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1801
Monks 'Dilemma
Monks' Dilemma
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a house holder. The Acharya of the order of monks, to which my parents had allegiance, was continuously coaxing me to become a monk and he would repeat the ensuing benefits, rebirth in heaven and assured salvation etc. I am not aware of what transpired between him and my parents. But my elder sister, whose marriage was not getting finalised because of high dowry demand, materialised soon after I got initiated in monkhood. The fact is that I got into monkhood as a result of my continuous conditioning and indoctrination and allurement of heavenly pleasures in the next birth and assured salvation within next fifteen births. Later when I read scriptures and found that even householders get into heaven and also get salvation, I told the Acharya that if the householder living in all the turmoil and fulfilling all his responsibilities towards his family, society and even of maintaining the monks, could attain what monks got after running away from all that a householder faces, then he is definitely better than monks. The Acharya would only console me by telling that monks have better opportunities for meditation, reading scriptures and facing austerities to facilitate salvation. I would always contradict him and protest that a householder is then much better placed to get all those benefits without all the facilities that the monks enjoyed at the cost of the very householders. He would then generally stop the topic on some pretext. I shall discuss the proceedings of this conference with my Acharya in presence of all fellow monks and try to get final word on the relevance of monkhood."
and quakes do to entice people by false and imaginary promises. Nobody knows about heaven and salvation. All probes into the solar system and galaxies farther and farther have not revealed existence of such places are mere conjectures of the writers of the scriptures. There is no evidence of lofty Sumeru Mountain millions of kilometres high in the middle of the earth, not visible from geo- synchronic satellites which can see as small an area as one metre square."
Shree then called priest Sadanand to speak.
Priest Sadanand, "Priests as a class have been doing, are doing and shall continue to do yeomen service to the society not only in India but the world over by preserving, maintaining and carrying out all sorts of rituals, events and practices at the places of worship and centres of faith and allegiance of millions of people. It is the institution of priests that is keeping aloft the flags of various traditions, cultures and civilisations all over ever since the advent of mankind on planet earth. Priests organise events, prayers and guide people. The events serve a very useful social purpose of bringing people together to interact and socialise for mutual benefit. Priests advise and guide people to perform appropriate rituals to solve their problems. The strings of faith that bind people to the deity through priests have been instrumental throughout the ages in making people happy, getting rid of distress and depression, at least psychologically and in most cases materially also. The institution of priesthood is important and should not be decried outright."
Deepti, "History is replete with instances that the priests kept the Indian rulers shackled in rituals, lasting from days to weeks and months and by that time the enemy came to the
Deepti, "I must congratulate Shreyans muni for his courage to put forth all the facts so frankly. He has admitted that he was enticed by promises of heaven and salvation. It is the same as astrologers, priests, mahants, pundits, tantrics
