The first lecture I attended was on May-8th, Sunday in my friend's house. Since it was a Sunday and people had to go to work the next day the lecture was supposed to start at 6.00 pm. But people started showing up only around 6.30 pm. On hearing this ( my friend called the swamiji's group) the Swamiji said that he'll come a little late.
Soon, people started to come and they did come in all colors, I mean some with Sacred ask on their foreheads and some with the Vaishnavite Namams on their foreheads. Some came in dhotis and most women were in traditional Indian dresses. I felt a little out of place dressed in jeans and T-shirt.
The kids began to recite bhajans and soon the swamiji walked in ( really jumpy fast walk) and sat in the sofa turned into podium. He looked very fit, had a White Namam on his forehead which extended to his hairline. The Namam ended a little below his forehead on his nose in the shape of a leaf ( He lated explained that that it was 2 Tulasi stalks and a leaf). He had a book resting on a book stand and began to talk. He started with some prayers and jumped in directly.
I think the earlier day ( May-7th Saturday) there was already a lecture at the Atlanta temple. So he recognized some people in the croud ( around 20) and kept asking if they understood what he was trying to convey. He had some relatives too in the group and remarked about some Bhooma Mami, to a family in the group.
I had two elderly gentlemen sitting next to me. Both were visiting from Chennai. As expected they started to talk about the woes of Chennaites before the lecture and became very attentive as the group did, later on.
I think the Swami's team records all his lectures. So the video camera was on. The lecture was until 8.30 pm, close to one hour. His style was amazing. He was very fluent in English, Tamil, Hindi and Bengali. His voice was deep and very clear. Just around 8.30 he requested the audience to ask questions.
( Will Continue tomorrow)
4 comments:
Usually I have read that most of these swamijis are fluent with more than 1 language (same thing with temple priests, they try to speak in more than one language - possibly due to a better reach?).
Btw, whats this swamiji's speciality? I dont know anything about him and a google search didnt result in any good hits, does he relate to any of the established organizations or is he just on a general mission on spreading spirituality?
Anand,
Please check this link
http://www.bhagavatvani.org/index.htm
Narayanan Venkitu,
How are you?
This is Rajasekar from Atlanta. I met you during Srila Swamiji's visit to Atlanta. I remember talking to you at Kumar's house. You also asked Srila Maharaj several nice questions at Naren's house.
Naren told me that you wanted to meet Srila Maharaj privately to ask few spiritual questions. I told him to bring you to my house to speak with Srila Maharaj, for some reason that didn’t happen.
Did you get a chance to watch the DVD? Were you able to play them in your DVD player? Please call or email me at 770-495-9569 or rajr@iname.com.
Thank You,
Rajasekar
I just came across this site when I was looking for more information about Swamiji Tirtha Maharaj, I also found nice bhajans and pravachans by same swamiji at a new website www.gva.in Very different from regular religious lectures.
Narayanan, Thank you for nice post, well written.
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