Dear Friends: I am sorry to see that our temples are turning out to be places where the Lord Himself is shackled down by kgs of gold and diamonds and rubies. Yes, it is good to see Him decorated with jewels of all kinds, but it is equally pleasurable to see Him decorated in His various forms too. Even Lord Ranganatha Himself is being decorated as Mohini in Srirangam one day in the year and there is great crowd year after year to see Him in that form. They can't dress the Ananthasayana in Srirangam as Mohini, so they do it on the moorthi which they take out. However, in Tirupathi I have seen the standing Lord Venkateshwara being decorated, and I have seen likewise Lord Krishna in Guruvayur being dressed differently every hour. Once I wished very much to see Lord Ranganatha in the Mohini alankaram, but could not reach Srirangam on time. I regretted that very much, but when I reached Tirupathy later, I saw Him dressed in the same Mohini veesham during dharsan there. Another time He was dressed as Narasimha and it brought ecstasy to me both times. I am sure many of you have had similar experiences too! So, I don't see any reason why in the Ranganatha temple abroad they should not dress up Lord Ranganatha as Rama or Krishna or Narasimha. It is not the North Indian or South Indian custom, for He belongs to the whole universe. I wish that we change our attitude and make Him accessible in all of His different forms to all of the people who love Him, especially to those who do not know Him that well, but yearn to get close to Him. Lord Krishna allowed this to all Gopikas and Lord Ranganatha Himself accepted one of the Thayars in the form of a muslim princess. Why then in India, in the temples, they are still sidelining and preventing the white devotees from having His dharsan as others do? I am not advocating that we should dilute our values, but our blind belief without proper understanding is what is causing us problems. Lack of acceptable answers has been leading our children away from our virtuous path. Temples in US have to adjust to the needs of all Hindus and of those others who adore Him in His various forms such as Krishna, and they should become the center where people can learn more freely about Him. I suggest that we set up a place in front of every temple where the devotees can offer the prayers the way they like, of course, in a kind and gentle way. There is such a place in Tirupathy where the devotees can freely light up camphor and offer it to Him, even though it is about 100 meters away from His sanctum. This may be to reduce the crowding and allow free access to all those who desire to light up a lamp or camphor. Many temples in the northern parts of India have such places in front of the sanctum. Why not have such a separate place in front of the Lord where people can freely offer their aarhties? Temple authorities should consider this and other desires of the devotees, such as the one indicated in the request of Anjoonair, seriously and enable them to be fulfilled appropriately. Aravamudhan Raman aravaram@xxxxxxxxx anjoonair <anjoonair@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: There is We have a beautiful temple where Perumal is standing in all Glory ( OVERSEAS } There is very restricted celebration of Sri Rama Navami and Sri Krishna Jayanthi . I requested the Bhattar maybe we should celebrate Sri Krishna Janmastami grandly - ( for I am longing to see the Perumal dressed as Sree Krishnan and also for my North Indians } Imagine my Horror when the Sri Rangam Bhattar replied '' inke elame Perumaleka than Pannum" - meaning to say we cannot celebrate Janmashtami grandly . ie his 15 min celebration is more than enough . It is a case I am taking all the way up to Perumal and will request an answer from HIM. Was he not Sree Rama ? Was he not Sree Krishna ? What is wrong in my request ? Learned and wise men from this group may kindly answer my Query. This Bhattar has even stopped burning Karpooram - He advised as per the rules in India What is wrong with this Sri Rangam Bhattar ???????? [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Oppiliappan/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: Oppiliappan-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia |
oppiliappan-subscribe@yahoogroups.com To subscribe to the list |