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People to perform religious ceremonies.

From the Bhakti List Archives

Krishnamachari, N. • November 12, 1997 


I have followed the correspondence relating to priests for performing
some of the religious ceremonies.  I hope what I am adding here is
viewed in a positive sense.  It is not intended to adversely comment on
any thoughts expressed so far.

In my experience, I feel there is a difference between the purohita
function and the priest function.  The training for the two functions
are distinct and different from each other.  Even though in this country
because of the limitation in resource availability we have the temple
priests essentially also functioning as purohita-s, this does not
necessarily mean that they are the also the ones who are trained for the
purohita function.  When an attempt is made to put together a list of
people qualified to perform the different ceremonies, this needs to be
kept in mind.  

Also, when we look for people competent or trained to perform the
religious functions, I
have found some non-vaishNava priests (smartha priests for instance)
have been very good in their knowledge of purohitam as well. 

-dAsan kr*shNamaAchAryan 
.