Section 5.
The Great 12-day Event Commences
The
inaugural day dawned with Vedic Chants, Vishnusahasranama
Recitation, Ganapati
Havan and the like.
The sublime Procession with Panchavadyam
(an indigenous orchestra of five different clusters
of percussion instruments) and caparisoned Elephant
from the nearby Vishnu Temple brought the Idol, Flag
and Bhagavata Text to the Sastrashala
in a long-routed processions.
Sanyasins walking in
the front were received with Poornakumbham
at the Satrashala
entrance. Sri Krishna Idol was received by Swami
Ramananda Tirthaji Maharaj and installed on the Satrashala
Mandapam. Purushothama
Swamij Maharaj hoisted the flag. Sanyasins
were then ushered into the Satrashala.
Those to sit on the dais were conducted
there. AnandAshram, Kanhangad, Ramakrishna Madhom,
Trichur, Brahmaswam Thekke Madhom, Jnana Ashram,
Wadakanchery, Vyasa Tapovanam and Narayanashrama
Tapovanam were represented on the dais.
Dr.
Bhavana and Rekha, in a classical tune, melodiously
rendered the second verse in Srimad
Bhagavatam “Dharma projhita-kaitavotra-paramo”, outlining
the author’s purport reverberated around ushering
in the auspicious spell to follow. Dr. PK Balakrishnan Nair welcomed the adored Sanyasins and audience, inviting in the end Swami Bhoomananda
Tirthaji Maharaj to inaugurate the Satram.
Lighting the tall traditional lamp with five wicks,
Swami Bhoomananda Tirthaji Maharaj began his talk,
captivating and enlightening as ever.
Keynote
Inaugural Address
Swamiji
stressed that Srimad
Bhagavatam, recited and heard more as a puraanic
treatise is, in fact, a full-fledged Compendium
on ‘Devotion, Wisdom and Dispassion’, as the
Text itself testifies again and again.
It has the sublime merit of anointing hamsa,
the human soul, with ‘supreme felicity’, when
the hamsa becomes
Paramahamsa
– elevated, enlightened. Thus are derived the
words Paramahamsya
Samhita. Samhita meaning a
Compendium, distinguished for discussing its subject
comprehensively, aligning it with background,
foreground and inter-scriptural ancient,
contemporary as well as future thoughts, drawing
richly from multiple sources.
Only
when Paramahamsas
expose the Text, pointed out Swamiji, its
true message and values will be rightly revealed.
The sole aim of this Tattva
Sameeksha Srimad
Bhagavata Satram, he said, was to bring forth to devotees as well as rational
thinkers the thoughts and insights envisaged by
Vysadeva, so that they would be installed as the
warp and woof in the daily life of every home.
Till this overall objective is achieved, the Satram
efforts were not fulfilled, Swamiji added.
The
one-hour keynote address resounding with Bhagavata
verses set the tone for the Jnaana
Satram –
the assorted speeches of scholars to follow from
then on.
Audience
response to the Address
With
poetic eloquence, arresting literacy and untold
charm, Swamiji first seated Pareekshit on the shore
of Ganga
(Ganges) after his fateful hunting mission.
Bringing the hermit’s son and Shameeka, his
ascetic father, he articulated eloquently the
lessons and message Vyasadeva’s ascetic Pen
imparts at every stage with ceaseless relevance to
the human mind of all times. “Ah, Oh, is it so”,
verily, thus was the audience’s response.
Ushering
in the narrator Shuka Muni, the resplendent young avadhoota,
to the scene, Swamiji showed how, only in such an
ecstatic austere stalwart, Pareekshit could readily
find the ineffable spiritual inspiration and
enlightenment. For, the King had already been
steeped in glittering vow of Prayopavesha
(fast unto death), something no small by any
account!
Could
every scene of the Text be so pregnant with
erudition, elegance and intent! The audience’s
wonder was already inaugurated!
