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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00046 Jan 2003

 
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The recent postings highlighting the wrongs in the Lord's temples are 
motivated by a deep love for the Lord, and the pain all good people 
feel when things are not as they should be. But i fear that in 
angrily and publicly criticising particular individuals/ groups, our 
crusaders are doing the wrong thing. Allow me to use my own errors to 
elaborate.

1) When we get angry, the focus remains on the other 
person's 'mistake' rather than hearing what God is trying to teach us 
at that moment in time. Speaking from experience: out of kindness, 
the Archakas would sometimes allow me to have darsan of the Lord via 
the 'special-entrance'. One festival day, as i skipped towards the 
special entrance, i was coarsely rebutted and told to join the que. I 
felt humiliated- and that too by a peon, in front of all those 
people. But as i stood in the que, my anger subsided and i could hear 
the Lord teaching me a lesson:" I, the great Lord of Arangam, love 
each and every black-robbed, smelly, paan-chewing-red-eyed Ayappa 
worshiper every bit as much as i love you. Go and wait along with 
them, my dear but egotectic rangapriya". Similarly, let our anger 
subside as we ask ourselves: what lesson is the Lord trying to teach 
me when I feel offended by the 'greed' of the Archakas demanding MY 
money. . . ?

2) In the face of 'obvious' mis-conduct, it is easy to forget that 
the wisdom of God transcends that of men. Whilst waiting for darsan 
of the Lord at a jungle Divyadesa, i found myself next to a chap 
puffing away on his Ganesh beedies. I looked down my nose at him, 
oblivious to my padham and smelling only his sin. But to no effect. 
Even when the doors opened and the Lord blessed us with His darshan, 
the idiot kept puffing away. Then the Lord taught me an unforgettable 
lesson. When it was time for the arti (mangalasasanam), the Archaka 
had run out of matches. 'Any one have a match' the Archaka 
inquired. No one; except my beedie smoking aparaadhi. The wisdom of 
God transcends that of men.

3) In recent posts, we have been reminded:

"Here the incident of sri kUrath AzhwAn is recalled wherein SrE 
kurath AzhwAn is initially refused entry into the temple of Lord nam 
perumAL as he is seen as an associate of Sri RAmAnujA. However, on 
realising that he is a very learned scholar they permit him inside on 
the grounds that he is not harmful. SwAmi kUrath AzhwAn returns 
without entering the temple as he feels that he cannot reach the Lord 
without dissociating himself with sri RAmAnujA. He prefers 
srEvaishnavic sambandham rather than the Lord's sambandham. 

We should also see the seriousness of the words " 
bhagwadhvishayathOdu -dhEvadhAnthrathOdu vAsiyillai" in the 
commentary. If we indeed prefer the Lord overlooking srEvaishNavites, 
worshipping the Lord is deemed equal to that of other deities. The 
Lord is way above incomparable to other deities. When the same scale 
is applied, the srEvaishNavites are kept in a very high pedestal 
above the Lord. The essence is that the Lord should be worshipped 
only alongwith srEvaishNavites [Thirupavai 15, posting by Swamy V. 
Padmanabhan]". 

Too true. Let us remember that even a 'corrupt' Archaka is still a 
Srivaisnava, and so (by his very presence), is saving us from the sin 
of 'demigod' worship. 

4) Finally, i believe it is no accident that one of the atrocities 
mentioned in a recent Sholingur post occurred at the Anjaneyar 
sannidhih. 

"In the chinna malai ( Anjaneyar Sanithi) There is one
senior archaka who is continuing to have some value
system but I heard the junior archakas literrally
abusing him and calling him by names in front of all
the pilgrims".

There is a precedent for such abuse. When Swamy Anjaneyar saw the 
atrocities done by Ravana's ogresses towards Piratti, he too was 
tempted to 'Give them a piece of his mind'/ 'Let them have it'. But 
let us remember we are not just Vaisnavas, we are SRI Vaisnavas. 
Should not Her counsel to Anjaneya be followed by us? Consider: 

"The cruel atrocities perpetrated by the Rakshasis of Lanka on Sita 
during her captivity are too well known. And yet did not she plead 
with Hanuman, on their behalf, even justifying the atrocious conduct, 
as a matter of mere compliance wih the orders of Ravana , and holding 
that the Rakshashis who according to Hanuman were sinners (papanam) 
were, according to her, meritorious (subhanam) and further asserting 
that there is none above mistakes "na kaschin, na aparaadhyati?" If 
the mother saw good in evil (dhosha) there is no need to make special 
mention of her attitude towards the lack of goodness, as such." 
[Srivachanbhusanam, commentary by Sri Manavalamamunighal, trans. Sri 
Satyamurthi Gwalior].

We have far less justification than Swamy Anjaneya to be angry. The 
Archakas are abusing either ourselves, or the Lord. Their abuse fades 
into utter insignificance (in both quality and quantity) aside the 
ogresses' abuse of Piratti.

Everything said and done, let us pause and think how dear these 
Archakas must be to the Lord. Despite all their apacharas, the Lord 
continues to keep them close to Him; closer than even nitya-suris 
could ever dream. The ogresses were forgiven on account of their 
being bound by Ravana; cannot our Archakas be handled tenderly on 
account of their being bound by the Lord?

Your servant, S. Ramanujadasan.

Footnote: if none of the above is convincing, i beg the reader to 
consider the following:

a) By publicly criticising the Archakas, we say to the general 
public "its o.k. to commit bhaagavad apachara- you too go right 
ahead". 
b) If devotees of your high calibre remind the Lord of the mistakes 
of His caretakers, His anger on them may be more than you bargained 
for. Is that what you want?
c) Has an angry word ever made you change your ways? Or rather has it 
made you all the more defensive and entrenched in your folly. So too 
it is with others. Anger is counter productive and only hardens the 
heart of both giver and taker.
d) The Archakas too are human beings, with all the difficulties in 
life faced by you or me. Who knows what sort of day they've had just 
before we showed up for darsan? Most Archakas are sincere, devoted 
and above all- they havent left their Lord (like many of us) to make 
our fortunes abroad.
d) The points about the wrong doings and goings-on in the Lord's 
temples are valid. But please make your points with love, tenderness, 
and a concern for the upliftment of all concerned. These Archakas 
are not outsiders, but our own family members. 





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