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pathetic sight of srivaishnavas

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balaji venkateshan • July 20, 1999 


namo narayana,
   whenever adiyen visits any divya desam,more than the joy of having
the  darshan of perumal , it is the sorrow of seeing the plight of
srivaishnavas
that troubles adiyens mind.
At kanchi varadaraja sannidi, there was a sri vaishnava smearing the 12
tirumans and begging alms inside the sannidi itself.
 some orthodox srivaishnava boys are driving autos in kanchipuram

 at tiruninravur , the archaka was very sad that no one is coming to
temple  and hence he is not getting even a single paisa as dakshinam.he
was having a lot of family problems,but his devotion to perumal was
stopping him from  moving away from the place.

 at kanchi , there is no one to light a lamp in divya desa
temples(except
ulagalanda perumal and varadan).the archaka at astabujagaswamy temple
is 70  years old and comes to temple on a bicycle pedalling a distance
of 4
kms at  this ripe age.all for a bare 500 rupee income.

 at ulagalanda perumal koil , a vaishnava was seeking alms from
devotees.to  adiyens surprise , this person was the archaka of thayar
sannidi.

The archakar  of a temple says that all this is because of
nastikatvam.because people are running after babas  and anya devatas
hence places like shirdi and puttaparthy are flourishing while our
temples are in a pathetic sight.unfortunately many sri vaishnavas who
reside in  srirangam itself , visit perumal koil barely once in 6
months.adiyen feels that if all those srivaishnavas who rarely visit
temple, visit temple regularly , not only will our temple  culture be
rejenuvated , but the archakas also will get some money as part  of
aarti collection.
adiyen always requests  friends the following "stop watching
cinema.watching cinema costs 20 rupees for a cinema ticket , spend the
same
towards bus fare or train fare for going to kanchipuram or some other
divya  desam.to and fro ticket is only 20.what ever money is spent
towards
cool  drinks say 5 rupees can be given to archaka.this is a great
social
service.but no one listens to these words"...

 donating 100's or 1000's may be and surely is a problem , especially
in  india , where a person has to literally fight for survival. but
donating 50 rupees per month is not at all a problem.after all cable
t.v connection costs 150 rupees.this is not adiyens views but these are
 what archakas at all temples are lamenting.adiyen is sharing the above
 thoughts , because adiyen is very afraid that if archakas of
vaishnava temples continue to live in poverty , then one fine day all
archakas ,one by one will leave their professions and look for some
other jobs.no
one will be prepared to become an archaka.hence temple culture may be
lost...even the worse may happen.archakas may start serving shirdi
sai baba  sannidis also.

 regards
 balaji



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