Report: DC: Madhva Navami Program held on 01/27/2007

February 1, 2007

Namaskara, We would like to thank all the devotees for actively participating in the Madhva Navami celebrations held in DC area on 01/27/2007 at Mangal Madir in Silver Spring MD. 1. It was indeed inspiring to witness the Bhakti poorvaka pooja by Sri Harish Bipadithaya and Sri Balakrishna Bhat to Sri Hari and Madhu AbhiSheka to Sri Pranadevaru.

2. We were treated to excellent Devara Namas by Kumari Vibha Rao and Sri Rama Rao.

3. Sri Balakrishna Bhat talked to us about the relevance of Madhva Acharya's teachings in our day-today lives and made it very clear the concept of Bheda. He described how each jiva is different in its own ways and how to celebrate this difference. He also stressed the point that the only path to moksha is to immerse oneself in thoughts of Sri Hari. Nothing happens in this universe without Hari's "prerane" he concluded.

4. Sri Harish Bipadithaya talked about importance of knowledge and devotion. How Sri Madhva Acharya attached importance of knowledge & devotion to the worship of Sri Hari. Mere knowledge alone without Bhakti is useless said Sri Harish. Both knowledge and Devotion are equally important to devote oneself to Sri Hari and they go hand in hand. It's important for us to enrich both these facets to understand and worship Sri Hari.

5. We were very happy to have amidst us Dr. Deepka Sarma, who gave us an excellent introduction to Madhva Vedanta 101 in the US academic traditions. This was indeed unique experience for many of us to see someone born and brought up in this country so passionately defending the philosophy of Sri MadhvaAcharya. It was indeed coming of full circle for him, as he was born in the nearby Suburban hospital in Bethesda MD. Hopefully he will visit us often in the future and inspire all of us. We are also thankful to him for showing us the video of Chamara Seva and Ranga Pooja of Paryaya Swamiji at Udipi.

6. As a part of the Jnana Kaarya we were happy to witness the release of two books written by Prof. BA KrishnaSwamy Rao. The books I. Madhvacharya mathu avara krithigalu ( Kannada)

II. Outlines of Philosophy of Sri Madhvacharya (English)were released by Dr. Sarma and Sri Harish.

7. We were thrilled to have His Holiness Sri 1008 Sugunendra Theertha Swamiji, Puthige Matha, Udupi give us AshirVachana on speakerphone from Allentown PA.

8. Excellent lunch by kitchen volunteers lead by chief cook Sri Bende. Many of us were treated with rare dishes including Mohan Laddu and Sambhanda for the first time.

9. The kids program got off to an excellent start. We thank all the children and mainly their parents for taking time and actively participating. The children were full of enthusiasm, especially little Sripad Acharya who described Hanuman as "Super Powerful" and "cool" in his essay "Why I like Hanuman". We hope to do more such programs and get our youngsters involved.

10. Our thanks to Q & A panel consisting of Sri. Harish, Dr.Sarma and Sri Jaya Krishna. Thanks to Sri Vasu for moderating this. The thought provoking question from the kids ' When did God become God?'. got us all thinking!

11.Special thanks to Sri Sudhindra for wonderful speakers and audio equipment. Our sincere thanks to all the volunteers who worked tirelessly for making this a grand success. Many thanks to the ladies who helped in the kitchen and patiently stood for more than an hour and served food to devotees. We hope with the blessings of Sri Hari Vayu and Gurugalu this will give us all the strength and inspiration to celebrate such occasions in the future.

You can see some of the photos here

http://tinyurl.com/2cmclb

Krishnarpanam.

Aradhana Samithi

ps: For all the DC Madhvas, we have one more celebration of Madhva Navami at Sri Siva Vishnu Temple on Sunday February 4th at 10 AM. Please make time to attend.