Alarmed by dalits converting to other faiths, especially Christianity, TTD has geared up to train its priests to take up preserving Hindu culture.
The temple is organising workshops for priests to keep alive age-old traditions and prevent conversion of Dalits
BANGALORE: Alarmed by dalits converting to other faiths, especially Christianity, India’s richest temple Tirumala Tirupati Devsthanam (TTD) has geared up to train its priests to take up the onus of preserving Hindu culture.
One of its recently-announced initiatives to preserve Hindu culture is to train priests across the country on proper ways of conducting puja. “The new generation of priests are hardly aware of our culture. They do not know the necessary shlokas, their meaning, and the necessity of puja itself. They need to be trained since they will be the ones preserving our culture. So we have initiated the programme,” said Sveta Bhuman, director of priests’ training school at TTD.
The temple has been training young priests in Andhra Pradesh for the past two months in batches. “Now we want to extend it to the whole of India. We will begin with Tamil Nadu and Karnataka,” Bhuman said.
A seven-day workshop is held for batches of 30s where young priests learn about the various sects in Hinduism, like Vaishnavism and Shaivaism, along with the methodology of conducting pujas and punaskaras, the meaning of prayers, various customs, traditions and the evolution of Hindu culture.
“The onus of keeping alive the age-old traditions and temple customs is on the priests,” executive officer of TTD K V Ramanachari said.
After the navaratri brahmotsavams (dusshera), TTD would be sending out letters informing about the programme to endowment officers of all states. “We will bear the expenses of travel, accommodation and the workshop,” Bhuman said.
TTD, considered to be the most popular pilgrimage centre in India, has been worried about the conversion of lower-class Hindus into Christianity and other religions, especially in the villages surrounding the temple. Many Hindu organisations have staged protests urging TTD to initiate measures to prevent conversions.
In a historic move to prevent scheduled castes and tribes from converting into other religions, TTD has begun performing the wedding ceremony of Lord Balaji and goddess Padmavati in a dalit village every month“Dalits have been discriminated against for years. This alienation has lead to religious conversions. We have to make them feel that they are not shunned by upper class Hindus and bring them into the mainstream,” said TTD chairman B Karunakara Reddy.
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