Dear Sri Soundararajan, I have heard similar views from other scholars. It is important that practising scholars come out and get together to protect the tradition. It is in the interest of our tradition if all castes participate in temple worship WITHOUT violating the traditional systems laid out by the great sages. The effort by M. Karunanidhi may be destructive. We have to be wise to convert it in to advantage for the temples and current archaka community. Best Regards Rajaram V. rajan s <rajan_ramaswamy@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: Dear Swamin The temple worship is governed by the two agamas namely Vaikanasa and Pancharatra. THe diferent temples follow different agamas according to their tradition. Agamas are smritis as against Nigamas which are vedas which are apurisheya i.e not made by individuals.Vaikanasa is claimed to be Sruti. The vedas as such do not support idol worship. Hence the agama practices especially Pancharatra have been critisised as non-vedic. Pancharatra agama has been defended by Yamuna as wll as Vedanta Desika aginst cricism by advaitis like Sankaracharya and Kumarila Bhatta. Pancharatra has so many samhitas , the importants ones being Sattvata, Jayakhya,Padma. As to who is quqlified to do worship in temples, the Vaikanasa and Pancharatra agamas express different views. According to Vaikanasa , the priest must be a householder. Upanayana is the only ceremony required. He may be trained in Vedas and Shrauta texts.He must be a brahmin as upanayana is insisted ,belonging to vaikanasa families. According to Pancharatra texts, the priet may belong to any ashrama except Sanyasa. Pancha Samskara and Chakrabja diksha is necessary for pararta puja meaning worshipping for the community. Some Pancharatra texts allow all castes to do puja and even women are allowed to do pujas at temples (Vishwamitra Samhita.). I am quoting from the book Lakshmi Tantra published by Adyar library edited by Pandit Krishnamacharya in his introductory chapter. Karma vak manasaihi samyak bhakthanam paramesware Chaturnam adhikaro vai prapte dikshakrame sati. (satvata aamhita) Pama samhita restricts this to Brahmanas . Pararthayajanam kuryu vipra mukhyanukalpayohnaivadhikarino gauna dikshasamskara varjitah. ( charya padah ) I stand to be corrected.. Adiyen Ramanuja dasan Soundararajan . --------------------------------- --------------------------------- Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1¢/min. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] SPONSORED LINKS Fund raising Beliefs Religion --------------------------------- YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "Oppiliappan" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: Oppiliappan-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. --------------------------------- --------------------------------- New Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Call regular phones from your PC and save big. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Home is just a click away. Make Yahoo! your home page now. http://us.click.yahoo.com/DHchtC/3FxNAA/yQLSAA/XUWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 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/
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