Acharya ThiruNakshatram's W-DC Celebration. - Report

[Guest guest]

sri:

Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama: Jai SreemanNarayana!

 

 

With the Divine Mangalasasanams of

HH Sri Vanamamalai Ramanuja Jeeyar Swami

HH Sri Tridandi Srimannarayana Chinna Ramanuja JeeyarSwami

HH Sri SriRanga Narayana Ramanuja Jeeyar Swami

HH Sri Thirukkovalur Ramanuja Jeeyar Swami

Sri. U.Ve Srirangam Narasimhachari Swami

Sri. U.Ve. E.S.Bhuvarahachariar Swami

Sri. U.Ve. A.V.Rangachariar Swami

Sri. U.Ve. Thiruppullani Sundarajan Swami

Sri. U.Ve. T.K.Choodamani Swami

Sri. U.Ve. Velukkudi Krishnan Swami

Sri. U.Ve. Thirukoshtiyur Madhavan Swami

Sri. U.Ve. BadriNarayana Parasara Bhattar Swami

Sri. U.Ve. Kanchee Akkarakkani Srinidhi Swami

Sri. U.Ve. E.S. Sriram Swami

 

AchAryA thirunakshattiram Celebrations in VenkatEsvara

svAmi temple, Washington DC (JET USA)

http://www.jetwashingtondc.com/ went very well.

 

Photos at: http://ibiblio.org/ramanuja/utsavams/

 

It was a very good weekend. The function started

on Friday evening with Sevakalam for the Lord,

devotees chanted thiruppallandu,

kanninunchiruththaambu, ozivil kalam and ulagam unda

peruvaayaa for the the Lord. After the Saayarakshai

(evening thiruvaradhanam) devotees took part in the sattrumurai.

 

Just after a very few moments of introductions, the devotees were

together like one family with so many brothers and sisters.

Volunteers were putting together the folders

containing dhivyaprabhandams, stotra patam and rahasya granthams

which was to be chanted in the next three sessions of the function.

 

Srimathi Vasanthi Ammangar was like elder sister to all of

us. She had earlier made uppuma for the devotees who

were coming in on Friday afternoon/ evening.

The way she took care of the devotees and their aharam (prasadam)

needs was exceptional.

 

Saturday early morning 6:30 am devotees started with

thiruvaradhanam to Perumal, Azhvar and acharyas.

Then the thirai (screen) was laid and then the preparation

for the thirumanjanam started. Sri Yogendar svami made

the preparations for the thirumanjanam exceptionally

well. Particular thing to be noted here is that he

took care of the perumal exactly as a mother would

take care of her child. The Goshti for sEvA kAlam

(thiruppavai sattrumurai) and thirumanjanam at the

temple on Saturday morning had the whole temple

captivated. The Veda Parayanam and Arulicheyal Goshti

was synchronous and as good as at many Dhivya Desams.

After that the Iravadai theertham was given and the

devotees started to the mandapam (school hall)after

the balabogam.

 

By 9am alankaram for perumal took place and

Perumal, Azhvar and acharyas were ready for

the mandapam. sri Yogendar svami went ahead to the Hall,

and made sure the arrangement were proper and did the stala suddhi.

Once perumal reached the mandapam they took their place and

were ready to hear the Arulicheyal.

Surprise! surprise! The children from Prajna wanted to chant the

podhu thaniyans first and later after vedha vinnappam

the regular start of the Arulicheyal can happen.

The prajna kids started in unison with

asmath gurubyo nama: and started chanting

Srisailesa daya paathram……pranathosmi nityam.

And after that sri Yogendar svami did the sankalpam and Veda vinnappam

for the first session. While Yogendar svami did the

veda vinnappam Sri Mukundan svami did the Arulappadu

to all the Vedas, ithihasa and Arulicheyal. The gosti

chanted Muthal, Irandam and Moonram thiruvanthathi.

Sri Paramahansetyathi Chinna ramanuja Jeeyar Svami

graced the devotees over the tele-bridge in this occasion and blessed all of us

with

his anugraha bhashanam speecha on Deepavali,

Mudhalazvar and the two acharyas Loka Desikan and

Manavala mamunikal.

 

The parayana goshti, led by Sri Nallan Chankravarthy Narasimhan Swamin,

had most of the participants captivated and some of us in tears.

 

The dedication & devotion that we saw in many devotees

is truly inspirational. Their committment to perform

service to the lord and HIS devotees is very

motivational. They performed kainkariyam with

about 3 to 4 hours of sleep or less on all three days.

 

The Goshti consisted of the following:

 

>From WDC:

Swamins: Sri Ravi Aharam, Sri Seshu Kosure, Sri Venu

Eunni, Sri T. Balaji, Sri Vijaya Raghavan, Sri Padmanabhan

Rangaswamy, Sri Natathur Mathavan, Sri Anand

Vangipuram, Sri Uppili Gopalan, Sri Thirumalai and others.

