Ceremonies and rituals, an integral part of our life, are intended to provide emotional and spiritual solace. For this purpose their observance and conduct as per traditions and scriptures is a must. Rapid urbanisation and migration has rendered finding an authentic priest to perform the puja a tough task. Hence people have to engage services of pujaris working in neighbourhood temples or referred to by friends without in any way knowing about their skill and knowledge.
This lack of availability of qualified personnel to conduct religious customs is what struck Piyush Srivastava, a journalist-turned-entrepreneur when he attended a Rudrabhishek being performed at his neighbour’s house. “I was shocked to see the priest using a lota for the abhishek. Coming from Varanasi, I know how Rudrabhishek is conducted. Once we start offering jal to the Lord Shiva the flow of water shouldn’t stop until the chanting is over. And this priest was using a lota and finished the entire Rudrabhishek in just 45 minutes which takes at least three to four hours.”
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Arguing that the rituals designed thousands of years ago by ancient Vedacharyas were scientific in nature and require special skills, Srivastava, a M.Sc in Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science, says, “Only a qualified Vedic Brahman can perform them with the help of astrological guidance and Vedic wisdom.” Perceiving the wide gap between what is offered in the name of pujari services and what is required as per customs he founded VedicBrahmin.com, a diversified web portal to provide a one-stop solution for religious needs and requirements. “It is an effort to help people get the authentic and genuine Vedic rituals performed with comfort and ease.” The website also provides sacred puja samagri from Varanasi as getting correct and pure material for ceremonies is difficult and time consuming. “We are living in the age where a lot of things are compromised; our devotion towards the Almighty shouldn’t be one of them,” quips Srivastava.
The portal which will initially focus on NCR and later move to other metros, has on its board around 70 highly experienced Vedic Brahmans, certified priests from Varanasi, who are thoroughly trained to perform all the rituals and yagyas from birth ceremony to shraddha. They are either shastris (graduates in Yajurveda) or acharyas (masters in Yajurveda). According to Srivastava, these priests are qualified and experienced to take care of regional variations in religious practices. “The rituals of Karma-Kand come from Yajurveda and the Vedic rituals are same across the board. The priests chant the same mantra in respective rituals be it South Indian or North Indian puja. The only difference is the lokachar (local customs), which varies from place to place. All of our priests hold a minimum of 10 years of experience in performing the Vedic rituals. So they are well versed with all the customs. Since ancient times Varanasi has been the place where people have been coming from all corners of India to get the rituals performed. This is why the Vedic Brahmans of Varanasi inherit various lokachar during their study. Only for the Jain rituals we have taken few Jain Pandits on board.”
VedicBrahmin.com does not intend to limit to being a service and material provider. “There is a larger goal. It is important for our coming generations to differentiate between prasad and mithai. During the puja our Vedic Brahmans ensure to explain those present various aspects of the rituals while giving the scientific reasoning behind performing them. So the entire family gets the true idea behind performing the rituals.”
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With a view to make the portal content driven, in the next two months it would include video blogs, interviews, mythological facts, daily panchang as key features in it. “The emphasis would be on providing scientific facts behind Vedic rituals. For the moment we have introduced a new section Vedic Sutras, where we try to bring the scientific facts behind rituals and share lesser known important mythological stories,” says Srivastava.