Need for Reform...

Lord Sri Krishna at Udupi 

I belong to a moderately orthodox middle class Brahmin family. To be precise, i belong to the community who follow the teachings of Madhwacharya (followers of Dwaitha, called Madhvas) , the great saint, who is believed to be the avathara (incarnation) of Vaayu devaru (Hanuman). 

Even to this day, during important festivals and functions, it is not uncommon in our family to cook food using firewood and/or charcoal. Food cooked in charcoal or fire wood is considered to be more sacred. This is called, in orthodox vernacular parlance, as "MADI ADIGE  (ಮಡಿ ಅಡುಗೆ )".

I have been brought up in an orthodox setting with fair degree of space for free speech and action. In fact, my wife and my mother originally belonged to the Smartha community of Brahmins (Followers of Adwaitha, called Smarthas), the community who believe in the teachings of Shankaracharya , another great saint and scholar of 8th century AD.

I am a great believer in God.I respect rituals and customs. Even to this day, i perform Sandhavandhane atleast once a day .Though i believe in many principles and customs of my religion (and or cast), i am also a little rebellious on certain aspects of customs. 

Before i continue, i make a disclaimer that my intention here is not to hurt the religious sentiments of anyone. I am only trying to put my thoughts. 

I have been making some pilgrimage of late. I believe in pilgrimages. I have great faith in religious places like Mantralaya, Udupi, Sringeri, Kukke subramanya etc. By grace of god, I have visited the above places quite a few times during the last few years. But over the years, i notice that there is an over riding effect of rituals and customs on people than the virtue of god (Or the idea of god). "Bhakthi" or devotion has taken a back seat in comparison with practices, customs, rituals and procedures. 

Let me give some examples. 
Last Sunday (31 March 2013), i had been to Udupi, the temple of Lord Krishna. The idol in the Krishna temple is  installed by Madhwacharya. By grace of god, this was my second visit to Udupi in the last few months. It is a normal practice in all the coastal temples of Karnataka (Udupi being one) to serve food (lunch) for the devotees who come there. In most temples, it is also a normal practice to serve food for the Brahmins separately. 

Apart from normal servings to the Brahmins, In udupi (and in mantralaya), there is also a separate round of serving of food for the Brahmins (mostly exclusive to Madhwa brahmins) along with the swamigalu in peetha (the seer in charge). It is normally considered sacred to have food in this batch of serving since the seer in-charge is considered to be equivalent to Madhwacharya. In orthodox vernacular parlance, this is called "Chowki Pangathi" (ಚೌಕಿ ಪಂಗತಿ). 

On this visit, i did go for my lunch to this chowki Pangathi. I was accompanied by my cousin Pavan. The food we had was one of the best meals i have ever had. There was for sure the divine grace of Lord Sri krishna in that awesome meal. 

But i was a little disappointed by the attitude of some people there. Most people, rather i must say most self proclaimed "Maha Brahmins" (High brahmins) were more bothered about the rituals and procedures before and after the food rather than the food itself. I was aghast by the amount of food that was wasted by the people who sat along with me for the food in the Chowki Pangathi. 

What is more disappointing is that, this food is considered to be Prasada (Blessing) of Lord Sri Krishna and it is taken in the divine presence of Sri Madhwacharya (in the form of seer or Pontiff In-charge). It is believed to be very sacred. 

Some self proclaimed high Brahmins were just more interested in putting their Kacche panche (ಕಚ್ಚೆ ಪಂಚೆ ) straight and putting the angara and akshathe properly. They were interested in the water to perform their rituals before taking the food. At the end of all this, What do they do?They waste most of their food!!

I do not understand why , we , the so called elite Brahmins have failed to understand that the rituals performed during the meals are intrinsically derived from the value and divinity of the food itself. Thus wasting food in a way is showing disrespect to god. 

Consider for example, before having food we say "satyam tvartena parishincami" and encircle our food with water. That is, we say,  O Food! You are True. I encircle you with divine righteousness.

Is it fair to waste this divinity and put it in garbage? I feel we need to introspect seriously on this. Are we being fair to ourselves or at least to the god we believe in ? 

People can always say "No" if they do not need something. Nothing wrong in saying "No". For some reason, in our customs  it is inappropriate to say "No" for the food servings but it is alright to waste the served food. 

On a more global level, i have observed many people cutting Queues in these places. Be it Tirupathi, Udupi or Mantralaya, some people always look at a way to by-pas the queue. Even the so called educated brahmins look at somehow sneaking in the middle. I have even observed these maha brahmins cutting the queue so that they can attend the chowki pangathi. 

Some people after finishing the first round of Darshana, look at somehow squeezing themselves again in the middle of the queue for the second round of darshana. I do not know how fair is this practice. How can people be so inconsiderate for the other people waiting behind. Are we being fair to god by doing this?   I feel we need to introspect seriously on these practices.