Skip to main content

Sri Rama Navami

Sri Rama Navami 27-03-2007

SRI RAMNAVAMI, as we all know, is celebrated on Chaitra maasa Sukla paksha Navami thithi. This year it was celebrated on 27th March. The celebrations start on Ugadi day and culminate on the ninth day with Sita Kalyanam.

Vijaya and I had the fortune of going to HOSUR this year (27 March 2007) on this auspicious day of Sri Ramnavami and take part in the celebrations. This blog is all about that. Savithri and about 20 families of the TNHB quarters join together for such celebrations.

Every year they celebrate Sri Ramnavami for nine days with devotion, dedication, and bhakti - with Rama nama parayanam, chanting of slokas, singing of bhajans etc. Till last year (2006) they used to celebrate each day's function in a different house daily.This year luckily they had obtained a small place (garage) in one house and thus the celebrations were performed in one single location daily. Hopefully by next year they would get a larger place.

On Sri Ramnavami day they all gathered there by 9 AM - we three joined them later - and the Pandit started the proceedings. This went on for nearly 4 hours. Paanakam and Neermore were distributed in ample quantity. Each family had brought lots of flowers, fruits and other items for Poojai. And, each family had prepared one item or two for Neivedyam and Lunch.

It was a mega get-together ! As Savithri had prepared Saadam on the previous days, she prepared Mysore Pak, Vadam, Vazhaikkai varuval, and urugai today. Some one brought Puliyodharai (very tasty), someone Thengai sadam, and someone Elumichampazha Sadam, someone else Thayir Sadam.There was Rava kesari, Laddu, Sakkarai pongal, Mysore Pak, and burfi and Payasam; aviyal, kosumbari, pazha pachadi, vazhaikkai varuval, two varieties of Sundal, Vadam, vazhai pazham, urugai (I hope I have covered all the items). Someone had brought 100 vazhai Ilai, someone a huge vazhai pazha thar, someone else 100 thengais.There were about 70 people, including us two, who ate. The lunch was served inside the house.

It was a great day and it clearly underscored our Hindu Dharma's tenets that Bhakti and Annadhanam go hand in hand. I was simply amazed to see these elderly women (some of them single) getting up early in the morning, taking pains to prepare food, bring it to the site, do poojai, serve the food to others and then eat in the very last if anything was left ! (In fact, Savithri didn't have anything to eat at 3 PM, a pity.)

Hats off to Savithri and other elderly women / men on their dedication, devotion.Thank you Savithri for such a sublime experience. God Bless you and others.

Rajappa.
12.00 noon on 30 March 2007

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dr. MUTHULAKSHMI REDDY

Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy The road from Adyar Signal to Thiruvanmiyur signal (in Chennai) is called Lattice Bridge Road (LB Road); this English name was re-christened as Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy Road long back, but the old English name only prevails now. Who is this Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy? In the princely state of Pudukkottai there lived Narayanaswami Iyer who married a devadasi by name Chandramma - this marriage created a sensation that time. To this couple, eight children were born out of whom four died as infants. Muthulakshmi was one that survived (born: 30 July 1886). M's sister Nallamuthu, learned English, went on to study in UK, became a Professor in QMC, Chennai, and later its Principal - the first Indian principal of QMC. Muthulakshmi went to a school in Pudukottai till the age of 13; later she studied at home tutored by teachers. She passed matriculation in the year 1902. She started dreaming about becoming a graduate. Bur her father, with meagre pension could not send her ...

Anna Centenary Library, Kotturpuram

ANNA CENTENARY LIBARARY (அண்ணா நூற்றாண்டு நூலகம்) is a newly established State Library of Tamilnadu. It was declared open on 15th Sept 2010. Located in Kotturpuram, Chennai. This last Sunday, 1st May 2011, we hit upon the idea - we will go and see this library. No serious reason, but a sudden whiff of fancy. Vijaya, her old classmate and friend Mrs Prema, and I left house at 3-30PM. A bus upto Madhya Kailash, and an auto thereon, left us at the gates of this huge, beautiful building at 4 PM. From the outside, it was immensely impressive and imposing - maybe of 9 or 10 floors, exquisitely constructed. As we walked the lawns to reach the Main Entrance, the interest in us was bubbling. (Caution: Handbags, Cameras are strictly prohibited. Even waterbottles are not allowed inside the halls.) There is a 5-feet bronze statue of Mr CN Annadurai, in whose name and honour this library is built. This is the Tamilnadu Chief minister Mr M Karunanidhi's pet project and he, as usual, has ov...

Sri Sita-Rama-Anjaneya Temple, Pathakota.

Earlier i wrote about the SitaRama Anjaneya Koil at Pathakota, 17 km from Hosur, on the banks of Pennaiyaru. We two and Savithri went there on 17th Jan 2013 (read here). After I came to Bangalore,  I told about this koil to Ashok and Neeraja and they too were keen to have the darshan of Rama and Anjaneya. On 26 Jan 2013, Ashok asked me suddenly at 4-40 PM if we can go there that time. I consulted Savithri over phone and she said yes. We four left house at 5-15 in car, went to Hosur. Savithri was waiting near GRT and joined us. We reached the temple by 6.40 PM. First we went to the full-flowing Pennaiyaru and lost ourselves in the serenity and beauty of the river. The scenic beauty oof the river is breath-taking. 15 minutes later we entered the temple. Built in 1932 for Sri Anjaneya only, this temple now has Sri Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana idols installed. We had a wonderful darshan of Sri Rama and Anjaneya. Then we left Pathakota, for Sri Chandra Sudeswarar koil on a hillo...