Current list of issues reported by well-wishers like you.

• Venkateswara Abhishekams in the Evenings

• Need for an Autonomous Religious board or committee

Venkateswara Abhishekams in the Evenings

The Sastras are very clear that abhishekam for Sriman Narayana can only be done in the mornings except on 2 specific occasions (Sri Nrsimha Jayanti: just prior to sunset, and Krishna Jayanti/Janmaashtami: close to midnight). HTCC since its inception has indeed followed the Sastras. Sri Venkateswara and Sri Mahalakshmi abhsishekams are scheduled at 10 am on the first Saturday of each month.

Close to the first week of August 2007, some alert bhakthas noticed that HTCC web site was updated to reflect a change to this regular program. The first Saturday abhishekam on Aug 4^th was moved to evening 6:30 pm. Sri Parthasarathy Sampthkumar, a devotee and long time volunteer of the temple send a kind email on August 3^rd to the board alerting them that this was against well established conventions and that HTCC should not perform this in the evening. His email is included as Appendix A.

No reply was ever received from the temple board. The temple went ahead and performed the abhishekam on the evening of August 4^th, as the first program of its soon to be hired new priest, Sri Lakshmi Narayanan Kannan.  We owe an apology to the eleven families who sponsored the evening abhishekam (perhaps not knowing that this was proscribed by the sastras).

Some alert bhakthas then came to know that Andal Abhishekam was scheduled on the evening of August 14^th through this last minute forwarded flyer, http://www.htccwa.org/Flyer/Andal_Jayanthi%2007.htm.  Sri Krishna Kumar, a life member and volunteer at the temple sent email, this time to Sri Vishwa, the President of the HTCC executive committee who had forwarded him the flyer.  This is enclosed at Appendix B. No reply was ever received and the temple performed another abhishekam at a forbidden time on the very ‘birthday’ of the deity.

On the evening of August 14^th Sri Sriram (life member and volunteer) and Sri Parthasarathy Sampathkumar met Sri Vishwa and discussed this matter. Sri Vishwa requested them to furnish proof from the Sastras that back this well established practice of doing Sriman Narayan Parivar abhishekams only in the morning.  Sri Sriram and Sri Parthasarathy agreed to try and procure proof. They requested Sri Vishwa that the temple stop performing the forbidden abhsishekams in the evening till such time.

On August 16^th, it came to be known that the temple had scheduled yet another abhishekam to Sri Mahalakshmi at an inappropriate time for Varalakshmi Vratam on Aug 24th. Sri Parthasarathy sent a personal plea to Sri Vishwa which is enclosed as Appendix C. The email was ignored and temple went ahead and performed the abhishekam anyway.  We owe apologies to affected sponsors.

On August 23^rd, Sri Parthasarathy Sampathkumar sent an email to the board and executive committee with proof from sastras, with supporting data of schedules of 20 other temples in the US that only do these abhishekams in the mornings, and feedback from reputed religious scholars. The email is enclosed as Appendix D. The backing documents are alongside this document on the server.

Several emails were exchanged following this email which closed. But the essence is that the temple nonetheless ignored all requests and performed abhishekam on evening of 8/24.

On 8/25, Dr Dev Manhas, Chairman of the HTCC board, sent an email that Sri Vishwa and Dr Joisa are looking into this matter on behalf of the temple and that we will be hearing from them soon. This email is attached as Appendix E.

Time passed and the temple scheduled yet another inappropriate abhishekam to Sri Venkateswara on the evening of September 1^st. Sri Parthasarathy sent another email requesting the temple to at least stop performing these while they were considering the matter. This is enclosed as Appendix F.

No reply was ever received from the board for this email despite a follow-up plea by Sri Parthasarathy on 8/31. The temple performed the abhishekam on Sept 1^st evening.

On 9/8 a few members approached Dr. Manhas personally and broached the topic of these abhishekams. Dr Manhas responded that Dr Joisa and Sri Vishwa are looking into the documents and they would take the right decision. He was not sure at the time if it was decided that the monthly abhishekams would be changed back to the mornings. He said we would hear from them soon.

