Nov 16-18, 2007 by
Shiva Vishnu Temple of South Florida
Have you ever wondered about how it would feel like to participate in a homam or yagam conducted by someone like the sage Bharadwaja? I used to.
In Shiva Vishnu Temple of South Florida our knowledgeable priests frequently conduct homams. During one of his visits here my father conducted a large scale Ganapathi Homam for Ganesh Chathurthi. As I sit through these homams or yagams I would imagine myself sitting alongside great sages. Would it be preposterous if I said the yagams from the mythological times matched close to those at our temple? Roll the clock back and go to Kumbabhishekam in Nov 2001. I will meet you there in a minute.
My grandmother was responsible for creating my interest in Hindu mythology. She likes to go and listen to 'upanyasams' in the evenings. She would want me or my brother to walk with her back home. Grudgingly we will comply. Some days I would go a bit early and listen to the ending part of the discourses. Slowly but surely, I was drawn to the upanyasam of Brahma Sri T.S. Balakrishna Sastrigal. His method of story telling was a very engaging “Hari Katha’ style with music accompaniment. When he rendered Mahabharatham in Sringeri Mandapam, Chennai for 45-days I did not miss a single day. He laid the foundation for whatever knowledge I have of Ramayanam, Bhagavatham and Mahabharatham. Also helped me formulate an image of how sages would have conducted the yagams and homams. Even now, I can close my eyes and listen to his powerful voice ringing in my ears.
Now, let me go to meet you on the Kumbabhishekam day at our temple which many of you will still remember like it was yesterday. The yaga shala was decorated like Kailasham on one side and Vaikhuntam on the other. Sri Savyasachi Swamigal, a diminutive priest, from Bangalore led the religious ceremonies at our function. Several of his disciples were at his side to help him with the yagam. The mantras were coming through in proper cadence and in unison from all of them. A few knowledgeable individuals in the audience also joined in the chant. We were all transported to a world beyond. Please tell me, how different would it have been at the Ashram of Bharadwaja Rishi? I think, not much.
As an interesting side note, “Savyasachi” is one of the names of Arjuna, the great archer in Mahabharatham. The name means ambidextrous – one who can use right hand and left hand equally well (“switch hitter” in baseball). How appropriate – symbolizing the followers of Shiva and Vishnu as two hands of the community?
I am not sure of the technical difference between yagam and homam, but I would venture to guess a yagam is done on a larger scale. Various items like ghee, cooked rice, dried fruits, nuts etc are offered through agni (fire) along with special mantras to propitiate particular deities. Even expensive silk sarees are placed in the agni for some special homams. The holy fire and the vibrations created by the mantras we chant form the medium for our offerings (ahuti) to reach the higher worlds. As I understood from Mr. Rangarajan, a long time resident of South Florida, the Gods and the Goddesses reside in the “chandas” which is the gap between the words in the mantra. Hence, it is important to say the mantras in proper cadence with accurate pronunciation and in tune. Homam is not a spectator sport or a concert. It can get very boring if you just watch. Try to chant the mantras in unison along with the priests and knowledgeable participants with a lot of concentration, involvement and precision. The joy it creates when we chant in unison the Gayathri mantras, Rudram, Chamakam, Purushasuktham, Sri Suktham etc is indescribable – experience it.
The sixth anniversary (varshikothsavam) of our Temple Kumbabhishekam function was celebrated from Nov 16-18, 2007. Special poojas to the Shiva Parivara deities and Vishnu Parivara deities were performed for one-and-a-half days each. This year happened to be very special because the last day of Kanda Sashti fell on the first day of the varshikothsavam. Festivities began with the Deepavali. It was heartening to see the kids enjoy the fireworks at the Temple. This was followed by 6-days of Kanda Sashti and three days of Varshikothsavam. On the final day we had the Kalyana Utsavam for Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu. Great job by the Temple Board members, Cultural Committee and volunteers.
Cultural Program: During the middle day of the Varshikothsavam celebrations the cultural committee brought to us activities including music and dance performances by local artists all day long. Let us talk about a few programs that I was able to attend and touched me in a special way. Please feel free to write back your comments on various performances for a compilation. Congratulations to all the participants.
