How to Strengthen our Dharma?

[Flowing Along]

Work to free temples from govt. control. It is time to privatize these mismanaged entities.

I think this is a very important issue.

I am from TN and I see with pain how temples are misused here.

One example is the way the sacred places are abused for Tamil film shootings in recent years. When we watch movies from the sixties, we see that they used set design to show temples -now all parts of temples are accessible to movie crews except the Garba graha -but in some temples, they allow people to video/photograph even that.

Sadly , there are a lot of people who'd say that they needn't visit temples as they are good at heart . Some others have joined some fancy new- age yoga class and so they say they have gone beyond the need to visit temples and hence look down upon us poor, lost temple- goers.

Funnily enough , one of them recently asked me about a temple where they were supposed to do some parihara .

What EM says about hundi is very true-I actually ask people I know not to put money in the hundi as it goes straight to the Govt .coffers -on the way to God knows where else.
In TN,many temple officials are from nastika parties as well. It may be a pre -requisite for the job I think.

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam: One of the things we miss is is a lay counsellor/ pandit. The temple priests have a very specific function. But we don't have general spiritual advisors, in the more mundane practical sense. I think communities could create a role, and elect say, a village counsellor ... an elder all respect.

Aum Namasivaya

[Eastern Mind]

Hari Om,

Namaste and hello to everyone.

Eastern Mind, please, if you will, go on and on with your initial thoughts.

For me, think "but do the best we can" is good thought on this. Think though, resides outside of pessimism or optimism. It is something we must do and we do with attitude of happiness for this opportunity, if this makes sense.

Om Shanti

FFTW

Vannakkam Friend; Just for you...

- Make a real effort to see the diversity within Hinduism, and then respect that. Your version of Hinduism isn't the only version.
- Read about these other versions different from yours, but just the basics, as you don't want to get confused.
- Make an attempt to go to other sampradaya temples once a year or so
- Go to temple to pray and worship, not just eat and socialise
- Work on yourself
- When pointing out problems with the faith, offer up solutions as well
- if something is misrepresented in the western press, protest, write a letter, or support groups who do
- pilgrimage once a year, taking time away from the world to
- practice yama and nyama to the best of your ability
- greet people with smiles
- observe subtleties, learn about them, such as not standing with folded arms
- don't speak negatively about other sects
- Be patient with western universalism; if fault is to be found, point it out politely and gently, fully realising universalism is a huge step beyond Abrahamism itself
- Understand Abrahamism, as portions (sorry, Naya, I stole it) who just don't get it yet, but one lifetime will
- look beyond personality to soul nature
- Obey your Guru
- take time each day to reflect
- try to leave a group of people in a happier state of mind than when you came
- be civil
- obey the laws of your land
- bite the tongue when it needs biting
- Treat your spouse and kids with utmost respect
- Bathe at least once a day
- Shun negativity, alcoholism, adharmic people, etc Choose friends wisely
- Wear something that reminds you of your Hinduism
- eat wholesome foods, try to practise sound ecological principles like not littering
- give elders rides to temples
- help newcomers to the west adapt, give personal ESL tutorials
- donate Hindu books to libraries
- check out your local hospital ... if it has a pastoral office, visit, and volunteer to visit ill Hindus with the office's permission
- if the hospital has a religion chapel room, go make sure Hinduism is represented with a Sanskrit Aum framed nicely.

...

Aum Namasivaya

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namasté


All the wonderful ideas offered throughout this string has been good and worthy of consideration. Yet Please consider this - dharma no doubt has its action component - who can say it does not ? Yet one must be aware dharma does not start or stop with doing. If we think we are the doer each time we have confused ice for a diamond.

Does this suggest we do nothing and just wait out our time on this good earth ? No, this would be wasting one's breath. Yet without proper actions one vascilates between thoughts of good and bad, worthy and unworthly , like-able and un-likeable, etc.