It is 10/02/07 today and no further communication has been received from the temple. However, the temple schedule on its web site reflects the next inappropriate abhishekam for Sri Venkateswara and Sri Mahalakshmi at 6:30 pm on 10/06/07.

We request the temple to kindly look into the overwhelming data carefully and take the right decision of scheduling abhishekams for Sriman Narayana Parivar only in the morning and restore the sanctity of the temple.

This record of events in this document has been prepared with only one intent: Helping the community and HTCC to do the right thing and follow well established religious conventions in the worship of Sriman Narayana.  No offence has been intended towards anybody. The author asks for forgiveness for all errors and mistakes. 

Need for an Autonomous Religious board or committee at HTCC

A huge number of devotees are aghast at the recent schedule change of the abhishekham to Sri Venkateshwara and Lakshmi to evening from the traditional morning abhishekhams. This highlights an important need for separating the religious and administrative/operations wings of the temple administration. Up until the new administration took charge, the religious aspect of the temple was efficiently run by poojaris, who were highly qualified to make decisions and recommendations on these issues. Sadly, now, it seems that the executive committee has the final say on religious matters too. This is a highly dangerous path to take especially considering that these 2 wings have differing objectives and need to be separated to make sure that there is no conflict of interest and that devotees are not affected by such conflict of interest.

Let me illustrate this with an example:

The interest of the administrative wing at this time should be to move towards the next phase which would mean more donations, funding, planning etc.

The interest of the religious wing is to make sure that the "SANCTITY" of the temple is maintained. This would involve making decisions on religious temple operations like rituals, poojas, daily worship that follow the strict traditional guidelines as laid out in the various shastras and puranas.

It is important to note that while the interest of the administrative wing might vary on time and situation, the interest of the religious wing should and will always remain the same.

Now, how do these two interests conflict? Let us suppose the administrative wing is focusing on funding and would want to get more donations from devotees and with that goal in mind, come up with a scheme wherein they would allow the general public to come and perform archana and aradhana themselves to the deities or better still, have a Christmas special photo session for devotees sitting on the lap of the deities, much like the Santa Claus photos in the mall, for a "sizeable" donation. This would be in line with the goals of the administrative wing but would severely compromise the "sanctity" of the temple and the goals of the religious wing whose purpose is to maintain that. In such a scenario, if the religious committee is made up of people from the administrative wing or people who report to the administrative wing, a compromise will be made. There is no prize to guess on which side the compromise will be made.

Secondly, to serve on a religious sub-committee often requires a different set of credentials than to serve in the administrative wing. Not to undermine one over the other, it just needs some people who are well versed in the various shastras and sampradhayas and who can make sure that the "sanctity" of the temple is NEVER compromised at any cost. Temples in US cater to diverse sections of people who come from different religious beliefs stemming from different schools of thought and acharya sampradhaya. To do justice to such a diverse population and to maintain the delicate balance, a religious sub-committee should comprise of people who are representatives from these diverse population and those who are respectful and tolerant of other schools of thought and beliefs. The members of this committee should be religious experts (not self-proclaimed but verifiably so). It would be advantageous if they were life members (so they would keep the interest of the temple in mind) and recruited much like the priest with an interview process and references from other life members

Lastly, the priests should also be part of that autonomous committee and guide that committee without fear to express their right opinions and beliefs. If the committee is not autonomous, then the priests will fear to do the right thing lest they should be punished by the administrative wing.

If such an autonomous committee is formed, that committee can document the practices of the temple so that they don't get changed at the whims and pleasures of any board member after every election. It is important to note that while board members may come and go; a temple's religious practices will stand the test of time.

In summary, the glory of the temple lies in the sanctity of the deities and religious operations in the temple. When was the last time we ever heard of a temple becoming famous only because they looked rich or generated a lot of money or is easily accessible? While there can be many reasons that could supplement to it, the primary reason that makes a temple famous and make people to flock to it is the sanctity or sanidhyam of the Gods and Goddesses in the temple. If we compromise that, the place will be a good museum of idols and nothing more than that.