Newsletter Jan - Feb, 2014

Transcription

1 Newsletter Jan - Feb, Upcoming Events January 1 (WED): Ganesh Puja & New Year Havan P. O. Box Augusta, GA Lukes Road Augusta GA Phone: (706) :00 AM: Ganesh Puja 10:30 AM: Havan and Bhajans 12:30 PM: Mahaprasad Contact Adarsh or Nidhi Gulati (706) for more details. January 11 (SAT): 9 AM - Vaikuntha Ekadasi January 18 & 19: Sri Venkateshwara Abhishekam and Kalyanotsavam Please attend this auspicious annual function and receive the blessings of Lord Venkateshwara. Saturday Jan 18, 2014 Sunday Jan 19, :00 AM - Suprabhatam 8:00 AM - Suprabhatam 7:30 AM - Havan 9:00 AM - Sankalpam 9:00 AM - Sankalpam 9:15 AM - Kalyanotsavam 9:15 AM - Abhishekam 11:00 AM - Procession 12:30 PM - Aarthi/Mahaprasad 12 noon - Aarthi/Mahaprasad Saturday Jan 18, : PM - Sayanotsavam For further details contact: T.N.Muralidhar M.R./ Vidya Sridharan Dharma Thiruvaiyaru N. Rao Pasala Krishna Prasad Sponsorship for pooja: $25 for each day

2 January 25 (SAT): Thai Poosam Festival Kavadi Procession 9:00 am Abhishekam and Kavadi sponsorship $25 Abhishekam & Bhajans 10:00 am Yearly Abhishekam sponsorship $150 Aarthi & Mahaprasad 12:30 pm (1 st Sat. of every month) February 8 (SAT): Sri Saraswati Pooja Celebration HTS and the Bengali Community of Augusta invite all to celebrate Saraswati Pooja. 10:00 AM - Puja 11:00 AM - Pushpanjali and Bhajans 11:30 AM - Children s Program 12:00 Noon - Aarthi & Mahaprasad Puja will be conducted by Satyaji. Students may bring a book or a musical instrument to be placed at the feet of Devi Saraswati. Contacts: B N Roy ( ), Arun Datta ( ) February 22 (SAT): Ramkrishna Paramhans Birthday Celebration As in the past, HTS will celebrate the birthday of Sri Ramakrishna on Saturday, February 22, His Holiness Swami Yogatmananda of Vedanta Center, Providence, RI will conduct the puja, aarti and will also deliver a talk on Vedanta and Hinduism. There will be an interfaith conference in the afternoon, where invited representatives from all major religions will be participating as panelists. The day's program will conclude with a musical recital on Sarod by a talented artist from Atlanta, Mr. Souryadeep Bhattacharyya. In the main temple building: In Cultural Center: 10 AM: Puja and Aarti 4:30 PM: Interfaith conference 11 AM: Talk by Swamiji Tea/snack break 12 Noon: Mahaprasad 6:30 PM: Sarod recital 1 PM: Youth group session with Swamiji For more information and volunteering help contact B.N or baidyaroy@gmail.com

3 February 27 (THU): Mahashivaratri 6:45 PM - 7:45 PM Public Offering of Milk 7:45 PM - 10:00 PM Panchamrita Abhishek, Namasmarana Pooja, Pushpanjali and Aarathi Note: - Milk for public offering will be provided by the temple. Devotees can bring flowers and fruits. Cultural Program Calendar: Temple News January 25 (SAT) 2 PM, Cultural Center - Senior Citizen Program: Movie to be announced. February 8 (SAT) 7 PM, Cultural Center - A performance by Geetanjali Music Group Geetanjali was founded in Huntsville, Alabama, USA by Dr. Amit Chakrabarty in The group presents live musical shows extensively around USA and it has also performed in several shows abroad. They perform mainly old and new Hindi filmi songs but their repertoire includes Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali, Oriya, English and a small splattering of Telugu, Tamil and Gujarati. They perform with track or live orchestra. The live performances are high-octane, with a full orchestra of stellar musicians who have previously played for Bollywood music directors. Geetanjali Live can accommodate a gamut of song requests and add their own spin to every song they perform. Please enjoy this free event. Contact: Radhika Subramanian ( ). February 15 (SAT) 2 PM, Cultural Center - Senior Citizen Program. This month s program is moved from 4 th SAT to 3 rd SAT, because of scheduling conflict with Ramakrishna birthday program. Senior Citizen Programs: Senior citizens are important members of our community. They are our parents and our grandparents, people who have contributed to the history of our community and our families in so many ways. Let s join our hands together to say thank you to these individuals not once in a year on Grand Parents day, but every month to remind them that we care about them too. Starting from January 2014, the temple will have at least one program per month to entertain senior members of our community (Fourth Saturday of the month at 2 PM in cultural center). These programs are likely to appeal to all members and everyone is welcome. Transportation will be provided for those in need (please admin@augustahts.org or call Ravi Verma / Krishna Prasad). Contact - Ravi Verma for additional details ( ). Third Sunday Puja: Beginning with February, we will have a lecture, sermon or other spiritual talk during 3 rd Sunday Puja. Dr. Pai has already started this routine on December 3 rd Sunday puja with a brief, yet informative talk. The temple trustees have taken an active role in improving temple activities and the executive committee thanks them for injecting new energy. Newsletter: We are pleased to announce that Brinda Balan will be the new editor of this newsletter. As in the past, the newsletter will be published 6 times a year (Jan, Mar, May, July, Sept and Nov). Please send your contributions to bbalan@alphagraphics.com, by 20th of the month before newsletter publishing date. Brinda has significant experience in different communication media and her business has been publishing our newsletter for several years. Please support her efforts by submitting your contributions in a timely manner. The executive committee thanks Prasanna Jain for his service as the editor of this newsletter during the last three years, in spite of his busy work schedule. He will still continue as our web co-ordinator. We would like to improve the newsletter content by including articles of potential interest for our community. See one such article on page 7. Members are welcome to send in articles for editor s consideration. HTS member survey: Temple volunteers are continually trying to improve the services provided. We often get several suggestions from volunteers and some outspoken members. However, it would be nice to get the feedback from all members of the temple. We are in the process of designing a member survey and request all members to take a few minutes to provide feedback. This survey will be web-based and will be sent to your address in January.