 

>From Other Cities:

Swamins: Sri Narasimhan NC, Sri Varadan (Kanchee) Sri

SampathKumar Padmanabhan, Sri Gunaseelan Venkatachari, Sri TCA

Venkatesan, Sri Sridhar Sowmiyan, Sri Sriram

(triplicane) Sri Santharam RD, Sri Srinivas Ponnala,

Sri Mukundan VP, Sri Sundar Saranathan, Sri Anand

Srinivasan, Sri Venkat Thirunarayanachari, Sri Vimal

Kumar Ranganathan, Sri Manivannan Madhurai, Sri

Ramanan, Sri Rajmannar, Sri Giri Kesavan VP, Sri

Balaji Srinivasan, Sri Kalyan Rapolu, Sri Aditya NC.

 

Andal Goshti: Ammangars: Smt. Sarada Sripada,

Smt Chitra Madhavan, Smt Sheela Belur (Ranganayaki),

Smt. Vasanthi, Smt. Deepa Sridhar,

Smt. Mrs. Janaki SampathKumar , Smt. Apurva Srinivasan.

 

With Sri Uppili Gopalan Swamin leading the Munnadi and

Sri Narasimhan Swamin leading the Pinnadi, the Ramanuja Nootrandadi

and Upadesa Ratna malai goshti had adiyen in tears, we

could see sri NC Narasimhan and other devotees wiping

the tears off their eyes as well. It was truly a

moving experience. Devotees who witnessed this service

to the lord would definitely cherish this

experience.This goshti was comparable to the

Thiruvalikkeni & Kancheepuram dhivyaprabhanda Goshti.

Atmosphere was charged and electric, people were

extremely doused in devotion.

You could see tears flowing down the eyes of so many

grown ups. At the Sattumurai the utsavam Perumal had a

smile on his face.

So many devotees were in tears while witnessing this.

 

Before Sattumurai devotees performed paduka Aradhana

of HH Sri Tridandi Srimannarayana Chinna Ramanuja

Jeeyar Swami. Sri Yogender Swami and Seshavathar Swami

(from Atlanta) performed this kainakriyam. Vasanthi

Ammangar and Sri Ravi Swamin led the session for

devotees. During the Paduka Aradhana, a few flowers

fell from Mamunikal to the plate. As if Mamunikal came

to bless our ChinnaJeeyar Swami. Some devotees came

and told adiyen, it was Swamivaru (Chinnajeeyar swami)

who came here to bless us, hence the flowers moved and

fell at the paduka.

 

Earlier that day Bhajans were led by Sri VimalKumar

Ranganathan beautifully with the Dhol. He also led the Shayana

songs for the lord at night. Sri Santharam and Sri Anand Srinivasan also

led bhajan sessions with devotion.

 

The Prajna kids performed the bhajans with utmost

devotion which was felt by everyone present. The were disciplined and

were full of eagerness to learn. All the devotees wanted to go

and talk to these kids of Acharyas and their experiences.

 

The way Lord was taken care by the priest, Sri Yogender Swami was

moving. Sri. Yogender Swami is a model for all others to follow for his

sincerity, dedication, anushtanam and love of perumal.

He took care of the lord completely as you take care

of a child.He would take care of the cooking and

cleaning for the lord as well by himself.He also

insisted on cooking and serving the prasadams by

himself for all the devotees. It was unbeleivable to

see such a priest in the US. JET Washigton DC is

fortunate to have sri Yogender Swami. But in Sri

Yogender Swami's words "I am fortunate to be of

service to my acharya". Our experiences with the

priest was very moving indeed.

 

Two right hands for the priest, Sri Venu and Sri Seshu

were by the side of sri Yogender Swami at all times

helping him with all the local needs.

Adiyen would request devotees to visit this temple and

part take in kainkariyams with the local goshti.

The local volunteers did a tremendous job of hosting

and transporting all the devotees.

Words are ineffective to say gratitude to them.

 

For those of us who witnessed it, the whole sequence will stay in our

hearts, and be a part of our fond memories for the rest of our lives.

 

We were blessed to have JetUSA- WDC Chapter host the

event. Smt Vasanthi Ammangar & Sri Ravi Aharam Swamin worked

tirelessly to make sure the event went on smoothly.

 

Heartfelt special appreciation to Vasanthi Ammangar

and her volunteers for running the Kitchen (so many bhaktas were saying

thanks to Anna Data.) Our appreciations also to

"Transportation team Volunteers" and to "Pupshpa volunteers".

 

We Look forward to more of these functions,

and more participation from the younger generation.

 

"View Azhvar and Acharya Thirunakshatrams"

"in Washington DC. November 05th and 06th 2005"

"http://www.vedics.net/utsavam"

 

Azhvar Emberumanar Jeeyar ThiruvadigalE Saranam