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thiru adhyayana uthsavam - At newyork - A Summary (part12)

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Sampath Rengarajan • January 19, 2000 


Srimadh Azhagiya Singar thiruvadikaLE saraNam
Sri RanganAyikA samEtha Sri Rangarajan thiruvadikaLE saraNam

Dear bAgawathAs,

            Some also helped for taking the prasadham to perumaL
and back for offering, serving, other errand, mini shopping etc.
They are Sri Ayyala Viswanathan and his family members, Sri Arun
Sridharan, Sri Nandakishore and  his family members, Sri  Ananda
Padmanaban and his family members, Sri pArthasarathy and others.
There were a few bAgawathAs who constanlty worked on the perumAL
mALai. They are, Smt Radhai, Smt. Vaijayanthi, Smt. Padmaja, Smt.
Prabha Kidambi,  Smt.  Shashikala iyengar,  Smt Sunitha, and Smt.
Satya Viswanthan, and many others from Bridge  water, and Boston,
and many others. There were three book saree, and jewelry stalls
displyed in the hall. The Book, CD & sovenir stall  was  managed
by Sri. Ammakannu Bagyalashmi, Sri Jagan  and the  jewelry stall
by  Smt  Bargavai Sunderrajan.  The  stage  was  arranged by Sri
Murali Kidambi and co-ordinated by Smt Dr. Shashikala   iyengar.
The hall was arranged by SmtDr.Shashikala iyengar. "mAvilai" and
"veRRilai" was arranged by SriRagavan of NJ. Many sthapathis who
are working and staying in SriVenkat's house helped cleaning the
house, floor, hall,  kitchen, vessels, and loading unloading  of
provisions  pallakku, and  mobilising chairs and tables etc. all
throughout   the   2  weeks.

       The hosting of the outstation   guest were facilitated by
many. Among them some are Smt gOdha dhatthAthreya, Smt Dr. Shash
ikala iyengar and her sister, SmtDr Utthra kOdiyalam, Smt. Seema
& Sri Jayaraman, Smt. Hema & Sri Sripathy,  Smt. Prema & Sri Raj
Acharya, Smt. Raji & Sri Malur Sampath and  many  others.  Child
care was provided by Smt Rama Sundar, and Smt  Padma  Kannabiran.
A group  photo of all children  with perumAL was taken. Children
were  all given with a  certificate  for  their participation in
"thiru adhyayana sEvai", from Sri Ahobila muth.

On 26th all the rest of the pAsurams of Sri nammAzwAr and iyarpA
were chanted. The after noon session of NAMA was very impressive.
Sri MG Prasad's presentation was attended with  pindrop  silence.
Smt Ramya  RamnArayan  and   her students did perform a wonderful
classical dance presentation.  There  were  also male  and female
vocal singers who all sang on perumAL on Kannada, telugu,  tamil,
and sanskrit.  In  the  evening  the chanting  of madal was  very
musical and  wonderful. During the chanting, there was also a few
bAgawathAs assembled in the other end of the hall in a QA session
with Sri Anbil Ramaswamy and Sri MG Prasad. In the evening al the
perumALs were taken  back  to the  temple. Smt  Nagu  Satyan  may
provide some  more info on the participants and the agenda of the
annual NAMA conference. On 27th all the 400 and odd  pasurams  of
Sri Desika prabhandham was  chanted.  This  concluded  the  thiru
adhyayana sEvai in  Newyork  in  1999.  After this, many  of  the
bAgawathas  went on a site seeing tour to see  the  temple  site,
Newyork city etc. adiyEn went to timesquare.

            Through out the uthsavams, we had  (a  mini  vidhwath
sadhas) or a friendly but fierce  debate  between  adiyEn and Sri
Venkat. The topic was "Who is superior periya perumAL Sri Arangan
or Lord SriKrishna ?". As obvious I was arguing for peria perumAL
and SriVenkat was arguing his case for SriKrishna. While he would
quote from Srimadh bAghwadham and Swami dEsikan's gOpala vimsathi,
adiyEn will quote mainly from 4000  divya  prabhandma and as well
as  Swami desika prabhandham. The arguments were tense, emotional
and even  noisy as we thumped  while  saying  something  forceful
about  perumAL. Occassionally we had Sri Dileepan  and  Sri Anbil
attempting to provide some hints to Sri Venkat with some clues on
AzhwAr pasurams when adiyEn was not present in the scene. However,
they would come  back  to  support adiyEn when adiyEn comes  back
after  attending  a  phone call or something. Sri Krihsna HIMself
was supporting adiyEn.  adiyEn's  contention  was  mainly  driven
from Sri nammAzwAr's pAsurams and poorvAcharyA  and adiyEn's  Ach-
AryAs  kAlakshEbams.   adiyEn  never gave up. adiyEn was  driving
a point that it is a vEsham of Sri Ranganatha and why give  promi-
nance  to vEsham  over the original when Sri Rangantha HIMself is
present. However, SriVenkat finally said  on  the  day of leaving
that, "Ivarkku Krishna than ellAmnu  pErukku  oru  vArtthai sonnA
enna vanthicchu? anyway Sri Rangantha than ellam." ie., Respected
Swamin could say just for the sake of pleasing  adiyEn  that  Sri
Krishna is everything  (ie supreme),  it is  ok,  Sri  Ranganatha
is everything (ie., supreme)". It was a very healthy and friendly
debate  and many bAgawathAs enjoyed the "sandai"  all throughout.
It was earlier observed  that  this mega  event  organised  first
time in this massive scale  was  similar to doing marriage  for 4
daughters  at  the same  time. It  is  also observed by some in a
jovial sense that, in the spirit of a grand, succsseful  marriage
celebrations this marriage also ended with a "sambhandhi  sandai"
over  P & R (Pickup and Ride)   as similar to "Washingtanil thiru
maNam" and an amicable settlement of the same at the end.

Subam

Srimadh Azhagiya Singar thiruvadikaLE saraNam
Sri RanganAyikA samEtha Sri Rangarajan thiruvadikaLE saraNam
thiruk kudanthai Rengarajan

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