The talent of our local community members is growing every year. The bhavam and grace of Bharatha Natyam dancers Shilpa Sridhar and Geetha Srinivasan were noteworthy. I have also been impressed by the musical talent of our community members. Madhu always delivers a soul stirring song and this time as no exception with his rendition of Kamalamba Bhajare. His 2-and-a-half year old daughter, Keerthana, was next to me and guessed the ragam correctly as Kalyani. The depth of music knowledge was evident in Dr. Ranjani Nagaswamy’s Varali krithi “Bangaru Kamatchi” popularized by the Maharajapuram family of musicians. I was reminded of my father singing the same krithi. The creativity of Sanjay Chandran was wonderful in his rendition of Panthuvarali. The maturity of Mrs. Vasumathy Vasudevan’s song in Neelambari was excellent. Mridangam thani avardhanam by Dr. Ramakrishnan would have been fitting, but no time. There were several wonderful performances by some new faces (to me).
The singing talent of Vandana & Supraja Murali (the Miami Sisters as Jayanthi would like to call them, pictured here accompanied on the mridangam by with Vikram Vasudevan) is worth noting. These two are showing a lot of promise. Their shruthi shuddham, show of emotions in their voices and pronunciation are impressive. They sang Saala Gallala in Arabhi. It is a very entertaining ragam with a lot of scope for gamakams. Vandana, the older of the two, has a mature voice and excellent control to lead the duet while Supraja provides great support and they sing like in one voice – great job. They will be competing at the Cleveland Aradhana in the children section next year – all the best. You will make South Florida community very proud. Their training in carnatic music comes from their mother, Mrs. Hema Murali, and it is very evident.
A couple of years ago, after one of the programs by Dr. Ramakrishnan, I wrote – “It is tough to find a woman mridangam player even in India and South Florida is no exception”. Sharda proved me wrong and I thank her for it. Dr. Ramakrishnan assembled a team of six mridangam players, Tejas Ramalingam, Tejas Rao, Sharda Ramakrishnan, Branavan Varadan, Nirushan Sivarasa and Prem Seetharaman, who are some of his advanced students to play to Madhu singing a lilting Kathana Kuthuhalam thillana written by Sri M.D. Ramanathan. Being a professor of mathematics Dr. Ramakrishnan always adds special counts requiring his students to perfectly time the strokes. The entry and exit of players into the sequence of playing is dramatic keeping the audience engaged. The mridangam program finished with a flourish as all the six players coming together to play in an energetic fashion. It certainly is a difficult task to ensure multiple mridangam artists are playing together since thalam is unforgiving. Dr. Ramakrishnan has done a great job. I would urge the students to have more group practice sessions. Out of these six students, my expectation is to hear six arangetrams and very soon.
I want to make a special mention of the graduates from Dr. Ramakrishnan’s school of mridangam – Vikram Vasudevan and Saheelan Sinnarajah. They accompanied many local artists with ease. It was also very heartening to see Vikram singing in Rithi Gowle with Saheelan playing to it – great show.
Next year, we will have a few NRI kids play violin as well. We will soon have a team of NRI kids ready to perform full length kutcheries. Then we will add a dancer to the mix, what do you think South Florida?
Discussions from previous commentaries:
Saptaswar Light Music Concert: My apologies to Keerthika. Her full name is Keerthika Ravikumar. The write up about the growth of Tamil Sangam must have touched a few hearts. As a community we should all be proud of our accomplishments. The singers, Sudha and Raghu, had some very nice words to describe the Tamil Sangam organizers and audience.
Music Season: Some of you wrote back about http://www.sangeethapriya.org/ as a great site. I listened to Maharajapuram Vishwanatha Iyer’s Mohanam from the 1956 Kutchery season in Music Academy, Chennai – it doesn’t get any better than this. For those of you who are going to India for the Kutcheri season, I am officially jealous. Are there any online sites for listening to kutcheries? Please let me know.
Jayanthi joins me in wishing you all a Happy Holiday season.
See you all at the next concert – when?
