Sri Ahobila Matam Annual Acharya Day Celebration

[Guest guest]

Namo Narayana

 

Srimathe Sri Lakshminrusimha Parabrahmane Nama:

Srimathe Sri Lakshminrusimha Divya Paduka Sevaka Srivansatakopa Sri

Narayanayathindra Mahadesikaya Nama:

 

Sri Ahobila Matam USA celebrated its annual Acharya Day function during the

Labor Day Weekend at Sri Ranganatha Temple in Pomona New York. Sri Ranganatha

Temple invited Sri Ahobila Matam USA to hold the Acharya Day celebration at

their temple and as per the niyamanam of the current Srimad Azhgiyasingar, the

two-day event was held there. The event was conducted in the true tradition of

the Sri Ahobila Matam with many sishyas and abhimanis getting together for the

event to pay their reverence to the great Acharya Sampradayam. All this was

possible due to the anugraham of our Acharyas.

 

The first day began with a ceremonious welcome to Sri Dolai Kannan of Sri

Ahobila Matam. Sri Dolai Kannan was welcomed inside the temple with

poornakumbham maryadhai and by the vigrahas of Sri Adi Vansatakopan, Sri Mukkur

Azhagiyasingar and the prakrutham Srimad Azhagiyasingar. Sri Kannan was then

taken around the temple praakaaram in a procession and was later taken inside

the sanctum sanctorum of Sri Ranganatha's shrine.

 

Navakalasa Thirumanjanam was performed for Sri Dolai Kannan, Sri Ranganathar and

Thayar along with the goshti reciting Vedam and Divyaprabandham. This was

followed by Satrumurai as per the tradition of Sri Ahobila Matam reciting the

thaniyans of the entire lineage of our 45 Acharyas.

 

After a sumptuous lunch, the cultural events focusing on Srivaishnava

Sampradayam began with the anugrahabashanam (audio recording) of Srimad

Azhagiyasingar. Srimad Azhagiyasingar wished the event a success and blessed all

the devotees who attended the function. A multimedia presentation highlighting

the greatness of Sri Ahobila Mata Acharya Sampradaym was presented. Sri Oragadam

Lakshmi Nrusimhan of the Selaiyur patasala of Sri Ahobila Matam gave a

scintillating account of the life of the Acharyas, history of the matam and its

institutions in the presentation. This provided a good start to the cultural

events and the audience was thrilled to witness photo and video excerpts from

various past functions at the Srimatam in India.

 

Later, the essence of Srimad Bagavad Gita was very well presented by Sri

S.M.S.Chari, a Srimatam sishya and an acknowledged authority on sampradayic

philosophy. This was followed by a drama on the life of Azhvars by a group of

children from Boston. The audience was enthused to witness the re-enactment of

the life of Azhvars. RPI raga group, a music group from Boston made up young

adults, all born and brought up in the US, presented a carnatic music concert,

which was well appreciated.

 

After the drama and music, it was time for some debate. The debate titled " Is

Bagavath Anubhavam greater from Sanskrit or Tamil works? " was entertaining and

informative. The team debating for the Sanskrit works, quoted texts from Vedam,

Upanishad and other great Sanskrit works and brought out beautifully the

significance of the language while the team for Tamil, highlighted the

language's ability to bring out the inherent anubavams in the works. The

argumentative debate, deeply engrossed the audience. Though the majority of the

audience voted for Tamil, the chair for the debate, Sri S.M.S Chari, summed up

the significance of the two languages and brought out beautifully, the

importance of both the languages.

 

The engaging debate was followed by a mellifluous veena rectial by Sri.

Swaminathan Natarajan as Dolothsavam for Sri Kannan was performed. Evening

aradhanam and satrumurai was followed by an elaborate sayanotsavam for Dolai

Kannan. It was a sight that will be etched in the minds of everyone present to

see our small Dolai Kannan lying down majestically in this large Dolai (swing)

with many singing lullabies for Perumal.

 

The next morning started with Navakalasa Thirumanjanam for Sri Dolai Kannan, Sri

Ranganathar, Andal and the 1 st, 44th and 45th Azhagiyasingars. Sri Dolai

Kannan showered the moorthies of the three acharyas with sahasradharai

abishekam. Sri Kannan was placed in the sahsradharai. While holding the

sahsradharai, thirumanjanam was performed for Sri Dolai Kannan with the water

flowing from Kannan, showering the Acharya moorthies. The elaborate

thirumanjanam was performed with Vedam, Divyaprabhandha parayanam and kattiyam

recital.

 

Day two of the cultural events began again with the replaying of the

anugrahabashanam by Srimad Azhagiyasingar for the benefit of those who missed

the first day event. A play on the life of Sri Alavandhar was enacted by a group

of sishyas and abhimanis from Washington D C. The audience enjoyed it very much.

The play was followed by a display of talent by small children born and brought

up in the United States, Tiny tots and young children recited slokas, sang songs

and it was heartening to see them perform and look forward with hope about the

future of our sampradayam in the United States. The excitement continued with

the return of the favorite game " Jeopardy " . The game quizzed the participants

and audience on Divyadesams, Vedantham, Acharya's Tirunakshtrams, Prabhandams

and Azhvars. This game was followed by yet another popular game, Anthakshari on

Prabandhams.

 

Shri. Prasanna, a disciple of Shri.TN.Seshagopalan presented a soul- stirring

concert. The bava-laden concert was filled with prabandha pasurams and

kirthanams on Perumal and Thayar. This was followed by a brief concert by Shri

Ravi Srinivasan who treated the audience to some lilting kirthanams.

 

The two-day event's yet another highlight was purapadu inside the temple for

Sri.Dolai Kannan to the recitation of madal. Arthi was performed to Sri. Kannan

in all the shrines of the temple to the recitation of Gopala Vimsathi. The

audience's joy knew no bounds on witnessing this divine event. As usual, this

was followed by evening aradhanam and sayanotsavam for Perumal

 

As is the tradition at Srimatam, delectable food was served for both days for

breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. The quality and quantity of the food served

was grand. Sri Ahobila matam sincerely thanks all the volunteers at Sri

Ranganatha Temple, who performed an excellent kainkaryam in preparing and

serving food. Every devotee's need was taken care of. True to the tradition of

our Sampradayam, the volunteer's witheld their desire to take part in the

religious activity and witness the cultural events to prepare the food and take

care of the needs of the devotees.

 

This concluded the annual event with every devotee that attended the

celebrations leaving with great memories and a token gift from Sri Ahobila

Matam. As the event ended, Sri Ranganatha Temple invited Sri Kannan and Sri

Ahobila Matam to hold their annual Acharya day events every year from now on at

the temple.

 

 

-srimath azhagiyasingar thiruvadigale saranam

adiyEn Rajaji