . Utsavams as
Karthigail Karthigai, Vedupari, Nangoor GarudaSevai.. are going well under
His blessings and from hing involvement from various families.

Small description about Nangoor DDs
--------------------------------------

And I do know about the situation of Nangoor(9 almost) DD Perumal's nithaya
aradhanai ,as one of my relative is doing the aradhanai daily for 4-5
temples. Its really pathetic to see the situation where 4000 andanar
families lived once . If any one wants to have a dharsan of Perumal in these
DD , I feel Nangoor Garuda Sevai time  is the best occasion (thai masa
Ammavasai) and on all other days you have to be really lucky that the
battar's aradhanai time( once in morning and once in evening) matches with
your visit.

Exception :
Annankoil(thiruvella kulam) - Madhava Battar resides in the same place and
he will take care of all your needs and the service rendered by him is
excellant.
Narayana Perumal Koil (Manimada koil) , Vaiguntha Vinnagaram & Parthan Palli
you can be sure of His Dharsan.

This is the situation adiyen have seen 5 monhs back and dont know whether it
has improved a lot in the recent months , I doubt it.

Also adiyen have personally seen the improvement in the Kurayaloor temple
after the Samprokshanai for which srI. thirukkOshtiyUr mAdhavan was the key.
Earlier , belive me ,it was very bushy and even dangerous to go inside the
temple. This is the first temple where Thirumangai Alwar will do
Mangalasasanam(around 2 pm) before strating His journey to Nangoor
GarudaSevai.Adiyen have  seen the temple under that circumstance only and
hence the impression and now it has improved a lot and you can have a
Dharsan of Ugra Narasimhar beautifully.

I do know and visited the Mangaimadam temple this Jan/Feb '00, even during
Alwar's Mangalasasanam it was very difficult for the Ghosti to sit and
recite. I hope( I may be wrong) the Perumal( Yoga Narasimhar) is in
Balalayam for long period(4-5 yrs) . I do know that srI. thirukkOshtiyUr
mAdhavan has been taking various steps in completing the kaimkaryam but I am
not too sure about the current plan.

At the end Adiyen do wish to enroll myself for this program reg the DD
kaimkaryam , Adiyen  do prefer Thiruvali Thiunagari if blessed.

I know that I have over poured due to my Alwar's involvement and let me Pary
to Him that this Kaimkaryam be fulfilled by His blessings

Thirumangai Alwar Thiruvadigale Saranam.

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan
Gunaseelan

-----Original Message-----
From: varadhan@uswest.net [mailto:varadhan@uswest.net]
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 8:51 PM
To: bhakti-list@egroups.com
Subject: support to divya dEsams


srImathE saTakOpAya namaha
srImathE rAmAnujAya namaha
srImathE anantArya mahA guravE namaha
srIman vara vara munayE namaha

dear bhAgavathAs,

In the past few years, we have seen a lot of discussions on the list
regarding support for srIvaishNavA causes. There obviously are a lot
of causes that need support and a lot of ways to support that cause.
Some are (i) lack of people to perform kainkaryam to perumaL in the
temple, solution being supporting the local people financially to stay
there without migrating to the cities (ii) lack of books and/or
financial support for scholars, the solution being financial assistance
to scholars and so on.. One key thing we all seem to agree upon is that
we have the money (due to AchArya/perumAL krupa) to extend financial
support to appropriate causes in India. If we look at all the causes
needing financial support, nothing is more sad than divya dEsams and
AchArya sthalams not having enough money to perform nitya ArAdhanai and
key utsavams. {In fact, adiyEn thinks that it is a shame on ALL
srIvaishNavAs that perumaL, who has come in archa rUpam for our sake is
not taken care of properly, that too because of financial reasons}.
Nothing is supported more easily than the above too.  We have had a lot
of
good discussions about this, but very little has been done in this
aspect.
This email is about a solution to this problem.

Currently, there is a very intense effort going on in India to support
the divya dEsams that need financial assistance for daily ArAdhana and
key utsavams. There is a charitable trust caled sowmyanArAyaNa perumAL
emperumAnAr charitable trust that does this. This trust is headquartered
in thirukOshtiyUr and first started by performing samprOkshaNam to the
temple there - Currently, among many other activities, this trust
supports
various divya dEsams. The moving force behind this trust is
srI. thirukkOshtiyUr mAdhavan bhattar svAmi. mAdhavan bhattar svAmi's
family
has the kainkaryam of reciting vEdam and divya prabhandham in the
temple.
He has given that kainkaryam to his brother and spends 100% of his time
in
supporting divya dEsams. An example - He collected several lakhs of
rupees for the srIvilliputtUr samprOkshaNam from various people. He did
not stop at collecting from others - He performed thiruppAvai upanyAsams
DAILY in FIVE places in chennai during last mArgazhi and gave ALL of the
donations from them to the samprOkshaNam.  We all know how difficult it
is
to speak for an hour continuosuly - svAmi did that for 5-6 hours a day
at
various places for 30 days to gather money for the samprOkshaNam. Such
is his
dedication to the sampradAyam. He does not work for money - his family's
financial needs are in his words " taken care of by perumAL"!

