Strange connection, isn’t it? We all know
Bhoothana as the demoness in Krishanavathara who tried to kill Baby Krishna by
feeding him poisoned milk.
This morning’s episode of Vijay TV Bhakthi
Thiruvizha gave me a glimpse of an earlier janma of Bhoothana which I would
like to share here.
Vijay TV has started telecasting the
Bhakthi Thiruvizha which took place in Srirangam earlier this month. This morning
was the first discourse in this series rendered by Jaya Srinivasan .
Bhoothana as we all know was one in the
long list of demons deployed by Kamsa to kill Lord Krishna growing up in
Gokulam.
In her earlier janma Bhoothana was born as
Mahabali’s daughter by name Rathnamala.
Mahabali was performing the yagna and Guru
Sukracharya noticed a very bright light at a distance. As he was wondering what
the bright light was, it kept coming closer. He realised that the light was
emanating from a 3 feet tall Brahmin boy holding an umbrella. As the boy came
closer, all present at the yagna looked at him in awe. He was such a handsome
boy, with intelligence radiating from him. Rathnamala felt so much of love for
the boy that she wanted to make him sit on her lap and shower her love on him. Things
happened in a flash and Mahabali was pressed into the netherworld by Vamana who
had taken viswaroopam. All her love for Vamana turned into hatred and
Rathnamala wanted to kill the boy.
Rathnamala’s wish to first cuddle the boy
and then to kill the boy was granted together in Krishnavathara by the episode
of Bhoothana feeding Krishna and trying to kill him!
VIJAY TV BHAKTHI THIRUVIZHA SEASON 12, DAY 3 –BHAKTHI MANDRAM
Next was Bhakthi mandram similar to patti mandram but
without the competition part. The Judge was my favourite Professor Dr. Selvaganapathy,
who I have heard talk about the nayanmars on Doordarshan many times.
The speakers were Pulavar Ramalingam on Navukarasarin
Bhakthi Nerigal (நாவுக்கரசரின் பக்தி நெறிகள்) and Vijayasundari on Gnanasambandarin Bhakthi நெறிகள் (ஞானசம்பந்தரின் பக்தி நெறிகள்) .
The talks were very interesting but I felt that they
sometimes went off their allocated topics when Pulavar Ramalingam started
talking about Gnanasambandar and Vijayasundari about Navukarasar.
But on the whole it was a new concept and very informative about both the
Shiva devotees and made one emotional about their Bhakthi towards Lord Shiva!
VIJAY TV BHAKTHI THIRUVIZHA SEASON 12, DAY 3 – NAMASANKEERTHANAM
BY SRI SATTANATHA BHAGAVATHAR
The third programme was Namasankeerthanam by Sri Sattanatha
Bhagavathar associated with Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamigal.
Ms. Sumathi introduced them with an interesting narration
that when she asked Sattanatha Bhagavathar from when he was involved in
Namasangeerathanam, he said right from the age of 7 and has been rendering
Namasangeerathanam for the past 25 years, but the person looks only about 30
years old! She went on to compare Sattanatha Bhagavathar with
Thirugnanasambandar who was also from Seeragazhi and had the blessings of the
Almighty at a very young age!
The Namasangeerthanam was a beautiful 30 minutes with total
devotion. I loved the rendering of Muralidhara swamigal song “hare rama hare rama".The crowd got very much involved with clapping and repeating during the
namasangeerathanam.
VIJAY TV BHAKTHI THIRUVIZHA SEASON
12, DAY 3 – DHARMAME VELLUM BY PROFESSOR ILLAMPIRAI MANIMARAN – Part 3
Another episode narrated during the discourse was about a
happening during the Agnyathavaasam of the Pandavas. After 13 years of
vanavasam, the Pandavas were spending a year in Agnyathavasam in hiding. The Pandavas
had chosen Virada Desam for staying hidden. Yudhishtra had joined as the king’s
advisor naming himself Gangubattar. Bheema became the royal cook, Arjuna, a
eunuch while Nakula and Sahadeva took care of the horse stables. Draupadi took
up the job as the queen’s companion.
When the queen’s brother Keechakan tried to misbehave with
Draupadi, Bheema killed him. Hearing of Keechakan’s death, Duryodhana guessed
that the Pandavas should be in Virada Desam as only a great warrior could
defeat Keechakan. The Kauravas attacked Virada Desam and the prince went to the
battlefield with Brigannalai (Arjuna, the eunuch) as his sarathi.
