My periyappa was a wadhyar. He toiled hard to bring up his children. By God's grace, most of them retired from high positions in different firms. He used to tell me, "when you give dakshina to a wadhyar, remember me." So, I am reasonably liberal in giving dakshina.
On the other side, as time progressed wadhyars are not so economically weak. Many of them have cars and even AC bedrooms. I have some specific examples from Kerala to substantiate this. But for ethical reasons, i cannot reveal their names.
There are always democratic ways of dealing with wadhyars who charge exorbitantly. One wadhyar in Kerala used to charge very high even if the person cannot afford it. People boycotted him and he has very less practice now.
In Kerala, some Samoohams (organisations dealing with spiritual aspects of brahmins) tried to fix dakshina for each ritual which the Samooham wadyar can charge. One wadhyar responded, "then, if for any ritual more priests are required (like rudrekadasi) you will arrange for them." Another wadhyar in another Samooham said, "what you fix must be the minimum. If a person wants to give more, he should be allowed." Intentions of such wadhyars are clear.
In a reply to another post, I said that when someone dies, the wadhyars charge anything from 1.5 to 2.0 lakhs. Some Samoohams arrange the entire 13 days rites on a fixed charge. Then the rituals and materials for the rites will be of very low standard.
Recently, when my brother's wife died, one of my cousins commented during a discussion, "These are all only beliefs. You can do what you like." I immediately challenged him asking him to advise my brother to stop all rituals forthwith. He did not reply.
Most of us have a fear that in the case of the dead, if we do anything wrong, we will be punished (pitr dosham). As long as this fear exists, it is very difficult to reform these rituals.
On the other side, as time progressed wadhyars are not so economically weak. Many of them have cars and even AC bedrooms. I have some specific examples from Kerala to substantiate this. But for ethical reasons, i cannot reveal their names.
There are always democratic ways of dealing with wadhyars who charge exorbitantly. One wadhyar in Kerala used to charge very high even if the person cannot afford it. People boycotted him and he has very less practice now.
In Kerala, some Samoohams (organisations dealing with spiritual aspects of brahmins) tried to fix dakshina for each ritual which the Samooham wadyar can charge. One wadhyar responded, "then, if for any ritual more priests are required (like rudrekadasi) you will arrange for them." Another wadhyar in another Samooham said, "what you fix must be the minimum. If a person wants to give more, he should be allowed." Intentions of such wadhyars are clear.
In a reply to another post, I said that when someone dies, the wadhyars charge anything from 1.5 to 2.0 lakhs. Some Samoohams arrange the entire 13 days rites on a fixed charge. Then the rituals and materials for the rites will be of very low standard.
Recently, when my brother's wife died, one of my cousins commented during a discussion, "These are all only beliefs. You can do what you like." I immediately challenged him asking him to advise my brother to stop all rituals forthwith. He did not reply.
Most of us have a fear that in the case of the dead, if we do anything wrong, we will be punished (pitr dosham). As long as this fear exists, it is very difficult to reform these rituals.