due to perumAL's grace, a couple of big industrialists in tamizhnAdu
support  a lot of causes for divya dEsams. srI mAdhavan svAmi collects
money from people  every month and does the folowing
1. He has a list of divya dEsams that are in dire need of money for
   nitya kainkaryam (about 35 so far)
2. He collects money to buy the following - rice, dAL, sugar, ghee,
   oil, karpUram, incense sticks etc.. for each temple and buys them
3. The industrialists mentioned above give him 2 vans for 4 days at
   the beginning of each month with petrol etc.. fully paid for
4. He loads up the vans, takes 3/4 people with him for distribution
   and oversight (these could be any srIvaishNava interested in taking
   part in this kainkaryam), goes to the diva dEsams.
5. In each divya dEsam, he has a local person that is responsible for
   the proper use of these items (In some cases, it is the kOvil
bhattar,
   in some cases it is a local commitee, but the bottom line is that he
   has someone responsible for the proper use)
6. He gives these items, takes a receipt and gets them signed by the
   responsible person and goes on to the next divya dEsam after
   worshipping perumAL in the temple.
7. Periodically, depending on the availability of money, he buys
   vastrams for the different sannadhis in these temples and replaces
   the old ones.
8. For key utsavams, depending on the availability of money, he might
   buy special provisions for the utsavam; if he has money left over,
   he will give sambhAvanai to the adhyApAkAs.
9. He sends receipts and prasAdams to EVERYONE who gave money
  (even if it is 5 rupees) every month regarding the use of the money.

A partial list of the temples he currently supports is some way is
given at the end of this email - These are the ones that are in the
MOST need. It costs between 2000 rupees and 10,000 rupees per temple
(depending on the size of the temple, number of sannadhis etc..) per
month. When adiyEn was in India a couple of months back, adiyEn was
talking to him about kainkaryam etcc., and he had a very good suggestion
-
1. He would like people to "adopt" divya dEsams that need financial
   support and provide the money necessary for nitya ArAdhanai.
2. He will provide recipts and prasAdam every month (either mail it
   here, or send it to representative/family in India).
3. If donors want any specific kainkaryam (archanai, kalyAnOtsavam
etc..)
   he will make arrangements for that too and send the prasadams.


The key issues in supporting divya dEsams seem to be the following
(i) no conduit for money to reach India
(ii) no contacts that are appropriate and responsible in India
(iii) trust factor - how do we trust that the money is used properly

issues number 2,3 are addressed by what srI mAdhavan svAmi does. issue
number 1 can also be easily solved - There is a mechanism by which the
trust can open an account in a bank in India (let us say UTI bank, since
adiyEn is familiar with the process in this bank). This bank has
partnerships with a major bank in the US. All we need to do is send a
cheque monthly to the american bank (just like any other cheque we
send!)
and the money will be credited to the Indian account. Of course,
automatic payments can be made every month too. So, issue 1 can also
be easily solved.

adiyEn would like to see the amount of interest in this - More than
one person can obviously adopt a divya dEsam - There are a LOT of
utsavams that need to happen too - A person may choose to adopt
some/all utsavams in a divya dEsam once the daily ArAdhana is taken
care of.

adiyEn would like interested bhAgavathAs to email me of their
interest, and adiyEn will start the process of setting up the
accounts etc.. adiyEn will just be involved in setting this up and
after that, srI mAdhavan svAmi will take care of everything in
India. adiyEn wil be helping him if there is any issue that needs to
be addressed outside of India.

Also, adiyEn requests bhAgavathAs to give their thoughts so that we
can come up with a better process - After all, 2000 rupees is 50
dollars, 10000 rupees is 250 dollars - For most of us, 50 dollars
a month is not a big amount, or for that matter for many,
250 a month. adiyEn is sure that, among the 250 or so members of
the bhakti list, we can come up with enough people to adopt about 3
5 divya dEsams to start with.

adiyEn will attempt over the next few weeks to write on each of
the divya dEsams listed below.

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan,
Thirumalai anandAnpiLLai varadhan

--list of divya dEsams/AchArya sthalams

1.sri sathyamurthy perumal temple thirumayyam,
2. sri jagathrakshaga perumal temple-thirukkoodaloor
3. sri ranganathar thondaradipodi alwar -thirumandangudi
4. sri gajendra  varadar and kannan temple - thirukapisthalam
5. sri andalakkum ayyan - adhanur
6. kolavalvil raman  -  pullambhoodhangudi
7. sri jegannadhan perumal -- nathan kovil
8. sri hara saba vimochana perumal -- thirukkandiyur
9. sri dhamodara narayanaperumal -- thirukkannangudi
10. sri thalaichanga nanmadhiyaperumal - thalaichangadu
11. thirunangoor thiruppathigal 11 temples
12. thirukkurayalur - sri ugra narashimmaperumal (birth place of sri
thirumangai alwar)
13. thirumangaimadam - sri veeranarashimmaperumal sri thirumangai
vallithayar
    capital and thathiyaradhanai divya kshethram of sri thirumanga alwar
14. thiruvali sri lakshmi narashimaperumal
15. thirunagari - sri kalyana ranganathr sri thirumangai alwar
16. madhura mangala sri vaigunda nathar embar(avathara kshethram)
17. kanchi sri ulagalandhaperumal temple with 5 divya desam and deepam
for 4 temples
18. kothangulam - chikkal kadaram the birth place of swami manavala
mamunigal
19. kondhagai birth place of  sri thiruvaimoli pillai sri
deivanayagaperumal temple

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           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
To Post a message, send it to:   bhakti-list@eGroups.com
Visit http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/ for more information