B. Seetharaman
Nov 24, 2007
Shiva Vishnu Temple of South Florida
Have you ever wondered about how it would feel like to participate in a homam or yagam conducted by someone like the sage Bharadwaja? I used to.
In Shiva Vishnu Temple of South Florida our knowledgeable priests frequently conduct homams. During one of his visits here my father conducted a large scale Ganapathi Homam for Ganesh Chathurthi. As I sit through these homams or yagams I would imagine myself sitting alongside great sages. Would it be preposterous if I said the yagams from the mythological times matched close to those at our temple? Roll the clock back and go to Kumbabhishekam in Nov 2001. I will meet you there in a minute.
My grandmother was responsible for creating my interest in Hindu mythology. She likes to go and listen to 'upanyasams' in the evenings. She would want me or my brother to walk with her back home. Grudgingly we will comply. Some days I would go a bit early and listen to the ending part of the discourses. Slowly but surely, I was drawn to the upanyasam of Brahma Sri T.S. Balakrishna Sastrigal. His method of story telling was a very engaging “Hari Katha’ style with music accompaniment. When he rendered Mahabharatham in Sringeri Mandapam, Chennai for 45-days I did not miss a single day. He laid the foundation for whatever knowledge I have of Ramayanam, Bhagavatham and Mahabharatham. Also helped me formulate an image of how sages would have conducted the yagams and homams. Even now, I can close my eyes and listen to his powerful voice ringing in my ears.
Now, let me go to meet you on the Kumbabhishekam day at our temple which many of you will still remember like it was yesterday. The yaga shala was decorated like Kailasham on one side and Vaikhuntam on the other. Sri Savyasachi Swamigal, a diminutive priest, from Bangalore led the religious ceremonies at our function. Several of his disciples were at his side to help him with the yagam. The mantras were coming through in proper cadence and in unison from all of them. A few knowledgeable individuals in the audience also joined in the chant. We were all transported to a world beyond. Please tell me, how different would it have been at the Ashram of Bharadwaja Rishi? I think, not much.
As an interesting side note, “Savyasachi” is one of the names of Arjuna, the great archer in Mahabharatham. The name means ambidextrous – one who can use right hand and left hand equally well (“switch hitter” in baseball). How appropriate – symbolizing the followers of Shiva and Vishnu as two hands of the community?
I am not sure of the technical difference between yagam and homam, but I would venture to guess a yagam is done on a larger scale. Various items like ghee, cooked rice, dried fruits, nuts etc are offered through agni (fire) along with special mantras to propitiate particular deities. Even expensive silk sarees are placed in the agni for some special homams. The holy fire and the vibrations created by the mantras we chant form the medium for our offerings (ahuti) to reach the higher worlds. As I understood from Mr. Rangarajan, a long time resident of South Florida, the Gods and the Goddesses reside in the “chandas” which is the gap between the words in the mantra. Hence, it is important to say the mantras in proper cadence with accurate pronunciation and in tune. Homam is not a spectator sport or a concert. It can get very boring if you just watch. Try to chant the mantras in unison along with the priests and knowledgeable participants with a lot of concentration, involvement and precision. The joy it creates when we chant in unison the Gayathri mantras, Rudram, Chamakam, Purushasuktham, Sri Suktham etc is indescribable – experience it.
The sixth anniversary (varshikothsavam) of our Temple Kumbabhishekam function was celebrated from Nov 16-18, 2007. Special poojas to the Shiva Parivara deities and Vishnu Parivara deities were performed for one-and-a-half days each. This year happened to be very special because the last day of Kanda Sashti fell on the first day of the varshikothsavam. Festivities began with the Deepavali. It was heartening to see the kids enjoy the fireworks at the Temple. This was followed by 6-days of Kanda Sashti and three days of Varshikothsavam. On the final day we had the Kalyana Utsavam for Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu. Great job by the Temple Board members, Cultural Committee and volunteers.
Cultural Program: During the middle day of the Varshikothsavam celebrations the cultural committee brought to us activities including music and dance performances by local artists all day long. Let us talk about a few programs that I was able to attend and touched me in a special way. Please feel free to write back your comments on various performances for a compilation. Congratulations to all the participants.
