We do yagyas and generally pay our priests $40 a day which is the
going rate for Sr. level pundits. We pay the same as the
Shankaracharya Ashram which typically pays the best rate of any
temple, etc. For a 5-10 priest yagya we add about $100 a day for
yagya materials and food (we feed the priests lunch as is tradition).
My $100 per day per person was a guess that attempted to factor in
travel, lodging, per diem, yagya site, yagya materials, support staff,
etc. Admittedly it is a guess, but based on the 108 priest yagya, it
seems to me to be in the ball park.
If you do a yagya in a really traditional manner, there are always
special ingredients that are hard to get but important. Some yagyas I
have seen require upwards of 50-60 differnt kinds of herbs, seeds,
wood, leaves, vines, fruits, flowers, etc.
As an example, a typical yagya will use 4-5 coconuts. So if you have
4000 groups of 25 using 5 coconuts a day for 40 days, that is 800,000
coconuts!
Another example is that a typical yagya will use 1 quart of ghee per
priest. So you have 250,000 gallons of ghee per day for 100,000
priests! (1 million gallons for the 40 days) Each repetition of the
mantra requires about 1-2 tablespoons of ghee so it is difficult if
not impossible to reduce the amount if you are doing a genuine
traditional yagya.
Finally, the yagya fire is traditionally made with cakes of cow dung
(not wood). For a 5 priest yagya we burn 1 bushel of cakes in a 2
hour yagya. So, if they have 4000 groups of 25 around 1 fire, let's
say they'd use 5 bushels per day for a total of 800,000 bushels of cow
dung. (there's a joke here that I will let you make yourselves!)
I read somewhere that MMY is wanting to do the Sudarshana Yagya. The
main Sudarshana mantra called Sudarshana Mula Mantra. It is about 20
lines long. It has significiant power. The thing is that I learned
this mantra and have participated in many yagyas with a priest who is
a specialist in this mantra. It took me 5 years before I experienced
any power from it and I can not ever remotely come close to Narasimha
who has been doing this his whole life. There is a process of
empowering a mantra that takes time regardless of whether someone is a
Brahmin or not. So in my mind, training becomes an issue. I mean,
anyone could learn this mantra in a few days. But it won't have any
significant effect...
I'm not necessarily saying that MMY can't make this happen, but look
at some of the physical and logistical factors and you can see that it
is a pretty gigantic task!
> >
> > Thanks Ben. Yes, I know $10 was low ball, I just wanted to show that
> > even at that very conservative figure, its expensive. But $100 seems
> > high. What is the rate the puja.net pundits are paid? I thought
it was
> > a "high" rate, to attract the best, around $20-30 / day?
> >
> > Your figure of 300-500 rupees is $6-10 /day. Are ingredients /
pundit
> > that expensive?
> >
> > Also, the various constraints discussed in this and adjacent posts
> > point to the need for more net pundits, not just utilizing existing
> > ones. I know only Brahmins are allowed to be pundits. Are there
> > sub-castes of Brahmins from which most pundits come? Some sub-castes
> > of Brahmins that cannot become pundits? Also women cannot be pundits
> > can they?
> >
> > Presumably the caste restrictions have to do with a genetic
propensity
> > to chant correctly / optimally. How valid do you believe
> > this is?
> >
> > Instead of importing pundits, long run it would seem prudent and
more
> > efficient to train pundits locally. In the US start training local
> > boys and girls. Not from a long line of genetic brahmins. What are
> > your thoughts on this?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --- In [email protected], "benjaminccollins"
> > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > A decent yagaya will cost a LOT more than $10/day. A qualified
> priest
> > > will want to be paid at least 300-500 rupees per day and will
expect
> > > to be transported, housed, and fed. Are they expected to
> campout for
> > > 40 days? If not, then where will they be housed.
> > >
> > > The yagya itself will require lots of materials (ghee, fruits,
> > > sandalwood, etc. which are not cheap even in India. But with
> 100,000
> > > priests then you are talking (literally) tons of fruits, coconuts,
> > > ghee, flowers, etc. I honestly doubt that the physical
> infrastructure
> > > would be there to simply move all these materials to the site on a
> > > daily basis without major amounts of chaos.
> > >
> > > And consider the support staff which will have to be
considerable;
> > > cooks, people to manage all the yagya supplies, etc. Figure
> that for
> > > every 50 priests you will need another 10-15 people and they too
> will
> > > want to be paid, need to be housed and fed.
> > >
> > > Bottom line? If it could be organized...then it would take
125,000
> > > people in total and your total costs per person would be at
> least $100
> > > per day. A lot of money for 40 days...
> > >
> > > As a point of perspective, I helped organize a 1 week yagya
with 108
> > > priests in India for Michael Love's 61st birthday several years
> ago.
> > > It was a logistical nightmare...we pulled it off but it took
a huge
> > > amount of work. As I recall, we spent about $35,000 which
would be
> > > close to $50/day and what we did was very simple.
> > >
> > > Finally, in India priests are divided into 2 categories; temple
> > > priests (bhattars) and "outside" priests (shastrigal) who perform
> > > pujas/yagyas in people's homes etc. The temple priests would
not be
> > > able to participate in the large scale yagya because their temple
> > > duties are very rigid and rather strictly enforced. Long term
> > > absences are not generally an option.
> > >
> > > That leaves the shastri's. How do you contact them? There is no
> > > organization...no database...no master phone list. And you
want to
> > > make 100,000 phone calls..in India?!
> > >
> > > The other option is to create priests...get 100,000 people and
teach
> > > them a mantra and a simple yagya. But even then, to be done
> properly
> > > you would have to have a real priest supervising and doing the
more
> > > complicated mantras that area done for a yagya. Say a ratio of
> 1 real
> > > priest to 25 new priests and you still have to find 4,000
qualified
> > > priests. Even then in the hands of beginers the mantras will have
> > > (relatively speaking) no power. So what's the point in doing it?
> > >
> > > Finally, from recent reports, MMY wants to do this yagya as a
> > > Sudarshana Yagya. Sudarshana is Vishnu's weapon; a discus of
light
> > > given to him by Lord Shiva. The times I have seen a priest
who has
> > > mastered the mantra use it are very very impressive. It is not a
> > > gentle peace love and understanding sort of mantra. So if MMY
pulls
> > > this off, we can expect some fireworks in some form.
> > >
> > > Ben
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --- In [email protected], akasha_108 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > --- In [email protected], "benjaminccollins"
> > > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Not that I have heard of. But I will try to find out. I
think
> > > > > 100,000 priests is a LOT of people. The TMO will have to
> pay them
> > > > > very well to get good ones to travel north for this. Many
> of them
> > > > > will have temple duties that can not be neglected, so it
iwll be
> > > > > interesting to see. Genuine Priests/Pundits are a pretty
> particular
> > > > > lot so it iwll be interesting to see what happens. Not saying
> > that it
> > > > > won't or can't happen, but it will take a lot of money!
> > > > >
> > > > > Ben
> > > >
> > > > If the costwere $10/day for pundits, materials, food and
> facilities --
> > > > probably too low, the cost would be $40 million for 40 days.
> > > >
> > > > $25/day would cost $100 million.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
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> > and click 'Join This Group!'
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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