WOMAN PRIESTS
Women priests are high in demand, thanks to shortage of male priests in the busy wedding season
With almost a thousand marriages in the city in the last month of the year, male priests are unable to meet the demand. A few years ago that would have been catastrophic, but not in these modern times.
Instead of postponing the date of the wedding, a simple change of the priest, makes life easy. The traditional male priest has made way for the woman priest at the mandap.
And thus the Kulkarni family from Karve Nagar went against the family tradition and asked a woman priest to conduct the rituals for their son's marriage on Saturday.
"It was a last minute decision because most of the male priests were busy. But we realised that Anjali Rakshe, who comes from Dnyana Prabodhini Institute, will make the ritual more meaningful since the priest will explain the meaning of the ritual in simple language to everyone present in the function," they said.
In fact, there has been a 10 per cent rise in women priests and even traditional families have taken to asking women priests to conduct the marriages. Surprisingly, this has been widely accepted since most intellectuals and upper middle class prefer women priests because they feel that it is practical to have someone explain the ritual.
Rakshe said female priests are accepted quite widely these days. Last year, woman priests conducted 270 marriages and this year, the number has shot up to 300. "We have already standardised the rituals with the help of Vedic scholars," she said.
According to Rakshe, who recently retired as the principal of SNDT College, Mumbai, said, "People have faith in us because we have the skills to interpret each and every ritual in simple Marathi, Hindi or even in English."
Keep it simple
She added, "We involve everyone in our religious chanting." Rakshe admitted that this season is quite hectic and she has been invited to conduct 10 such marriages in Pune. "The most memorable marriage was when I got a Christian girl being married to a Hindu boy and I had to explain the meaning and the rituals in English," she pointed out.
Another practicing priest Manisha Shete also has her hands full this month. "I have more than 15 such assignments," she said.
Shete is a PhD scholar working on Vedic literature in Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapith in Pune. "I have been invited to USA and other European countries for conducting Hindu marriages and it is a happy experience for us all the time," she said.
| By: Vivek Sabnis | | Date: 2009-12-14 | | Place: Pune |
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2009/dec/141209-Dnyana-Prabodhini-Institute-Pune-Marriage.htm