By
the time Swamiji stopped with his valedictory OM
chant in chorus with the audience, the Satrashala
constituents, listeners and speakers to come, had
already breathed the patent distinction of the Tattva
Sameeksha venue from
the usual Satram
assemblies. In Naimisharanyam the Text had to unmask itself, extending like the
expansive sea, a variety of enriching pearls from
its bottom, imbued with exquisite lustre and charm.
Presidential and other speeches
Swami
Mridanandaji Maharaj, presiding over the function,
rose up to speak, after which other Swamis also
spoke. The
inaugural session ended shortly thereafter, and the
much looked for annadaana
commenced, to remain ceaseless throughout the
12-day period.
The extent of fond esteem the annadaana
event elicited from all quarters knows no
bounds. The
scrupulous and tireless efforts from the volunteers,
cooks and managers were, one can say, richly
rewarded. For the Central Committee, the concern is
no doubt about the improvement and amelioration yet
to be launched and achieved.
Mahaatmyam
and thereafter
The
same evening, the Mahaatmyam
recital and elucidation followed.
From next day, the series of one and
half-hour speeches made their debut. Six speeches
each day - showering their variety and sometimes
eloquence in varying degrees.
Bhoomananda Tirthaji, himself a regular
exponent in the group, appeared intermittently with
his short deliveries to focus the Tattva
Sameeksha aspect of the session and to
discipline audience attention and behaviour. This
had magic effect.
Speakers
on their part began acknowledging unreservedly about
the Satrashala’s spiritual sublimity and dignity, the benign effects
of the Mahavaakyaas
(proverbial statements) hoisted throughout the Pandal
and en route to Naimisharanyam.
This was readily evident in discipline evinced by
such a large audience in their seating and movement
for hours at a stretch.
Ceaseless
session, swelling listeners, Namsankeetana
Pradakshina
All
intervals were studded with the piety of Bhajans,
Kirtans. The elixir of the day was showered when Bhoomananda Tirthji
Maharaj led the unparallelled three-round Namasankeertana
Pradakshina, drawing all the hundreds and
thousands present in the vicinity.
Can
devotion mean such a profusion and excellence?
Young and old, men and women, swung their
bodies and tongue in chorus. The ecstatic vibrations
paraded widening orbits, conquering more hearts and
minds every day.
Audience went on swelling till the end. It
was no more a routine Satram event someplace common, but a Naimishaaranyam Tattva Sameeksha Satram on Srimad Bhagavatam – singular, peerless and paramount, as Brahman
itself is!
The
Namasankeertana
fervour and tempo adorning Bhoomanandaji Maharaj
is something to be seen. It instantly brought the
elixir days of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu of West Bengal
to Parasurama’s land of Kerala.
People
of the village, surrounding towns and Trichur City,
all had a splendorous experience. None could escape
the wonder: Could so many from village homes come to
sit in the Satrashala
for hours without break?
And what for? ...Solely to listen to the
classical lectures on the most profound Text Srimad Bhagavatam? Listeners were found to exit from Satrashala
either to the toilet, dining hall or drinking water
counters. As they went, they also returned in
minutes to their chairs.
When
the upper limit of ‘intense intellectual
listening’ is held to be 35 or 45 minutes, Tattva
Sameeksha Satram on Srimad
Bhagavatam disproved the verdict.
At least in India, in Kerala, listening to
the Devotional spiritual and religious talks has a
new law and order.
What
is this magic, this flair, and this devotional
clinging to scholarly spiritual speeches? Here is
displayed the cultural bounty of Bharat. It is the great
wonder that an Ascetic pen can work!
Climbing stupendous heights within himself,
the Ascetic thinker descends to draw before him vast
crowds, who forget time, strain and worldliness in a
bid to achieve the same heights in them!
Yes, it happened.
The listeners literally forgot how the hands
of the clock moved.
Anna-dana in the Satram
was an additional fare.
It rendered the listeners free of all
domestic chores of cooking and cleaning at home! They could simply be in the Satrashala
unconcerned. This was the very purpose behind
arranging ‘round the clock Anna-dana’.
