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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 today about ten villages, namely, Kolathur, Vellãrai, Gunduperumbedu, Amarambedu, Poonthandalam, Irumbedu, Koothanur, Sirupãkkam and Neithavãyal, are being covered. While the first seven villages are at a short distance around the Ashram, Sirupãkkam lays about 160 kms and Neithavãyal, about 60 kms from the ãshram.

Diary of events:

Sunday, 3rd March 2002

Mahanyam, Malaipattu, Gunduperumbedu, Kolathur, Vellarai and Irumbedu:

In the morning, Vasanth visited . Around 15 children participated in chanting of "Hare Rama". The children chanted Hare Rama with great enthusiasm. Two children, Divya and Arunraj excelled others in all aspects. They chanted Hare Rama with great devotion and sang Sri Swamiji’s kirtans very nicely. “Ambarisha Charitram” was narrated to the children.

In the afternoon the villages of were visited by Sri Kesavan, Sivaraman, Shanmugham, Vasanth, Ravi, Muralidharan, Veeraraghavan, Janakiraman, Anand, Ganesh, Smt.Kalpana Amudhan and Smt.Padma Srinivasakannan.

Stories from the puranas were told to the children by Vasanth, Veeraraghavan, Anand and Sivaraman.

Keezhasalai trip:

As per the wishes of Sri Swamiji, devotees from our Satsang participated in Akanda Nãma Sankirtan (incessant chanting of Hare Rama) at Keezhasalai on Sunday the 3rd March 2002 from 6.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. Sri Swamiji graced the occasion by visiting the place. The participants included Ramanujam, Ramachandran, Karthik, Umasankar, Sumanth, Sattanathan, Smt.Janaka, Kalyana Krishnan and people from the surrounding villages of Amarambedu, Vellarai, Kolathur, Galattupattu, Mettu Kolathur, Irumbedu and Poonthandalam. 

Saturday, 9th March 2002

Amarambedu and Malaipattu:

Sri Kesavan, Ramanujam, Umasankar, Sumanth, Ramachandran, Vasanth, Smt.Nirmala Giri, Ms. Chitra and Ms. Sangeetha visited Amarambedu and Malaipattu. Sri Ramanujam told a story from the puranas at Amarambedu while Ms. Sangeetha taught a kirtan written by Sri Swamiji at Malaipattu.

Sunday, 10th March 2002

Poonthandalam, Galattupattu, Mahanyam, Gunduperumbedu, Vellarai, Kolathur and Irumbedu: Morning

In the morning, Poonthandalam and Galattupattu were visited by Vasanth, Veeraraghavan, Sumanth, Kesavan, Umasankar and Ramachandran. A story about the importance of Bhagavan Nãma was narrated by Sri Sumanth at Poonthandalam, where the elders also joined the children and listened with rapt attention. At Galattupattu Sri Kesavan narrated a story about importance of chanting "Hare Rama".

Afternoon:

village was visited by Sivaraman, Veeraraghavan, Kishori Seshadri, Smt. Padma Srinivasakannan and Smt. Kalpana Amudhan. Sivaraman told a story from the Puranas to the children.

Vasanth, Srinivasakannan, Muralidharan, Anand, Srikanth, Ganesh, Seshadri, Sumanth, Ramakrishnahari, Ramanujam, Satya, Umasankar, Balakrishanan and Smt.Janaka visited Gunduperumbedu, Vellarai, Kolathur and Irumbedu. Vasanth narrated the story of Raidas at Gunduperumbedu.

In Vellarai, Anand narrated Ambarisha Charitra. He went in detail and the story telling session was for an hour. It was very happy to note that the children never had any distraction and were in full attention at hearing the story. The elders were awe struck by the way Anand told the story. In Kolathur, Sumanth narrated a story and at Irumbedu, it was Ramanujam’s turn.

Saturday, 16th March 2002

Amarambedu and Poonthandalam:

Two places were visited on this day. Ramanujam, Kesavan, Ramachandran, Umasankar and Srikanth went to Amarambedu. Ramanujam told a story from the Puranas and spoke to the elders about the importance of chanting of Hare Rama and its benefits. It was a nice and enjoyable session at this village.

Ramanujam and Ramachandran also visited Poonthandalam. Ramanujam told a story from the Puranas to the children and the elders of the village. The elders participation in this village was encouraging.

Sunday, 17th March 2002

Alagesan Nagar, Galattupattu, Irumbedu, Kolathur, Gunduperumbedu, Vellarai, Malaipattu and Mahanyam:

Morning:

A new village by name Alagesan Nagar was visited by Kesavan, Ramakrishnahari, Umasankar and Kumaran of Galattupattu village. This village is near Galattupattu. The participants were mostly elders.

Kesavan spoke to them about the importance of Bhagavan Nãma and the benefits.

After finishing at Alagesan Nagar, they went to Galattupattu. The response from this village is great. Mr Kumaran is our main well wisher there and co-ordinates with us. The participants were mainly elders and were spoken to, by Kesavan.