The talent of our local community members is growing every year. The bhavam and grace of Bharatha Natyam dancers Shilpa Sridhar and Geetha Srinivasan were noteworthy. I have also been impressed by the musical talent of our community members. Madhu always delivers a soul stirring song and this time as no exception with his rendition of Kamalamba Bhajare. His 2-and-a-half year old daughter, Keerthana, was next to me and guessed the ragam correctly as Kalyani. The depth of music knowledge was evident in Dr. Ranjani Nagaswamy’s Varali krithi “Bangaru Kamatchi” popularized by the Maharajapuram family of musicians. I was reminded of my father singing the same krithi. The creativity of Sanjay Chandran was wonderful in his rendition of Panthuvarali. The maturity of Mrs. Vasumathy Vasudevan’s song in Neelambari was excellent. Mridangam thani avardhanam by Dr. Ramakrishnan would have been fitting, but no time. There were several wonderful performances by some new faces (to me).
The singing talent of Vandana & Supraja Murali (the Miami Sisters as Jayanthi would like to call them, pictured here accompanied on the mridangam by with Vikram Vasudevan) is worth noting. These two are showing a lot of promise. Their shruthi shuddham, show of emotions in their voices and pronunciation are impressive. They sang Saala Gallala in Arabhi. It is a very entertaining ragam with a lot of scope for gamakams. Vandana, the older of the two, has a mature voice and excellent control to lead the duet while Supraja provides great support and they sing like in one voice – great job. They will be competing at the Cleveland Aradhana in the children section next year – all the best. You will make South Florida community very proud. Their training in carnatic music comes from their mother, Mrs. Hema Murali, and it is very evident.A couple of years ago, after one of the programs by Dr. Ramakrishnan, I wrote – “It is tough to find a woman mridangam player even in India and South Florida is no exception”. Sharda proved me wrong and I thank her for it. Dr. Ramakrishnan assembled a team of six mridangam players, Tejas Ramalingam, Tejas Rao, Sharda Ramakrishnan, Branavan Varadan, Nirushan Sivarasa and Prem Seetharaman, who are some of his advanced students to play to Madhu singing a lilting Kathana Kuthuhalam thillana written by Sri M.D. Ramanathan. Being a professor of mathematics Dr. Ramakrishnan always adds special counts requiring his students to perfectly time the strokes. The entry and exit of players into the sequence of playing is dramatic keeping the audience engaged. The mridangam program finished with a flourish as all the six players coming together to play in an energetic fashion. It certainly is a difficult task to ensure multiple mridangam artists are playing together since thalam is unforgiving. Dr. Ramakrishnan has done a great job. I would urge the students to have more group practice sessions. Out of these six students, my expectation is to hear six arangetrams and very soon.
I want to make a special mention of the graduates from Dr. Ramakrishnan’s school of mridangam – Vikram Vasudevan and Saheelan Sinnarajah. They accompanied many local artists with ease. It was also very heartening to see Vikram singing in Rithi Gowle with Saheelan playing to it – great show.
Next year, we will have a few NRI kids play violin as well. We will soon have a team of NRI kids ready to perform full length kutcheries. Then we will add a dancer to the mix, what do you think South Florida?
Discussions from previous commentaries:
Saptaswar Light Music Concert: My apologies to Keerthika. Her full name is Keerthika Ravikumar. The write up about the growth of Tamil Sangam must have touched a few hearts. As a community we should all be proud of our accomplishments. The singers, Sudha and Raghu, had some very nice words to describe the Tamil Sangam organizers and audience.
Music Season: Some of you wrote back about http://www.sangeethapriya.org/ as a great site. I listened to Maharajapuram Vishwanatha Iyer’s Mohanam from the 1956 Kutchery season in Music Academy, Chennai – it doesn’t get any better than this. For those of you who are going to India for the Kutcheri season, I am officially jealous. Are there any online sites for listening to kutcheries? Please let me know.
Jayanthi joins me in wishing you all a Happy Holiday season.
See you all at the next concert – when?
B. Seetharaman
Nov 24, 2007
