Maargazhi Concerts - 2011

Finally.......So here goes ........September 2011, I took an assignment with AME, a Clean Energy Power Generation firm based in Chennai.........and so we shifted to Chennai...back to that magical land that had been my home throughout my education, college, first job......... We landed and are currently put up in West Mambalam...

Come December 2011, the margazhi season at delhi beckoned and this time, turned out to be better than last year...... 3 concerts....

1. "Sundara Kaandam" - Sri Vaikuntanathaswamy Temple, Srirangam Srimad Andavan Asramam Ber Serai, New Delhi

2. " Krishna Leela" - Sri Subha Siddhi Vinayagar Temple, Mayur Vihar Delhi

3. "Rukmini Parinayam" - Vedic Culture Centre , Sri Ram Mandir , Lodhi Road, New Delhi.

Kshama :

Well i can think of only one word.......sorry, its again been a really long time.......but yes lot of changes, a new job, came back to chennai and now again its december.

Will keep posting regularly hereon.

Anil

3 days of Bliss

July 1 2011 -
We set off by bus to Thanjavur and from thereon by jeep to Konerirajapuram, our ancestral home (actually the birth place of appa and amma's native -thereby a double connection). A small village housing the Cauvery and our ancestral temple, Sri Lakshminarayana Swamy Koil.

The occassion - The Sathabhishekam of our Grandfather Sri Soundararajan (Soundra Thatha) on 4th July. Preceding the sathabhishekam was the first ever Kalyanotsavam in the history of the Temple on 3rd and on 2nd we had the Stapana Tirumanjanam and in evening a sangeetha upanyasam on "Rukmini Parinayam" performed by me :-)

I was accompanied on the Violin by Sri Raghuraman and on the Mridangam by Sri Venkata. This was a very special kalakshepam for me as i had done my arangetram here and reminensces of my first upanyasam were flowing in. Appa was there with us at that time (he's there even now, in spirit) and at 6PM we started.......it was a wonderful kalakshepam and thanks to the blessings of the almighty and acharyas, there were many revelations too......

The second day - 3rd July 2011 - The Kalyanotsavam..........that's the next post

Long time !!!

It has been really long since have posted in the blog, almost six months. Quite eventful they were,and just providing a recap of all that happened since December 2010.

December 2010 saw the start of a series of Kathakalakshepam concerts in Delhi. The first one was at a Vinayagar (Ganesh) temple in Mayur Vihar on 19th December 2010-The topic was "Sundarakaandam" and its application in daily life.

 The second programme was on 21st December 2010 at a small but lovely Krishna Temple - Venugopalaswamy temple in Alaknanda the topic being Sri Krishna Leela with a focus on the Bala Leela or the Childhood pastimes of Lord Sri Krishna.

The Third concert was at the famous Sri Uttara Guruvayurappan Temple in Mayur Vihar on 23rd December 2010 on Krishna Leela again.

Am currently uploading the videos in youtube and will post the links soon !!

Amidst this , we also had an opportunity for an impromptu pravachan at the residence of Mr Srinivasamurthy, a devotee and a friend of my aunt (who had organized these concerts). The topic chosen there was "Ganga Avataranam" (The descent of Ganga).This was recorded and produced into a CD.

Soon after this we travelled to Kadayanallur (near Madurai) wherein we performed in the "Akhanda Nama Sankeerthana Mela" and the topic being Sundara Kaandam again.

Thus ended the December trip. It was in itself a wonderful experience to meet many learned vidwans and scholars who have kept this amazing tradition of harikatha alive throughout the years. (It also reiterated the words that Guruji had told when we met him in Vellore prior to leaving. He had said that there will be many opportunities coming my way to perform and i must keep this going. At that time we had only 3 concerts fixed. By the time we reached Delhi 3 became 5!)

After this on 26th Jan 2011, had another performance at the Hosur Sathsangam on the importance of Sathsangam in todays life. It was the frst full fledged pravachan (non musical discourse) and went off really well.

Subsequent to these events, occured my meeting with N Viraraghavachariar Swamy / Pattanna Swamy. A very close friend of my father, when we went to meet him, I had taken a copy of the DVD recorded at Delhi (Krishna Leela) and amma played it for him. He sat through 30 minutes of the upanyasam and his comments were so encouraging and heartening. The Vaishnavite Guru Paramparyathanian's modification that i had done (including Guruji's name) was noticed by him and he told me that i could chant it the original way and even the original included all the Sathguru's till date. A really heartening moment, thanks to the Grace of Guruji!

