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“Hare Rama! Hare Rama! Rama Rama Hare Hare!
Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Krishna Krishna Hare Hare!”

The main objective of Sri Swamiji is to propagate ‘Bhagavan Nãma’ (the Name of the Lord) amongst the masses, particularly the downtrodden. Around 25 young devotees of Sri Swamiji visit the villages surrounding our Mathurapuri Ãshram, on weekends and public holidays and chant “Hare Rama” Maha Mantra.

The sessions are broadly divided into two - morning and evening - and are generally of two-hour duration. Each village is served by a group of three or four of these young men. For the first 15 minutes, they go around the village chanting “Hare Rama” and the local children join them. They then assemble at a common place and help the children with their school lessons for an hour and a half. The session concludes with singing of Sri Swamiji’s kirtans and narration of a short story from our puranas. These stories mainly pertain to bhaktas who come from the lower strata of the society.

The response from the villagers is excellent. They chant the Nãma without any inhibition whatsoever. The deep response from the villagers - children and elders alike - is seen in their greeting the young men with “Radhe Krishna!” Presently the focus is on the colonies.

This work began in November 2000 in two villages - Mãhãnyam and Malaipattu. Gradually, the number of villages have increased and the Nãma chanting is carried out in all of them.

Diary of events:

Activities during October 2002:

Three new villages - Baraniputhur, Nallur and Karunagacheri- were covered during this month, along with the other villages where regular chanting of Hare Rama is done. Baraniputhur is a village near Porur. Nallur is near Amarambedu ( a village already being covered by us), while Karunagacheri lies in between Mettukolathur ( a village already covered by us) and Somangalam.

In Baraniputhur, the response was tremendous. The village has several Bhajan mutts. The villagers chanted Hare Rama with utmost devotion, with accompaniments such as "Dholki" . and "Jalra".

In Nallur village, Hare Rama was chanted in the local Bhajan Mutt. The participants were mostly elders. The Satsang members were given a good reception in Nallur. After chanting of Hare Rama, some kirtans of Sri Swamiji were sung and taught to the children.

At Karunagacheri, there is a beautiful Bhajan Mutt for Lord Venugopalaswamy. The most striking feature is the Murthy of Lord Venugopalaswamy. The Lord stands with a Abhaya Hasta, which is very unique, considering the fact that most of the Bhajan Mutts in the villages we visit only have a big photograph of Lord Krishna. There was good participation from both children and elders. The story of Lord Krishna's avatar was told in the village.

As usual, Satsang members covered Malaipattu, Mahãnyam, Gunduperumbedu, Vellãrai, Kolathur, Galattupattu, Amarambedu, Poonthandalam, Pazhanthandalam, Mettukolathur, Irumbedu, Nãvalur and Pillaipakkam .

Stories from our puranas, stressing the importance of chanting of Hare Rama and about Lord Krishna's childhood exploits were narrated in the villages. The sessions concluded with the distribution of prasad ("Kalkandu") to the participants.

Nãma Sankirtan at Sankagiri

“Hare Rama…” nãma kirtan is being performed every Wednesday from 3 P.M. to 5 P.M. at the residence of Sri S.J.Sundararajan and Smt. Jyothi Sundararajan in Sankagiri near Salem, Tamizh Nadu. Around 25 persons participate regularly in the nãma kirtan. On Sunday, October 11th, 2002, “Akhanda Nãma Sankirtan ” was performed from 6 A.M to 6 P.M. 5 Satsang members from Chennai and 40 members from Sankagiri participated in the chanting of the Maha Mantra.

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