The Virada King was in his court playing the dice with
Gangubattar. As they were wondering what could have happened in the battlefield,
Gangubattar said that Brigannalai would have defeated the Kauravas.
Angry that Gangubattar suggested that Brigannalai could have
defeated the opponents and not the prince, the king threw the dice at
Gangubattar. Blood started flowing from the wound and Draupadi ran to stop the
blood ensuring that not even a drop fell on the ground. This is because
Yudhishtra is such a great person that if a drop of blood from his body fell on
the ground, there will be no rain in that area for a number of years and the
Pandavas did not want such a thing to happen to a country who helped them spend
their Agnyathavasam period comfortably!
The Professor also narrated the episode of “Ashwathama
hathaha kunjaraha” he only place where one could say Dharmaputra’s dharma slipped
a little, but that too was because of Krishna
leelai.
It is the 15th day of the Kurukshetra battle and
the only way to defeat Drona was to tell him Ashwathama had been killed. Drona
would not believe the news unless it was uttered by a Dharmavan such as Yudhishtra.
Krishna suggests that Yudhishtra says it but
the latter refuses to lie.
Krishna asks Yudhishtra to announce that an elephant name
Ashwathama had been killed and when Yudhishtra announces “Ashwathama hathaha
kunjaraha”, Krishna blows his conch just as
Yudhishtra says “kunjaraha”. Drona believes his son Ashwathama is dead and drops
all his weapons. In that weak moment, Dhristadhyumna kills Drona!
The moment Yudhishtra announces “Ashwhathama hathaha
kunjaraha”, his chariot which was always a few inches above the ground
declaring his Dharma, touched the ground.
Ramayana on TV on the
occasion of Hanuman Jayanthi
The first story was by Sri Velukkudi Krishnan in Sriramanin
Arulamudham in Podhigai TV.
This series on Ramayana has just begun after the completion
of Bhagavatham and is in introduction stages. Sri Velukkudi Krishnan explained
today how we have to proceed from Krishna to
Rama with the help of Hanuman, who was present in the times of both the Avatars.
He began with the mention of a Hanuman sannidhi next to the
sannidhi of Parthasarathy in the Ananthapadmanabhaswamy
Temple in Trivandrum. (I have not had the opportunity
to visit this temple so far).
During his extensive travel, Arjuna reached the southernmost
part of the country. When he saw the ocean, he wondered why Rama strived to
make a bridge with stones and not just with his arrows across the ocean to
reach Lanka. There was a small monkey around and the monkey said it was not
practical to make a bridge with arrows as it would not have taken the weight of
the vanara sainyam (monkey army). Arjuna did not accept this and said he will
make a bridge with his arrows. He made a bridge in a jiffy and the lone monkey tried
to walk across and the bridge gave away. He tried not once but thrice and the
same thing happened. Krishna could not see his
dear friend Arjuna failing and came there in the form a young boy. The boy
asked Arjuna to try building a bridge again and this time when the monkey
walked, the bridge was intact. Both Arjuna and the monkey looked at the boy and
Arjuna said “Hey Krishna” and the monkey, which was actually Hanuman said “Hey
Rama”. God showed himself as both Rama and Krishna
to his respective devotees.
Here is the link to the above programme
The next story is part of Vijay TV Bhakthi Thiruvizha -
“Vibeeshana Saranagathi” by Sri Thamal Ramakrishnan. Today was the last part of
this discourse.
Vibeeshana has just reached Rama’s camp and requests the
vanaras to recommend his case to Rama. He tries to convince them by narrating
different stories. One such story was very cute and I would like to share here.
Chased by a tiger, a man climbs a tree in the forest. He
thinks he can sit on the tree till the tiger goes away. By the time he settles down,
he sees an old monkey atop the tree. The monkey bares its teeth and the man is
frightened. He straightaway takes hold of the monkey’s feet and requests the
monkey to save him. Since he said saranagathi, the monkey ensures that the man
is saved and takes care of him over the next few hours by plucking fruits from
the tree for the man when he is hungry and even allowing him to sleep on its
lap when he is tired. The tiger from below the tree suggests that the monkey
pushes the man when he is fast asleep. The monkey does not accept this. By
afternoon, the man wakes up and the monkey asks the man if it can sleep on his
lap as the monkey is very tired now. As soon as the monkey goes to sleep, the
tiger tells the man that all it needs is meat whether it is human or monkey, so
push the monkey down. The ungrateful human tries to push the monkey down.
