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support to divya dEsams

From the Bhakti List Archives

varadhan • July 12, 2000 


srImathE saTakOpAya namaha
srImathE rAmAnujAya namaha
srImathE anantArya mahA guravE namaha
srIman vara vara munayE namaha

dear bhAgavathAs,

In the past few years, we have seen a lot of discussions on the list 
regarding support for srIvaishNavA causes. There obviously are a lot 
of causes that need support and a lot of ways to support that cause. 
Some are (i) lack of people to perform kainkaryam to perumaL in the 
temple, solution being supporting the local people financially to stay 
there without migrating to the cities (ii) lack of books and/or 
financial support for scholars, the solution being financial assistance 
to scholars and so on.. One key thing we all seem to agree upon is that 
we have the money (due to AchArya/perumAL krupa) to extend financial 
support to appropriate causes in India. If we look at all the causes 
needing financial support, nothing is more sad than divya dEsams and 
AchArya sthalams not having enough money to perform nitya ArAdhanai and 
key utsavams. {In fact, adiyEn thinks that it is a shame on ALL 
srIvaishNavAs that perumaL, who has come in archa rUpam for our sake is 
not taken care of properly, that too because of financial reasons}.
Nothing is supported more easily than the above too.  We have had a lot
of 
good discussions about this, but very little has been done in this
aspect. 
This email is about a solution to this problem.

Currently, there is a very intense effort going on in India to support 
the divya dEsams that need financial assistance for daily ArAdhana and 
key utsavams. There is a charitable trust caled sowmyanArAyaNa perumAL 
emperumAnAr charitable trust that does this. This trust is headquartered 
in thirukOshtiyUr and first started by performing samprOkshaNam to the 
temple there - Currently, among many other activities, this trust
supports
various divya dEsams. The moving force behind this trust is 
srI. thirukkOshtiyUr mAdhavan bhattar svAmi. mAdhavan bhattar svAmi's
family 
has the kainkaryam of reciting vEdam and divya prabhandham in the
temple. 
He has given that kainkaryam to his brother and spends 100% of his time
in 
supporting divya dEsams. An example - He collected several lakhs of  
rupees for the srIvilliputtUr samprOkshaNam from various people. He did 
not stop at collecting from others - He performed thiruppAvai upanyAsams 
DAILY in FIVE places in chennai during last mArgazhi and gave ALL of the 
donations from them to the samprOkshaNam.  We all know how difficult it
is 
to speak for an hour continuosuly - svAmi did that for 5-6 hours a day
at 
various places for 30 days to gather money for the samprOkshaNam. Such
is his 
dedication to the sampradAyam. He does not work for money - his family's 
financial needs are in his words " taken care of by perumAL"! 

due to perumAL's grace, a couple of big industrialists in tamizhnAdu 
support  a lot of causes for divya dEsams. srI mAdhavan svAmi collects 
money from people  every month and does the folowing 
1. He has a list of divya dEsams that are in dire need of money for 
   nitya kainkaryam (about 35 so far)
2. He collects money to buy the following - rice, dAL, sugar, ghee, 
   oil, karpUram, incense sticks etc.. for each temple and buys them
3. The industrialists mentioned above give him 2 vans for 4 days at 
   the beginning of each month with petrol etc.. fully paid for
4. He loads up the vans, takes 3/4 people with him for distribution 
   and oversight (these could be any srIvaishNava interested in taking 
   part in this kainkaryam), goes to the diva dEsams.
5. In each divya dEsam, he has a local person that is responsible for 
   the proper use of these items (In some cases, it is the kOvil
bhattar,
   in some cases it is a local commitee, but the bottom line is that he 
   has someone responsible for the proper use)
6. He gives these items, takes a receipt and gets them signed by the 
   responsible person and goes on to the next divya dEsam after 
   worshipping perumAL in the temple.
7. Periodically, depending on the availability of money, he buys 
   vastrams for the different sannadhis in these temples and replaces 
   the old ones.
8. For key utsavams, depending on the availability of money, he might 
   buy special provisions for the utsavam; if he has money left over, 
   he will give sambhAvanai to the adhyApAkAs.
9. He sends receipts and prasAdams to EVERYONE who gave money 
  (even if it is 5 rupees) every month regarding the use of the money.

