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pathetic sight of srivaishnavas

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sudha parthasarathy • July 21, 1999 


I totally agree with Shri balaji venkateshan. I felt the same when I had 
visited the Divya Desams in and around Kanchipuram. It is really a sad state 
of affairs. While we in the Bhakti group try to raise funds for 
samporkshanam and other mega festivals for different perumals, we should 
also strive to, to something for such temples. My humble suggestions would 
be members of the group to adopt a temple of their choice and start helping 
these great Divya Desams, in their own little way.

Organizations like TVS and other srvaishnavas have helped only the prominent 
temples like parthasarathy temple etc, but what about the others.?? It is 
defenitely upto us to help these temples out and contribute in our own 
fashion . Littel drops of water make an ocean. So let us all start by 
contributing atleast a dollar a day to some divya desam and help them with a 
day's oil for perumal vilakku or probably even a mazham of flowers.

The problem I have also noticed with some temples is, when yo usend money to 
a trust or a commitee, they do not disperse it properly and eventually ends 
up unused. So I think we all should do as much as possible when we visit 
these temples or probably send some funding to our relatives in India, 
requeting them to use the money for a DD of our choice.

Like Shri balaji has said, there might not be many archakas left to do the 
Nitya Aradhana for our beloved Lord Sriman Narayana and the temples 
obviously will become dilapated.

I am not sure where to start and certainly welcome some direction from the 
revered members of the group and am willing to contribute as much as 
possible for this cause, for what we have today, tomorrow and forever is due 
to the grace of the Divya Dampathis and it is defenitely our duty to make 
sure that his place of worship lasts forever as well.

As for our great Government, all they are doing to make the situation worse 
is to take over the temple lands and make sustenance for the temple and the 
priests extremely difficult.

I have never participated in any discussions in the past due to my lack of 
spiritual knowledge. However, reading Balaji's mail as well as reading some 
earlier mails from members of this group has stirred my emotions.

I apologize to all members if I have written too much . All views expressed 
are mine alone.

Adiyen

Jayakrishna Vijayaraghavan




>From: balaji venkateshan 
>Subject: pathetic  sight of srivaishnavas
>Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 04:27:32 -0400 (EDT)
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>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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