The Hiranya sradha that I performed in USA

The Hiranya  sradha  that  I performed in USA

By

P.R.Ramachander

I had to perform a Sradha  a few  days back in USA. I approached  a near by temple. They had put  on their  notice board that  charges  for performing  Hiranya  Sradha  was $51. They had also mentioned  that Acharya  SAmbhavanai  is up  to us. We  contacted  the temple  and paid  $ 51. 

      In india   we used to pay  Dakshina  for the priest (around  2000rs) .Two  priests  used to come  and  apart from DAkshina   we used to give  the priest  a small  amount of rice and one  raw Banana.The sradha  used to start  with permission given by my wife .

       IN  the place  where  we  are staying in USA, to my great  surprise   the  priest  informed  us top bring 

Pooja materials:

Rice             10 lb

Toor Dal      03 lb   

Chana Dal   03 lb

Urad Dal      03 lb

5 types of fresh vegetables

Each 1 lb

Sesame seeds black

Mustard seeds black

Methi seeds

Cumins seeds

Asafoetida

Tamarind

Red chilli

Betel leaves

Betel nuts

Flower one bunch

Quarter coins 40

Tulasi leaves few

Temple fee 51$

Guru dakshina it's up to you

    I   was surprised because  these  were  needed only if we   perform AMA sradha (where  all materials needed to cook food for the priests are given to them) and not needed  for Hiranya sradha.WE did  collect  the materials  and reached   the temple . The priest who belonged to tamil nadu  made two koorchas to represent   the  two Brahmins and right  from sankalpa I felt  little strange .He read the manthras  from his cell phone and I knew  that I  was  chanting   not  the manthras  which  I used to chant  for doing hiranya  sradha in india nor  the kriyas  which I used to do  but having  chosen  the person as  Acharya  , I obeyed him  100%.Ofcourse  we gave him  Acharya  SAmbhavana.