Pujya Sri Swamiji in Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple, Dallas- Dec 2017
Pujya Sri Swamiji visits Karya Siddhi Hanuman temple in Frisco, Dallas, Texas, USA
17-26 December 2017
Highlights
- Inauguration of Kitchen & Canteen facilities
- Mauna Seminar
- Chanting of Bhagavad Gita from memory by Batch 1 & Batch 2
- 75th Birthday celebrations
- Annakut
- Meeting of religious leaders
- Bhumi Puja for Indianization of Raja Gopuram
- Christmas
- Swarakshara Kritis singing
- Dolotsavam
Sunday, Dec 17
Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple welcomed Parama Pujya Sri Swamiji on a cool winter evening in Dallas, Texas, USA. Swamiji delightfully greeted the many devotees who happily received him at the airport. Guru Nilayam in Frisco was decorated with lights and huge welcome sign in the front yard. Throngs of children and families greeted Swamiji at the Guru Nilayam with flowers and cheers.
Hanuman Betel Leaf puja was performed in the evening at the Temple to celebrate Hanuman Jayanti (Tamil). Sri Swamiji surprised devotees with darshan at the Temple and spoke about Hanuman Jayanti which is celebrated at six different times in six regions of India. Swamiji said we should celebrate all of them as Hanuman gave darshan at a different time in each of these regions. Swamiji also spoke about the importance of eating with your hands and taking your time to focus on your food when eating. Do not hold mobile phones in your left hand or check your cell phones when eating. Pay attention to chewing properly and sufficiently (32 times for each bite of food). Do not rush and always be in a hurry. These are bad habits. Wake up early and take the time to pray properly, do pranayama, fulfill your duties and go to bed on time. This will remove the restlessness and sadness without reason that many of you have. Following these simple changes in your lives will have great positive impact.
During the Temple aarti, Sri Swamiji began doing pradakshinas and generously allowed devotees to follow him as he circumambulated all five shrines. What a divine experience for the devotees to literally Follow the Master in the Marakata Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple.
Wednesday, Dec 20
HH Sri Swamiji performed pradakshinas around all the five shrines of the Marakata Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple and lovingly allowed all devotees to accompany Him. Following that, Dr. Indubalaji from Ohio offered Sri Swamiji a welcome garland as Sri V.V. Prakasa Rao shared details of the upcoming Guru Mahotsav celebrations. A special Device donation drive for outdated electronic devices (phone, laptops) was announced which enables everyone to recycle old devices in an eco-friendly way while giving back to the community. All you have to do is drop off the devices for the drive and they will take care of everything else.
Sri Swamiji led the devotees in silent meditation which was a lovely preview of the special 3 hour Dhyana with Mauna session scheduled during the 5 day Guru Mahotsav celebrations.
Thursday, Dec 21
Morning program
On a bright, clear morning at the Marakata Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple in Frisco, HH Sri Swamiji attended the inaugural Flag Hoisting ceremony. Three teams of Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts performed the flag raising per the precise, prescribed steps required to properly honor the flag. The participants included Ananya Sankaran, Harsha Sankaran, Jayanti Cheruvu, Akshar Chunduri, Eashan Chunduri, Rishabh Vemparala, Sathvik Vemparala, Shreyas Pattabi, Shyam Polineni and Harshan Chikkala. HH Sri Swamiji joined in the hoisting of the Hanuman Temple Flag to the cheers of those gathered for the special ceremony. After the flag hoisting, the crowd joined in the Pledge of Allegiance and national anthems of USA and India after which the Ceremony was concluded. Everyone chanted the Hanuman Chalisa and headed for the much awaited newly expanded Kitchen & Canteen Inauguration.
The Jayalakshmi Mata Canteen began operations during the Mandala Puja following the Temple's kumbhabhisheka in the small, original kitchen used for weekly mahaprasad. Since then, the canteen has developed a steady following with Appaji's grace and outgrown the kitchen facility. Sri Swamiji blessed the temple team to begin the kitchen expansion in 2016 and today is the culmination of the project! Sri Swamiji unveiled the huge new plaque of the Sri Jayalakshmi Mata Canteen. Sri Swamiji joyfully raced through the ceremonial ribbon, held by volunteers, to step into the new kitchen facility for the inauguration festivities. Kusumakka, along with KSHT Trustees Dhanunjaya and Padma Naidu, greeted Sri Swamiji at the stove for completion of the traditional milk boiling ceremony by Sri Swamijis divine hands. The facility was filled to the brim with eager devotees awaiting the new menu items. Sri Swamiji's headed over to the new hot griddle, with space for making multiple big dosas simultaneously, to pour the batter for the most sought after dosa at KSHT! The golden dosa stuffed with curry was laid on the serving plate along with chutney and sambar and personally carried over to the canteen front desk by Sri Swamiji Himself!! Prasad Anna announced that Swamiji would offer this prized dosa to the devotee who stepped forward with a pledge to complete one Indianization panel of the Temple. Sravana Reddibathini made the pledge and received the prasada dosa directly from Swamiji. Swamiji announced that the dosa was delicious and happily declared the Canteen open for business for everyone to enjoy today itself! With Pujya Swamiji's grace, the new expanded facility will serve the needs of the community for many, many decades.