He who has no undue fondness towards anything
who neither exults nor recoils on gaining what is good
or bad, his intellect is established- bhāgavad gītā, chapter 2, 57th śloka.

What do I wish to say ? dharma comes to full bloom when one's divine consciousness ( some like to call it khecarī samatā) is fully present. Note I say 'present' and not developed. It is there , just behind some of the things that make me think 'me' is most important.

'Doing' in disparateness (vaiṣamya) does not yield maximum results. 'Doing' is for some gain. The 'doing' in khecarī samatā , one feels the presense of the Supreme everywhere; the 'doing' is not on the individual level. This then is Universal Dharma, upheld by the Supreme.

Then the actions and their qualities ( being of kāma , krodha, or sattva)¹ all come with the support of the Supreme - this is when dharma is in full bloom.

praṇām

words

• vaiṣamya - diversity, inequality , oddness (as opposed to evenness) , diversity , disproportion
• kāma - desire
• krodha - anger , wrath , passion
• sattva - perfect balance, Being; purity

[Seeker123]

Interesting discussion.

Flowing Along,

Yes, nowadays I put more money in the plate than the temple Hundi. I know the money in the plate goes to the poorly paid priest. But dont forget the numerous other organizations. It is probably worthwhile to create such a list for everyone's benefit.
How to free the temples from the government? At least how do we create the importance of that action among the public?

Eastern Mind,

Impressive list. Amazed that you can follow it all!

The counsellor is a good idea. He can lead the support groups I mentioned. In US we have expert individuals doing that at some temples. Maybe we can start that. Is that done in privately controlled Indian temples?

Yajvan,

I agree that while acting out for duties the "ego" should be sublimated. But are you suggesting one act only after one gains Jivan Mukthi?

[AmIHindu]

Namaste,

I see this from the point of view of Sadhana.

One Karma side, live the Hindu life. Live Hindu Dharma and in present day protect Hindu Dharma. we need to take necessary actions, and let other Hindus know what is called Sanatan Dharma. how do we live by the Dharma ! Hinduism is not a religion but its a way of life, so need to give education what is the way of life. To awake people about righteousness. Manay of the Hindus do not understand what is Hinduism at all, they just visit temples. Visiting temples do not fulfill our duties as a Hindu. In present day it became necessary to fight/protect for Dharma. When I say fight/protect for Dharam, I do not mean to shoot or cut throat of someone. But we live in civilized world, so fight/protect civilized way. This is a very big task so can't done single handedly and we are not a political persons so it would be difficult to fight/protect with so less of resources at our disposal. So without anything at my hand, except, library free internet and free computer, I do write emails to protect Dharma from www.forumforhinduawakening.org and www.hindujagruti.org. Doing some kind of voluntary work and help our community.

Above was from the Karma, next how to improve our spirituality. Follow any practice you like to bring your spirituality to the next level. Try to do rituals, karm-kands,Havan, Puja all these will keep our mind in Dharama. At the same time do not spend to much money for all these rituals. In present day situation, with so much of physical facilities, it is very hard to get out mind in the Dharama, but we can do it slowly, slowy.
We can train our mind.

Above both should be done without expecting anything. Doing our Karm is necessary, but expect results ( bad or good) is not in our hand. Do not get frustrated as you get negative result.

This should become to habit of our life then we can say that we are Hindu.

PS - I do voluntary work for above website but by posting here, I do not mean to do canvassing for these website or spamming of this forums.

[TTCUSM]

Yes, of course. That is another discussion altogether.

What will happen to society as kali yuga progresses is described well in the shastras and it is pretty accurate. I am not saying to use this as an excuse to blow up the world with all problems society is facing. There are very important concerns to deal with to keep society functioning and the shastras do put importance on this. Still there is a basic pattern of decline of dharma in society that is outside our influence. We have to face the reality of kali yuga and as religious people believe that Bhagavan will take an avatar to reestablish dharma. Kali yuga is also an opportunity according the shastras, because a little dharma will be more effective, so I am not saying this as to lose hope altogether.

