Re: in need of a priest
From the Bhakti List Archives
• November 10, 1997
Sri Krishna Kalale writes: >I put this on the net instead of directing only to you to highlight a point >to the people on the network. It is clear from Mohan Sagar's email that >there is a dearth of qualified priests belonging to the srivaishnava >sampradaya. Pretty soon our community in the USA has to do something about >this so that in each city atleast two priests are sponsored and invited to >stay in US. One day this is going to happen. Hope it is soon enough. We >have to organize well here in US regarding this. >If nothing works out, I can myself perform a grihapravesham ceremony for >you to the extent of my knowledge, in a srivaishnava sampradaya. Sri Kalale, my sincere thanks for your kind offer to come and perform this function. Had I known sooner that you are familiar with the ritual I would have happily consented to this. But, as I stated in another posting, with Perumal's Grace, we have managed to procure the services of one Sri Jaganathachari of Chicago's Sri Venkateswara Temple. My little dilemma has raised an interesting issue, though, as is indicated by Sri Kalale above. It takes me back to a discussion we had several months ago about encouraging our priests to become more involved in the community of their heritage. While I know that several SriVaishnava communities are taking active steps to involve priests at their respective temples in traditional activities, I would concur with Sri Kalale that a more organized approach needs to be taken to ensure that qualified priests are made available to the larger SriVaishnava community in the US as a whole. This would not only be good for we lay followers, but would also serve to encourage the priests, whose traditions have seemingly become diluted by years of service in the more generic Hindu Temples, to reacquaint themselves with the philosophy and culture in which they are trained. While I also would like to see qualified SriVaishnava priests in every town, I would like to propose that a good first step would be to compile a list of traditional SriVaishnava Priests who are already here, and who would be interested in making their service available to the members of our community. My use of the term "traditional" is rather intentional here, for I would like to compile a list of those individuals who would support the sAmpradayam oriented attitudes of the members of this forum, and who would be willing and able to lead us in activities that conform to our traditions and beliefs. I would be happy to compile this list, with the help of all of you in this forum, and provide it as a posting to everyone. I have already started the list by collecting the names and temples contained in the responses from this past weekend. I would appreciate the thoughts of the more erudite members of this forum, though, before I proceed further. adiyEn, Mohan
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