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RE: When posting appeals...

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Krishna Kalale • September 19, 1999 


Dear friends let me make somethings clear here.  Long post beware !!

Sri Mani wrote :

-----Original Message-----
From:	Mani Varadarajan [SMTP:mani@be.com]
Sent:	Friday, September 17, 1999 12:15 PM
To:	bhakti@lists.best.com
Subject:	When posting appeals...


    To explain: It was written yesterday that the Pomona Ranganatha
    temple is the "one and only authentic Sri Vaishnava temple ...
    [without] any presence of dEvathAntharam in it in this continent".

    Does this make Sri Govindaraja Sannidhi in Chidambaram a false
    Sri Vaishnava temple? After all, He is resting right next to
    Lord Nataraja and Natana Ganapati. What about the various other
    Divya Desams praised by Alvars, where there happen to be
    another devatA inside?

[Krishna Kalale]

Adiyen disagrees with this issue.  adiyen was the one who was in the 
committee of Sri Ranganatha Temple in Pomona who raised the issue that 
"What if we agree to allow another separate prakaram for anya devatas?.  If 
that is going to accelerate the building of Ranganatha Temple why not?". 
 With great difficulty and against the ideas of several "srivaishnavas" Sri 
Venkat upheld that Sri RAnganatha Temple should not have any other devatha 
in the prakarams which is definitely in tune with the pancharathra system. 
 Of course Govindaraja sannidhi etc. may be exceptions due to a sthala 
puranam or some such issue.  That is not a common occurence.  Adiyen 
disagreed with Sri Venkat at that time, but soon realized the value of Sri 
Venkat's determination regarding this.

Let me explain to you clearly.  My acharya HH Azhagia singar told me when 
he performed bharanyasam to my then 4 year old son Hrisheekesh, " do not 
take your son to anya devatha temples.  Avoid anyadevatha samparkam since 
it affects one's prapatti".  It depends on the maturity of the person in 
question here.  But I can state confidently that I can take my kids to 
Pomona RAnganatha Temple without fear.  I myself with the maturity of an 
adult, feel "mentally worry free" when I visit Rangantha temple and I I can 
clearly state that I dont have to be concerned about my son who loiters 
around to different sannidhis.  Further, I have to declare with confidence 
that I have a divine experierience of steady concentration on 
srimannarayana without any distractions;  I can take prasadam with peace 
and thirthams with peace that it was not offered to someone else.  Let me 
state it clearly, that during sometimes  when I have visited "common 
temples" like srimandir in San Diego, I have been subjected to be forced 
into difficult situations.  Recently, in srimandir a close friend of ours 
offered me thirtham offered to "Siva / Parvathi".  I usually do not go that 
temple, but on certain occasions to meet people or even to lecture on 
"srimad bhagavatam" I visit that temple.  On this occasion, adiyen was 
subject to mental torture since adiyen's acharya had clearly said not to 
attend such temples (note: when we explained the situation to HH Azhagia 
singar, that on rare occasions we are obliged to go, HH said "do not be a 
frequent visitor or a familiar face in such temples just meet someone and 
walk out).  But adiyen did feel bad for several days that adiyen was 
messing with my "son's prapatti" which is a very serious issue.  I can 
boldly state that such accidents do not happen in Pomona Ranganatha temple, 
(thanks to Sri venkat who went against many "Srivaishnavas" and not to 
mention other local hindus to uphold this issue

 Sri Mani Wrote:

 I also consider my local temple as an "authentic" Sri Vaishnava
    temple, even though it is called a "Siva-Vishnu" temple.  Each
    sannidhi has separate dhvaja-stambhas and bali-pIthams, with
    separate entrances, much like Chidambaram. The same can be said
    for the Malibu temple in Los Angeles, where the proposed Siva complex
    is completely removed from Sri Srinivasa Perumaal's sannidhi.

    Or take Chicago, where a more authentic Sri Vaishnava crowd, with
    regular Veda and Prabandha pArAyaNam happens, cannot be found.
    Do we have a right to summarily dismiss these various sannidhis
    as not being "authentic"?

    Such statements are very hurtful and counterproductive.
************************************
Krishna Kalale :

Adiyen feels that such temples with both shaivaite and vaishnavite deities 
are built in US for ease of raising funds so that no one is left out and 
everyone contributes towards the temple.  Adiyen disagrees with those 
temples for many reasons:

1.  Adiyen saw a News paper photo with Srivaishnava archakas at Malibu 
temple performing puja or helping in the puja of other deities.  This 
definitely should not be allowed, but it happens since the management of 
those temples feel that everyone should chip in to do all sorts of work at 
the temple premises and say that "it's their job and they are paid for it". 
 Adiyen would feel awkward to get anything done such as "devasams " or any 
pujas  by such priests,  Think how awkward they would have felt,  who hail 
from great "paramaikanti families" back in India and now are subjected to 
management's incorrect decisions .  All these accidents or problems can 
happen in such temples and can be avoided by strict conditions as laid down 
in Sri Ranganatha temple at Pomona.  Yes it is tougher to build such pure 
srivaishnava temples.  But it will be definitely worth the trouble.

2.  One might wonder - what is wrong in being a little "catholic" and allow 
other deities etc. or even having photos or murthis of other devatas in 
their own homes.  Adiyen has seen some srivaishnavas being very catholic 
keep murthis or photos of anya devatas in their homes.  I am sure that if a 
person is mature this is not a big deal; one can understand that they are 
parivaras or other bhagavataas or semi bhagavatas of Srimannarayana. 
 However, in practice this is not true :

adiyen met another srivaishnava recently.  He told me that he is a 
"shiva-vaishnavite" even though he comes from a srivaishnava family.  I 
asked him why?  He replied,  "In my family,  long long time back in my 
grand father's time,  we always had a "Vel" (a weapon held by Sri Muruga 
(anya devatha).  Hence, we always perform pujas to srimannarayana and other 
shaivaite deities right at home".

 Probably,  during his Grandfather's time due to so called broad minded 
ness  such a "Vel" was kept in puja griham with Saligramas together.  This 
is definitely is wrong according to me.  Leave that broad minded (but 
wrong) grand father aside;  and see what happens to grand kids here.  They 
will think that " it is ok to do puja to other deities".  Further in the 
next generations they will not even understand the value of " unakke nam 
atsheyvom"( we dedicate to srimmanarayana alone " mere to giridhar gopal 
dusra na koi" ( Mira's bhajan).  " oru jivan innoru jivanukku tanjam illai" 
( one jiva is not sesha to another jiva) etc.  All these principles are 
thrown in to garbage due to such "broad minded" erroneous practices of the 
elders.  Please do understand that you are worshipped by your children and 
grand children and what you do becomes law to them.

In fact such individuals who have such ancestry will be "afraid to death" 
to take out that "Vel" out of the puja griham and start a different "pure 
srivaishnava puja routine", since they will be thinking " how can I leave a 
practise followed by my elders?  and who after all is this damn Krishna 
Kalale,  who is just a modern polluted srivaishnava in America to advise me 
against my elders' views? !".

Just as a side comment,  adiyen was presented with an anya devatah vigraham 
when adiyen visited a srivaishnava home just after my marriage.  Due to 
circumstances, adiyen accepted that vigraham and within days presented it 
back to an anya devatha devotee without offending anya devathas.  Such a 
simple practice will avoid major problems to my next generations who may 
wonder where this vigraham came from!


On the other hand,  adiyen agrees with Sri Mani that  " veda svarams" have 
to be chanted appropriately and cannot be taken lightly.  This is true 
whether it is in a temple or anywhere else.

adiyen Krishna Kalale