God welcomes His hater!
The other day Stalin, the DMK seyal thalaivar, visited Srirangam to attend a private function. No issues, we are not concerned with that. What we are concerned about is the treatment given to him by the temple priests. He was accorded full-scale reception by them. I have objections, being a Hindu and a God-fearing man, for the following reasons:
This is a disgrace not only to all god loving Hindus, who value these things but also to God Himself. What value does prasadam have if it is going to be distributed like this?
There could be more to the episode than meets the eye. Stalin’s wife shows up at temples once in a while. Even Stalin, during his ‘Namakku Name’ tour, went to some temples and spoke to some priests, in the hope of covering Hindu votes. Viewed in this backdrop, it’s possible that the priests were requested to perform some special puja and deliver the prasadam on the road because he can’t enter the temple for obvious reasons (we don’t want such elements to enter our temples either, but that’s beside the point). There were reports that some kind of ‘Sukra Preeti pariharam’ was performed by Stalin! This is for victory in the coming elections, which he has been predicting, is coming soon! I can imagine some party functionaries arranging for the puja, and requesting the temple to deliver it on the road to the boss when he arrives.
But still, the right thing to do was to refuse to do such things on the road. It should have been handed over to the people who ordered the puja inside the temple. What they do with it outside is neither ours nor Temple’s concern.
Note:
1. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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I agree with Mr Sampath. The priests should not go out of the temple with Prasadams. Their service should be to the LORD.
Sir, nice article. I totally agree with you. My humble request and no offence meant. Can we Hindus stop using the term "God fearing"when we talk about our Dharma and Ishwara? God fearing is an Abrahaminic concept and has no place in our Dharma. Ishwara is friend, wife, husband, child etc but not a fearing personality. Thanks
Dr. Ramakrishnan, thanks. Suggestion taken! These are expressions. The core ideas are important.
Yes Malar I agree. These are the outcomes of temples taken over by government and get politicized. While churches and mosques are with respective faiths, only our temples are administered by government. Why? This has resulted in misuse of temple properties etc. the only way out is to get the temples freed.
And the same Stalin, whose wife is very regularly visiting temples, HAS RECENTLY ISSUED A STATEMENT THAT DMK "DOESN'T" NEED VOTES OF HINDUS n OF THOSE WHO GO TO TEMPLES.
Audacious n absolutely have no respect of those who are part and parcel of THIS THAMIZHAGAM!!!!!!!.????
The apt and timely Prasadam from Sundar Bhattachaaryar of Sri Ranganathaswamy temple to MK Sudaaaaalin of DMK could be THREE NAAMAM, which the DMK clans put / applied on the foreheads of All tamilians in Tamil Nadu since 1967. Tamil Nadu is grieving for having defeated Nationalist leader K Kamaraj till today, with the DMK/ADMK's monumental corruptions and violence every where.
I wish to correct The author of article Shri Dr V. R. Sampath that by mistake he has written MK Stalin's tour named "Namakku Naame" , whereas it should be read as ‘NAMAKKU NAAMAME’ and should be the correct and apt one. Annnnaaaaaaa Naaaaamam Vaaaaazhga Kalaignar Naaaaamam Vaaaaazhga
Jayasankar,
We still hold Namam as sacred. Only those who don’t understand it that way use it as a derogatory term.
I see nothing wrong in welcoming Stalin to a temple, which is our tradition and dharma to treat even enemy with dignity. I find that the Dravidian parties existing in highly religious Tamil Nadu is a kind of oxymoronic but that is how dharma survived in this great Hindu nation. In fact people like Stalin should be welcomed so that Periyar ideology suffers its natural death. For that matter tamils, who are deeply religious, never subscribed to that ideology. It was only anti Brahmin and anti Hindi feeling spread by these bigots attracted popular support that too for a short period before MGR and Jayalalitha revived sanity.
Well said. Even God forgives and gives Moksha to demons who fought him. God is all encompassing and is full of love where there is no discrimination. This is Advaitha and essence of Hinduism. The author Dr Sampath seems to have not understood the crux of Hinduism and tries to mislead the Hinduism itself.
Good that you’ve understood the crux of Hinduism! To me it’s a question of identity. If God gives Moksha to demons too, then there is no need to be a bakhta and there is no need to fight evil, which God did through avatars. It’s this kind of complacency that has led to the breaking India forces operating freely in our country, not to say of the cultural appropriation that is happening. Time to heed the wake up call!
The point is Stalin didn’t ‘come’ to temple for them to ‘ welcome’ him! Your argument holds if his intention was to come inside and was stopped! Moreover, to prove Hindu dharma, we need not welcome adharma!
Exactly.
These priests are unfit to serve Ranganathar.
Every priest who works in temple should have the respective deity as it's master and not a human being. And that too a person who is against Hinduism and whose party is responsible for the degradion of Hinduism should have been shunned.
Priests should first change themselves and not attach them to politics.
For a priest a god lover is more important than even the king.
Sri Ranganathar is offended in this way.
What respect do they give to Ranga nathar when they give such prasadams to a person who doesn't even respect it.
Hindu priests should change themselves if they really wish to save Hinduism.
God should be their only masters and holy saints like Ramanujar should be the respected next.
You should not be carried away by politicians or money.
Live a life for god not for humans.
Even I wanted to say this.
When I visited Srirangam a month earlier during chithirai festival, they had a lot of banners with aachi masala (a christian company ) logos with advertisement for chithirai festival.
Is the temple a holy place or a commercial place.
Who gave the rights?
Also there were a lot of shops inside.
Does the government want every temple to burn up and show that god is angry with these commercialisations?
There should not be any place for advertisements inside temples.
Every nook and corner, I could see it.
Learn to respect the deities inside and work to please only god - this is my humble request to all Hindu priests.
This may not give you wealth , power but it takes you closer to God and your future generations will be blessed with good things.