The program started with lighting of lamps and offering prayers. Chief guest for this event was Sriman Narasimha Sharma garu, a gold medalist from Osmania University and is presently Additional Solicitor General of India for the Telangana High Court.

Students from 6 different colleges participated in this event. Audience consisted of students and staff of various colleges, apart from devotees.

The aim is to give opportunity to students to express their views about the topic of day and encourage a healthy debate among the youth.

In today’s debate some important topics were raised by the students like –

•  How relevant are temples in today’s life, given that science is advancing so fast and leaving fairly little or no time for rituals and religious practices, etc.
•  Commercialization in temples – Is it necessary when the devotees came to temple to find peace in first place?
• In earlier days, temples worked as places of imparting knowledge to people. Is that happening now?
• Temples are becoming sort of places of attraction / photo shoot places, etc. than places to encourage devotion
•  Should we discriminate devotees as VIPs and normal people?

The chief guest Sriman Narasimha Sharma then spoke and discussed about the topic of day.

HH Jeeyar Swamiji spoke in English and provided answers in a clear and concise fashion to all the topics that were discussed by the students. Here are some excerpts:

• Our eyes are capable of seeing objects; our face is an object which can be seen. However, to see our own face, we certainly need a mirror. Similarly, a temple is needed to know about ourselves.
• Unlike a mirror which is lifeless, a temple is a living organization with set processes which help humanity
• Commercialization of temples is a result of our own abuse, the way rulers have made the temples to become. In a way, we are spoiling our own mirrors. We should not discard the mirror because it has dust or dirty marks on it. We need to clean the mirror so that we can use it. So also, the
• If we sense bad odour in the surroundings, we don’t say that we will not breathe. Instead, we purify the air and proceed with our lives.
• Temples encourage us to share our things with others. Without this mechanism, we tend to become very materialistic and selfish.
• Science is resulting in dividing the people. Religion / Practices / Traditions are trying to unite the people, irrespective of their ideological differences.
• Prior to Swami Ramanuja, the temple institution was predominantly run by priestly people. The social reformer that Swami Ramanuja was, he ensured that all parts of society have a say in running the temples. He achieved this by categorizing the activities in a temple into 20 departments. He gave the ownership of each department to different parts of society including potters, plumbers, carpenters, goldsmiths, etc. They were given ‘enams’ for their livelihood and made them to preserve their skill to be used in running temples.
• Swami Ramanuja strived to convince the society that every person is a child of God and there CANNOT be any discrimination – either in temple administration or in eligibility of getting mantra.

Overall, it was extremely thought-provoking debate. It was a great sight to see the students making notes while Swamiji was elaborating on the topic of debate. We hope that they carry these learnings for rest of their lives and also impart this knowledge in their circles.

The program concluded by chanting prayer.