Afternoon:

Ramanujam, Kesavan, Smt.Janaka, Kumaran of Galattupattu village, Sivaraman, Mariappan, Sumanth, Vasanth, Sattanathan, Muralidharan, Srikanth, Anand, Ramachandran, Seshadri, Kishori Seshadri, Shanmugham, Umasankar and Ramakrishnahari visited Irumbedu, Kolathur, Gunduperumbedu, Vellarai, Malaipattu and Mahanyam. At Irumbedu, Ramanujam told a story from the Puranas. At Kolathur, Sumanth told a story and a kirtan was sung. Sattanathan taught the children of Gunduperumbedu a “namãvali”.

At Vellarai, it was Anand’s turn to tell a story which was well received by the children. Ramakrishnahari told stories about Lord Krishna’s childhood lilas.

Saturday, 23rd March 2002

Venkadu, Navalur and Amarambedu:

Two new villages were started today. The people of these villages were enthusiastically awaiting our visit to their villages for a long time. Ramanujam and Umasankar visited Venkadu, which is near Navalur, while Kesavan and Ramachandran went to Navalur which is on the way to Sriperumbudur, and were joined by Ramanujam and Umasankar later.

The response from these villages was great. The elders of these villages co-ordinated well. Ramanujam and Kesavan took charge in educating the villagers about chanting of Hara Rama, its importance and benefits, while the others looked after the study sessions. It was a wonderful session for both the villagers and our satsang devotees, who enjoyed every bit of their stay there.

Ramanujam and Ramachandran also visited Amarambedu.

Sunday, 24th March 2002

Mettukolathur, Galattupattu, Irumbedu, Gunduperumbedu, Kolathur, Malaipattu, Mahanyam and Vellarai:

Ramanujam, Ramachandran, Kesavan and Umasankar visited a new village “Mettukolathur” on Sunday morning. This is on the way to Irumbedu. The response in that village was very encouraging, the reason being that the elders of this village have been asking us for a long time to come there. They chanted the “Maha Mantra” very enthusiastically. Ramanujam and Kesavan spoke with the villagers about the importance of Bhagavan Nama. It was a very wonderful experience for the devotees from the satsangh. They took leave with a heavy heart from Mettukolathur.

From there, all the four went to Poonthandalam for the regular sessions and with that they concluded the forenoon session.

In the evening, Ramanujam, Kesavan, Checha, Ramachandran, Smt.Janaka, Smt.Lakshmi, Ramakrishnahari, Vasanth, Sumanth, Harish, Seshadri, Kishori Seshadri, Padma Srinivasakannan, Kalpana Amudhan, Sivaraman, Ravi, Srikanth, Anand and Muralidharan visited Galattupattu, Irumbedu, Gunduperumbedu, Kolathur, Malaipattu, Mahanyam and Vellarai. In most of the villages, they went into the houses of three or four villagers and chanted Hare Rama for 5 to 10 minutes. The villagers also welcomed this. Ramanujam, Ramakrishnahari, Sumanth, Sivaraman and Anand narrated stories from our Puranas to the children and also taught Sri Swamiji’s kirtans.

Saturday, 30th March 2002

Navalur, Venkadu and Amarambedu:

A new village Nallur was visited by Ramanujam and Kesavan in the morning. They spoke with the elders of the village and told them about “Bhagavan Nãma” and asked them to chant Hare Rama. The elders hesitated initially, but came to terms and chanted Hare Rama without any inhibitions. The children also joined the elders in chanting Hare Rama and it went on for a while. Since it was an inaugural session, there were no study sessions.

Ramanujam and Kesavan joined Veeraraghavan, Sumanth, Ramachandran, Venkatesh and Munusamy (a resident of Kolathur village) in visiting Navalur, Venkadu and Amarambedu, where usual sessions were conducted. Mostly Ramanujam and Kesavan took charge of educating the elders about the importance of "Maha Mantra" while others took charge of the kids.

Sunday : 31.3.2002

Galattupattu, Poonthandalam, Malaipattu, Mahanyam, Irumbedu, Kolathur, Navalur, Vellarai and Gunduperumbedu:

Morning:

Kesavan, Sumanth, Veeraraghavan, Karthik and Ramesh visited Galattupattu and Poonthandalam. Stories were told by Veeraraghavan and Kesavan. Ramanujam, Ramachandran and Ramakrishnahari were accompanied by Ezhumalai (a resident of Malaipattu village) who visited Mettukolathur. Ramanujam told stories from the puranas and we had regular sessions in all the villages.

Afternoon:

In the afternoon the villages covered were Malaipattu, Mahanyam, Irumbedu, Kolathur, Navalur, Vellarai and Gunduperumbedu. The participants were Seshadri, Smt. Kishori Seshadri, Padma Srinivasakannan, Kalpana Amudhan, Sivaraman, Ravi, Smt.Janaka, Checha, Sumanth, Umasankar, Karthik, Veeraraghavan, Ramachandran, Vasanth, Muralidharan, Srinivasakannan, Srikanth, Anand and Ramesh.

Stories from our Puranas were narrated by Sivaraman, Sumanth, Srinivasakannan and Anand.

In some villages, the kirtans written by Sri Swamiji was taught. In the village of Gunduperumbedu, some of the elders told us their experiences after chanting Hare Rama Maha Mantram along with us. They were very happy and had great faith in Sri Swamiji.

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