It's exactly this kind of attitude that brought us to our current state.
We keep blaming all our problems on the "Kali Yuga", and then expect an avatar to come along and save us from all our problems.
This kind of attitude prevents us from taking any action. Didn't Sri Krishna tell Arjuna to fight for the cause of Dharma?

[Flowing Along]

Seeker123
Yes, a list of orgs. that should be helped should be with every SD follower.
Telling people that they shouldn't be donating to dubious international orgs for the sake of tax benefits itself is a task.

Also, as you say , in temples people should try to help poorly paid priests.Not many realise that and drop huge sums in hundi instead.Some even think the Archakas/priests benefit from that.

Another important point is the education of the next generation about SD. They should be taught at an early age about their traditions and philosophy.
Catch them young. They'd be harder to teach when they are older.

[Seeker123]

Yes, teaching Hindu Dharma to kids from young age is a must. There are Balavihars run by so many groups - Chinmaya, Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, Saibaba to name a few. In this day of nuclear families and 2 parents working, and running around this is a MUST. I cannot stress this enough. Sunday schools, Madrassas do the job for you know who.

To summarize let me suggest me 2 ideas. Please share your views on how to implement them.

1. Have spiritual counsellor at mid to large Hindu temples who can provide emotional support and ideas to people struggling - alcohol, poverty, marital etc. In this day and age this is a MUST. Recently we employed a cook temporarily. She was a Christian who had converted. I was curious about her reason. Basically 20 years ago her husband drank heavily and she had to tend to her young kids. She got no emotional support anywhere except Church. She probably got some financial support though she said No. Her whole family converted and her husband also gave up drinking. She believes in the one True God now.....

2. Organize regular 1 hr lectures at mid to large temples every week on our rich heritage, what Hinduism teaches us, meaning of simple Hindu practices etc. This will address the basic lack of understanding about Hinduism. Many educated Hindus that I know have a limited knowledge of Hinduism. For too long Hindus have heard several Gurus say "All religions lead to the same goal" and are confused. They have heard constantly media/intelligentsia/political groups pointing out negatives such as caste divisions etc. Perhaps it is because of some of these reasons that in many inter-religious marriages involving one Hindu parent the children do not follow the Hindu faith. Some popular examples are actors like Vijay, Lara Dutta, Sharmila Tagore, her son Saif Ali Khan and sportsmen like Uttappa, Bhupathi, etc. I can name many more.

[Flowing Along]

Namaste Seeker

1. Have spiritual counsellor at mid to large Hindu temples who can provide emotional support and ideas to people struggling

SD followers do this on an individual level only, with each person doing some good deeds to those around without any institutional support.
But as you say some sort of organised effort is needed in today's World-in ancient World perhaps the village elders did that job.

I have heard of temples where people go to settle disputes -no human involved either -the faith that Amman [ Goddess] punishes those who speak falsehood took care of them. But We need help in the big city level.

I know of two Siva temples in Chennai [ Marundeeswarar and one at Koyambedu] where in the sannidhi of Sri Sarabeswara on Sundays between 4:30 pm and 6:00 pm IST people gather[ thanks to a good organiser]
read out their problems which they write on a paper and together thay all pray and sing bhajans after that. Not sure if this continues now.

I attended one such evening and though i could sense the sadness there in people, I could also sense hope. That was their last stop.
But , it is more like a "prarthana club."We need more than that.

2. Organize regular 1 hr lectures at mid to large temples every week on our rich heritage, what Hinduism teaches us, meaning of simple Hindu practices etc.

Agree. Pravachans/katha sessions are there, but people think it is only for the old! I 'd be eternally grateful to my grandmothers who took me to attend these sessions when I was a kid.The ruchi [ interest ] should be created when young.
But as you correctly say, WEEKLY sessions means bringing some structure in to people's lives.This should be targeted towards young adults and kids, not to forget noodle- headed,confused older adults. who try to confuse whoever they can.