Five glorious days at Ahobilam

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Sri:

SrimatE Sri Lakshminrusimha parabrahmane namaha

SrimatE Bhagavad rAmAnujAya namaha

SrimatE nigamAntha mahAdEsikAya namaha

Sri AdivaNN ShatakOpa Yateendra mahAdEsikAya namaha

SrImatE Sri Lakshminrusimha divya pAdukA sEvaka SrivaNN -

SatakOpa Sri nArAyaNa yateendra mahA desikAya namaha

 

Dear devotees,

namO nArAyaNA. pranAmams.

 

Following is an article called "Five Glorious Days at AhObilam"

published

in the recent issue of Sri Nrusimha Priya. This is a summary of the

recent 6th centenary celebrations of Sri Ahobila muth that was held at

Sri Ahobilam itself. Certainly , everyone who attended that great

celebration

were in loss of words to describe the bAghyam they had to witness it in

their life times. Many told that this grand celebration gave utmost

fulfilment to

their senses like eyes, ears etc, this being the actual use of the

senses they had.

 

Though this report is very short , it atleast gives an idea of how the

celebration

would have been .

 

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan

ananthapadmanAbha dAsan

krishNArpaNam

--

 

"FIVE GLORIOUS DAYS AT AHOBILAM.

SIXTH CENTENARY OF THE AHOBILA MUTT CELEBRATED IN

REVERENTIAL GRATITUDE TO LORD LAKSHMEE NRUSIMHA

 

Yes! October 21 to 25th, 1998 were golden days in the history of Sree

Ahobila Mutt and also a beacon light in the religious history of India.

Thousands of people came from North, East, West and South. They

attended the daily prayers at the Mutt and at Lord PrahalAdhavaradhan

Temple. They visited the Nava Nrisimha Sannidhis in the Ahobilam

complex and returned with a sense of fulfillment. There was heavy rain

in the Kurnool area in September and October. We were very apprehensive

 

if the inclement weather would interfere with the scheduled functions.

Fortunately the rain stopped on 20th October and resumed only after 26th

 

October. That truly was an act of God. There was bright sunshine and

the weather was pleasant throughout. Devotees were graceful enough to

adjust to the circumstances and the environment in which this function

was held and displayed an enormous sense of fellowship and goodwill.

Observers estimate that the devotees who attended this event could be

anything between 25,000 and 40,000. It was a well disciplined assembly

of devout pilgrims whose only aim was to pay their obeisance to the Lord

 

and the leader His Holiness the Azhagiyasingar. The organisers were

highly complimented for the enormous care they took to accommodate the

pilgrims and for doing everything possible to ensure their creature

comforts. More than 15,000 people were fed in the conventional

way-ThadheeyArAdhanai and thousands of others were fed round the clock

both at the Mutt and the Temple. It is a matter of great satisfaction

to the organisers that there were no visible complaints from the

pilgrims in general and by and large, everyone who came truly enjoyed

participating in the functions and expressed their happiness in their

own way in many ways. That is how Lord Lakshmee Nrisimha Himself hosted

 

his devotees in His kshethra-AhObilam. We could see the hand of God in

everything that went on at this function which was so orderly and

peaceful and truly divine.

 

Let me record for your benefit the principle schedule of events that

marked the occasion.

1. His Holiness the Azhagiyasingar adorned Lord PrahalAdavaradhan and

his Consorts with Kavachams weighing more than 8 kilograms in gold. He

also clothed Dhivya Dhampathis at Lord PrahalAdhavaradhan Sannidhi with

fresh set of expensive clothes in silk, every day. You could see the

Dhivya Moorthis come alive in darsan to the devotees. The jubilant

manner in which they were presented to the people was truly a

once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon to be cherished forever.

 

2. Homam

There were 12 Homakundams devoted to Nava NrishimhAs, Lord

PrahalAdhavaradhan, ThAyAr MahAlakshmee and Sudharsana BhagavAn. Homam

was conducted morning and evening on all the 5 days. Besides His

Holiness, the Azhagiyasingar, the function was attended by His Holiness

from the ParakAla Mutt, Sree RangapriyA Swamy and the MatAdhipathi of

VyAsarAya Mutt. A homam of this magnitude had never been done before in

 

known memory, at AhObilam.

 

3. VedhapArAyanam

Over 350 pandits recited RigvEdha, Krishna YajurvEdha, Sukla YajurvEdha,

 

SAma vEdha, and Atharvana vEdha. These Vedhic pandits ewre complemented

 

by nearly 100 AdhyApakaswamis who chanted the full course of Dhivya

Prabandham. They were supported by 50 pandits who read Sreemath

RAmAyanam, Sreemath Bhagavath Geetha, Sree BAshyam and Sree

RahasyathrayasAram. It was a unique sight to watch so many pandits

gather at one place and recite our wide variety of knowledge system. It

 

was also a rare spectacle of Sree Vaishnavites of both sects, SmArthAs

and Madhvas hailing from Tamil NAdu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh

coming together to celebrate a significant milestone in our religious

history.

 

4. Vidhvath Sadhas

Presided over by Sreemath Azaghiyasingar, over 100 vidvans professing

Adhvaita, Visishtadvaita adn Dvaitha systems of philosophy and immensly

benefited from the resulting discussions. The participants were so

absorbed in the topics that they attended in full strength morning and

evening on all the 5 days and emerged profoundly refreshed in body and

mind.