Then came April 2010 and began the first event in the series of many (hope so!) - Sri Ramakathamritham. More details on this and the Kathamritham series in www.ramakathamritham.blogspot.com

And as i conclude this post, take great pleasure in inviting you all to the next upanyasam - Rukmini Parinayam @ Sri Lakshminarayanaswamy Temple, Thanjavur on July 2 2011. All are welcome

परितः ईक्षते इति परीक्षितः (Continued)

"Hence you may reside in five areas where adharma is rampant -Gambling, Wine, Company of Women, Violence and Gold."


Even as Parikshit said this, Kali dissappeared. He had jumped from where he was standing and lodged himself in a small ball of gold. This gold ball was connected to a ruby. The ruby was connected through exquisite golden artwork to various other precious stones and was adorning ...................

...........................the head of Parikshit.....

As kali lodged himself in the crown of parikshit. Parikshit searching for Kali made his way forward.


(To be continued)

Work !!

Finally, a proof of some "work" i did at our plant, painting the layout lines, here you go

An amazing piece of art

Check out this Rangoli by Mr M Mayil, one of our colleagues at Terex, Hosur

He has an amazing sense of art and can be contacted in case you want rangoli to be done at your end. In case you want to contact him for mayil.manickam@terex.com (9944619006)

How easy it would be !!!

Saw this pic and was floored. how easy it would be for all of us if this was possible....

परितः ईक्षते इति परीक्षितः (Continued)

Seeing Kali fall at his feet, parikshit stopped. . .

Kali got up and said " This is kali yuga. It is my dharma that i should be present here to make people understand the value of dharma. It is only through adharma that we understand the value of dharma. It is only through pain and suffering that we understand the value of health. It is only through harsh words that we understand the value of kindness. Hence please provide me places to stay"

To this parikshit replied " You cannot stay here as this place is my kingdom where dharma and righteousness are rampant. You can stay only at places which are bereft of dharma, which influence people to resort to Adharma. Hence you may reside in five areas where adharma is rampant -Gambling, Wine, Company of Women, Violence and Gold."

After this , Kali captured Parikshit................How.................thats another story. Lets see it next friday.

Anil

Wow ! 50 posts completed

It all started with bawandinesh.blogspot.com. This kind of introduced me to the world of blogging. today it has become bawandinesh.name one of the most popular websites/blogs in india, nay the world. Along with that in my own miniscule way i celebrate completing 50+ posts. (Really stupid.... i should be writing this as my 50th post, but was lazy enough only to recognise this "milestone" after seeing my 53rd post)

So here goes..........

Anil......................

Some (g)old moments with my GURU :

A cute vid

परितः ईक्षते इति परीक्षितः (Continued)

(We are back to the meeting of Parikshit and Kalipurusha)

Parikshit saw that the kalipurusha was holding a dreadful whip in his hand and was thrashing an ox. The poor ox had only one leg and was tottering in pain. Nearby stood a cow. It was pristine white in color with the mark of the swastika on its forehead. It was weeping and the tears which flowed down its cheek traced their path in red. It was as if it was weeping blood and not tears. The cow was weeping for the pain being caused to the ox and in the process was undergoing the pain itself. A small gentle breeze was blowing as though caressing her.



Parikshit, being the bhagavatottama he was immediately understood that this was no ordinary cow. He went upto her with folded hands and asked her who she was. To which she replied that she was Prithvi the mother earth (the adopted daughter of King Prithu who was Parikshit’s ancestor) and the ox was Dharma (or) righteousness.


Seeing Mother Earth and Dharma being tormented by this demon kali, Parikshit flared up, he invoked a divine astra and aimed it at the demon’s head.


The demon too, aimed an arrow at Parikshit.


                                          Both of them adjusted their bows.


                                                                 Strung the arrows.


                                                                                       Pulled them till the very end of their ears


The strain of the bows caused by pulling the string taut caused vibrations which in turned stirred up the dry leaves and dust and sand lying on the ground, which began to rise slowly.


The gentle breeze now increased in velocity and slowly turned into a raging wind blowing around the two warriors as if enclosing/caging them within a natural cage. It was as if only one of them would come out of this ordeal alive.


Because both of them had divine astras which were glowing, the dry leaves fluttering in the wind around them ignited and it presented a devilish sight.

The devas, gandharvas, kinnaras, nagas, purushas, maruts, rudras, rishis, sadhus, munis, swamis gathered in the heavens and watched with bated breath.


Just when everyone thought that this would be a really terrifying battle, the most unexpected of things happened


Kali lunged forward …………………………………………And fell at the feet of Parikshit…………….

What happened next. . .

