Bhagavan enjoys being celebrated by His devotees, especially through kirtan and katha! ‘North America’ Sri Aishwarya Srinivasa Perumal celebrated one year of His arrival in Houston with a grand “Sri Aishwarya Srinivasa Perumal Vaibhavotsavam” from Dec 24 to Jan 1, amid devotees from all around Greater Houston area, other cities in Texas, a number of other US states, and from India too.
With the grace of HH Maharanyam Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji, and led by Sri Poornimaji, disciple of Sri Swamiji from India, there was not a dull moment in the 9 days of Utsav. The highlight was Sri Poornimaji’s unique katha on Sri Venkatesha Vaibhavam, where she spoke of the greatness of Sri Srinivasa Perumal (Lord Venkateshwara), the story of His descent on the Saptagiri hills, His wedding with Sri Padmavathi Thayar, and the stories of many of His great devoteesincluding Thondaiman Chakravarthy, Sri Ramanujacharya, Ananthazhwar, Hathiram Baba, Vasudeva Thatha and others. Another unique event in the Utsav was that after each day’s katha, a special procession was conducted,and the story told in the discourse was depicted visually with props, dialogue and kirtan as part of the procession.This ‘anukaranam’ (divine enactment) was enjoyed immensely by devotees present there as well as devotees from around the world who watched the live Facebook broadcasts.
Another special event during the Utsav was the daily morning procession where the utsavamurthys Sri Premika Varadan-Madhuri Sakhi (Sri Krishna-Radha) were taken on a yatra to ‘different holy places’ including Madhurapuri, Srirangam, Guruvayur, Pandharpur, Vrindavan and Barsana. During each yatra procession, kirtans by various saint-composers associated with that particular kshetra were sung and devotees also dressed up like devotees in that region (Kerala, Marathi Varkaris, Gopis, etc). On good weather days, the morning procession was held outdoors and Bhagavan was taken to His ‘vana’ (garden) and pond in the Namadwaar premises. One morning He even celebrated ‘vanabhojanam’, eating a variety of dishes with His friends Gopas like a picnic on the banks of the Yamuna.
Other daily events included Srimad Bhagavata Saptaha parayanam, Tiruppavai recitation each morning followed by a brief Mahamantra ‘street’ kirtan, evening cultural programs and performances. A special ‘Nikunjotsavam’ concert was offered to Perumal by Sujanitha Umamaheshwaran, disciple of Vid Nithyashree Mahadevan, accompanied by Pranav Praveen on violin and Anirudha Narayanan on mridangam. Other cultural performers during the week included Pranav Sriram (devotional vocal), Harini Ganesh (Bharatanatyam), Sri Sisters (Madhurageetham vocal), Shreyasi Sundaram (Bharatanatyam), Preethi Ramakrishnan and Panchami Gopal (Bharatanatyam), Kimshukapriya Paunarkar (vocal abhangs), Priya Banga and Kavya Santosh (Hari katha), Prerana (Bharatanatyam), Maya and Kishore Iyer (violin duet) with Naga Srinidhi on mridangam. On one evening 32+ children and youth from all around USA and Houston rendered a Madhurageetham (composition of HH Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji) each as an offering to Perumal.
More special highlight celebrations during the week were a grand Janavasam and Radha Kalyanam, Teppotsavam (boat festival) with amazing fireworks, Rathotsavam (chariot festival), and Deepotsavam (lights festival), all conducted with bhajans and kirtans. Most of the singing and instrumental accompaniment for all the bhajans, as well as setup and several sevas throughout the 9 days was by youth from all around the US. Their enthusiasm, energy and camaraderie was very inspiring to all attendees.
The Utsav culminated on Jan 1st with Bhagavad Gita complete parayanam, 11 times Hanuman Chalisa chanting led by Gopa Kuteeram children, and an extremely inspiring and reverberating Mahamantra mass prayer conducted by Sri Poornimaji.
The Utsav was celebrated with grandeur. Sri Krishna-Radha donned new clothes daily. Annadanam was offered four times a day for all devotees, approximately 2800 meals served and a grand Radha Kalyanam meal was served with traditional dishes. Over 50 volunteers and 100s of sponsors from all over the nation made this event a grand success.
To see Facebook broadcasts of some Utsav events, visit “Namadwaar Houston” on Facebook. For more information about Global Organization for Divinity or Sri Aishwarya Srinivasa Perumal Temple, or to join our Houston-wide WhatsApp group for regular updates, please call or whatsapp 281-402-6585, email houston.god@godivinity.org or visit houston.godivinity.org.
