LavasZONe seems to be very emotional about the priests issue! Please cool down and think. What Suraj says is not totally illogical.
There were great reformers in Hinduism and that too from our own Brahmin community- Unlike Islam, Hinduism reformed itself over a period of time and slowly became progressive - Sati was abolished - Child marriages banned- Widow remarriages gaining acceptance- All of course with Govt support-Let us set our house right- Things will definitely look up-
Let us accept the reality that , except gurukkals and bhattacharya, nobody else- brahmin or non-brahmins were allowed in the sanctum sanctorum of our temples- Even if they are Ganapatikals! Right or wrong- it is only a tradition-
Nothing wrong in correcting them- Of course I agree with you that MK is not driven by this noble cause- Even then let us see reason.
Regarding your comments on job, salary, leave etc- The archaka is a job now in HRCE temples- They get monthly salary- It is a sort of quasi-govt job- In the late sixties, I was in small villages of Tanjore distt- I have many times heard the village gurukkals saying " If these temples are taken by the govt, it is good- At least we will get regular salaries"- In fact they were running from pillar to post to include their temple in the HRCE list! Otherwise, nobody was bothered about these village temples! The archakas were living in abject poverty!
Let us not try to make any statements implying that all non-brahmins are non-pious, meat eaters, drunkerds etc. - This type of statements have caste-overtones and betrays our arrogance- There are good and bad characters in all communities! Why do you assume a non-brahmin priest to behave badly? Can you say all the brahmin priests are epitomes of virtue? Have you ever visited Srirangam temple or Palani for that matter? How our own community archakas fleece our own community people- you can see with your own eyes!
In stead of defending the indefensible, let us concentrate on how to bring our archaka community brothers and sisters to the main stream and to alternative professions!
That is what we should do!
Shankar
Bhilai