Waking up, monkey catches hold of the lower branch and climbs up again. The
shameless man again catches hold of the monkey’s feet and the benevolent monkey
still promises to save him. Vibheeshana narrates the above story to the vanaras
highlighting the greatness of monkeys over man and beseeches with them to take
his saranagathi message to Rama!
Here is the you tube link
I heard that Hanumath Jayanthi is being celebrated in some parts of India today, hence the title!
VIJAY TV BHAKTHI THIRUVIZHA
SEASON 12, DAY 3 – DHARMAME VELLUM BY PROFESSOR ILLAMPIRAI MANIMARAN – Part 2
The next episode explained by the Professor Illampirai
Manimaran to show the Dharmam of Yudhishtra brought tears to my eyes. In fact, the
Professor herself was so involved and emotional while narrating the same that
all of us were transported to the battleground of Kurukshetra.
It was the 13th day of the Mahabharatha battle. A
padmavyugam had been formed by the Kauravas. Abimanyu, who had learned how to
enter the padmavyugam when he was in his mother Subhadra’s womb, entered all
alone into the vyugam as his father and uncles were elsewhere in the
battleground. Bheema was the only one
close by and he noticed Abhimanyu proceeding deep into the vyugam breaking down
the formation by killing the soldiers.
Aware that Abhimanyu only knew how to enter the vyugam and
not how to exit, Bheema tried to help him. Jayathrathan, Kaurava’s brother in
law (married to the only sister of the 100 Kauravas) threw a kondrai flower
garland across Bheema’s path. A great Shiva bhaktha, Bheema hesitated to cross
the garland and in this momentary hesitation, the vyugam completely closed
around Abhimanyu and never allowed him to come out.
At the end of the day, when Arjuna came to know that
Abhimanyu was crushed inside the vyugam, he was inconsolable. When he learnt
that Jayathrathan made sure Bheema could not help Abhimanyu, he vowed to kill
Jayathrathan before sunset the next day or else kill himself.
That night, the great dharmavan, Yudhishtra called
Gadothgajan and asked him to go and warn Duryodhana to hide Jayathrathan the
whole of next day so that he does not get killed. Inspite of Arjuna’s vow that
he will kill himself if he does not kill Jayathrathan by next evening,
Yudhishtra did this as Duchalai, wife of Jayathrathan was the only sister for
both Kauravas and Pandavas and Yudhishtra did not want her to be widowed.
That Krishna did a leelai
the next evening by hiding the sun and then showing it later thereby helping
Arjuna kill Jayathrathan is another story.
The above was narrated with great emotion by the Professor. Her
description of the Pandavas sorrow for the loss of Abhimanyu made the audience
feel the loss of Abhimanyu right there and then and not as if it happened eons
ago!
VIJAY TV BHAKTHI THIRUVIZHA SEASON 12, RAMA AVATHARAM BY
DESA MANGAYARKARASI
The fourth programme was Rama avatharam by Desa
Mangayarkarasi.
When I saw the programme list I felt it was quite unusual
for Desa Mangayarkarasi to speak on Rama avatharam instead of her usual
authoritative speeches on Lord Muruga,
But she was knowledgeable on this too with quotes on Rama by
Arunagiriyar.
She started with the description of the kingdom of Ayodhya
by Kambar where he says that the conch is dozing in water, buffalo in the fields,
bee in the flower garland and Mahalakshmi on lotus.
The conch is dozing because it is not disturbed by the
buffalo that is lazing in the fields instead of the usual way of sitting in the
water to cool itself. The bee is sleeping in the flower garland as he is full
with nectar from one flower and did not find the need to go in search of many
flowers. The most fertile land had such huge flowers that the nectar from a
single flower was enough for the bee. People were happy and contented and were
not behind Mahalakshmi with their requests. Hence Mahalakshmi was resting on
her lotus with not much work to do! So prosperous was the kingdom of Ayodhya!
Dasaratha was the king who ruled Ayodhya. Dasa + ratha = the
man who overcame all the ten evils that a man could have!
He was no ordinary man, he was so great and hence the name Dasaratha. Dasaratha
was worried that his great Ishvaku vamsam will end with him and went in search
of his Guru Vashishtar for advice. Vashishtar asked him to get in touch with
Kalaikotu munivar to perform the Putrakameshti yagam which will give Darasatha
a son. Kalikotu munivar was Dasaratha’s son-in-law in a way as he was married
to Saanthai a daughter of Dasaratha who was adopted by Romapathar.
