Fwd: VMS conference in MI

[Guest guest]

Reposted at the request of Smt. Shobha Gopalakrishna. -- SR

 

> Brief report of Second Baktha Sammelana of VMS( VISHWA MADHWA SAMMELANA)

>organized by Michigan Chapter.

>

> The second Bhaktha Sammelana of VMS was organized during memorial day

>weekend in Bharathiya Temple, Troy, Michigan. It was a wonderful experience

>and the memorial day week end was indeed very much memorable for all the

>participants. Here is a small report of activities for the benefit of

>others.

>

> The Sammelana was held on Sunday, 30th May. As a prefix to this

>event, a devotional music concert by Shri Vidyabhushana was arranged on the

>previous evening, Saturday, 29th May. The concert was highly devotional

>with the melodious voice of Vidyabhushana and all the devotees are very

>much delighted with the various 'Devara namas' sung by Shri Vidyabhushan.

>Though the voice of VidyaBhushana was very much familiar to the crowd

>thorugh his cassettes, lisenting to him directly was some thing very much

>special. Shri Vidyabhushana created a special mindset of devotion in the

>audience with the chanting of shlokas and prayers. Thus the concert

>provided a sort of sound base of dedication and devotion for the next day

>activities.

>

> On Sunday 30th May, the Sammelana was inaugurated by Shri

>Vidyabhushana with Mangalarathi to Lord Krishna. Shri Vidyabhushan chanted

>few shlokas and sang a Devaranama. He talked few words about importance of

>Bhakthi and how Bhakti is very much essential for Mukthi. He also narrated

>about his various activities to promote Bhakthi through Bhakthi Prathistan

>founded by him. Next event of the day was " Sthothra parayana " in chorus.

>Shri Gopinath Galagalli led the team. All participants were given a small

>booklet to follow the chanting. The group started chanting Venkatesh

>Suprabatha, Venkatesh sthothra, Thaiththariya upanishad, Purusha Suktha,

>Shri Vishnu Sahasra Nama, Shri Dwadasha sthothra, Sri Dasavathara Sthuthi,

>Shri Krishnastaka, Shri Harivayu stuthi, Gurusmarane and concluded with

>Krishnarpana. It was really a wonderful experience to listen to the whole

>group including the ladies team, chanting the shlokas and sthothras in

>front of Lord Laxmi Narayana in the temp!

>le.

>

> The next session was for Bhajans. Shri Vidyabhushana released

>a Devara-nama Book and an audio cassette. The team from Washington had put

>a good amount of efforts to bring out a beautiful book containing

>Devara-nama in English and Kannada. With the help of cassette and the book,

>all non kannada people can easily learn of Devaranama. The team has

>also prepared beautiful stickers containing simple but most meaningful

>messages " naaham kartha- Hari Karhta " and " Vishnu Preranaya- Vishnu

>Preethyartham " both in English and Sanskrit. All these items were freely

>distributed to the participants to enhance their Sadhana. Next, the

> " Sankeerthana Vranda " , a local team of singers, continued devotional

>session with Bhajans.

>

> The last event of the morning session was an open speech by Shri

>Vasu Murthy on " Madhwa Philosophy " in English. This speech was meant for

>all the temple audience and general public too. Shri Vasumurthy

>highlighted the main principles of Madhwa philosophy and explained how it

>is more relevent and applicable to logical thinking and individual

>experiences. The supremacy of God, the differences between each and

>everything in the world, the trueness of existence of world etc can be

>experienced by every one. Logically also Shri Madhwa provides enough

>evidences to prove that whatever has been said by other philosophical

>schools or doctrines are not perfect.

>

> The morning session was concluded for the distribution of

> " Prasad " . The home made food was highly delicious and reminded everyone of

>the grand lunch of marriages in India. All the participants were

>extremely happy with the lunch served. Some one was mentioning that the

>heavy food is going to make every one sleepy in the afternoon session.

>Thanks to all ladies who spent early morning hours in the kitchen, to

>prepare variety of dishes.

>

> In the afternoon session, we had four lecture sessions and kids

>program. Shri Muralidhara, president of Michigan chapter led the sessions.

>The first topic was " Hari Sarvoththamathva " by Shri Gopinath Galagalli who

>narrated this topic with two shlokas which contains the essence of whole

>Baghavatha. With his propound knowledge about various scriptures, Shri

>Galagalli went on describing beautifully how " Harisarvoththamathva " is

>being explained in Veda, Upanishad, Mahabharatha, Bhagavadgeetha, Sthotras,

>Keerthanas etc. With many illustrating examples of day to day life, Shri

>Galagalli's speech was highly impressive and educative and the audience

>were very curious to listen for some more time.

