To be honest chintana, I dont care about any swamigal for that matter... I may be an Iyengar by birth, but the moment I came to a certain age and started to see/understand things by myself, I have been a rebel in a way. I dont see myself a typical iyengar who worries about 'Theetu' and stuffs like that. To me external purity is a secondary / tertiary issue. That doesn't mean you can be unclean, dont take bath for weeks like that as long as you are reasonable in your etiquette. What I mean is I dont shower myself because some non brahmin or somebody touched me. To me the cocept of acharyas in the traditional sense have lost its whole purpose actually!. Person like Jayendrar Saraswati Swamigal (or others for that matter) will spend more time doing his rituals than actually doing something right for the people. No offence to anyone!. Its just my plain thought. If I have enough money, I would spend on these things first;
1) Establish Colleges/Schools/Primary Education Centers to teach all sections of people in regular subjects and also on virtues of hinduism (as a optional subjects ) and will provide them encouragement in terms of scholarships/subsidies to do so as well.
2) Establish medical centers to serve all sections of people as cheap as possible and connect to them spiritually and provide the necessary emotional/physical/spiritual support that is needed for the people.
3) Establish various centers to spread hinduism, teach anyone and everyone who is interested
4) Organize blood donations, health camps, anna dhanam, eye dhanam and everything to the people who are in need.
5) Create Orphanages for abandoned children, orphaned children and bring them up in the very good traditions of hinduism and at the same time provide them with contemporary education and knowledge.
6) Set up elderly homes for all the people and welcome them and provide them an environment of physical/emotional/spritual support.
7) Set up community centers for the childrens and youth to enrich their skills in tems of sports affiliated to the spiritual center there by they are brought up in good traditions and at the same time grow out to be the finest specimens of people that everybody dream of.
For eg., many people criticize Satya Sai Baba for so many things, I dont know whether it is true or false and I dont care at this point, because I know he spend so much money to establish world class health, educational facilities in Puttabarthi, that benefits the entire community in and around, that's what matters...
Previously a few centuries ago, it was very important for swamigals like Ramanujar, Raghavendrar, and so on to go to various places just by walking to promote hindu religion among masses, but now-a-days, everything and more can be done with the touch of a button, the need of the hour has changed as well, people just dont expect religious leaders to be closetted into their quarters and swears when someone touches them as 'Chandala , Thirruppi Kullikanumme da" (Gotta take bath again) and things like that are totally politically incorrect and wrong way to look at things...
Any religion/practice that doesn't change according to the situation/circumstances in terms of its practice/rituals is pretty much obsolete, not that you have to sway from the center of the message, but they way you do things as people perception changes has profound effect of how the religion/practice or the person who is professing it is viewed.
Anyway, this is just my thought..
Chintana said:
Srkpriv's post, at least to me, is the first one that critique's Swami Jayendrar's position. I agree that he should not have become so political and should have stayed with the primary responsibilities and concerns of the matam.
However, over the past few years I have grown to be less judgemental of people. I try to stay away from statements like, 'He deserves this because he did that.' Truth is I don't know; I don't know if anybody else knows. If this logic is true then the likes of Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha should have been 'punished' a long time ago. Jayendra Saraswati was not savvy enough for the world of politicians and he got his fingers burnt.
But I lost quite a bit of respect for him several years ago when he left the 'dhandam' at the matam and went off to North India without telling anyone. This happened even when Periyava was around.