Evening program
His Holiness Sri Swamiji entered through the Rajagopura structure and the main temple entrance and was greeted by little children dressed as various Gods making it seem like they had all truly descended from heaven to personally attend this event. The Chenda Mela from Sri Guruvayurappan Temple of Dallas offered musical accompaniment with booming rhythms to welcome Sri Swamiji.
DYC Board Members offered the welcome garland to Swamiji. The KSHT Parking team offered a unique welcome bouquet in a tall metallic vase where each flower is imprinted with HH 75 birthday logo or the Shuvakana logo. Then Sri Swamiji was requested to figuratively light the inaugural lamp with the touch of a button. The 4 foot tall brass lamp lit up with hundreds of small, white jasmine flower like lightblubs and the entire Hanuman shrine glimmered with blinking colorful lights.
The welcome ceremony continued with the offering on Pushpanjali, meaning an offering of flowers to God, invocation dance in the form of 5 types of classical Indian dance. The local teachers included Vani Iswara (Bharatnatyam), Krishnaveni Putrevu (Odissi), Akhila Rao (Kathak), Mini Shyam (Mohiniattam), Srilata Suri (Kuchipudi), Hemamalini Manju (Kuchipudi), Kalyani Avula (Kuchipudi), and Padma Sonti (Kuchipudi). Dr. Prakasa Rao, DYC Chairman, officially welcomed Sri Swamiji to the 5 day Guru Mahotsav programs with insightful speech about Guru.
Multiple releases were included as part of the welcome function which are:
· A collection of 140 articles on the Bhagavad Gita lectures by Pujya Sri Swamiji between 1992-2016. This book titled Eternal Universal Message of the Bhagavad Gita was collected & edited by Dr. Prakasa Rao, Chairman of Datta Yoga Center, USA.
· The informative KSHT 2018 Calendar with colorful images on each monthly pages as well as all the recurring pujas and special festivals was released by the KSHT Publishing team.
· A special event T-shirt was released by the KSHT Cleaning team whose relentless services keeps the Temple a welcome place for all.
· The 2018 traditional Datta Peetham calendar in Telugu.
· A telugu book titled Appaji Navaratri by Pundit Rani Subbayya Deekshitulu about the scholarly approach and insight into Sri Swamiji Devi Navaratri pujas from the perspective of a close observer of the practices for many years.
· The 2018 Datta Kriya Yoga (DKY) desktop calendar.
· Special announcement: Feb 16-18, 2018 Pujya Sri Swamiji will be leading the DKY conference in Mysuru. All are welcomed to register and attend.
· A yoga mat printed with the logos from Yoga Sangeeta and SGS Posts by Srinivas Chundu.
The most awaited moment of Swamiji speech arrived. Swamiji extolled the wonderful programs that happened on the first day of Guru Mahotsav and blessed all the attendees to support the various programs in the Temple including the Canteen, Rajagopura/Dhwajastambha, and Indianization projects.
Friday, Dec 22
Morning programs
The 4 day Datta Kriya Yoga workshop began in the main hall of the Marakata Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple with 140 registrants seeking to better their daily lives through Sri Swamiji's Datta Kriya Yoga's pranayamas and Nadi Shuddhi Vyamas. Many students who attended the workshop were first-time attendees for any yoga program.
The 3 hour Mouna session with was the first ever held in the US midwest. The rare session's registrants filled the main hall and chairs with both beginners and those who had already attended the free session on every Saturday and Sunday which were started at Sri Swamiji's behest. The session was broken into three sections in which Swamiji taught different techniques to help the attendees attain a deeper state of silent meditation. With online logbooks, Swamiji encouraged the attendees to continue with their Mouna practice so that Swamiji can return to give more in-depth camps on Mouna for their benefit.
Evening programs
Sri Swamiji performed Sri Chakra puja with sangeeta seva featuring Swamiji's latest Navaratri bhajans by Vanarasena members as ably taught by Smt. Madhavi Attaluri. Yoga Sangeeta's Srinivas Chundu offered the welcome garland to Swamiji.
