"Every man has three characters- that which he exhibits,that which he has and that which he thinks he has" , thus goes a saying. To be precise, the activities of an individual is centered towards the Self. It may be due to uncertainty, greedy behaviour and scant respect for fellow citizens."Who am I ? " is a good pointer to be addressed to Self,as suggested by Sri Ramana Maharshi. A recent survey has revealed that in the last four decades, the average income of an earning member has increased by 20 times. This has resulted into more spending power and nothing else Do we care for others atleast four times of what we used to be during the same period? People do not mind spending lavishly on entertainment and dining during week ends but fail to think about the weaker sections of the society.While the urban areas present a rosy picture of our life style, the rural people are still struggling for existance. Most of them leave their traditional life style and start migrating to Urban areas. Time and again our Sabha has been addressing this issue at various forums to help these people to save their profession from extinction. Dedicated people like temple priests,artisans suffer too much due to lack of support from others. "To give requires good sense" said a Roman poet.The grandeur you get from charity has to be experienced. It is well said that very few people become philanthropists. Monarchy was setting followup procedures to monitor the life styles of people so that no tresspass from one profession to the other could occur. The moment you declare that anybody can do anything, people choose the most lucrative profession to become on par with the elite section of the society. Then there is no looking back thereafter. Earning at any cause alone makes them merry. Nobody seems to be complacent even after amassing wealth that will take care of some more generations.
As Henry Ward Beecher has rightly put it, " Every Charitable act is a stepping stone towards Heaven", time has come to wake up affordable people to think about those who live in pathetic conditions. Most of the temple priests in Tanjore and Trichy districts are deprived of their monthly salary for several months. Neither the locals nor the Govt come to their rescue. If the situation continues, you will not find any dedicated priests in rural temples. They have already started putting their children in good schools although the burden is beyond their reach. The Govt alone can put a halt to the migration by arranging salary and paddy meant for them. But no political party is willing to help them due to obvious reasons. Those living in Towns alone can extend help to these helpless people.
Our Sabha has been contributing for this cause since inception in whatever little way we could. Contributing towards Savings Deposits,Paying the Life insurance Premium, repairing priests' houses,gifting ornaments/clothes for marriage of their children were some of the initiatives we have undertaken so far. We know that it is too small but then with the limited resources we are trying our best to bring smiles in the faces of atleast few of them. In this connection, we have decided to acknowledge the services of Five sivacharyars(priests) from five different temples of Tanjore dt who have tirelessly rendered poojas regularly despite not getting assistance from anybody. We would like to honour them by calling them at a common place,preferably a financially backward rural temple and offer them Rs 1000 each along with clothes and saalvai.Abhishekams will be conducted to the Main Deities on that day. We propose to invite philanthropists and the locals to appreciate the lifelong services of the sivacharyars. Similarly we propose to recognise the services of two Parijarakars who reel in poverty on the same day. Dates are being worked out to organise the function shortly. The preferred date was 16th May ,Akshaya Thritheeya day, but it has not yet been finalised.
In this connection we thank everyone who stood with us in stretching our helping hand to reach those who have sacrificed their lives in the service of God.
