MEDIA
YAJNASALA
Today Maha ya:gam was conducted by HH Chinna Jeeyar Swami; ho:ma, paramesti and vaibhaveisti started at 9:30 am.
Ya:gasha:la has two rectangular shaped istis – Vasudeva isti in the northern side of the Ya:gasha:la 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 sha:la 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 slo:kas 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 avadha:nam:
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 number of both – the chapter and slo:ka of the corresponding words were answered. | ||
| 3 | Beginning words of any random slo:ka. | The accurate number of both – the chapter and slo:ka of the corresponding words were answered; the entire slo:ka was chanted as well. | ||
| 4 | Ending words of any random slo:ka. | |||
| 5 | Chapter number, slo:ka number s and an increment number n. | The slo:ka numbered s+n was recited. | ||
| For example, if the audience member says 12th chapter, 3rd slo:ka and an increment of 4, the kids then recite 3rd slo:ka of that chapter and then every 4th slo:ka after that one – that is the 7th slo:ka, 11th slo:ka and 15th slo:ka. Some audience tried to trick by giving one of the last slo:kas of a chapter and an increment. The kids were not perturbed at all. They seamlessly calculated the corresponding slo:ka in next chapter. Audience was thrilled at the proficiency and speed at which kids calculated and recited the accurate slo:ka. For example, if a questioner gave 12th chapter, 18th slo:ka and an increment of 4, the kids recite 18th slo:ka of that chapter. Since this chapter has only 20 slo:kas, they quickly recite the 2nd slo:ka of next chapter (chapter 13), 6th slo:ka of 13th chapter and 10th slo:ka. | ||||
| 6 | Chapter number, slo:ka number s and an decrement number m. | The slo:ka numbered s-m was recited. | ||
| For example, if the audience asked chapter 18, slo:ka 45 and a negative increment of 3, kids recite 45th slo:ka, 42nd slo:ka, 39th slo:ka and 36th slo:ka of that chapter. Here again, the subsequent slo:ka could be from a previous chapter. | ||||
| 7 | Chapter number, slo:ka number s, one increment m and one decrement number n. | The slo:kas numbered s, s+n and {(s+n)-(m)}, {(s+n)-(m)}+n…and so on were recited within seconds! | ||
| For example, if the audience asks chapter 18, slo:ka 50, positive increment of 3 and negative increment of 5, the kids recite 50th, 53rd, 48th, 51st and 46th slo:kas. | ||||
| 8 | Given any number between 1 and 700, the kids named the chapter number, slo:ka number and chanted that slo:ka. Since the books do not have running serial numbers for slo:kas across all chapters, the testers in this round were Prajna teachers themselves. | |||
| 9 |
Aka:ra:di Slo:kas round – Tester gave a random vowel or consonant sound. |
Kids answered the total number of slo:kas in the Gita that started with the specific vowel or consonant given by the Tester – either in a single chapter or the entire Gita. | ||
| 10 | Anthyakshari round – Tester was HH Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji himself – HH recited one random slo:ka. |
A kid picked up the last sound of the slo:ka and recited other slo:ka which starts with that sound. The next kid picked up the last sound in this new slo:ka and recites another slo:ka which starts with this sound. | ||
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11
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Uva:cha round – Tester gives a random slo:ka number. Kids were expected to name the speaker or narrator of the specific slo:ka number. Due to time constraints, this round was skipped. |
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| 12 | Names used – Kids were ready to state the different names used to address different people in the sacred Gita. Due to time constraints, this round too was skipped. | |||
| 13 | The most captivating Rapid round – The audience could ask from any of the above rounds in any order. | Within the blink of an eye, kids recited respective slo:kas. It was a goose-bumps moment for the audience. The audience instantly stood up and gave a huge standing ovation for long duration at the end of this round. | ||
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 ba:la bho:gam (Breakfast) 28,000 people were served tomato rice, banana bajji, boondi (sweet) and wheat halwa.
- Ra:ja bho:gam (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.
- Alpa:ha:ram (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 Ya:jama:nya thadiya:ra:dhana section, more than 10,000 devotees were served dinner. Among then 3,000 are ya:jama:nyas, 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.