 

5. Thirumanjanam and KalyAna Uthsavam

On Friday, the 23rd October an elaborate Thirumanjanam was performed to

Lord PrahlAdhavaradhan, Lord Amrithavalli ThAyAr, SreedhEvi and

BhoodhEvi. It was followed by KalyAna Uthsavam to Lord

PrahlAdhavaradhan and Amrithavalli ThAyAr. These two functions were

sponsored by a grouup of ladies under the leadership of Smt. Radha

Krishnaswamy and Smt. Indira Rajamani. They presented to the Lord a

gold necklace weighing 10.5 sovereigns. This was followed by a very

impressive Garuda VAhana Uthsavam on Saturday, the 25th October.

 

6. Garuda VAhana Uthsavam

It was a grand sight to watch Garuda Vahanam procession preceded by a

huge AdhyApakaghOshti and followed by hundreds of VehdapArAyana pandits

who chanted all the four vedhas. It was reminiscent of the Garuda

VAhana procession one has seen in his childhood in Kancheepuram or

Thirukkudanthai.

 

7. Homage to Sree AnnamAchArya

The foremost among Sreemath Adhivan SatakOpa Yatheendhra MahA Desika's

sishyas was Sree AnnamAcharya. His Dhivya Moorthi had been brought from

 

Thiruppathi and was honoured by a special procession and prayer on this

occasion.

 

8. Distribution of Manjal Kumkumam

It was exhilarating to observe the ladies group take a prominent part in

 

the celebrationns of this event. Apart from sponsoring the

Thirumanjanam and KalyAna Uthsavam described above, a group of ladies

led by Dr Smt. Vasundhara Seshadri collected a sum of Rs 5,000/- on the

spot and distributed Manjal, Kumkumam and fruitts to all the visiting

Sumangalis. The enthusiasm of the lady devotees and the devout nature

of their participation in the even were truly a notable highlight of

this occasion.

 

9. Music concerts

The cultural programme was embellished by personalities such as Smt.

Mani Krishnaswamy, Smt. R. Vedhavalli, Smt. Radha Padmanabhan, Kadiri

Sree Gopalnath and party, Thiruchoor Sree V. Ramachandran and party,

Sree Balakrishna Prasad and Sree D. Raghavachari, Vanamalika Group and

Kumari S. Ramya in the afternoons and evenings. All these concerts were

 

very well attended.

 

In conclusion I would like to pay my personal tribute to the following

personalities who made this event an outstanding success.

 

1. Sreemath Azaghiyasingar's staff in the Mutt did an outstanding job

maintaining pooja and prayer schedules. Every member of the Mutt staff

deserves our high appreciation and admiration in the way they served and

 

endeared the devotees to make the function highly memorable. As usual,

food preparations were of a very high order and quality. Sree Appu, the

 

Head cook and his assistants deserve high praise for the hard work and

unrelenting service.

 

2. Sree V.R. Rajamani who was in charge of organising and distribution

of food was on his feet literally 18 hours a day for 5 days. Without

his meticulous attention to this aspect of the function we could have

failed miserably.

 

3. On the organisational side the team was led by Sree D.P. PadmanAbhan

who was assisted by Sree. D.P. Devnath, Sree Srinivasan, K. Swamy, Sree

T.S. Venkatesan, Sree R. Rajagopalan, Sree K. Venugopalan, Sree S.

Sampath, Sree K.G. Krishnan, Sree N. Sreenivasan, Sree K. Devanathan and

 

a host of others. Everyone of them had a wireless walkie talkie in his

hand and directed the entire function from all segments of the complex.

A large number of lady volunteers were also at work taking care of the

needs and conveniences of the woman devotees who had come in large

numbers.

 

4. Many officials of the Andhra Pradhesh Government were particularly

helpful. The Collector of the Kurnool District, HR&CE Commissioner and

many others came and supervised the on-going functions. They also paid

their obeisance to His Holiness. A large number of policemen had been

deployed and the police officials were available to ensure peaceful

conduct of the celebrative functions.

 

5. Doordarsan and AIR from Hyderabad had come to cover the event. Many

 

newspaper reporters had come and interviewed the organisers. We had 3

STD-cum-telephone lines in operation at the festival complex for the

convenience of the visitors. Electricity gensets were at strategic

locations to ensure continuous power supply. Water storage tanks with

pipelines were kept at different locations. The temple tank was full

and a large number of devotees bathed and did their ablutions in it.

 

All in all, it was a grand occasion well organised and delivered with

grace and gaiety. As a community we can be proud of the way we

conducted this function. Most important of all: Lord Lakshmee Nrisimha

and His Holiness, the Azhagiyasingar, were extremely happy with the way

we paid obeisance to them and expressed our gratitude in the most humble

 

manner we could. We have made complete video coverage of the event. We

 

should soon be able to make copies of it available for the benefit of

those who could not physically participate in this festival.

 

Finally, I am grateful to everyone who came to Ahobilam and made this

occasion a memorable success. I thank everyonefor the enormous

understanding they showed for the difficulties experienced by the

organisers in serving the pilgrims to the full satisfaction and thank

them most sincerely for all the trouble they took to participate, to be

a part of those most memorable days in our lives.

 

Let me hasten to add that we have only covered the first phase of our

task in celebrating the Sixth Centenary of the Ahobila Mutt. The

programme of projects and events detailed in the Ani issue of Sree

Nrusimha Priya will all be taken up and completed by the middle of 1999.

 

You should therefore continue to watch for more events and news in the

continued celebration of the Sixth Centenary for a full year. More

important, please continue to help us to complete the task we have set

for ourselves.

 

R.K. Swamy

Chairman

Sixth Centenary Celebrations Committee."