The
new experience was bewitching to the participants.
It spread its reverberations far and wide. Swami Mridanandaji Maharaj of Trichur Ramakrishna Madhom, an
esteemed veteran Sage, telephoned Narayanashrama
Tapovanam on the 3rd day: “Swamiji,
people say that the like of this Satram
Kerala has not heard or seen.
I wanted to convey my appreciation and
compliments. The
discipline, cleanliness, orderliness and sublimity
reigning in Satrashala
and surroundings are unthinkable. It is really Great
and I wanted to tell you this and my hearty
appreciation.”
“OK”, said Swami Bhoomaanda Tirthji
Maharaj “I shall convey this to the audience and
the organizers”.
Bhoomanandaji
Maharaj proceeded to Satrashala
from the Ashram
in moments. On reaching Naimisharanyam,
at the first opportunity he took the dais and
told the thousands seated in front what Swami
Mridanandaji Maharaj said on the phone.
“For all this, you, the audience, and those
around, alone are to be credited.
The entire merit goes to the disciplined,
devotional conduct of you all.
I am extremely happy and bless you all, so
that the spiritual sublimity will be kept up, even
enhanced.”
Many
of the Naimisharanyam
listeners were quite informed, some quite
discerning and even critical, when so needed.
Many of them handed notes conveying their
hearts. Some said that they witnessed in Naimsharanyam
‘the Rajasooya Yaga of Sri Krishna’s Days’.
Others found a clear illustration of the great Brahma
Sadas (Brahmic
discussion assembly) of Vedic days. Some felt a
close resemblance with Dasharatha’s Treta Yuga Ashwamedhayaga and Yushishtira’s Dwapara Yuga replica. All
were emphatically unanimous to say, “it looked as
though the much detested Kali’s dross was washed
in the
Naimisharanyam Bhagavata spate”.
To
add to the audio-visual bounty, the few sublime
celebrational notes like Rukmini’s Marriage,
Krishna’s birth and instant transhipment to the Vraja settlement touched many hearts, moistened many eyes.
People any time love audio-visual fetes!
Our panoramic devotional culture provides
ample scope for it too!
Whenever
Bhoomanandaji Maharaj took the platform for his turn
of the Satram
Talk, those on the chairs shook themselves to
attention, while bystanders rushed in, leaving all
vagaries, paced fast to take their seats in the Naimisharanyam.
Every time they were drawn afresh to
experience some unknown depths and elixir of
‘Vyasadeva’s ascetic pen and its enlightening
witchcraft’. Swamiji Maharaj sometimes steeped the
audience in chorus recitation, making hairs stand on
end and hearts floating in spiritual ecstasy of
knowledge and devotion. Devotional electrical
glitter graced their faces, basking the whole Satrashala
conspicuously.
These enchanting interludes became more
pronounced as each day passed.
Tattva Sameeksha aims
at surveying and elucidating the Tattvaas
– evaluations and findings – in any
Scriptural presentation.
Here now was such a sameeksha (exploration) of Srimad
Bhagavata
themes – an exquisite effort unknown till then to
the Bhagavata
Scholars and listeners. Bhoomananda Tirthaji Maharaj
had already become a Tattva
Sameeksha legend, for the 8-day yearly Geeta
Tatva Sameeksha open air programme in Trichur
Shreemoolasthanam, an event attended to tenaciously
by well over a thousand people. A new Tradition was
taking shape in Naimisharanyam.
As
we reached the mid way of the event, the Scholars
and Pundits arriving at Naimisharanyam
spontaneously felt a new thinking was necessary
in exposing the great Text in the manner Bhoomananda
Tirthji Maharaj was exhorting.
One Scholar Kandamangalam Subramahmanyan
Nambootiri proposed that an occasion for the Bhagavata
Scholars to meet and have a Dialogue should be
arranged, which was done in June 2003 – an
evidence of how thoughtful efforts could move the
minds of even thinkers!
