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Re: pathetic sight of SriVaishnavas

From the Bhakti List Archives

vasan • July 21, 1999 


In some of the recent postings, the "pathetic sight of SriVaishnavas" was
metioned. adiyen would like to add his two cents worth..

Last November/December during my visit to India, adiyen visited SriRangam, and
for the first time visited th sannithi for Sri Nathamunigal and Venugopalan. The
bhattar had noticed that adiyen was fresh from samashrayanam, and asked if some
financial support could be had towards the day-to-day kainkaryams for Perumal.
To cut a long story short, i send some amount to this sannithi, actually to the
bhattar. He in turn uses and as a token of thanx sends the kumkumam, manjal etc.
to my parents or self. Everytime i receive the prasadam, it gives a sense of
satisfaction, since there are no typical Perumal koils here, Perumal himself is
sending his prasadam.
Since, the temple is outside of India, u do not get a tax-deduction, but is that
what actually matters?  If the bhattar is able to light the lamp, or feed his
family, what more can one ask for in life?  I am sure that all of us have
experienced this sometime or the other, when we have gone to a temple, and
handed the pushpam and/or pazham (flowers and fruits). The moment the bhattar
adorns the flower on Perumal and/or Thayar, we are so proud and happy that
Perumal chose to wear the flowers we gave. Now if u could do this on a regular
basis, either supply enough oil for the lamp, or rice  or whatever, what
kainkaryam is better than this??

For those of you who are new to the bhakti list, u may not be aware of the
organization that we have in place here, called SriVaishanava Seva Sammithi,
wherein, u can name an organization (matams), or temples or certain kainkaryams
and send ur donations (tax-deductible), directly from your bank checking
account. Smt. Nagu Satyan, Srimans K. Kalale, P. Dileepan and R. Rajaji are key
personnel that u may want to get in touch with. They have discussed this several
times , but the response has not been that great. Maybe, this is an opportunity
to join the group, and make a donation to the place of ur choice.  Maybe this is
where a part of the answer is for the question on the pursuit of wealth. If u
were making enough money (i am sure all of us claim, we do not get paid enough
for what we do), why not divert some towards these kainkaryams, and not feel as
guilty?

adiyen, ramanuja dasan
(srinivasan)