Priests? Who???

All qualified Hindus can become priests: TN
Hardly had the ink got dried after the new TN ministers inked their signatures, they appeared to be in a tearing hurry to introduce the supposedly dream-wish of Periyaar pertaining to temple worship, setting aside all other important issues of administration. Such actions and deviations from religious practices in the name of rationalism, losing faith in sastraic injunctions are neither new nor strange. My mind went back to our good old scriptures which while detailing their acts of sacrilege point out how they met with their miserable ends and their relevance even today.
Srimad Bhaagavatam tells us a story of a time when the cruel, tyrant and selfish King Vena blinded by pride stopped all religious functions, meddled with established traditions and started his own cult, with himself as the deity. He ordered everyone to worship him instead of Vishnu. “Na yashtavyam, na daathavyam, na hothavyam dwijaah”, he roared. The sages of the world foresaw disaster. They knew that such atrocities need to be stopped as otherwise there could be no peace or prosperity.
The sages went to King Vena and demanded that he change his ways; reasoning with him persuasively. They explained to him that his first duty as a ruler was to promote piety and religious beliefs in society; that if offerings were made to God, the humanity will live in natural prosperity. Vena, however, ridiculed their advice. “ko yajnapurusha?” he spat. (Who is that yajnapurusha-the deity)? “Mattho anyah ko agrabhuk poomaan?” He insisted that, as the rightful king, he was the divine embodiment of all the demigods, and should be the only object of worship for everyone.
King Vena's beliefs have a parallel in modern times. Today's governments, under the influence of modernism, argue that religion and traditional customs, being unscientific, are no longer of any value because they have been replaced by rational and objective scientific and economic theories; all we now need for success, they argue, is more and more expenditure on science and technology and economic development but none whatsoever on spiritualism.
When Vena refused to change, the sages decided they had no alternative than to remove him for the good of everyone. They cursed him and such was the power of their words (by their menacing sounds of ‘Hum’, Vena) that he immediately died. They then prayed for a divine incarnation of Vishnu to take his place. The new king became famous as Prithu, (the first constitutional ruler of this earth). He established townships and organised agriculture for the first time. Most importantly, he reintroduced religious functions and subdued the planet earth, not by devastating her, but by pleasing her and invoking her motherly instinct. Because of the unjust rule of Vena and the bad elements which had flourished at that time, she had withheld her riches. She said to King Prithu, "My seeds, roots and herbs, which are meant to be offered to God, were being used by untruthful men of no spiritual understanding, therefore I have hidden them, but you can now extract them."
The eco-friendly Green space activists of today may be happy to know that Bhumi, mother Earth, is conscious of the behaviour of human beings, and she responds to that behaviour appropriately. If they treat her kindly she supplies them with everything they need, but if she is mistreated she can keep back all these things. The way to please her and ensure abundance is through religious activity. Being herself a servant of God, she is pleased when she sees God being worshipped. In the Bhagavad Gita this principle is explained:
All beings live on food grains, which are dependent on rain. Rain is produced by yajna (religious ceremony) which is based upon the performance of duties as taught in the Vedic scriptures.
As the story is told in the Bhaagavatam, Bhumi took the form of a cow and asked Prithu to bring a calf. He then was allowed to milk from her all the herbs and grains which she was hiding in her bosom. When the mother cow sees her calf, she is overwhelmed with love and her milk flows freely. The symbol of the cow and her calf used here therefore emphasises that the relationship between the earth planet and her inhabitants is that of a mother and her children. (Remember? Janani janmabhoomischa swargaathapi gariyasi?)
We are told by learned Pundits that food grains - life's greatest necessity - will be plentiful only if society is religious. This is because grains are dependent on sufficient rainfall, which in turn depends on religious action, or following the laws of God as prescribed in the scriptures. According to the Vedic tradition, therefore, the scholars say that prosperity and happiness will be the natural result of living a religious life in harmony with nature. Any amount of human endeavour which does not take account of the need for pleasing God will bring the same result, but rather, as in the case of Vena, will bring disaster.
No marks for guessing who is Vena of today!!!
Warm regards
V V R
20th May 06