MEDIA
YAJNASALA
Today Maha yagam was conducted by HH Chinna Jeeyar Swami; homa, paramesti and vaibhaveisti started at 9:30 am.
Yagashala has two rectangular shaped istis – Vasudeva isti in the northern side of the Yagashala and Sudharshana isti on the southern side. Poornahuti ended at around 12 noon.
Gau-pooja, worship of the sacred cow was done in the isti shala in the evening today.
PRAVACHANA MANDAPAM / MAIN STAGE
Note: National Level Artist events – To Be Added.
NAIVE MINDS TRIUMPH NUANCES OF THE GI:THA!
The day started with devotees performing a:ra:dhana, worship of Lord Sri Rama at around 9:30 AM under the aegis of HH Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji and HH Devanatha Jeeyar Swamiji. This was followed by the below events:
- Kumari Gayathri Rao and team sung patriotic songs and devotional songs including ‘mile sur mera tumhara’, ‘vaishnava janatho’, ‘Ramachandra prabhu’, etc.
- Kala Rathna Sriman Bhaskara Sarma’s team from Kuntluru in Telangana sang bhajans.
- Bhavana Peddaprolu’s team performed Kuchipudi. Their dances on kalinga narthana thilla:na and Jayadeva’s ashtapadi’s chandana charchitha were brilliant and outstanding!
Today’s discourses from eminent persons included:
Sriman Ramachandra:charya Maharaj Swamiji from Pushkar, Rajasthan – he spoke about the relevance of Bhagavad Ramanuja’s vision for an equal world.
The takeaway program of the day!
One program which earned won hearts of one and all was the Bhagavad Gita avadha:rana by Prajna kids. It is an exhibition of the brain power of Prajna kids in memorizing the 700 slokas of the Bhagavad Gita. This program started at around 3 PM. Although the next program was scheduled at 5 PM, the audience was so involved that it continued until about 5:30 PM. There were 8 avadha:nis on the stage. The youngest one was a 9-year old girl. The oldest kid was a teenager. A Prajna teacher who was 45 years old lady, was also one of the eight avadhanis. This performance had thirteen rounds of testing memory of Prajna kids on the Bhagavad Gita slo:kas by the audience. Each round was more difficult than the previous one. HH Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji also shared the dais along with the kids and tested them at random. Below were some of the levels / rules of the avadhanam:
Kids cleared all of the the below challenges effortlessly, much to the amazement of the audience.
| # | Tester / Audience gives | Prajna avadhani’s response |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A random number of a chapter and slo:ka. | The accurate slo:ka of the corresponding chapter and slo:ka number was chanted. |
| 2 | Beginning words of any random slo:ka. | The accurate chapter and slo:ka number were identified. |
| 3 | Beginning words of any random slo:ka. | The chapter & slo:ka number were answered and the entire slo:ka was chanted. |
| 4 | Ending words of any random slo:ka. | The corresponding slo:ka was identified and recited. |
| 5 | Chapter number, slo:ka number (s) and increment (n). | The slo:kas s, s+n, s+2n… were recited across chapters if needed. |
| 6 | Chapter number, slo:ka number (s) and decrement (m). | The slo:kas s, s-m, s-2m… were recited including previous chapters. |
| 7 | Chapter number, slo:ka number (s), increment (n) and decrement (m). | The sequence s → s+n → (s+n-m) → … was calculated and recited instantly. |
| 8 | Any number between 1 and 700. | Chapter, slo:ka number and the corresponding slo:ka were identified and recited. |
| 9 | A vowel or consonant sound. | Total slo:kas starting with that sound were identified (chapter-wise or full Gita). |
| 10 | Anthyakshari round (last syllable game). | Kids continued slo:kas using last syllables in a chain format. |
| 11 | Uva:cha round (speaker identification). | Kids identify speaker of given slo:ka (skipped due to time). |
| 12 | Names used in Gita. | Kids identify different names used (skipped due to time). |
| 13 | Rapid round (mixed questions). | Kids answered instantly; audience gave standing ovation. |
Swamiji highly appreciated the commendable efforts of Prajna teachers in training these kids so proficiently and gave mangalasasanams to all those who participated. The kids and teachers were given beautiful presents by HH Swamiji and Sriman Samudrala Ranga Ramanuja Swamiji. All these kids were the children of parents of Indian origin, who reside in the United States of America. There were many more such children who were as proficient, but they could not travel to India this time.
THADIYARADHANA
- Today, for bala bhogam (Breakfast) 28,000 people were served tomato rice, banana bajji, boondi (sweet) and wheat halwa.
- Raja bhogam (Lunch) was served to around 90,000 people until 3 pm today. Menu included rice along with tomato dal, mixed-vegetables curry, banana dry curry, brinjal curry, taro root (chama gadda) curry, sambar, chutney, papaya fruit, boondi – halwa as sweet and butter milk.
- For evening snacks 18,000 people were served pappu vada, laddu boondi, potato bajji and tea.
- Alpaharam (Dinner) was served for nearly 25,000 people until 10 pm today. Menu included white rice, green unripe banana curry, green gram pulgam, appadam (paapad), vadiyalu, chutney, and butter milk. More than 30 volunteers were fully involved in serving everyone while strictly following covid norms.
- In Yajamanya thadiyaradhana section, more than 10,000 devotees were served dinner. Among then 3,000 are yajamanyas, and the rest remain were voluntaries, police personnel and devotees. The items served were white rice, kattu pongali, sambar, pickle, curd, butter milk, laddu, boondi and curd. More than 20 volunteers were involved in serving food to devotees.