A new cutting-edge project was unveiled by Ram Prabhu with Sri Swamiji's blessing. The eSteem Mobile is an app available on iTunes and Play and also has a website (steemit.com). It works like other social media platforms with a distinct difference. Steemit is a social media platform where everyone gets paid for creating and upvoting (similar to facebook's like) content. It leverages a robust digital points system (Steem) for digital rewards. Everyone is encouraged to download the app and create a profile. Sri Swamiji will be posting content on this new platform as another way to reach His devotees. Through eSteem, Swamiji's followers have the opportunity to give back to their Sadguru by doing what they already do: Upvoting (liking) posts and commenting on them.
Gow daanam (donation) and rakshana (protection) are important principles in Hinduism. Three new programs were unveiled tonight to provide Gow seva opportunities for devotees. Through www.SGSDattaKamadhenu.org, devotees can choose to
- Shelter A Cow: offer shelter to cows at Surabhi Vana,
- Feed A Cow: support feeding Cows monthly, and/or
- Adopt A Cow: adopt with generous donations
Sri Swamiji personally gave prasad to Appji members and encouraged each member to add details with photos for their family member. There are only 500 members accepted for Appji and Swamiji urged everyone to actively post messages daily or they will lose the privilege of the membership.
Saturday, Dec 23
Morning program
The morning started with the sampoorna Bhagavad Gita parayana by Sri Swamiji’s Tatajisena from Batch 1 (2015-16) and Batch 2 (2016-17) consisting of over 160 chanters who had memorized all the 700 shlokas of the Gita. They were accompanied by 90 trained, fluent readers who also went through the mahayagna program. The entire hall was filled with the devotees who were listening in rapt attention. The event was streamed live and broadcast on five Indian television channels.
The Mahayagna program grew from about 40 kids in a handful of US states in the first year to now over 1000 participants in 16 US states and spanning 10 countries across the globe!!! Sri Swamiji started a Gita renaissance, a worldwide revolution and incited a passion for Gita. Following the completion of the parayana, HH Sri Swamiji gave each of the memorization participants a special letter from their beloved Tataji and asked them to take an oath to respect their parents, learn their mother tongue (parents’ native language) and respect their teachers. Memory students who recently completed the Mahayagna program received a gold medal and gold completion certificate directly from Sri Swamiji.
Evening program
Sri Swamiji performed Sri Chakra puja with accompaniment by Dallas area musicians, students who sang Annamacharya Kritis and Swaradevata Kritis. The performers included Venkatraman Subramanian, Ganesh Devarajan, Sridharan, Srinivas Prabhala, Shankar Krishnaswamy, Raghu Dharwada, Santhi mahadevan, Neyveli Ramalakshmi, Viji Somnath, Jyoti Rao, Vijayashree Venkatraman, Madhavi Attaluri, Srujana Aduri, Lakshmi Kesvan, Vidya Magesh, Shakuntala, Vidya Ram, Shruti Sriram, Sreevidya Ghantasala, Chinmayee Venkatraman, Aishu Ravindran, Divya, Umamahesh Iyer (violin), Shankar Rajagopalan (mridangam), Naren Pullela, Krishna Tirumalai, Amey Bellary, Aditya Iswara and violin students of Sri Venkatraman. The selections were:
1] Jaya Jaya Ganapathy (Kalyani)
2] Narayanate Namo Namo (Behag)
3] Muddugare Yashoda (Kuranji)
4] Saraya Saraya (Karaharapriya)
5] Ri Ri Swarooditam (Sahana)
6] Gagana Gatha (Bahudari)
7] Mamava mamavo (Neelambari)
8] Papam Hare (Dharmavathi)
9] Dadati sampadam (Mohana)
10] Neeraja Manini (Hamsanandi)
11] Pada pada pada (Sindhubhairavi)
12] Sakala Deva Rupane by Sri Bala Swamiji (Charukesi)
13] Raga Ragini (Sama)
Welcome garlands were offered by Sree and VR Raman on behalf of DYC, a dedicated group of ladies who make ladoos and vadamalas on a weekly basis for the temple, and the Crowd Control team who help manage the direct devotees during temple events and festivals. Sri Subramanya Stapathy, who built the existing temple, received Sri Swamiji's blessings to begin the Indianization of the Rajagopura. The Indianization of the Rajagopura will take approximately 15 months. Sri Swamiji gave permission for indianization to begin on 6 corner panels of the Temple to the joy of all those present and many stepped forward to pledge their support to complete the 6 corner panels.
Sunday, Dec 24
Morning program
On a cold, brisk morning in Frisco, Datta devotees started on three pradakshinas around the temple while singing bhajans for the Nagara Sankirtan program. Despite the wind and chilly temperatures, their voices melded beautifully while singing 11 bhajans by Pujya Sri Swamiji in their dedicated satsangh.
Sri Swamiji performed Sri Chakra puja this morning with musical seva rendered by Bala Datta Students of KSHT and local community who sang a selection of Sri Swamiji's bhajans in an effort to spread awareness of Sri Swamiji's divine musical compositions.