Lets see next friday

Love

Anil

परितः ईक्षते इति परीक्षितः

After a long time, finally I was able to lay hands on the abridged English version of the Srimad Bhagwatham, written beautifully by Smt Kamala Subramaniam




And while reading it I suddenly remembered that I had embarked on an ambitious project of translating the bhagawatam in my own style and had kind of not written for quite some time…



So have decided to post every Friday hereon

Cya

Love !!!! (Again)

Here I am again writing about Love. . Being fascinated by our Scriptures from a very young age, I have had a keen interest to read books based on our scriptures. So here I was, reading one of the English versions of the Srimad Bhagawatham written by Smt Kamala Subramaniam. The atmosphere was pretty heavy as I was just back from the 10th day ceremony of my grandmother, and I took up the story of Dhruva – the 6 year old child who got the darshan of the lord of lords, Narayana himself.


As the story goes, he was denied the permission to sit on his father Uttanapada’s laps and his stepmom the Queen Suruchi asked him to pray that he be born in her womb in his next birth if he wanted to enjoy the royal pleasures (sitting on his father’s laps – a royal pleasure!!!)The weeping boy then went to his mother Suniti who told him to pray to Narayana as he is the one to whom bhaktas are dear and he answers all their prayers. Thus driven, the child walks to the forest and is met on the way by Narada, who after testing him initially, initiates him into the sacred mantra – “Om Namo Bhagawathe vasudevaya” and so does Dhruva begin his tapas.

His tapas/penance goes on for 6 months at the end of which Narayana gives him his darshan. At this point, the shlokas have been wonderfully translated by the author – On seeing Narayana, tears well up in the eyes of the child…due to the tough penance he is unable to speak as his cheeks and teeth are stuck together, like a child running to its father, Dhruva stretches both his arms as if wanting to hug the lord himself and starts crying. . .


It was this point which set my thinking, in today’s world, we as children always want our parents to be more . . . more than what they are . . . . . and in the process, we miss out on what they really are...

There’s this Hindi song which goes “Dharti pe roop ma-baap ka, us vidhata ki pehchaan hai” meaning “Parents are the identity of God’s presence on the earth”

The moment we start loving them for what they are, then the divinity truly shows and we all can reach unparalleled heights in our lives, as did Dhruva!!!

Love ! !

For a long time, i have never understood love.....i have seen people talk a lot about love.... how it transcends individuals... how it could be the same - loving your country or loving your beloved...but i have never seen or felt love as a powerful emotion... being brought up in a household where we were not used to say i love you amma / i love you appa......guess that had its own disadvantages......and then the Art of Living happened... i could see how Love had made a difference in the lives of many , many people....including my own. How all the negative emotions and that burdening feeling in your heart vanished the moment you thought about someone you loved.....

Today as i write this blog, through my sisters laptop (in my aunts home in Chennai, where we are all gathered for the ceremonies of my paternal grandmother - our patti who passed away on 24 Sep 2010), i have a much deeper understanding and reverence for LOVE.


Why???? because i feel that the most powerful human emotion of all is LOVE. A love for a son, which makes a mother follow his footsteps into the realm of divinity exactly one day short of one year from his departure..... A love for a daughter- in-law, which makes a mom-in-law a mother, a love for a grandson- aing a love for an entire family spanning almost millions of miles. . . a love for the divine.. .. .. .. .. accepting HIS decision of taking her son away and yet yearning for him day and night. . . . .

Today, as a mother follows the footsteps of her son in the journey to Vaikunta - the realm of the divine, leaving behind scores of weeping kith and kin, i realize one thing - that Love is the most sacred of human emotions. And when Love arises, nothing can stand the aura of it.

Let us pray that mother and son attain the realm of the divine peacefully !!!

Anil

(Note - Appa (Sri D Srinivasan) attained the lotus feet of the Supreme Master on 25 Sep 2009. Patti (Smt D Rukmani) attained the lotus feet of the Supreme Master on 24th Sep 2010 - exactly 364 days later

Hosur Satsang !!!

Samashrayanam & Panchasamskaram

SamAshrayanam means 'to approach (AchAryA) with all sincerity'.In a nut  shell , during 'SamAshrayanam' ,the AchAryA initiates a person , irrespective of caste,creed or sex, as his sishyA. It is a commitment from the disciple that he or she will live as per the wishes of the AchAryA. Thus  the person gets the  link to the Sri Vaishnava paramparA. During SamAshrayanam ,                    Pancha SamskAram (five Purifications) is performed and he becomes a "Sri VaishnavA".
         
      The five samskArams and its main purposes are 
 
    1. thApam   : To emboss the impressions of heated Sankha and ChakrA on the arms ( near    the shoulders ).
 
