It was my Son’s 3rd birthday. My in-laws suggested performing Aksharabhayasam to him before he started Pre School. It is a ceremony performed before a kid starts his/her formal education to get blessings from the Gods. So we went to a Hindu temple in Livermore, Silicon Valley. The location holds significance here as the priest’s demands change according to the location
Usually we call the Temple office and they allot the Priest who is available on the day. We were allotted a priest who might be in his early 30’s who was originally from Andhra Pradesh. The Pooja was done to our satisfaction and we were happy that my son got enough blessings. After the Pooja, I was helping the Priest clean up the Manadapam (the place where the Pooja was perfoemed) as I spoke to the Priest. I was not keeping good health and my husband wanted to know if he can perform any Pooja to help me get better.
The Priest was very excited that we started this topic. Here is our conversation:
Priest: Read Aditya Hrudayam (a prayer to Sun god) 16 times for 8 Sunday’s and then give some Dakshina (offerings) to a Brahmin.
I should confess that I am a little slow in understanding the underlying meaning of certain statements or conversations.
Me: I will definitely do that. Thank you for your suggestion. Really appreciate it.
I was very happy that he gave me the advice free of cost and was already thinking very highly of him.
Priest: It would be good if you can donate some form of gold to a Brahmin along with the Dakshina at the end of 8 weeks. It will keep your health intact.
Anyways, by now, any sane person would have realized that the Brahmin in the dialogue can be the Priest himself and he is waiting for me to say that I will come to him and give the gold to him. But I never get such things
It did not end there.
Priest: The gold offering can be in any form. It is better if you can give a gold coin with the carving of a Son God on it.
Me: Oh! Ok. But do we get such coins in the gold shops here?
My husband was surprised at my dumb question. He tried to signal me to stop talking but did I tell you that I am not good at picking up those signals either.
Priest: You can check all the stores in the Bay Area. I am not sure if they are available. You can get it from India if some body you know is visiting this place. In case you cannot find a gold coin like that you can also give a finger ring with a coral in it. You know Sun god likes Corals.
Me: Oh is it? OK. I think that is more likely to get in the stores here. I started thinking how will I know the size of the Brahmin to whom I am going to donate the ring
I looked at my husband eagerly to get his permission to say yes to the Priest. He was thankful that I looked at him at last and questioned me what was I doing. So I stood up and went close to him and he asked me to keep quiet. At this point I realized that may be the Priest is getting greedy. I tried to wrap it up with him and move but he continued:
Priest: Actually with a finger ring there are chances that we may take it out some times and put it aside. This way we can lose it and you don’t want us to lose it right. So I think the ideal thing would be to donate a gold chain of this height (he put his hand almost touching his belly to show the height of the chain) and a locket of a dollar size. That would be the best thing to do as we will never take out the chain and you won’t have the fear of losing it.
He continued saying that you should not worry about the cost of the offering as you both are software engineers earning here. (There he said it. This is a dialogue we some times hear from Priests in the temples here.)
That’s it now I understood his intentions. I smiled at him, gave him a heavy Dakshina and walked out of the temple. On our drive back home my husband was laughing at me for being so dumb.
PS: I dont mean to hurt the sentiments of anyone here, I simply wanted to narrate my experience
Usually we call the Temple office and they allot the Priest who is available on the day. We were allotted a priest who might be in his early 30’s who was originally from Andhra Pradesh. The Pooja was done to our satisfaction and we were happy that my son got enough blessings. After the Pooja, I was helping the Priest clean up the Manadapam (the place where the Pooja was perfoemed) as I spoke to the Priest. I was not keeping good health and my husband wanted to know if he can perform any Pooja to help me get better.
The Priest was very excited that we started this topic. Here is our conversation:
Priest: Read Aditya Hrudayam (a prayer to Sun god) 16 times for 8 Sunday’s and then give some Dakshina (offerings) to a Brahmin.
I should confess that I am a little slow in understanding the underlying meaning of certain statements or conversations.
Me: I will definitely do that. Thank you for your suggestion. Really appreciate it.
I was very happy that he gave me the advice free of cost and was already thinking very highly of him.
Priest: It would be good if you can donate some form of gold to a Brahmin along with the Dakshina at the end of 8 weeks. It will keep your health intact.
Anyways, by now, any sane person would have realized that the Brahmin in the dialogue can be the Priest himself and he is waiting for me to say that I will come to him and give the gold to him. But I never get such things
It did not end there.
Priest: The gold offering can be in any form. It is better if you can give a gold coin with the carving of a Son God on it.
Me: Oh! Ok. But do we get such coins in the gold shops here?
My husband was surprised at my dumb question. He tried to signal me to stop talking but did I tell you that I am not good at picking up those signals either.
Priest: You can check all the stores in the Bay Area. I am not sure if they are available. You can get it from India if some body you know is visiting this place. In case you cannot find a gold coin like that you can also give a finger ring with a coral in it. You know Sun god likes Corals.
Me: Oh is it? OK. I think that is more likely to get in the stores here. I started thinking how will I know the size of the Brahmin to whom I am going to donate the ring
I looked at my husband eagerly to get his permission to say yes to the Priest. He was thankful that I looked at him at last and questioned me what was I doing. So I stood up and went close to him and he asked me to keep quiet. At this point I realized that may be the Priest is getting greedy. I tried to wrap it up with him and move but he continued:
Priest: Actually with a finger ring there are chances that we may take it out some times and put it aside. This way we can lose it and you don’t want us to lose it right. So I think the ideal thing would be to donate a gold chain of this height (he put his hand almost touching his belly to show the height of the chain) and a locket of a dollar size. That would be the best thing to do as we will never take out the chain and you won’t have the fear of losing it.
He continued saying that you should not worry about the cost of the offering as you both are software engineers earning here. (There he said it. This is a dialogue we some times hear from Priests in the temples here.)
That’s it now I understood his intentions. I smiled at him, gave him a heavy Dakshina and walked out of the temple. On our drive back home my husband was laughing at me for being so dumb.
PS: I dont mean to hurt the sentiments of anyone here, I simply wanted to narrate my experience
2 comments:
Madhuri,
I came into your blog as I was searching for topics on re-birth:-) just a curious me ...like our telugu culture ,traditions and our believes.I floated through ur articles they are cool don't know is it good to say or not but could see my reflection in your writings.
Anyways keep going nice articles and have a fun life.
Sarve janno sukhino bhavanthi!
Anu.
Hello Anu,
Thank you for your comment. I am glad you liked my posts. Are you Anu from eBay?
Madhuri
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