Mumbai | The two-day long celebrations of the Mumbai Shree Narayana Mandira Samiti, which is reaching its 60th anniversary, have come to an end. A new history was made in the city by performing a Mega Thiruvathira by over 2200 dancers on Sunday, Feb 18, 2024. Thousands of people from 41 units came to watch and participate in the programs. The Samiti's Chembur educational complex, which was decorated with flagpoles, was thronged with devotees early in the morning.
The women who came from Pune danced to the tunes and rhythms of traditional Thiruvathira songs along with Gurudeva's works. Verses from Gurudeva's works Vinayakashtakam, Kundalinipattu, Advaitadeepika, Jathicharanam and Jathilakshanam were arranged for Mega Thiruvathira.
Chairman of the committee M I Damodaran stated in a press conference that the aim of the committee is to make women a part of the society from the kitchen and to strengthen the participation of the women's section in the organization through collective activities. He added that this is the first time in the world that Thiruvathira is being conducted based on the Guru's works, and Shree Narayana Guru was a literary man. He said in a press conference that we are too late to realize it.
From 5 PM onwards, the women started lining up in specially marked lines on the ground in groups on a unit basis. Mandira Samiti General Secretary OK Prasad introduced Megha Thiruvathira to the audience. Coordination was done through various units of the committee. When the third whistle blew at 5:56 PM, history was made when 2200 female artists in the same costume stepped in unison with the tune.
Apart from Malayalees, artists of other languages also participated in Mega Thiruvathira. Around 25 young artistes along with the women artists were part of the Mega Thiruvathira. Then Swami Subhangananda, Abu Asim Azmi MLA, N. Mohandas, S. Chandrababu, O. K. Prasad delivered a speech in the meeting chaired by M I Damodaran, General Secretary of Sivagiri Srinarayana Dharma Sangham Trust. Samiti Zonal Secretaries, Unit Secretaries and Subsidiary Officers led the programme.
The committee with M M Radhakrishnan as convener and N S Rajan as secretarymanaged the event management programs. The Marathi translation of Dr Omana's book 'Vedanta The Science of Consciousness', published by the Samiti, was also released. The Marathi translation was done by Vivek R Jagirdhar.
A theme song marking six decades of achievements of the Mandira Samiti was sung at the function. A song composed by renowned music director P S Vidyadharan and composed by K S Venugopal, who is also a poet and cultural wing convener of the Samiti, sang at the event. Avani Sajeev, Aromal Manoharan, Arya Vijayakumar, Abhijeet Ashokan, Ashtami Raj, Devika S, Devika Mohan, Dhanvin Jayachandran, Harilakshmi Priyan, Praveen Prashanth, Rahul Srinivas and Siddhija Ramesh performed the song on stage. The coordination was done by Master Jayasuryan - a Musician, Music Teacher and an active worker of Tarapur Unit Cultural Section. A folk song performed by Thavam Gramavedi added colour to the festivities.