Kalaikotu munivar performed the Putrakameshti yagam and in
the end, a Deva came out of the yagna with a pot of payasam. Dasaratha gave
Kaushalya and Kaikeyi half each and they in turn gave half of their share to
Sumitra. All of them conceived and after 12 months, under the star of Punarvasu
Lord Rama was born. Bharatha was born under the star Poosam to Kaikeyi, Lakshmana
under the star Ayilyam and Shatrughna under the star Makam to Sumitra.
Kaushalya was a great woman – the moment Dasaratha married
Kaikeyi, she gave him up to Kaikeyi. The moment Rama was born, she gave her son
to Kaikeyi. Rama was brought up with great and love and affection especially by
Kaikeyi!
Here Desa Mangayarkarasi brought in Arunagirinathar’s
description of the bringing up of Rama:
Kaikeyi is feeding Rama, she adoringly calls him “maindha
va, en magane va”. She went on to explain the various terms we use in Tamizh to
describe a son.
Balakan (பாலகன்) – a boy who is innocent and ignorant irrespective of
age
Magan (மகன் ) – a boy who takes responsibility of his family totally
Pillai (பிள்ளை) – a boy who is irresponsible and selfish
Maindhan (மைந்தன்)- a boy who takes care not only his own parents but
also his extended family – uncles and aunts
She went on to describe how Kambar narrated Viswamitra’s request
to Dasaratha to send Rama with him. Rama is about twelve years old and
Viswamitra comes to Dasaratha’s court. Dasaratha runs to the door to welcome
him. A pleased Viswamitra right away appreciates Vashishta for being a good Guru
to Ayodhya. He goes on to appreciate Dasaratha’s ruling of Ayodhya and slowly
brings out his request. The moment Viswamitra says that he needs an able man to
take care of the disturbances to his Yagnam, Dasaratha offers to send a
soldier, his commander-in-chief and even offers to go himself. Viswamitra
rejects all and says there is still a more able man and says he wants only
Rama. With great reluctance Dasaratha agrees to send Rama with him and
Lakshmana who follows Rama like a shadow joins him. Viswamitra promises to
bring Rama back safe and takes leave of Dasaratha.
VIJAY TV BHAKTHI THIRUVIZHA SEASON 12, SONGS BY SHRAVAN
The third programme was songs by Shravan. Ms. Sumathi
introduced him by saying Shravan who was Airtel Super Singer is about to sing
on the Supreme now!
Shravan sang about 6 songs on the Lord and his rendering
was lovely on the ears. I liked the singing of Thiruppavai best!
VIJAY TV BHAKTHI THIRUVIZHA SEASON 12, BALA LEELAI HARIKATHA PART 2
Balameera Alamelu continued the discourse with the description of Krishna stealing butter in Ayarpadi.
Krishna goes and sits on Nandagopan’s lap and asks him to suggest a good day. The surprised Nandagopan asks Krishna what is it for and the mischievous Krishna replies “to begin stealing butter”.
Krishna is a thief alright, but his relatives are also thieves. Krishna’s brother-in-law Shiva was called a thief by a five-year-old boy (Thirugnanasambandar sang on Shiva “enn ullam kavar kalvan" என் உள்ளம் கவர் கள்வன்). His nephew Murugan was called a thief by Arunagirinathar (ammaan magalai thirudum thirudan - அம்மான் மகளைத் திருடும் திருடன் ). His nephew Ganapathi also stole the butter kept for Krishna in Sikkal
One fine day, Krishna starts his butter stealing leela and enters a house. There is nobody in the front yard. He walks through and finds the lady of the house in the kitchen. The lady is busy cooking in a golden pot and holding a golden ladle in her hand. Krishna enters from behind and makes a noise with his armlets. Getting no reaction, he creates noise with his anklets and still no reaction. He dances a few steps with still no reaction. Krishna decides that nothing is available in this house and turns back. The lady runs to the kitchen entrance and blocks the way. She had been watching the reflection of Krishna’s antics on the golden ladle and had been fascinated by them.
She pleads with Krishna to dance. Krishna asks her what she will give him and she lists out the number of snacks she has at home. The moment she finishes Krishna gets ready to leave saying “what’s the use, you don’t seem to have butter in your house”. The lady runs inside and brings a handful of butter. Krishna eats the butter and dances. The 30-year-old lady is captivated by the 3 ½-year-old’s dance. Krishna abruptly stops dancing.