As a special blessing to devotees, Sri Swamiji acquiesced to Pratyaksha pada puja during the Guru Mahotsav celebrations. Six lucky families were given the opportunity to perform pratyaksha as a blessing for their continued and staunch support of the Temple.
Devotees surprised Appaji with an Annakut display. Over 90 families made 114 items which were placed on display with the amazing 3 tiered cake decorated with the diamond jubilee celebrations logo and a large peacock perched on top while its tail feathers draped down the layers of the cake inscribed with 75th birthday wishes for Swamiji.
Set against a scenic pasture backdrop with majestic peacocks, Sri Swamiji ascended the stage for a tulabharam with bird seed to benefit the hundreds of birds in Shukavana. Designed in the style of an old-fashioned scale, the tulabharam was decorated with peacock feathers and flowers. Hundreds of devotees lined up to give to the worthy cause of Shukavana in this delightful way.
Evening program
Sri Swamiji arrived to view a ten-foot tall display of the Temple's Arts class kids' painting and drawings and spoke encouragingly with the teachers. The DYC Chicago group offered the welcome garland to Sri Swamiji.
The Temple's Community Services and Disaster Relief team shared details about their project and outreach efforts. With Sri Swamiji's inspiration and guidance through the various mobile platforms and SGS Posts app, the Temple's community service efforts have positively impacted hundreds of lives this year. 37 hungry children will be fed for one full year, 40 poor children received the necessary school supplies for their studies this year, and 2 new college students received scholarships to pay for their books for one semester to name a few of the projects that Sri Swamiji's grace and guidance have enabled. Everyone was encouraged to join these efforts and find ways to help in your local communities. The Community Services team and the Temple Hotline team offered Sri Swamiji a garland as a token of their gratitude and love.
Sri Swamiji's devotees from all over the world, fondly known as Angels, helped celebrate Christmas Eve by singing a few carols and showing their love for Pujya Appaji through song. After their performance, they draped Swamiji in a white-trimmed red cape, hat and boots so Appaji became "SantAppaji." Kids were given little toys and a Mysuru Hanuman photo to celebrate the holiday. The evening's programs concluded with Vidwan Jaitra Varanasi's violin students' melodious rendition of a medley of Sri Swamiji's bhajans.
Sri Swamiji's blessed everyone with Christmas wishes and a message to do more Community Service projects. Sri Swamiji encouraged everyone to make a donation of at least $1 a month to support the temple's community services effort. Don't forget to download eSteem app or go to SteemIt.com. After you register, Swamiji’s posts are under username sgsposts. Please follow and upvote sgsposts to support Swamiji's worldwide community service efforts.
Monday, Dec 25
Sri Swamiji performed Sri Chakra puja in the evening with sangeeta seva by KSHT annual bhajan competition winners followed by Gita chanting by Mahayagna Batch 3 children.
Guru Samarpana was offered by Dallas area classical dance teachers who performed choreographed program set to a medley of Sri Swamiji's bhajans beautifully rendered by the Bombay Sisters. The teachers who performed are Vani Iswara, Krishnaveni Putrevu, Hemamalini Manju, Kalyani Avulam and Padma Sonti. Welcome garlands were offered by Datta Temple in Baton Rouge and DYC Trinidad & Tobago ashrama. The KSHT Annadaan and Canteen team came together to offer their pranams and welcome garland as well as seek Sri Swamiji's blessings for continued seva in the newly inaugurated Jalalakshmi Mata Canteen.
One of the Gita Mahayagna students from Batch 1, Hrishi Terlapu, displayed his skills in reciting Gita Shlokas by number. Given a chapter and shloka number, Hrishi chanted the shloka along with the English translation from Sri Swamiji's Srimad Bhagavad Gita book with simple English translations. Swamiji's face lit up with joy as Hrishi answered each of the audience's questions accurately and with lighting speed at times. Hrishi's parents, Chakravarthy and Sireesha, shared how Hrishi was unable to speak but gained his speech and succeeded in Gita only due to Sri Swamiji's blessings. Pujya Sri Swamiji materialized a spatika (crystal) mala from a flower garland and gifted it to Hrishi with His blessings. When lovingly presented with gifts by children, Sri Swamiji materialized pendants for each of them as well. As a small token of our immense gratitude for the wonderful blessing of Sri Swamiji's darhsan and 5 days of programs, Lakshminarayana Rao garu and B.N. Kesarinath garu presented Swamiji with guru dakshina on behalf of Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple, Frisco. Sri Swamiji's dolotsvava was beautifully sung by Madhavi Attaluri. The program concluded with Sri Karya Siddhi Hanuman aarti by Sri Swamiji.
