December Sri Vaishnava Conference Report
From the Bhakti List Archives
• January 16, 1998
[Forwarded on behalf of Smt. Nagu Satyan] ------- start of forwarded message (RFC 934 encapsulation) ------- From: Satyan, Nagu Sent: Monday, January 5, 1998 9:58 PM Subject: December Sri Vaishnava Conference Report On behalf of Colorado NAMA Chapter Sri Vaishnava families, I would like to thank all the participants who attended the conference. In all aspects, we think it was a successful event. As Smt. Malathiy Dileepan stated, the conference addressed many facets of Sri Vaishnavism--religion, philosophy, cultural, networking, and social aspects. On the first day of the conference, she saw us loading to multiple cars all the provisions, vegetables, fruits, cooking utensils, paper products, cleaning materials etc. Her comment was that the effort was similar to a marriage! I agree with her assessment. We had 15 people in our home. All were busy getting ready to be on time at the temple. It was fun! Malathiy, my sister-in-law Harini Dasarathy and I would be at the temple past midnight cleaning up and organizing for next day early start. We would be back at the temple by 6 AM. I would like to thank Malathiy and Harini for their hard work. Needless to say that there were many people who provided support. The experience has been extremely blissful and fulfilling. We still talk about the conference and eager to meet again. Thursday December 25, 1997 -------------------------- We started on Thursday, 12/25 at 1.30 PM and continued till 11 PM. We started with the taniyans for our Acharyas. Sri Dileepan read and translated the Srimukham from Sri Azhagiya Singar and Sri Madhavan read and translated the Srimukham from Sri Andavan. We did not receive on time the Srimukhams from other Jeers. Smt. Kalpana Iyengar gave an excellent rendition of a song on Lord Nrusimha, followed by Alaipaayude by Suma Krishnachandra. Sri Krishna Kalale did an outstanding job of introducing Vedas and Upanishads. In spite of the fact that the topic is vast and difficult to summarize and we had to reduce the available time for him, he approached the topic in a manner that people were able to appreciate the greatness of our Vedas. The second panel was on Sri Vaishnavism, with Mani as the chair. Mani, as usual, did a super job of communicating with the audience, in very simple terms what is the essence of Sri Vaishnavism. He had excellent support from Mohan. After each session, we had questions and answers. We had a break to have dinner -- all those who ate were provided with prasadam appropriate for Ekadasi. This was followed by Sri Dileepan who chaired the panel on Azhwars. He gave an excellent introduction on Azhwars, and with his panel members provided an appreciation of the greatness of the Azhwars. The session was over around 10.30 PM. We straightened out the facility to be ready for early morning start. That night we prepared sandwiches for the ski group. Malathiy, Harini and I had a production line going to prepare for about 15 people. My husband, as usual, being a true Sri Vaishnava volunteered to drive the van and escort the youth. According to the younger kids, he took care of them by carrying their things, handing out lunch packets etc. While the others were skiing, he waited alone the whole day at the mountains to bring them all back safe to their parents. The ski trip helped the youth in forming new relations. In many respects, this type of association helps nurture the heritage. Many of these kids had not met each other. However, at the end of the conference they were extremely close. About 125 (includes 40 from out of state) attended the first day of the conference. Friday, December 26, 1997 ------------------------- On Friday, 12/26, we started at 6.30 AM for Dwaadasi ThruvAradhanA by Sri Vijayaraghavan Srinivasan. What a pleasing voice and what an emotional experience! The most fulfilling moment for me personally was when Sri Jaganath, Sri Nadadur Madhavan, Sri Vijayaraghavan, and Sri Dileepan set up the Acharyas pictures in front of the Perumal. We had photos of Sri Nammazhwar, Sri Ramanujacharya, Swami Desikan and Sri Manavala Mamuni in a row. One by one the pictures of Azhagiya Singar, Poundareekapuram Ashramam, Vanamaamalai and Tridandi Jeers were added to the second row ( Due to my oversight, we did not have a picture of other Jeers). It may appear symbolic to some. In my humble opinion, this is the first step to unify all Sri Vaishnavas on our common binding theme, recognizing we all have our individual varying traditions. I was silently listening to the discussions among the above four. They were ensuring to recite both taniyans at the start and recite both sarrumurai. We had 12 saligramams, Sri Malolan's Padhukas and Vigrahams. We were thrilled to learn that any time we have 12 Saligramams, it is considered as a Divya Desam according to our traditions. We were truly blessed by the Divya Dampithis to be able to have such a rare occasion as well as to be associated with so many learned scholars and bhAgavathAs. We could have kept on listening to Sri Vijayaraghavan's recitation all day! What a voice and what dedication! The thiruvArAdhanA was followed by prasadam in line with Dwaadasi. Many of these bhAgavathAs did not eat on Ekadasi day. Some had not eaten anything for nearly three days due to travel on 12/24. We learnt a lot of new aspects of Dwaadasi from Sri Madhavan, Sri Vijayaraghavan and others. The ladies who cooked were having their own fun struggling with the range. Smt. Vimala Rajaji and her mother Smt. Indira Srinivasan, Smt. Bhargavi Keshava Prasad, Smt. Malathiy Dileepan, Smt. Harini Dasarathy managed to