sri:
Humble pranam to all devotees: Jetusa and Vedics are blessed to present this report on
Mudhal
Azhvars, Poorvacharyas (Pillai Lokacharya & Manavala Mamunikal)
and
Chinna Jeeyar
Swami's Thirunakshathrams
By HIS unconditional grace, we had a very blessed and active Acharya Thirunakshatram Celebtations at JETUSA W-DC Center, Sri Venkateswara Lotus Temple of Virginia.It is truly our good fortune that we could all participate and celebrate together.
Sri Ravi Aharam & Smt Vasanthi ji are truly blessed as they are always constantly involved in selfless service to lord and his devotees. Here, at Sri. JETUSA W-DC Center, it was a fresh breeze, where the priest Agama Pundit Sriman Ugandharacharyulu Maranganti & the religious committee sri Seshu, Eunni Venu and others local temple admins encouraged us to chant more and the parayana goshti was honored before and after every parayana session.
Sriman NC Narasimhan and TCA Venkatesan planned the parayanam and porappadu with the priest, Sri Balaji and Ravi and Vasanthi Aharam. The enthusiasm of Sriman Nallan Chakravarthy Narasimhan was contagious and spread to other devotees very soon.
JET W-DC and other volunteers effectively and efficiently took care of all the details needed;
=>Hosting and transporting out of town devotees.
{Sri Padmanabhan and his family hosted six of us and were so hospitable we have assured them we will come back just to spend some time with them}
=>Running the Kitchen
Sri Venu Eunni and Sri Seshu Swamins prepared delicious prasadam for the Lord, Azhvar and Acharyas
were so full of love and sincereity. Devotees got the bhagyam (good fortune) to have this prasadam.
=>Arranging all the details for the out of town devotees.
Sri Balaji and Aharams did a fantastic job.
=> Flowers and vasthram: Local volunteers did a wonderful service with the pushpa alankarams.
=> Tholukku Iniyan (pallaku for the Acharyas and Lord). One made in WDC by Local WDC volunteers and one in New Jersey by NJ Vedics [Narasimhan and Venkatesaprasad and family]
About the priest: Sriman Ugandharacharyulu Maranganti (Ugandhar Swami)
In temples in the USA, usually the priests run out of time, and try to hurry the parayana goshti.
Here the priest asked us to chant more and chant slowly. Most importantly the priest sri Yogender swami chanted it all with the parayana goshti.
All the goshti members received gosthi maryiadhai after every session and were blessed with malai from the Lord.
About the parayana goshti:
Parayana Goshti led by Sri Narasimhan Nallan Chakravarthy, Sri TCA Venkatesan and others
chanted Mudal (1st), 2nd and 3rd Thiruvandadi, Kovil Thiruvaimozhi, Ramanuja Noothandadi,
Upadesa Ratna Mala, Yathiraja Vimsathi (apart from the usual temple Nitya
Aradhana Chaning)
As ususal, Sri Uppili Gopalan Swami's rendition of Azhvar Pasurams was so melodious, devotees could see the smile on lord's face (Mukhollasam). We pray many other temples get to have this type of Goshti to serve the Lord (at least during festival days).
The Goshti consisted of: Swamins Sri: NC Narasimhan, TCA Venkatesan, T. Balaji
AMR Kannan, Uppili Gopalan, Shanta Ram, Padmanabhan, Sridhar Sowmiyan,
RaviAharam, S.Srinivasan, Sehsagiri, Upiili Gopalan, Mukundan VP,
Venkatesa Prasad, Prakash, Manivannan, Narayanan, Sudarshan, Srinivasan and others
The Andal Goshti: Smt ji's: Vasanthi Aharam, Sheela Belur (Ranganayaki mami),
Mrs Srinivasan, Deepa Sridhar, Lakshmi Mukundan, Shanti Mami and others.
Ugandhar Swami's alankaramas and care for Lord and his parivar was one to
watch and cherish. His concern and devotion for Azhvars & Acharyas is truly inspirational.
Sri TCA Venkatesan gave a moving talk on Acharya Bhakti, and linked it to
Sri Vachana Bhooshanam and Swami Pillai lokacharya contributions. This talk gave us a glimpse of
The great works of Swami Pillai Lokacharya but also about the great upanyasaka potential in sri TCA. We look forward to hearing more from him in the future.
This is the only temple in USA, where we could hear the (Sattumirai)
SarvaDesa Dasa Kale, in the SLOW chanting style as is witnessed in
Kanchee Varadaraja Sannidhi and at many other Dhivya Desams in India.
Porappadu:
Porappadu was planned very well on two days. On Saturday we had Lord and his parivar come out for porappadu. On Sunday we had Azhvar and Acharyas out on porappadu. It was a beautiful sight, with Prabhanda goshti in the front of permual, and Veda parayana goshti behind perumal. It was so nice to see all the devotees, young and old come out and go on the procession despite the chilly weather.
Acharya Paduka Aradhana:
The function concluded with paduka aradhana of HH Sriman Narayana Chinna Jeeyar swami. All the devotees present performed the aradhana led by Ugandhar Swami. This was the grand finale to the 3 day celebrations.
Ugandhar Swami concluded the function with an extempore speech in Sanskrit.
About the Dharmakartha
Smt and Sri Aharam have been working tirelessly for this temple, pledging their home, all their material and physical resources. We have always seen them with a smile. It is truly moving to see the Acharya bhakthi in them.
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Many blessings of more kainkariyams to all the voluneteers and devotees.
Our W-DC and Virginia community deserves a big hand for doing this unique &
beautiful funtion. All of us look forward to more of these funtions,
and more participation from the younger generation.
With HIS blessings, we hope to make W-DC our center for Mamunigal TN Event every year.
For those of you who have not been to this center, please visit,
12501 Braddock Road, Fairfax, VA 22030, Phone 703-815-4850
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Ramanuja Adiyargal,