A partial list of the temples he currently supports is some way is 
given at the end of this email - These are the ones that are in the 
MOST need. It costs between 2000 rupees and 10,000 rupees per temple 
(depending on the size of the temple, number of sannadhis etc..) per 
month. When adiyEn was in India a couple of months back, adiyEn was 
talking to him about kainkaryam etcc., and he had a very good suggestion
- 
1. He would like people to "adopt" divya dEsams that need financial 
   support and provide the money necessary for nitya ArAdhanai. 
2. He will provide recipts and prasAdam every month (either mail it 
   here, or send it to representative/family in India).
3. If donors want any specific kainkaryam (archanai, kalyAnOtsavam
etc..)
   he will make arrangements for that too and send the prasadams.


The key issues in supporting divya dEsams seem to be the following
(i) no conduit for money to reach India
(ii) no contacts that are appropriate and responsible in India
(iii) trust factor - how do we trust that the money is used properly

issues number 2,3 are addressed by what srI mAdhavan svAmi does. issue 
number 1 can also be easily solved - There is a mechanism by which the 
trust can open an account in a bank in India (let us say UTI bank, since
adiyEn is familiar with the process in this bank). This bank has 
partnerships with a major bank in the US. All we need to do is send a 
cheque monthly to the american bank (just like any other cheque we
send!)
and the money will be credited to the Indian account. Of course, 
automatic payments can be made every month too. So, issue 1 can also 
be easily solved.

adiyEn would like to see the amount of interest in this - More than 
one person can obviously adopt a divya dEsam - There are a LOT of 
utsavams that need to happen too - A person may choose to adopt 
some/all utsavams in a divya dEsam once the daily ArAdhana is taken 
care of. 

adiyEn would like interested bhAgavathAs to email me of their 
interest, and adiyEn will start the process of setting up the 
accounts etc.. adiyEn will just be involved in setting this up and 
after that, srI mAdhavan svAmi will take care of everything in
India. adiyEn wil be helping him if there is any issue that needs to 
be addressed outside of India.

Also, adiyEn requests bhAgavathAs to give their thoughts so that we 
can come up with a better process - After all, 2000 rupees is 50 
dollars, 10000 rupees is 250 dollars - For most of us, 50 dollars 
a month is not a big amount, or for that matter for many, 
250 a month. adiyEn is sure that, among the 250 or so members of 
the bhakti list, we can come up with enough people to adopt about 3
5 divya dEsams to start with.

adiyEn will attempt over the next few weeks to write on each of 
the divya dEsams listed below.

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan,
Thirumalai anandAnpiLLai varadhan

--list of divya dEsams/AchArya sthalams

1.sri sathyamurthy perumal temple thirumayyam,
2. sri jagathrakshaga perumal temple-thirukkoodaloor
3. sri ranganathar thondaradipodi alwar -thirumandangudi
4. sri gajendra  varadar and kannan temple - thirukapisthalam
5. sri andalakkum ayyan - adhanur
6. kolavalvil raman  -  pullambhoodhangudi
7. sri jegannadhan perumal -- nathan kovil
8. sri hara saba vimochana perumal -- thirukkandiyur
9. sri dhamodara narayanaperumal -- thirukkannangudi  
10. sri thalaichanga nanmadhiyaperumal - thalaichangadu
11. thirunangoor thiruppathigal 11 temples
12. thirukkurayalur - sri ugra narashimmaperumal (birth place of sri
thirumangai alwar)
13. thirumangaimadam - sri veeranarashimmaperumal sri thirumangai
vallithayar
    capital and thathiyaradhanai divya kshethram of sri thirumanga alwar
14. thiruvali sri lakshmi narashimaperumal
15. thirunagari - sri kalyana ranganathr sri thirumangai alwar
16. madhura mangala sri vaigunda nathar embar(avathara kshethram)
17. kanchi sri ulagalandhaperumal temple with 5 divya desam and deepam
for 4 temples
18. kothangulam - chikkal kadaram the birth place of swami manavala
mamunigal
19. kondhagai birth place of  sri thiruvaimoli pillai sri
deivanayagaperumal temple

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