cook a delicious dwaadasi menu. After the lunch, the men had a discussion led by Sri Dileepan, with Srimans Ramesh, Madhavan, Vijayaraghavan, Mohan, Jaganath and Chis Anand, Shrikanth, and Vijay. In the evening, we had Sri Vijayaraghavan leading in Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam, Sri Lakshmi Astothram, Sri Stuthi. Saturday, December 27, 1997 --------------------------- On Saturday 12/27, we started at 7.45 AM with Sri Jaganath performing the thiruvArAdhanA for Perumal and Acharyas. We were impressed by the devotion of Sri Jaganath. His respect to Acharyas is deep rooted. Sri Vijayaraghavan lead the recitals, with the full goshti support. Sow. Suma Krishnachandra did a Bharatanatyam dance. Smt. Krishnapriya Kalale sang a Meera Bhajan accompanied by Sri Anil Sriram on Tabla. Smt. Krishna Priya's rendition was so moving and touching. Due to time constraints we could not hear more songs. After the sarrumurais, we had prasadam. Then we had the open forum on Sri Vaishnavism, with Sri Rajaji Raghavan chairing the panel. There were numerous questions from the audience, and many from the youth. Mani, Mohan, Dileepan and Keshava Prasad fielded the diverse questions, with good support from Krishna Kalale and Vijayaraghavan Srinivasan. Again, we could not get to all the questions due to time limitations. This was followed by the Prapatti Panel, with Sri Vijayaraghavan as the Chair. This panel lasted for more than three hours. The subject seems to have gotten the interest of all ages. Sri Vijayaraghavan gave an outstanding overview of What is Prapatti and its significance. Sri Dileepan did an outstanding job of compiling and explaining Azhwars references to Prapatti concept. Sri Krishna Kalale and Chi. Varadan presented the two Sri Vaishnava approaches to Prapatti. After this panel, we had entertainment--dance by Sow. Dipti Prasad (daughter of Keshava Prasad), a Hindi bhajan by Sow. Netra Sreeprakash, a Purandaradasa Devarnama by Chi. Krishna Satyan, two bhajans by Smt. Ambuja Sreeprakash, Smt. Indira Sreenivasan, Smt. Sudha Ramesh. We had planned for three hours of session on Acharyas. However, we had to request Sri Madhavan to summarize all by himself in one hour session. He has spent numerous hours to research about our Acharyas and has done an outstanding job of putting some charts together to explain the ages of the Vedas and the two eyes of Sri Vaishnavism--1) Sanskrit Vedas and Tamil Prabhandham; 2) the second identification is the two kalais. He conveyed the message in a very succinct way that both eyes (and both sets) are equally important to Sri Vaishnavas. In spite of the fact that it was close to 10 PM and we had deferred dinner to after the session, people sat there engrossed, trying to assimilate the great lineage. Again, I have to apologize to Sri Madhavan and the other panel members for the poor time management. After his presentation, quite a few Sri Vaishnavas expressed their disappointment that we did not have enough time for this panel. After a late dinner, people went home extremely happy with the full (and long) day. Sunday, December 28, 1997 ------------------------- On Sunday, 12/28, we started at 8 AM, with the thiruvArAdhanA, followed by recital of Sri Raghuveera Gadyam by Sri Vijayaraghavan Srinivasan and Mani taking the lead. One has to heat that recital by these two talented people to appreciate when I state that it was a moving experience. After other Desika Stothtram recitals, the goshti led by Varadan went into full swing with Divya Prabhandham recital. This was not on the original Agenda--however, the enthusiasm was beyond description. After lunch, we had Carnatic Music recital by Mani Varadarajan, Ravi Srinivasan (Son of Sri K. Srinivasan) and Netra Sreeprakash and Ambuja Sreeprakash. Both Mani and Ravi astonished all with their deliverance. It was an appropriate finale for a successful Conference. Most of the participants left around 4 PM on Sunday. A few of us had to stay late to shift the things and clean up the facilities. By the time my husband and I went home, it was 9.30 PM. That night Krishna Kalale and his family joined us for dinner. I was amazed to see Amritha Dileepan and our son Krishna stay up past midnight to learn from Krishna Kalale. In my opinion, because of the small group and the close relationship that had been formed during the four days of association, there was free exchange of ideas and thoughts. Both Amritha and Krishna Satyan impressed the adults with their quick grasp and their keen interests. I am sure I have missed various other important aspects of this conference. I request thaose of you who attended the conference to post your observations and assessment of the conference. However, we were truly blessed to have been able to bring so many devout Sri Vaishnavas together to share knowledge, thoughts and opinions freely. In my next posting, I will share some lessons learned so we can plan the next conference better. Again, our thanks to Sri Dileepan and family, Sri Vijayaraghavan Srinivasan, Sri Jaganath Bharadwaj, Sri Nadadur Madhavan, Sri Rajaji Raghavan and family, Sri Krishna Kalale and family, Sri Belur Dasarathy and family, Sri Keshava Prasad and family, Sri Murali Kadambi and family, Sri Sridhar and Mangala Kadaba, Sri Tirumalai Krishnaswamy and family, Chis Mani Varadarajan, Vijay Triplicane, Varadan, Shrikanth, Anand, Ravi Srinivasan, Srihari Gopalakrishnan and Sow. Keerthi Bhaktisarar Iyengar and Sow. Madhavi Samudraala. Nagu Satyan
- Next message: Anand K Karalapakkam: "SamAshrayanam - part 5"
- Previous message: Shree: "raama mantra - maraaThii - 31-35"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]