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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 February 2003:

On the 2nd of February, some of the satsang members visited Thirunangur. Thirunangur is famous for the "Pannirendu Garuda Sevai", i.e. the Deities of 12 temples would be mounted on the Garuda Vaahana and will assemble at one common place. It is a sight to behold, as the deities of various temples will be bedecked in all finery on the Garuda Vaahana and will come in a procession. Thousands and thousands of people participate in this annual event at Thirunangur to see that splendid sight. To make use of the opportunity, members from the Satsang namely Sumanth, Srinivasakannan, Vasanth, Ramakrishnan, Urapakkam Ganesh, Harish and Cheyyar Janakiraman went to Thirunangur to chant Hare Rama.

On 2nd morning, the satsang members went to the Narayana Perumal temple, which is very near to the Veda Patasala, being run by Sri Swamiji. The Lord in that temple was taken in a procession to the other temples in the vicinity. The members from the satsang went along with the deity chanting Hare Rama. The procession started at around 11.00 a.m. and returned around 2.00 p.m. Hare Rama was chanted during the entire period and the members from the satsang were joined by the elders and the children of Nangur and also people from Gudalur. The people from Nangur and Gudalur were very involved in chanting Hare Rama. It was a very nice experience for all of them.

During the night, Hare Rama was chanted going though the street of Nangur and finally converged at the Narayana Perumal temple, where the deities of the temples in the surrounding areas had assembled. There also, Hare Rama was chanted in the midst of the deities and thousands of people who had come to witness the Garuda Sevai. Many of the people joined in the chanting very eagerly. They even joined in Hare Rama divya Nama (chanting Bhagavan Nama going in circles)/Pradhakshinam with great religious fervour. It was awesome for all the participants who chanted Hare Rama in the midst of a sea of humanity, with accompaniments on dholkis (Urapakkam Ganesh and Harish) and cymbals. Hare Rama was chanted between 10.00 p.m. and midnight.

All the arrangements for the satsang members were made by Sri Venkatesan. (Satsang member who looks after activities at Nangur).

On 9th of February, Hare Rama akhandanama was conducted at the Kalyana Srinivasa Perumal temple at Mathurapuri Ashram. The chanting began at around 10.00 a.m. and went on till 4.00 p.m.. There were around 30 to 35 participants. Around 10 of them were from the satsang and the rest were from the villages of Galattupattu, Pillaipakkam, Mahanyam and Malaipattu villages. Sri Ramakrishnan and Harish provided accompaniments on the dholki. Prasad for the participants was arranged at the temple. Sri Swamiji graced the occasion and spoke to the participants, stressing the importance of chanting the Maha mantra. Sri Swamiji also had a question and answer session with the participants from the villages.

On 15th of February, 2002 Hare Rama was chanted going through the streets of Manimangalam. Sri Ramachandran and Vasanth participated in the chanting there. Hare Rama chanting started from the local bhajanai madam at around 6.00 p.m. The participants went through the main road chanting Hare Rama with accompaniment on the cymbals and reached the Rajagopalaswami temple there. Hare Rama was chanted for around 15 minutes there and all of them returned to the starting place by around 7.00 p.m., chanting Hare Rama all the way. There were around 20 participants from the village and they were very much involved in the chanting. This is the first time that chanting of Hare Rama was done, going through the village streets at Manimangalam and the response was good and also the onlookers gazed with amazement. The children sang some of the kirtans known to them and the participants from the satsang taught some kirtans written by Sri Swamiji. In the end the participants were given sugar candy as prasad.

As usual, during the month, Hare Rama was also chanted in the surrounding villages of Malaipattu, Mahanyam, Kolathur, Gunduperumbedu, Vellarai, Mettukolathur, Irumbedu village and colony, Karunagachery, Navalur, Venkadu, Pillaipakkam, Amarambedu, Nallur village and colony, Galattupattu, Poonthandalam, Pazhanthandalam and Settupattu for atleast half an hour. Wherever necessary, the children were helped in their studies and the sessions were usually concluded with distribution of sugar candy as prasad to the children.

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