Report on the celebration of Shravana Maasa functions.

[Guest guest]

Hare Srinivasa

 

Shravana Masa is an auspicious month and we have many celebrations

coming throughout this month. Especially for ladies, who would like

to observe/perform various poojas and vrathas, this is a very hectic

month. All Tuesdays and Fridays in this month are very sacred for

ladies and Saturday is the day of Lord Shri Venkateshwara. More over

other holy functions like Upakarma, Shri Raghavendra swamy Aradhana,

Shri Krishna Janmastami are also coming in this month.

 

We the volunteers of SVBM/ VMS (West Coast) are trying to celebrate

this month as much as possible and here is a small report of the

following events.

 

1) July 21 st Saturday:- Hindu Sangam Day in Bay Area

2) July 28 th Saturday:- " Mangala " of " Prathama Sarga of Shri Sumadhva

Vijaya " .

3) August 3 rd Friday :- Upakarma

4) August 4 th Saturday:- Shri Raghavendra Swamy pUrva Aradhana

5) August 5 th Sunday :- Shri Raghavendra Swamy madhya Aradhana

6) August 6 th Monday:- Shri Raghavendra Swamy uththara Aradhana

7) August 11 th Saturday:- Shri Krishnastami

 

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1) July 21, Saturday : The first Saturday of Shravana Masa happened to

be the grand day of " Hindu sangam " , a day long cultural show,

organized by 'Hindu Swayam Sevak Sangha'(HSS) with the help of all the

other Indian associations in the Bay area. It was a remarkable

function with a grand show of Ramayana by 300 kids and many other

cultural events by local groups /artists. The VMS team helped the

organizers as volunteers and took care of the " cloak room facility " for

the visitors. Additionally two volunteers had joined the organizers

in the previous night to set up the dais and decorate the venue.

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2) July 28th, Saturday : On this auspicious Saturday, the team

celebrated the " Mangala " of " Prathama Sarga of Shri Sumadhva Vijaya " .

For all of us, it was highly unrealistic to think of getting a 'Guru'

in this country, to teach us a classic text in the traditional way. By

Lord's grace, we are very fortunate to have Shri Madhava Rao Padaki

here, teaching us Shri Sumadhva Vijaya. For many of us, who never

dreamt of studying any of the classic texts, this is a life time

opportunity. Shri Madhava Rao Padaki is immensely interested to teach

us and we are having classes thrice a week in the evening. It is

quite amazing to see that all the students, inspite of their hectic

schedules and work, are quite eager and enthusiastic to attend the

classes regularly. Shri Padaki's vast experience and deep knowledge

in Madhva Siddantha, due to his association with great scholars and

swamijis back at home, combined with his orating power, enriched with

the technique of encapsulating variety of related things from all

corners of literature and daily life examples, makes the class very

lively and interesting. I can no way do justice by trying to explain

the value of these classes where along with Sumadhva Vijaya, we

learning Ramayana, MahaBharatha, Bhagavatha , Puranas and what not.

 

We started the class on Monday July 9th and celebrated the

Mangala of " Prathama Sarga " on July 28th. The program started at 4:00

p.m with invocation by Smt Subhasheshagiri, with a prayer on Lord

Venkatesh on the occasion of ' Shravana Shanivara'. Shri Padaki

continued the regular class and taught us the last few shlokas, as

usual in detail and then briefly summarized the whole sarga by

narrating the meaning of each shloka one by one. Shri Padaki

highlighted the importance 'parayana' of the prathama sarga and for the

benefit of students he has brought the audio cassette of " Sumadhva

Vijaya " , chanted by his Guru Shri Kallapur Gururajaacharya. All the

students recited the whole sarga in tune with the cassette and learnt

the proper punctuations and pronunciation. For pooja, a small stage

with photo of Shri Madhva was prepared earlier itself. The copies of

'Sumadhva Vijaya' used by the students were collected and

established next to Shri Acharya Madhva. Shri Padaki performed

Mangalarathi to Shri Vyasa Devaru, Shri Acharya Madhva and to the

books. Shri Balakrishna, Shri Harish chanted " mantrapuspha " and all

devotees offered puspha,akshatha to Lord Shri Vedavyasa and Shri

Acharya. As part of the event, a quiz competition was conducted on

the topics discussed in the classes by Shri Gopalkrishna. Thanks to

Shri Gopalkrishna for this great preparation which was splendid. The

participants were divided into three groups namely Hanuma, BhIma,

Madhva and questions were asked on various topics. Few typical questions

were as follows.

 

a) The mangla shloka of Sumadhva Vijaya starts with the wording

" kanthaya kalyana .. " . Tell any other famous shloka with these two

words in the same order.

b) List all the different postures of Lord Hanuman's idols or photos.

c) Name the all characters appeared in the first Sarga, excluding

'parashukla trayaru'.

d) How ShriRama appreciated Shri Hanaumanth during their first meeting?

e) Who is Seethakruthi?

f) Why Sri Rama gave the " ring " (instead of any other item) to Shri

Hanuma to show that to Shri Seethakruthi?

g) List all the " devaranama " on Shri Mukhyprana or Shri Anjaneya ?

and so on.../

 

The 'BhIma' team became the winner and 'Hanuma' team was runner. Next

Shri Padaki distributed 'pala thambUla' to all the devotees and that

marked the end of the day.