Wondering why he stopped, the lady asks him and he promptly says, “I can dance only this much for the amount of butter you gave.” The lady runs inside again to bring another handful of butter. Krishna drops some butter down and eats the rest. As he dances, he mixes the sand on the mud floor with the butter and throws it on the lady’s eyes. The lady is unable to open her eyes as it was just not sand, but butter mixed with sand and so difficult to wash away. She finally opens her eyes to see the kitchen utensils talking to each other. The utensils were wondering how Krishna opened them, wore the murukku as a bangle, jilebi as an anklet etc. and went away. Zapped by this, the lady goes to the neighbour and the moment she starts the story, the neighbour describes all the happenings and finally says Krishna did a similar leela in her house the earlier day and threw all the utensils into the well!
The above has come out like a story but the narration by Needamangalam Alamelu and Sri Subburaman was beautiful with many songs in between.
Watch out for the telecast of this on Vijay TV soon!
This programme is being telecast this week on Vijay TV at 6.45 am
Here is the you tube link of the complete programme
VIJAY TV BHAKTI TIRUVIZHA SEASON 12, UBA KADHAIGAL BY
SOLLINSELVAR V SUBBURAMAN
Kanji (porridge) from
Vidhuran
Krishna came to
Hastinapuram on behalf of Pandavas as their messenger. As soon as he entered,
he went in search of Vidhuran’s house to have food. When he entered, Vidhuran
was not there and his wife invited him inside and said she will cook and serve
food soon. Krishna was too hungry and wanted
something to eat right away. She went to the backyard and plucked a full bunch
of bananas not even checking properly if the bananas were ripe or not.
Understanding that they are going to be eaten by Krishna, the raw bananas
ripened by the time she came inside to offer them to Krishna.
These bananas were green outside and ripe inside – the green bananas we get now
(pachai pazham)
With great love and devotion, she started peeling the bananas
and offered one by one to Krishna, enquiring
about the Pandavas and Draupadi. In her enthusiasm, she threw the bananas aside
and offered the peels to Krishna. Seeing her
devotion, Krishna also ate the banana peels.
Vidhuran entered his home and was shocked to see this. He
scolded his wife and brought a huge banana leaf to serve Krishna.
Vidhuran lived as an ascetic during the period that his nephews, the Pandavas,
were suffering in the forest. Vidhuran also lived in a hut and drank only
kanji. The food supposed to be prepared for Krishna
never got ready. Vidhuran poured his kanji on the leaf for Krishna.
The semi liquid kanji ran to one end of the leaf and Krishna
held that corner of the leaf with his left hand so that it did not run out. The
kanji started flowing down the other side and Krishna
used his right hand to hold this side. It started flowing to the third
direction and He sprouted another hand to hold it back. This went on and Krishna had to use 10 hands to hold the kanji in the
leaf. Krishna appreciated Vidhuran’s devotion
that even to kill demons he had used only eight hands maximum while for
Vidhuran he had to use 10 hands!
Food from Perunchotru
Cheralathan
Perunchotru Cheralathan was a Chera king who served food for
the armies in Kurukshetra. Everyday, Cheralathan used to supervise the cooking
and the moment the food was ready, he signalled and both the armies used to
come and eat their fill. Krishna and Arjuna were
surprised to note that despite so many warriors dying in the battle every day,
Cheralathan used to lay the exact number of leaves for serving and not even
once there was a leaf more of less. Curious about this, one day when
Cheralathan served payasam, Krishna asked him
about this. Cheralathan went on to explain that everyday he served Krishna payasam counting the number of a particular
lentil in it. After Krishna eats, Cheralathan
only cleared the place and checked for the number of lentils left around the
leaf. The number of lentils eaten by Krishna
is equal to the number of people died in the battle that day – meaning every
life goes into Him and the number of lentils left out is equal to the number of
people alive. This is how he could serve the exact number of leaves everyday.
This lentil was Cashew-nut!
VIJAY TV BHAKTHI THIRUVIZHA SEASON 12, BALA LEELAI HARIKATHA
PART ௧
Sollinselvar V Subburaman began the discourse with
comparison/contrast of Rama and Krishna, the
two poorna avatars of Maha Vishnu.
