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 FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "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 FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, akasha_108 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "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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