Vadhyar - Priests Activity - A Discussion

[vsrajagopalan]

Much has been said about brahmins and their honesty and dishonesty etc., We are all humans and as humans we all hv good and bad in us. Now is the time to do something about it. How many of are willing to dedicate one of our children (in many families there is only one male and one female child) to veda parayanam and that incudes the dress code attached to that kind of living? U won't live that kind of life but you want somebody who is living like that to conduct your vaidika karma and that too with thambulam with thulasi thalam and you will decide the dakshinai according to your whim and fancy as if giving out something in alms (Pichai). Those who want to dictate terms to vadhyar can as well do without him. When u cannot complain against a school or doctor or vegetable vendor do not complaint against a vadhyar. Do not do anything prescribed in Vedas and spend all your money in Schools and hospitals. I believe in vedas. Although I hv not done veda adhyayanam I realise the value of vedas and its smruthis. I also understand vadhyars have a family and they also hv children to be educated. I do not bargain with Vadhyar.
VSR

[bmbcAdmin]

Re: Vadhyar - Priests Activity - A Discussion

Dear VSR,
All of your points are acceptable,
Further I wish to add something;
I hope this problem or issues or complaints are not coming against or on
Traditional bruhaspathis who are doing service after having sufficient training
Under a traditional Vadhyar.
If we go for a survey, we could find the fact that all these complaints are against
Vadhyars who came in to field in the middle without any training.
And also people are not giving priority to well experienced aged vadhyars
Who are suffering for daily routines and sitting in house without any work.
Still hundreds of Vadhyars are there without work.
They will accept the nominal fees and will do the karma with the best of their knowledge.
But the only problem the will expect proper respect and conveyance facility.
Let astik people think over it.

[bmbcAdmin]

Vadhyar - Priests Activity - A Discussion

I fully agree with Krishnan. After all these Brahmins also have a family to support; children to educate and so on and so forth. Cost of living applies to them as well. You expect them to come to your house on time and therefore, these days they have a two or four wheeler. These vehicles do not run on water! You do not mind paying heavy wages to the daily household cleaner who comes to wash utensils and sweep and swob the floors; . you pay a Deepavali/Pongal/Dussehra bonus to them; give them new clothes - because if they do not come then your wife is put to great difficulty. You don't pay the Brahmins every month and you expect them to be at your beck and call whenever the need arises. So it is unjust that you grudge paying them. You do not grudge paying the autorickshaw fellows who hold you to ransom - in fact I have not seen a single e-mail highlighting this point in this forum but we seem to feel the pinch when we pay the Brahmins. Let us not call them then. There is no compulsion.

As far as holding pujas and homams in the temples, it is perfectly all right. We should not compare the costs of holding them in the temples and at home. It is the regular priests at the temple who perform the pujas and they are paid a monthly salary; whereas the priest who comes to your home does not get a monthly salary! Then of course the money paid to the temples [those governed under HR&CE]invariably go to the coffers of the government and a major portion of such collections, as you know go to the welfare and development of mosques, churches and personal pockets of politicians!

In any event, I do not expect the clan of these Brahmin priests to remain on the scene for long. They are already becoming scarce.
T.S.Balasubramaniam


From: gopal.ramanathan
Dishonest Brahmins - My experience
I have to agree with Krishnan. Despite one of the major religious groups in today's world Hinduism/Sanathanadhrarmam is still loosely structured, and one of the resultant weaknesses is most often the priests are left to fend for themselves. To mitigate this everyone of us have to support our priests of else soon we may not have enough of them around.


On 05/11/2011, at 3:42 PM, KRISHNAN VAIDYANATHAN wrote:
Hello
I beg to disagree.

Priests are like modern day consultants - They too charge like you and me or as any consultant. It does not matter how long a process takes - but it always gets the charge it is deemed for.

Secondly - It is their profession and not a charity - they are as much entitled to annaul increase as we do get in our organization. Do we not expect organization to compensate for inflation and for the work we do - I do not see anything wrong in priest charging.

Just as we have few of us earn over a lakh amonth in corporate world and then are a large number who earn in thousand priest too earn based on their skill, capacity protential.

Do we not negotiate with our potential employer based on the skill and also demand -if we know we have a skill and that an organization needs that skill desparately - do we not negotiate with them for higher salary - if we as a person can do it why not priest do it too..

We must understand that going forward priests and that skill is going to be a scare commodity and in high demand - there is going to be a gap in demand and supply and the prices would go up....
the best way - have more priests ......... make one member in the family study the process and have more prients - some 10 years later all would have priest for a song since there will be more priests than demand ------ Will this work - i doubt it.
regards
Krishnan Vaidyanathan


Dishonest Brahmins - My experience
Dear Sir,
Like the others. the brahmins also became dishonests. Thats why Lord Sri Laxmana once told to his elder brother brother that, if he is not telling the truth, then he will take birth in Kaliyuga as Brahmins. My father passed a way in sept. The smartha brahmin priest took nearly Rs 5000 for the rituals before the cremation.The Smartha priest took Rs 200 for chanting only 2 lines mantras during the asthi (ashes) immersions in Kaveri river near Srirangapatna. And in the Vaishnava sabha I had to pay Rs 52000 for the 5 day ceremonies.Considering my father's gentle and pius nature I paid according to their demands. The elderly Vaishnava priest also became a brahmnatwam to get the pure silver glass I purchased seperately. The catering contractor along with another priest misguided me about the27th day, 30th day, 45th day shraddhas. While the elderly Vaishnava priest told the different dates. The money I booked in the Vaishnava sabha was never refunded. They did not consider in a humanitarian way. However the behavior of the priests and the others were good and gentle. But can they change their attitude in the painful and sad moments of the family members and change the rules? Thanks,
S Narayan
Bangalore