Kumbhamela planned at Pampa

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Kumbhamela planned at Pampa Festival to be held next year PATHANAMTHITTA: The Ayyappa Unity Movement (AUM), a newly formed confederation of various Ayyappa devotees' organisations in the State, will organise its first Sabari Kumbhamela at Pampa on the foothills of Sabarimala in 2007. At its first meeting at the Pandalam Palace on Saturday, the AUM executive committee decided to conduct the proposed Kumbhamela once in 12 years, on the lines of the famous Kumbhamela of Allahabad. Pandalam Palace managing committee president P. Ramavarma Raja and Swami Ayyappadas were elected president and secretary respectively of the new organisation. Hindu Aikyavedi organising secretary Kummanam Rajashekharan presented a project proposal for the propagation of the Ayyappa cult and to spread the message of Harivarasanam, when the popular divine lullaby is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2006-'07. According to Mr. Rajashekharan, the Harivarasanam lyrics written by Kambakkudy Sundareswara Aiyer was first sung in Sabarimala by Vimochananda Swami in 1956 and hence the AUM decision to observe 2006 as the Golden Jubilee year of the hymn. The AUM would hold a congregation of Guruswamis— Guruswami Sangamom— in Pandalam on November 5 and the Guruswamis from different parts of the country

would attend the ceremony, Mr. Raja said. He said the organisation would observe 2006 as the year to propagate the message and philosophy of the Harivarasanam lullaby through a systematic house-contact programme by its volunteers. Swami Ayyappadas said that full-time volunteers would be deployed for the propagation of Ayyappa-dharma and the AUM would organise a 10-day workshop for them at Erumely on July 20. The organisation would also reach a picture of Lord Ayyappa and the sacred Vibhooti (holy ash) to not less than one-lakh households in the State in 2006, he said. He said the AUM volunteers would also conduct house-contact programmes in the tribal as well as backward class settlements as part of its mission to spread the Ayyappa cult in the coming months. He said that the AUM

would open 1,500 Ayyappa Gurukulams in different parts of the State and each Gurukulam would start a Manikanta Patasala attached to it. The former Sabarimala Melsanthi Subrahmaniyan Namboodiri lighted the ceremonial lamp at the meeting. Akhila Bharata Ayyappa Seva Sanghom vice-president N. Paramasivam Nair, Ambalappuzha Periyor Chandrashekharan Nair, S. Ramesan Nair, poet, PPMC secretary P. Rajaraja Varma, Kerala Sanyasi Sabha secretary Swami Prasanthananda, Ayyappa Dharma Sanghom general secretary Harihara Chaitanya, Erumely Ayyapa Bhakta Samithi secretary N.B. Unnikrishnan and noted singer Jayan were among those who attended the AUM meeting. \ Proud to be a Hindu Hindu Pride will lead to Hindu

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