Rama
Krishna
Born in Palace
Born in Jail
Born amidst four people –
Dasaratha, Kaushalya, Kaikeyi, Sumitra
Born amidst four people –
Vasudevar, Devaki, Nandagopan, Yashoda
Born at 12 noon
Born at 12 midnight
Born in summer
Born in rainy season
Crossed Ganga
to go to forest
Crossed Yamuna to go to Gokulam
Kothandam Kaisumantha Kotravan
(கோதண்டம் கைசுமந்தக் கொற்றவன்
For Rama it is clear that he is
the King who had the bow - Kothandam
Kothandam Kaisumantha Kotravan
This is applicable to Krishna too
Ko+thandam Ko- cow Thandam –
stick
Krishna
herded the cows with a stick
Gobiaathavan gunathuk kotravan
(கோபியாதவன் குணத்துக் கொற்றவன்)
Very soft spoken, great king
Gobiaathavan gunathuk kotravan
King of Gopikas and Yadavas
Bala leelai went on like this – Yashoda went to Nandagopan’s
brother Upanandan’s house requesting him to check on Krishna’s
health as he was not eating well.
“Who? Krishna is not eating
well? He is the one who ate
-Aval (beaten rice) from Kuchelar
-Butter from Gopikas
-Snacks from Yadavas
-Keerai (greens) from Draupadi
-Poison from Boothana
-Kanji (porridge) from Vidhuran
-Food from Perunchotru Cheralathan”
Most of these are familiar stories to all. Sri Suburaman
expanded on the last two stories. Check the next blog for the same.
Here is the youtube link of this complete programme
VIJAY TV BHAKTHI THIRUVIZHA SEASON 12, DAY 2, INTRODUCTION
The dais looked beautiful with Venkatachalapathy on one side and Natarajar on the other side. There was a very sweet looking Krishna in standing posture with one hand on his hip. He was standing on a lotus and there were a few other lotuses around him. On both his sides were tall wooden doors with bells. The twinkling colour lights around Krishna were lovely!
Ms.Sumathi introduced the Harikatha exponent as the descendant of Oothukkadu Venkatasubbayier and went on to explain Venkatasubbaiyer’s greatness. Oothukkadu Venkatasubbayier used to sit in a corner and sing on Lord Krishna. He ensured that his singing never disturbed anybody. Such was his concern for others! A nadaswara vidwan heard him singing and tried to catch the song in his instrument. He used to hear the song in full, come back home and try to practice it. The problem was that the moment he heard the anupallavi, he forgot the pallavi and the moment he heard the saranam he forgot the anupallavi! Venkatasubbayier’s songs were so mesmerizing! How many ever times he tried, he could catch only a part of the song. Seeing his difficulty, a child in his family suggested that he hear only the pallavi one day, come back and practice. After practicing it well, go learn the anupallavi and so on. The nadaswara vidwan did this and finally got the songs right. He played Venkatasubbayier’s songs in temples and this is how the songs became public.
The moment I heard about Vijay TV Bhakthi Thiruvizha Season 12
happening in Chennai, I could not stop checking for details. I desperately
searched on the internet for Vijay TV, Bhakthi Thiruvizha, Narada Gana Sabha,
etc. etc., but with no results. Finally, I called up Vijay TV and came to know
that free entry tickets for 1000 people were available in their office on first
come first serve basis. With not much hope of getting the tickets as it was
already 3.30 pm, I still sent my office boy and he came back saying that there
were no tickets available. Lastly, thanks to my cousin Kartik, I managed to get
some passes.
I could not make it to the inaugural function as it was on
Friday. Came Saturday and I was thinking of nothing but this programme. I
reached the venue at 4.30 pm (the show begins at 5pm) and was pleasantly
surprised to be directed towards the first few rows as it was an invitation
that I was holding. Kartik, special thanks to you for that! I managed to get a
prime seat right at the centre of the fifth row. The hall seemed to be half
empty but by 4.50 pm it was packed to the hilt. First thing I appreciated was
that the programme began sharp at 5pm.
As I have noticed in the earlier seasons of Bhakthi
Thiruvizha, Ms. Sumathi introduced the artistes. Each day had four different
programmes. The second day, that is, the Saturday that I attended the show, had:
1.Bala Leelai - Harikatha by Kokilavani Balameera Selvi Needamangalam Alamelu &
Sollinselvar V Suburaman at 5 pm
2.Discourse on the topic Karadiyum Kurangum by Sri
Karunakarachariyar at 6 pm
3.Bhakthi Padalgal by Shravan at 7 pm
4.Rama Avatharam by Desa
Mangayarkarasi at 7.30 pm
Bhoothana as we all know was one in the
long list of demons deployed by Kamsa to kill Lord Krishna growing up in
Gokulam.
