TIRUPATI, INDIA, March 19, 2008: In a novel initiative, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has launched a crash course for temple priests to help them hone their skills in performing the temple rituals. The five-day training program is being executed by TTDs Sri Venkateswara Employees Training Academy (SVETA), in a bold attempt to make the priests ward off the modern-day professional hazards such as stress. Besides, it teaches the priests how to keep themselves physically fit and inculcate a sense of social responsibility in their work. The intensive training includes the corporate style thought-provoking lectures and Powerpoint presentation on personality development, maintaining mental and physical peace and adopting healthy lifestyles by a team of experts comprising physicians and personality development trainers.
Another salient feature of the course is that the senior Agama pundits requisitioned from outside, stay with the trainees for five days, giving them an opportunity to discuss matters related to temple rituals and clear their doubts. Under a program launched in June 2007, 300 priests from various districts, were trained in 14 batches, including 13 in Vaikhanasa Agama and the one in Pancharatra system of temple worship. Plans were afoot for covering the priests from the other southern states, he explained.