    2. pundram  : To wear the dvAdasa OOrdhva pundram ( 12 Thiruman & Srichoornam )
 
    3. nAmam    : To be christened by the AchAryA afresh as "RAmAnuja dAsan" (addition of 'dAsA' at the end of  ones name) to indicate that one is forever a servant of the Supreme Lord Sriman NArAyanA and BhagavAn RAmAnujA .
 
    4. manthram : To get the initiation of "Rahasya Traya MantrAs" -  AshtAksharam , Dvayam    and charama slokam  .
 
    5. Ijyai    : To learn the worship of Sriman nArAyanA in proper form ( Bhagavad ThiruvArAdhanam) .
 
Today, 
by the blessings of our Lord Sri Lakshmi Narayana Perumal , 
by the blessings of our Sri Vaishnavite Acharya - H H Sri Ranga Ramanuja Maha Desikan (Srimad Srimushnam Andavan), 
by the blessings of our Guru HH Sri Sri Ravishankar,
by the blessings of my father Late Sri D Srinivasan, grandfather Late Sri R Devanathan and of all the members of this illustrious family  - I have completed my Samashrayanam and panchasamskaram .... Feels Gr8....
 
Adiyen Bharadwaja ( Btw having the conch and chakra (panchajanya and Sudarsana ) embossed on my shoulders also feels cool. will post pics sometime

Sita Kalyanam @ Hosur Satsangam -

Photo taken after the Sita Kalyanam performed at a hall near our home.

 

The lord with his consort and lakshmana and hanuman gracing the car of my uncle who was a part of the organizing team of this festival.

 

Blissful Beauty !

 

Anil

Ganesh Chathurthi

Come Saturday-11 Sep 2010 and it is Ganesha Chaturthi !

Lets hear something interesting on Ganesha which Guruji has talked about :

Ganesha Chaturthi is celebrated on the day on which Lord Ganesha is believed to bestow his presence on earth for all his devotees. Ganesha, the elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati, is worshipped as the supreme god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune. Though it is celebrated as the birthday of Lord Ganesha, the symbolism behind the festival is much deeper.

                                                   The essence of Ganeshji is brought out beautifully by Adi Shankara. Though Ganeshji is worshiped as the elephant-headed God, the form (swaroop) is just to bring out its parabrahma roopa. Ganeshji is described as Ajam Nirvikalpam Niraakaaramekam. This means that Ganeshji is never born.He is Ajam (unborn), he is Niraakaar (formless) and he is Nirvikalpa (attributeless). Ganeshji symbolises the consciousness which is omnipresent. Ganeshji is the same energy which is the reason for this universe, from which everything is manifested and it’s the same energy in which the whole world will be dissolved. Ganeshji is not somewhere outside of us, but the very centre of our life. But this is very subtle knowledge. Not everybody can perceive the formless without the form. Our ancient Rishis and Munis knew this; so they created the form for the benefit and understanding of people at all levels.

Those who can’t experience the formless, over a period of sustained experience of manifested form reach the formless Brahman.
                                                     So in reality, Ganeshji is formless; yet there is a form to which Adi Shankara prayed and that form carries the message of the formlessness of Ganeshji. Thus, the form serves as the starting point and gradually the formless consciousness begins to manifest.

Ganesh Chaturthi marks a unique art of reaching formless Paramatma called Lord Ganesh by repeated worship of the manifest form of Ganesha.

                                                      Even the Ganesh Stotram, the prayers recited in the praise of Ganeshji, conveys the same. We pray to Ganeshji in our consciousness to come out and sit in the idol for us for a while so that we can play with him. And after the puja, we again pray asking him to go back to where he comes from; that’s our consciousness. While he is in the idol, we offer back whatever God has given us through the puja of the idol.

The ritual of immersing (visarjan) the idols after few days of worship reinforces the understanding that God is not in the idol, it’s inside us. So experiencing the omnipresent in the form and deriving joy out of the form is the essence of the Ganesha Chaturthi festival. In a way such organized festivity and worships lead to an upsurge in enthusiasm and devotion.

Ganeshji is the lord of all the good qualities in us. So when we worship him, all the good qualities will blossom in us. He is also the lord of knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge dawns only when we become aware of the Self. When there is inertia, there is no knowledge, no wisdom, nor is there any liveliness (Chaitanya) or progress in life. So the consciousness has to be awakened and the presiding deity of consciousness is Ganeshji. That’s why before every puja, the Lord Ganesha is worshiped to awaken the consciousness.

Therefore, install the idol, worship it with infinite love, meditate and experience Lord Ganesha from within. This is the symbolic essence of Ganesh Chaturti festival, to awaken the Ganesha tatva which is masked inside us.

and btw, I will be in Chennai starting 10th till 14th so look forward to seeing a lot of ganeshas and will post on that soon.