Bangiya Purohit Sabha, the biggest body of Hindu priests in the country, has decided to initiate special post-festival, month-long tutorial classes for its members in all districts of West Bengal from next month.
Although the festive season is over, priests in Bengal still cannot breathe easy.
Bangiya Purohit Sabha, the biggest body of Hindu priests in the country, has decided to initiate special post-festival, month-long tutorial classes for its members in all districts of West Bengal from next month. The aim is to get the priests’ pronunciations right.
The association is inviting Hindu priests from neighbouring states of Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand to attend the special tutorial classes.
Sabha president Ramjiban Shastri gave an example of how mispronouncing even a single word in a mantra can have negative effects. “Chanting Om Namaha Shivaya is meant to invoke Lord Shiva. But if a priest mispronounces it as Om Namaha Shivahu he is instead invoking the followers of Lord Shiva, who are ghosts and spooks. Remember the word Shivaya signifies Lord Shiva and Shivahu signifies his followers,” Shastri said.
According to him, the association had noticed several instances of such wrong pronunciation during the recently concluded festive season.
“If these things continue and the devotees receive adverse results from the pujas because of wrong pronunciation, they would lose faith on the priests. So we have initiated this coaching session to train them properly,” Shastri said.
Pinaki Chakraborty, an office bearer of Bhairkhanda unit of Bangiya Parishad Sabha in Hooghly district, has similar views. “People call priests to perform pujas at home with the hope of pleasing Gods for welfare of their family. But incorrect pronunciation and improper rituals do not have the desired effect and people do not call us the second time,” he said.
Chakraborty runs a small school at Bahirkhanda where trainee “Shevayats” of Tarakeshwar temple take lessons on Sanskrit “shlokas”. While the idea has received applause from various sections of the society, a cross-section of the liberals are slightly dissatisfied that doors for such classes are still closed for non-Brahmins.
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