Swami desikan Thirunakshatram celebrations in Bahrain

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SrI

Srimathe ramanujaya namaha

Srimathe nigamanta mahadesikaya namaha

 

Dear bhagavathas,

 

namO nArAyaNaa. adiyen's pranamams.

 

adiyen is extremely glad to inform all of you that we had wonderful

celebration of our acharya's Thirunakshatram for the seventh year in

row. Way back in 1997 on a Purattasi sravanam day bhagavathas Sri

Madabushi Sudarshan and Sri IVK Chary swamin have started this

satsangh in Bahrain and since then we are assembling once in a month

on the sravanam day to recite the divine sookthis of Swami Desikan.

Also every year the Thirunakshatram of Sri Desika is being celebrated

in a grand manner. Now these two bhagavathas are living in Kuwait and

you are aware of the various satsangh activities going on there thru

thiruvenkatam group mails. adiyen understand that in Dubai also

Thirunakshatram celebrations were planned. In short Swami desika is

remembered very well in Gulf today.

 

This year we had three day celebration and adiyen will give a brief

account of them.

 

Day 1 (26th Sep):

 

We had a children's day with recitation competition of Desika stotras

and Desika prabandham and divya prabandham followed by a quiz on the

life history of our acharyas. adiyen has been sharing whatever little

known to me with the children here and they have been taught many

stotras and prabandhams. So in order to encourage them we are

conducting competitions around this time and prizes are being given

to the winners along with certificates from Srimad Poundripuram

andavan under Sri Seshadri swami's "Orondru thaane amaiyadhO" scheme.

 

Sixteen children have participated in the competition and it was a

treat to watch them performing in front of the parents and other

goshti members. Although the booklet compiled by adiyen on the life

history of acharyas was around 35 pages, the children were sharp and

shooting the answer even before the question was completed. We were

delighted at the enthusiasm of the children.

 

Day 2: (3rd Oct)

 

Being weekend here, our goshti members have assembled around 4 PM to

recite the entire Sri Desika prabandham in one sitting. It was a

great experience and every one of us enjoyed the seva kalam, which

went for 3 hours. Once in year we are doing recitation of entire

Desika prabandham although few of them are recited during every

sravanam and during anadhyayana period. You may aware that our gosthi

members Sri Ananth and Sri Narayanan have recited entire desika

prabandham and this is available in a MP3 CD. For more details visit

our web site http://srivaishnavam.com

 

Day 3 ( 5th Oct) Thirunakshatram day

 

Yesterday we have assembled at the residence of Sri V.Murali swamin

around 7 PM and the recitation commenced with Pancha suktam followed

by nityanusandhanam and Thiruvaymozhi. Sri Thiruvenkatamudaiyan's

pasurams Ozhivil kaalam and Ulagam unda peruvaayaa were recited from

Thiruvaymozhi.

 

On desika stotrams, Hayagreeva stotram, Bhagavad dhyana sopanam ,

Daya shatakam (part), Dasavatara stotram, Sristuthi and part of

Yatiraja saptathi were recited. Children's goshti have recited

Kamasikashtakam and Nyasa dasakam and adaikkalappaththu. The

recitation session concluded with recitation of Pillai andhadhi. New

stotra padam lesson was started for the children on this auspicious

Vijaya dasami day.

 

Our goshti member Sri Ananth has been sharing the meaning of Sri

stuthi slokas during every sravanam and yesterday this he has

concluded this kaimkaryam. adiyen spoke briefly on the glories of

Swami desika and why he is considered as an avataram of Lord

Srinivasa.

 

Our ladies goshti then sang Sri Oppiliappan pasurmas and many desika

prabandham pasurams set to traditional carnatic music. They have been

putting lots of efforts in the past few weeks and it was a treat to

listen to their presentation. adiyen will encode and upload them to

our site and send a note for the pleasure of your listening.

 

We had traditional thiruvaradanam and adiyen was blessed to perform

this on this occasion. Slowly more and more Saligrama moorthys are

blessing us here in Bahrain as every goshti member is inspired to do

thiruvarandana and they are bringing the moorthys from their home

after their visit to India.

 

The perumal and acharya sambhavana collection of this evening will be

sent to Thiupputkuzhi divya desam for various ongoing kaimkaryams,

which are being

coordinated thru Sri V Murali swamin.

 

Then prizes were distributed to the winners of stotra padam,

pranbandham and quiz competitions along with certificates. This time

adiyen has printed the certificates in English so that the children

can read them on their own. The children were thrilled and this

competitive spirit has kindled their interest to learn more and more

in the days to come, which was indeed the very purpose of this

competition.

 

Not to miss out to mention the delicious prasadam that was served

finally. Elaborating the menu in detail will make you feel more

hunger on this upavasam (today is ekadasi) day. Many bhagavathas have

put in great efforts to make a grand feast for the Lord Srinivasa and

Swami desikan and our sincere thanks to all of them.

 

It was close to 11 PM and for about 4 hours we were in a different

spiritual plane and the event was indeed memorable. adiyen will

upload few of the images soon in our site and send a note to the e

groups.

 

We are indeed blessed to have such a wonderful satsangh in a far away

place where the local culture is totally different. We seek the

blessings of Sriya:pathi and merciful acharyas to bless us to

continue our humble efforts to observe and train our children about

our sampradayam in a small way in this island.

 

Hope adiyen has not tested your patience.

 

regards,

 

adiyen ramanuja dasan,

VangIpuram R Venkataraghava dasan.