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]
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