Topic started by Priya (@ 61.11.57.54) on Wed May 1 06:02:41 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Are temples actually involved with social work or is their focus mainly religious? If yes, is social activity directed only at upper castes? Do Dalts and tribals benefit at all from so called religious giving?

Responses:

• From: Valentine Gandhi (@ 203.115.110.33) on: Sun May 19 09:02:27
  
  Hi Priya!
  I am valentine Gandhi, a social work student from MCC, Tambaram,To answer yur question, there is slight difference between social work and social servive what the temples and other relegious orgs do is called social service, social work started with its base being social service.Yet if they want to do social work in its right sense they would have to hire social workers and do their projects.Social work is a profession which involves certain skills and knowledge.
  visit me
  http://www.clix.to/king6
  
  
• From: priya (@ 61.11.57.167) on: Wed May 22 05:50:25
  
  Valentine, I am trying to mainly distinguish between social and developmental activities and religious activities. There is a very thin line dividing the two. Most social activities seem to be geared at only Hindus and include the traditional annadanam and such. Do temples actually attempt to address some of the burning issues like Dalit ostrasization andteaching of vedas to non-brahmins.
  
  
• From: visu (@ 202.9.183.244) on: Wed May 22 06:42:39
  
  mostly hindu temples dont engage in social works.
  some temples may be doing services to people without a bang.
  
  but temples do service to mainly brahmins where they can form clubs without membership fees, place without rentals. they can organise cultural, artistic activities like singing, dancing, music etc.brahmis can join the group,improve artistic talents, improve group relationship.
  
  
  
• From: visu (@ 202.9.183.244) on: Wed May 22 07:10:20
  
  friend priya,
  
  1.most of the brahmins dont bother about sc/sts, castes, bc etc.now they bother about their improvement.
  2. most hindu temples r interested only in temple rel activities bcos they dont have money and no NRI will send dollars to improve except paisas in hundi.but famous temples with more income do social activities without publicity. they run schools at remote places also.they run hospitals, eyebank, bloodbank etc.
  
  3. one of the main reasons for indias failure is that brahmins did not share their knowledge with others to keep their supremacy.
  for eg phi value is told in some sutras. but i didnot learn it from it but from school maths 22/7
  pythogoras theorem, distance bet plannets, light years concept, milkyway etc are their but how many public know it
  (i didnot advocate hinduism is totally scientific)
  
  hindu saints have been telling karmavinai, u should get result for good/bad deeds etc etc.
  
  i know jesus is the first person who talked about request for forgiving the sins and god will definitely forgive the sin
  
  when i tried to learn sanskrit out of my own interest, learned sandhyavandham (thanks to anna who beautifully and translated into simple language, u can get acopy for 30 rs.)
  most of the verse contain the forgiving the sins concept. many verses will be "forgive the known/unknownsins performed by my parts of the body, enlighten me, i am united with the universe etc. worst is the brahmins who perform 3 times a day may not know the meaning except pronunciation
  
  reg vedas, who knows that they know the meaning, except some vedapadasalas no other will teach vedas. i am not saying vedas contain fully truth.
  brahmins think that once some a foreign element is allowed it may lead to equality. i have seen foreigners learning vedas,brahmins r happy to teach to foreigner but not to local subban evenif he is interested
  (the exception may be sriramanujar(correc?) at srirankgam who told manthra standing on the gopuram)
  
  my official boss always tells if his subordinates get top rating , naturally he will get to top
  (dont jump on me that are brahmins r the boss. just a comparision)
  
  if only somebody improves in a soceity it is not improvement, it is an enlargement of big boils.
  
  who stopped u to enrich ur knowledge?
  (no one can pour hoteaum in ur ears, rama is not there to kill anylowcaste fellow if he does tapas)
  
  u have to fight for ur right
  
  
• From: priya (@ 61.11.59.72) on: Thu May 23 06:19:12
  
  hey we are not into anti brahmin rhetoric here. Im just interested in the social service aspect of it. I know they are into annadanam and some temples conduct free marriages and so on, are there temples which are into rural development
  
  
• From: visu (@ 202.9.183.161) on: Thu May 23 08:30:34
  
  priya , i wrongly posted instead of placing in some other thread somethinglike what can be done to dalits in temple.small sorry.forget &proceed
  i know u were asking about socialservice project...
  
  Tirupathi devastanam does many activities like this eyebank, schools,marriage,freemeals etc
  in tamilnadu annadanam to devotees is done out of donations. some places govtschools r run in the temple itself.some temples run colleges also.
  
  i am not the correct person to guide u further.
  all the best
  
  
• From: Srini (@ 203.197.239.1) on: Thu May 23 10:26:46
  
  Visu:
  
  I like your no-holds barred free talk approach. May you continue the tradition. Only a small suggestion: Instead of typing in your responses in small quantas,
  
  1) Contemplate the whole post that you want to make
  2) Start composing in a Notepad/Word
  3) Review for spellovers
  4) Copy, paste into the FH space.
  
  That way, your posts will have improved aesthetics and become more readable. As of now, if you may allow me to say so, your posts/threads resemble 'outbursts' of some angry young man, which is actually a gross understatement of your abilities and knowledge.
  
  I hope you'd take this in right spirit, and not as unsolicited sermon.
  
  - Anbudan,
  Srinivasan
  
  
• From: iniyavan (@ cache7-1.ruh.isu.net.sa) on: Thu May 23 11:48:12
  
  hi priya,
  join me in the "film" subject " in the thread of "hinduthwa is misfortune in India"..Okay..
  I am waiting for the reply
  
  Iniyavan
  
  
• From: visu (@ 202.9.183.182) on: Thu May 23 12:13:06
  
  srini,
  thanks
  
  

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