Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis!
An idea recently sprang up in my mind to build a sannidhi [ meaning, a small sanctum] of Venkateswara at my home, similar to that of Tirumala [12 feet deity]. For that, I had planned all sorts of things - the architecture of the garbha griha, the gold plated wall decoartions [ Similar to those in south Indian temples] costing 2000 INR/sqft, the ornaments I would offer to the deity, The types of Pujas I could do etc.
I usually pray to agastya muni and Sri Padmanabha Tirtha these days and I prayed to them before sleep. For two whole days, I had darshan of Visnu. The first day, I was waddling through a temple somehwat filled with water to have darshan of deities of Varadaraja and Siva, the second day I had a dream where I saw the deity of Venkateswara and I was talking to an Iyengar [ A Sri-Vaisnavite priest] about this temple project and he told " Yes Yes you can build" and I left.
But when I went to a real Iyengar, he told that it wasn't possible to set such a big vigraha at home even by building a separate shrine. And If i ever did, I had to offer 10-20 Kg of Rice everyday as bhoga and draw a boundary line between my house and the temple, which I personally dont want to do. And he said - If I fail to make arrangements of Puja after my death, My whole lineage would be destroyed and all the stuff.
I was shocked - I said after my death I would donate the moolavar [ Respected term for deity] to some other temple in case my upcoming sons/daughters/son-in-laws fail to adhere to puja. He said nobody is interested in these matters - to which I agree with him. He was suprised that a 20 year old kid is having these ideas and asked me how did I get these. I believe I probably mainted a temple of Venkateswara in some previous life [ I have had vivd, ultra HD quality dreams of Venkateswara and keep having these dreams very often - I don't even think of them yet they still flash in my dreams sometimes. I keep seeing deities of real temples that I haven't visited. This is just my personal opinion that I must have maintained some temples in my past lives, that's all]
I am a madhva brahmin by birth, so I asked him rules could be different for a Sri-Vaisnavite and a Madhva [ In Madhva households, we follow tantra-sara-sangraha for ritualistic deity worship- it was written by Madhvacharya for guiding all people]. I asked him if I ask the pontiff [ Mathadipathi of my mutt - i.e, a figure similar to Srila Prabhupad with respect to ISKCON] for permission to build and if he says yes I suggested that I could proceed with it!
In return he said that If I go wrong in worship the mathadipati would gain sin for my action, which in my opinion, is a sad and a dejecting statement. I couldn't digest such a holy man earning sin for my stupidity. So i left after a good and a heartful,good natured talk with him and exchanged numbers for further contact as well. Somewhere I know that he is in seva of Visnu and hence he has no ill wishes on anybody, but I can't still digest the fact that If I build a Visnu temple and some kali-yuga idiots don't want to maintain it, how will I get affected? Then it would mean that most of the kings would end up in hell, contrary to the statement of Agni purana and bhagavata purana - which literally place temple builders right in swarga and vaikuntha and nowhere else.
How should I proceed with this dilemma? More than that, is there any validity for his statements? What would happen to me if I build a temple and none takes care of it? My surname is associated with a famous mathadipati of madhva sampradaya and I dont want the lineage to get destroyed for my stupid mistake [ I may not be directly related to him though, but I found out that a part of the name of a pontiff of madhva sampradaya before he took over the matha and a part of my name are the same. This could mean either we are related or not realted, I don't know. But I still belong to the same matha as him, so I believe that I am connected to him in some way- this is just my opinion and the same opinion of someone on the web] . Even though as a brahmin I still haven't done my sacred thread and I am still filled with bad activies, I would certainly improve at a later stage in my life and would like to revive my vamsha to do bhagavada seva rather than getting it ruined for some stupid mistake of mine.
What should I do in this stage? Please help
Please guide me
Hare Krishna
Venkatadri samam sthanam brahmande nasti kinchana Venkatesa samo devo na bhuto na bhavishyati
Acharya Srimadhacarya santu me janmajanmani
Jay Gurudev! Jay Bhagavata dharma !
Replies
Hare KRsna Prabhuji,
PAMHO.
I must say I am impressed with your thoughts. And you are all of 20.
I presume you must be a student now. So it would be better to settle down with a job and family before you start building a temple, right? I mean, you build a temple now, obviously it is not your earned money that you will use. Then you get a job in a different city than where the temple is, you will have to shift. This kind of temple cannot be shifted. Then what do you do?
Maintaining deities of that size is with a lot of rules and regulations. A temple is run by a group of dedicated people who are doing just that as their main occupation. They shoulder the responsibility jointly. In the house, you will have to take sole responsibility. Besides, temple is not run by part time priests, right?
To break it down further, what is your purpose of building a temple ? To serve the deities (I think). Then why not attach yourself to existing temple and serve there. I am sure there are enough temples who need young, smart, dedicated pujaris. You could even join ISKCON Chennai. I could help you in that. I am also in Chennai and very much attached to Shollinganallur temple.
What I am trying to say is - you are young now. With time, your preferances may change alongwith your respponsibilities.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Radha Rasamayi DD
Hare Krishna Mataji !
Thank you for your reply.
I am very strongly attracted to Venkateswara alone. The desire to build a temple has not gone out of me even now. I thought it would subside but it insn't going anywhere. I just realized that it isn't possible in Kali Yuga - There are 76 Divya Desams and over 200 Siva Sthalams in Tamil Nadu alone , and people are losing interest to maintain them. When Hereditery priests are running for their livelihood in this kali yuga, what will my sons and daughters do if they were to maintain this? Nobody is intersting in maintaining existing temples what will I do? What will my sons and daughters do?
Even though a brahmin birth, I have been unclean all this long. Unclean enough and filled with bad habits as I type this. Despite this, Narayana has blessed me with the opuurtunity to visit so many temples with comfort and ease- such a blessing is one wealth that I have. Some temples were in such a poor state that they could collapse any time - they were important thirtha sthalas as well.
I spoke with an aacarya of Nedungunam Yoga Rama temple [ very old temple]. He said I still have to follow all rules laid out in Pancaratra aagama and offer many many kgs of neivedya every day, which seems difficult. Hereditery Priests here offer pujas 6 times a day, most of them have no sources of income other than whatever Narayana blesses them with.
Hence, my endeavour of building a temple is not feasible on Bhuloka. I will have to go elsewhere
.
It is better to donate things to existing temples and see that they carry out pujas - that is what everybody says. Sigh [ Packs all temple plans into one corner
]
Even if I build one, I might not be able to maintain. It is better If I maintain existing temples thats all.
Thank your for your guidance and kind words mataji
Sri Gurubhyo Namaha
Adiyen dasan
ABISHEK