Global Organisation for Divinity Australia hosts Ram Navami celebrations. BALA SUBRAMANIAM reports
Of all the avatars of Lord Vishnu, the Rama avatar has a special significance in the sense that the Lord demonstrated through personal example how human beings ought to follow dharma. What can be a better way of celebrating Sri Ram Navami than focusing on the dharma for the current times, the age of Kaliyuga? The Global Organisation for Divinity (G.O.D) Australia did just that in their celebration of the event on 16 April at the Waitara Primary School.
The program got off to a purposeful start when the MC stated that in the view of many mahans, the true purpose of Ram avatar was to provide the Ram charitra to humanity so that people could read and sing the divine story for centuries. The first item in the agenda was the melodious rendering of ‘Nama Ramayana’ which is a synopsis of the entire Ramayan in a song form punctuated by the chanting of the divine name of Rama. It was a good feeling, to run through the story of Rama and chant his divine name at the same time.
In introducing the segment of bhajan by a few devotees from Hornsby, the MC quoted from Srimad Bhagavatham that the Lord resides in the heart of devotees who sing his glories. The Rama and Krishna bhajans sung were very soothing and evoked a good participation from the audience.
Kirtans followed, presented by the students of Madhurageetham which is a program conducted by G.O.D Australia on a weekly basis. Children and adults learn bhajans and kirtans through this program. Kirtans from mahans and saints both contemporary and from past centuries are taught. It is said that singing kirtans by such eminent people endears us to God even better than singing our own songs. The kirtans sung on stage were the creation of saint Tulsi Das and Sri Muralidhara Swamiji.
A narration of G.O.D’s purpose and activities was made by the MC and it was great to see the young and energetic organisation taking several initiatives to spread the message of Sri Murlidhara Swamiji, their preceptor. Swamiji’s message in simple terms is that chanting the divine names, especially the “Hare Rama” mahamantra is the most potent and simplest spiritual practice for Kaliyuga. It was nice to know of the newer initiatives of the organisation such as weekly study groups.
Following this, Usha Raisinghani spoke on the greatness of divine names wherein she quoted from the Kali Santrana Upanishad and Tulsi Ramayan to emphasise that namakirtan (singing and chanting the divine names) is the most apt sadhana for modern times.
The program concluded with the group chanting of the Mahamantra, a hymn on Hanuman and the distribution of maha-prasad. It was a wonderful way of celebrating Sri Rama Navami: the message to chant anywhere and always went down very well.
