On Saturday, 20th June, about 100 children from AP Model School, Hyderabd from 7th and 8th standard came by for a 1.5 hour namasankirtan session, accompanied by their teachers.
The Nama Sankirtan started at 10:15AM and after Sri Rama darshan, all the participants assembled in front of Sri Goda Devi sannidhi. The satsang was filled with stories about the faith of the Hunter who “caught” Sri Narasimha and showed him to the saint meditating and the story of Sri Ramanuja who shouted the name of Narayana in front of people from all castes, though his Guru mentioned that he might land up in Naraka for that.
The mahamantra chanting continued for more time, and wound up with three pradakshinas of Sri Rama’s shrine with all 100s singing the mahamantra at a high pitch.
The satsang was joined by Balaji and Karthikeyan from the satsang.
By the grace of the Guru and the Lord, the satsang members in Bangalore started the weekly Nagara Sankirtan on Sunday, the 22nd June.
At about 7:30 am, the Nagara Sankirtan that started at the Kanchi Mutt and concluded at the Anjaneya Temple near Malleswaram railway station. About 40 satsang members and devotees participated in the event.
The Nagara Sankirtan will be a regular weekly activity on every Sunday between 7:30 am and 8:30 am, at different venues every week. Any one who is interested in having Nagara Sankirtan in their residential area can contact Ms. Lakshmi (Ph: 9845341975) or Mr. Murali (Ph: 9449636835).
Regular Mahamantra Kirtan is also done at the Shirdi Sai Mandir on Sampige Road in Malleswaram every Sunday evening between 7 and 7:30 pm.
Towards world peace and prosperity of everyone, a mass prayer was performed in the presence of His Holiness Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji at Thanjavur on the 9th of December, 2007.
Sri Sri Swamiji gave a powerful discourse on the greatness of the Divine Name. In the course of His lecture, He went to show how as simple a sadhana as Mahamantra Kirtan can bring about not only worldly comforts, but also help in liberation.
The event took place in Annamalai Kalyana Mandapam, which is located on the Medical College Road in Thanjavur. About 1500 people thronged the venue to attend the satsang.
The hall was packed with more than twice its capacity with devotees who came from different parts of the Thanjavur and surrounding areas to listen to Sri Sri Swamiji’s speech. At the end of the discourse was a mass prayer in which all the devotees blissfully chanted the Mahamantra and performed prayers.
The function was organized by the Mahila Mandali of the Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Nama Bhiksha Kendra of Thanjavur. The Kendra members are doing a wonderful job of performing regular Nama Kirtan in about 30 temples around the city.
The function was well organized, thanks to the untiring efforts of Ms. Savithri Ramakrishnan and Ms. Geetha Dhandapani of the Mahila Mandali.
On 25th of November, 2007, a mass prayer was held at Kallidaikurichi, Tirunelveli district. The venue was Sri Adi Varahaswamy Temple, which is in the centre of the town. The speaker of the day, Sri Balakrishnan of Chennai Kendra was introduced by one of the administrators of the temple.
Sri Balakrishnan gave a sterling speech for around an hour. He spoke on how God is impartial in selection of devotees though He appears in various forms, why Nama Sankirtan alone is the path to unite all classes of people, how to preserve the sanctity in temples etc., Around 100 people participated and chanted the Mahamantra with great religious fervor. They were asked to chant the Mahamatra for a minimum of 11 times everyday.
Kumkum, Mahamantra stickers and Sri Sri Swamji’s photo were distributed to everyone as prasadam. The session ended with the vote of thanks by the temple authorities.
This program was well organised by Sri Sankaran, Sri Ramanan and Sri Kumar of Ambasamudram Kendra.
In Srimad Bhagavatham there is a verse to depict the glory of devotees. It starts with “Prahladha, Naradha…”. Its interesting to note a little boy’s name appear with foremost priority and even sage like Naradha is mentioned thereafter. This illustrates us as to how God is moved very much by the inimitable love shown by the young lad Prahladha than the devotion exhibited by a sage like Naradha.
Hence it was not a surprise to see lots of kids attending the mass prayer in Veeravanallur village on 24 Nov 2007 held between 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm, at Sri Ranganatha Perumal Temple.
Venkateswaran, our Chennai Kendra member rendered the speech. He covered on various aspects such as righteousness (dharma) for the current age, love and effort, art of parenting, devotion to God and Guru, benefits of Nama keerthan, stories of Bhagavathas like Harichandra, Druva, Kannappa Nayanar and aslo stories from the life incidents of Yogiramsuratkumar, Sri Sri Swamiji, Ramakrishna.
After the speech, the entire crowd of about 100 devotees, mostly children, chanted the Mahamantra for 10 minutes with lots of devotion. Kumkum, Mahamantra stickers and Sri Sri Swamji’s photo were distributed to everyone as prasadam.
The session ended with the vote of thanks by Sri.Murugesan of Veeravanallur Kendra.
This program was well organised by Sri Vijayarangan of Veeravanallur. Sri Sriram of Cheranmahadevi Kendra had participated in this mass prayer with other devotees from Cheranmahadevi along with Sri Nagarathinam and Sri Vasantharajan of the Chennai Kendra.