>

> Next we had kid's program. It was highly amazing to see a lot of

>kids chanting slokas, singing Bhajans and sthothras. It is worth

>mentioning few of them, who have impressed the audience very much many of

>them are less than 5-6 years. Samhitha, Swetha, Mukunda, Sindu, Navaneetha,

>Anagha, Adishesha, Lavanya, Monisha and Sandeepa performed very well.

>Though all these kids are born and brought up in this country, they all are

>being well trained by their parents and are getting good exposure of Madhwa

>culture and heritage. Another attraction of this session was excellent

>performance of Bharathanatyam by Manasa Muralidhara. The talent of this

>upcoming artist surely needs special acknowledgment.

>

> After a short break, the lecture sesion was continued by Shri

>Madhusudhan's speech on " Veda apourusheyathva " . Shri Madhusudhan very

>clearly explained about Vedas, their teachings and how all of them are

>acknowledging Madhwa Philosophy. It was highly educative and enlightening,

>to listen to Shri Madhusudhan who had formal education about all the

>scriptures at his very young age by well-known scholars. The next session

>was by Shri Jayakrishna about " Brahma Memamsa " . Shri Jayakrishna explained

>very clearly in simple terms what is Brahma Memamsa. He narrated

>methodically how and why it is very important in our " sadhana " , quoting

>various scriptures of Shri Jayatheertha, Shri Raghavendra swamiji etc.

>Jijnasa or inquiry process is very very important in anyone's sadhana and

>one has to go on educating himself about true meaning of life. Shri

>Jayakrishna explained that Shri Acharya did not start a new cult. Shri

>Acharya is not for or against any school of Philisophy. Shri Acha!

>rya is only for those things which are in Veda and he is againt anything

>which is non-vedic. Shri Jayakrishna briefly touched upon the first five of

>Brahmasuthras. Listening to Shri Jayakrishna was highly enlightening. Shri

>Jayakrishna hails from a higly scholar's family and had formal education

>about our scriptures by his own brother.

>

> The next session was by Shri Aralumallige Parthasarathy. We were very

>lucky to have Aralumallige Parthasarathy, with us on that day. He had

>changed his schedule to attend this program to enlighten the devotees

>about Dasa sahithya. Shri Parthasarathy does not need any introduction to

>any of us. He is a moving encyclopedia of Dasa sahithya. He is going around

>the world, propagating and spreading Dasa Sahithya. On this occasion Viswa

>Madhwa Sangha honored him with the title " Dasa Sahithya Pracharaka " and

>acknowledged his rich contribution to Dasa Sahithya. Shri Srinivas Bhat

>read the award and all the office bearers of VMS presented it to Shri

>Parthsarathy. Next Shri Parthasarathy started his lecture touching upon

>the greatness of Madhwa philosophy and explained how Shri Acharya Madhwa

>gave importance to the present life. He also explained about various other

>great people who started, contributed and enriched the Dasa sahithya. He

>praised the VMS activities and coined !

>new phrase that VMS stands for 'Vishnu, Mahalaxmi and Sarvadevathegalu'. He

>concluded his speech with a request to everyone for doing something

>collectively for propagation of Madhwa siddantha and Dasa sahithya.

>

> The last item of the Sammelana was discussion about the future

>plans and activities. Shri Vasumurhty briefed upon various plans and

>projects and Shri Sudhendra explained about WEB based activites and the

>session was concluded.

>

> The highlight of this sammelana was that a team of nearly 25 members

>had come from Washington DC. There are many other guests from neighboring

>states Ohio, Pensilveniya etc. This is the second function being hosted by

>Michigan Chapter of VMS. Lot of volunteers helped in hosting the

>outstation guests and made their stay quite pleasant and homely. Ladies

>wing took all the care to see that guests were served with the best food.

>The Michigan team has once again demonstrated their dedication in the

>service of Vishnu Bhaktas. All credits goes to Smt Nalini and Shri

>Srinivas Bhat, Smt Geetha and Shri Muralidhara, Smt Shobha Maddur and Shri

>Suresh, Smt Jayashri and Shri Madhusudhan Smt Anjana and Shri Gopinath,

>Smt Sndhya Prasanna, Smt Sudhna Srinivas, Smt Shobha Manohar and many many

>others who spared nothing to make this function a grand success.

>

> It is our sincere wish and request too that people from other states

>also start conducting such Sammelana and strengthen the Madhwa philosophy.

 

 

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