Who are these two you see in the pictures? Is there anything common between them? Yes,both are priests. Also they are practitioners of martial art. A necessary survival kit these days. One is a karate specialist. The other is a kung fu exponent.
Seshadri is his name. The third dan black belt karate expert. He is a vadagalai iyengar priest at the Ashtalakshmi Temple in Besant Nagar,Chennai. He is an early morning riser and does 'kata' practice with the help of wooden and steel weapons. 'Torfa','sai' and 'nin-chuk'. He is coached under the watchful eyes of Dayalan and his ambition is to win tournaments. He secured 1st rank in the All-India Karate Open Tournament-2004. His son Sriram and daughter Aishwarya are following in their father's footsteps. A punch,a side-chop and an elbow-thump sent a drunken trio reeling on the streets some time ago. The people who were witnesses to this blizkreig were struck with awe and wonder at a 'vadhyar' going hammer and tongs at the law-breakers and eveteasers.
The man in yellow robes and a Buddha-like smile is a Shaolin monk. He is a pastmaster in kung-fu craft. He is a member of a 20 strong team of Buddhist monks who perform some awesome jaw dropping feats. They run at spears and break iron bars on their heads. The Shaolin monk is a high flyer in the ancient kung-fu art and a wellknown priest in China.
Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan are household names the world over for their tiger and monkey moves. And they are rolemodels for the youth who want to master the art of kungfu and karate.
A welloiled mind and a flexible body are passports to success. Seshadri and the Shaolin monk plan to train youngsters in their respective countries through shlokas,yoga,kungfu,karate and judo.That would make our youth winners all the way.
4 comments:
hi appa,
great post and photos! really interesting to hear that a vadiyar is into martial arts!
yes,lulu,seshadri vadyar must be one of his kind.i read about him a couple of months back in 'the hindu'.thought it would be good to spread the word around through my blog.and then i joined it with the shaolin monk.to make the post interesting.thanks.
uncle how is a vadiyar different from a brahmin? as far as i know, among bengalis, only brahmins are allowed to be priests.
rums,the literal meaning of 'vadhyar' is teacher.priests are called 'archakars'.they are qualified to perform worship of the idols following the rules laid down in the agamas.archakars are brahmins.they also double up by teaching shlokas or recitation of the vedas or the tamil prabhandas.they are then referred to as vadhyars.seshadri is a brahmin priest and a vadhyar.
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