A mass prayer was held on Sunday, 18th November, 2007 at Balvihas hall, Chembur, Mumbai by volunteers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Namabhiksha Kendra between 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm. The mass prayer started with a prayer song. Subsequently, Kumari Shakthi delivered a short speech introducing the speaker, Sri Balaji. She also provided insight about Sri Swamiji and His mission. The speaker Sri Balaji was honored with a shawl and garland. Sri Balaji rendered a powerful discourse in Hindi to the audience for around one and a half hours emphasizing the importance of scriptures and the results of devotion towards Guru and God. He covered a variety of topics such as Vedas and scriptures, devotion and its powers, life incidents from Vittal's devotees such as Namdev, Tukaram, importance of chanting the Mahamantra quoting from Sri Sri Swamji's songs and its power to provide faith and confidence in the self. Thereafter the devotionally moved audience, of about 200, chanted the Mahamantra in a high pitch, which filled the entire hall with divinity. After the mass chanting, Ms. Saraswathy spoke for about 15 minutes quoting from the lives of mahans like Ramakrishna, Bhagavan Ramana etc. She also shared her experiences of Sri Swamiji’s satsang with one and all. The vote of thanks was proposed by Ms. Saraswathy After the mass prayer, Sri Balaji distributed the Mahamandra stickers, Swamiji's photograph and kumkum Prasad to all the participants. Laddu Prasam was also distributed to the audience. Satyanarayanan, Thiyagarajan and Venkateswaran of our Chennai Kendra and Rangarajan of our Ahmedabad kendra were participated in this program. Ms. Saraswathy and Sri Natarajan made the arrangements for this successful program.
An interesting point of note is that the audience, after the session, approached our Kendra members to have such programs (chanting and discourse) in their locality. No wonder Nama is spreading pretty fast in every corner of the world! Already weekly Nama chanting sessions are being conducted in Chembur, Mumbai.
A Nagara Sankirtan and mass prayer was conducted in the village of Kallamanayakanpatti and Kaakivadanpatti in Sivakasi on the 27th of October, 2007. Sri Sri Swamiji performed a Nagarakirtan along with the devotees. Later, He delivered a powerful address, stressing the greatness of Nama Kirtan to a packed audience. The program was arranged by Sri Selvaraj and Sri Kumaravel.
On the 28th of October, the mass prayer was organized in the town of Sivakasi. More than 2500 devotees attended the function and chanted the Mahamantra which was started of by Sri Sri Swamiji after His discourse powerful discourse on the greatness of Nama Kirtan. It was indeed a wonderful divine sight to see all the devotees raising their hand and chanting the Nama ecstatically during the mass prayer. A huge number of written prayer requests were received. It was indeed an overwhelming turnout, especially because this was Sri Sri Swamiji’s first public program in the town of Sivakasi towards Nama Prachar.
On 29th, a mass prayer was conducted in Virudhunagar where more than 1200 devotees participated and performed Nama Kirtan joyously. Sri Rajesh and Sri Kumaravel organized this program.
Sri Aandaal, one of the greatest devotees of Lord Sri Ranganatha was an epitome of Bhakti. Her birth place is the town of Srivilliputhur in Tamizh Nadu. On the 30th of October, the town of Srivilliputhur had another specialty. This town was immersed in the flood of Nama. In His lecture, Sri Sri Swamiji gave a strong message that the Mahamantra is the easiest way to liberation in this Kali Yuga. About 1500 people drowned in the flood of Nama and chanted the Mahamantra along with Sri Sri Swamiji.
Sri Mahalingam along with Sri Kumaravel organized this program.
Sri Sri Swamiji also visited the temple in Tiruthangal and opened a Nama Kendra in that town.
On 23rd July, 2007, As cherished by Sri Sri Swamiji, a Mahamantra Nagara Kirtan was conducted in the holy town of Tirupulingudi, a famous Nava Tirupathi Divya Desam near Sri Vaikuntam.
It happened to be an Adi Swathi day. More than 80 devotees happily joined in and participated in the Nagara Kirtan that took place around the praakaara and inside the Mantap and gleefully sang the Mahamantra.
The enthusiasm shown by the villagers of Kaglipura of Karnataka to Nagara Kirtan , enthused Sri Venkataswamy of adjoining Singenahagrahara, Sarjapur to have Maha Mantra Nagara Kirtan on 22nd July 07 in their village.
More than 1500 people gathered at Sri Ayyappan Pooja Sangam in Ramnagar in Coimbatore for a mass prayer conducted by Sri Namasankeerthana Trust, Coimbatore on 15th July 2007.
The function started at 6:15pm and Sri Sri Swamiji gave a powerful discourse on the greatness of the Divine Name. He talked at length about the current state of affairs with respect to Bhakti. “In this Yuga, when everything is commercialized, what is the way to show our true love for God? How do we reciprocate the pristine and divine love of the Lord? It is verily by singing His Name!”, Sri Sri Swamiji said.
The audience listened to the discourse of His Holiness in rapt attention and with prayers in their heart, performed Maha Mantra Kirtan towards the end of the discourse, as initiated by Sri Sri Swamiji.
Everyone who attended the prayer was blessed with ‘Akshadai’ Prasadam as well as Nama Prasadam, not to mention the blessings of Sri Swamiji!
The event was organized by Sri Krishnan and others of Sri Namasankeerthana Trust, Coimbatore.
Mass prayer and Nagarakitrtan satsang was held on 14.07.2007 between 5.30 pm to 7.30 p.m in the vicinity of Sri Venkatachalapathi Perumal Temple, Chinna Tirupathi, Salem.
It was not planned but it so happened by Sri Sri Swamiji’s grace that the mass prayer was held in..........
