The veda rakshana drive we started in Jan is almost nearing its end….all the waves of cheques were received both here in US and in India. We have presented them in the bank and the recent ones are going to be presented soon. As of today, we have received funds worth of Rs 2,62,457. My guess is that we might touch 2.75 Lakhs with any more last wave of cheques that might come – not more than that.
I intend to create a corpus fund with this amount and take the interest (roughly Rs 2500 p.m) to support veda padasalas of our choice. The primary reason for doing this is to avoid any accidental spending of the bulk money by them. Most of the administrators of the padasala does not know to keep the funds safe and they end up spending on something quickly and end up in the same situation again. Also, at times, once the same padasala start to get additional funds from other sources, we could divert our interest to other padasalas at that time or expand our support to more padasala, if our corpus funds increase. If anyone has a different view about this approach, please comment.
Coming to the list of padasalas that I have considered, here are the narrowed down list::
1. Dharma Veda Pada Sala, Bakthipuram St, Kumbakonam – Started somewhere around 1910s, all our periyavas have visited here…..This patasala has lots of agricultural lands and now they are all occupied and grabbed by politicians. The trust that runs this padasala has gone to the court to get them back. Due to lack of returns from these lands. Few years back they fixed the building etc as it was falling apart….Now, this is running short on funds by 10K per month. Our funds are not going to bridge all the gaps but will do some. I am awaiting a complete report of this padasala including photos etc. Once I get it I will share it here…
2. Thogoor – Jaimini padasala – pl refer my earlier posting on this….This needs support more on the gho rakshana primarily. I do know that this padasala has recently been included by another trust from North America to support the vidhyarthis….We can keep this on our watch list and if this has any issues we can reconsider at this point.
3. Shri Mouli mentioned that a padasala in Kanchipuram (anaikatti?), requires funds to feed the vidhyarthis with milk and curd as part of their meal. I am yet to gather more info to see if this is going to be an ongoing basis or a short term.
4. Sirigumani – This again has been recently supported under another source from north america.
My first priority is Kumbakonam padasala. The Kumbakonam padasala adminstrator (Shri Subramaniam) has promised me to provide updates on a periodic manner to give some visibility on how our funds are being spent and other udpates on padasala etc, which I will share it with you all.
Once again, I am really humbled to see all your interest in contributing to this drive and instead of saying sincere thanks, I would rather say, let Periyava’s blessings be with each of the donor and his/her family members. Like I said in the beginning, it is not the amount that matters, it is the heart to support vedic religion. We, here at this blog, truly have it – it is pratyaksham now! With Periyava’s blessings if this fund grows, we could do more….
Jaya Jaya Shankara Hara Shankara!