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3) August 3, Friday : Upakarma: Another remarkable event in this month

is the celebration of Upakarma. Once again it is Shri Padaki's

interest and enthusiasm which made another memorable day for all

devotees. Though it was a regular working day, 20 devotees assembled

in Shri Padaki's apartment at 8:30a.m to perform 'Uthsarjana' and

'Upakarma'. . This program was planned for both 'Rug' and 'Yajur' Veda

people and accordingly Shri Padaki has already given clearly

instructions about the things to be brought for each groups. Shri

Padaki guided the team through the following steps.

 

a) Shri Ganapathi pooja. Shri Padaki performed avahana & pooja and

afterwards each individual offered their pooja and prayers.

b) Shri Lord Vedavyasa pooja was performed by 'aavahana' on a

'kalasa' and the traditional 'shodashopachara' seva was offered.

c) 'Rushi pooja' was done separately for both branches. For 'Rug' veda

branch, SriHari performed 'Rushi pooja' for seven great sages and

to Shri Arundathi while Balu performed pooja for nine 'Rushis' on

behalf of " Yajur " Veda branch.

d) Next all individuals offered pooja to Shri Vedavyasa and " Rushis "

and offered their 'yajnOpavItha' to Shri Vedavyasa and 'Rushis'.

e) As a part of 'Uthsarjana', 'Vedapata' patana was done by chanting

one sentence / shloka of all the traditional holy scriptures starting

from 'Brahma suthra' and whatever the sastra study done so far was

offered to Lord for his consideration.

f) The ' Deva tarpanas', 'Rushi tarpna', 'yama tarpana' were offered

individually and the 'dhana of yajnOpavItha' to 'guru' and 'brahmana'

was done by each one.

g) The traditional prasada made up of 'rice flour' and 'buttermilk' for

'Rug Veda' people and 'Rice flour and jaggery' for 'Yajur Veda'

people were distributed to respective people.

h) The last part of the program was 'dharana' of 'yajnOpavItha'. Shri

Padaki chanted the 'mantra' and guided the group. Devotees are asked

to do ' visarjana' of old yajnOpavItha the next day after performing

maximum possible number of 'Gayathri' japa.

i) Next for eligible people, Shri Padaki guided performance of 'pitru

tharpana'.

 

Hence with all traditional procedures except for 'homa', the 'upakarma'

was performed for both veda shaka and everyone was very grateful to

Shri Padaki for taking all the efforts to conduct this program.

 

4) August 4th Saturday: Shri Raghavendra Swamy pUrva Aradhana: We are

blessed to get an opportunity to celebrate Shri Rayara Aradhna at Shri

Rajiv's residence. Rajiv and Madhva, (the bachelor pair) with the

help of Smt & Sri Vijay had done all preparation well in advance for

the celebration. The house had a unique look with colorful decorations

for the aradhana. The day started with sthothra parayana of Shri

Venkatesha sthothra and continued with Shri Vishnu sahasra nama.

During Shri Hari Vayu sthuthi punascharana, honey -abhisheka to

Shri Mukyaprana was done by all devotees. Sthothra parayana continued

with Taratamya shlokas. Later Shri Raghavendra sthothra was chanted 9

times and on the last round Shri Raghavendra Ashtakshara was recited

108 times and honey abhisheka was performed to icon of Shri

Raghavendra swamy. Sthothra patana continued with Shri Raghavendra

Mangalastaka and Shri Vijayarayara Kavacha.

 

Next Shri Madhava Rao padaki addressed the gathering on " Shri

Raghavendra vaibhava " . Shri Padaki categorically condemned the people

performing magic in the name of God. He explained in clear terms how

Shri Raghvendra swamy is totally different from any other so called

'God-man' who are self centered and never help people to reach God.

Shri Padaki explained the life history of Shri Raghavendra swamy, his

works, his contributions to madhva tradition and his kindness towards

suffering people. Shri Raghavendra swamy grants the needs of the

devotees with the sole intention that they should come out of this

worldly responsibilities as early as possible and start concentrating

on God. It is like tempting kids with a chocolate to do namaskara to

God /elders. But a true devotee should seek nothing but jnana, bhakthi

and vairagya. No doubt that Shri Rayaru knows what is the need of

hour and grants that to a true devotee. Shri Padaki's talk was highly

impressive and enlightening.

 

Next Shri Padaki performed Maha mangalarathi to Shri Lord Hari, Shri

Mukhyaprana and Shri Rayaru. Manthrapushpa was chanted and

akshatha-flower was offered to Lord and Shri Rayaru. Then it was the

time for 'thirTha prasada'. Special thanks to Smt Jyoti, Vijay, Usha and

Shubha who prepared delicious lunch for the program. As usual, the lunch

time was filled with bhajans and songs.

 

After a short brake, the afternoon session started with taratamya

Bhajans. Smt Subha Sheshagiri with her melodious voice, brought a new

flavor to the spiritual session. After bhajan, the day was concluded

with mangalarathi and 'lali' pada for Shri Hari and Shri Rayaru. Since

the volunteers have to be ready early next morning, the day was

concluded a little early in the late evening.

 

( to be continued ...)

 

For SVBM

http://www.svbm.org

 

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