4 Dear HTS members, President s Message Wish you all a happy and prosperous new year! At the outset, I would like to thank Ram Shetty for two years of steady stewardship as the head of temple executive committee. The mere fact that he was unanimously supported to serve a second year is a testament to his successful leadership. He and Mrs. Nimitha Shetty spent countless hours to ensure smooth operation of our temple. Unfortunately, temple bylaws do not permit a third year and the trustees had to change the leadership. I would like to thank the trustees for the trust they placed in me in asking me to serve as this year s president. Our temple is supposed to serve the religious, spiritual, and cultural needs of the hindu community in the CSRA. In the past 30+ years, the temple volunteers and leaders have done a tremendous job of meeting these goals. I would certainly like to continue this rich tradition and provide an egalitarian, transparent, and efficient service to the community. Implementation of our online scheduling system a few years ago, is a part of this approach. Most people would agree that our temple does a wonderful job of catering to the religious needs of the community, with its signature recurring event being the 3rd Sunday puja. We have also had several memorable cultural events and some spiritual lectures. Our balashala has turned into one of the best temple programs and rivals the religious programs, at least in popularity. During the upcoming year, we would like to improve our programs for elders, spiritual lectures and cultural programs. We will attempt to have at least one program per month for the elders, integrate discourses/sermons into 3rd Sunday program, improve newsletter content and have more contemporary cultural programs along with the classical ones (see page 3). The members in the new executive committee are reflective of these additional priorities and our efforts at improving diversity in leadership. I would like to reassure everyone that we shall not skimp on our dal and chaval (religious programs) to make room for rasmalai (cultural programs). I am counting on the volunteers (whether your name is on the list or not) to help me in continuing the temple traditions and improving our activities. With best wishes, - Krishna Prasad AUGUSTA HTS BOARD of TRUSTEES Chairman: Vice Chair: Secretary: Members: Hemant Yagnick Varsha Kulkarni Niranjini Reddy T.R. Reddy Arun Saha Kiran Shah Nayan Shah Suman Shah Shridhar Subbaramiah Nidhi Gulati (BOP) Ravi Jerath (BOP)

5 AUGUSTA HTS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE President: Krishna Prasad ( ) Vice President: Shaji Kamalasanan ( ) Secretary: Mohan Wakade ( ) Treasurer: P. Unnikrishnan ( ) Joint Treasurers: Debee Khadanga ( ), Ranjana Rai ( ) Joint Secretaries: Anupama Prasad ( ), Ashok Sharma ( ), Kiran Karanth ( ) Puja Committee: Prasad Committee: Cultural Committee: Audio Visual Web Committee: Sheila Kamath ( ), Kiran Karanth, Prasanna Jain, Diwakar Jammalamadaka Vinay Bangari, Arun Dutta, Karuna Pogula, Nimitha Shetty, Swathi Wakade, Krishna Prasad Lopa Agarwal ( ), Nibedita Mishra ( ), Samlesh Bhansal, Sudha Sinha, Santhosh Rani, Shashi Gupta, Hema Desai, Bharati Gowda, Geeta Shah Radhika Subramanian ( ), Indrani Ganguly, Varsha Kulkarni, Surekha Prasad, Dharma Thiruvaiyaru, Dinubhai Patel. Prasad Puttur ( ), Mukund Deshpande, Pankaj Bhatt, Shankar Sethuraman, Nayan Shah, Suman Shah Prasanna Jain ( ), Debee Khadanga, Rajesh Garrepally Newsletter: Brinda Balan ( ) Temple Development/ Kirit Bhavsar ( ), Mukut Sharma, Nimitha Shetty, MaintenanceCommittee: Bharathi Bhavsar, Ram Shetty. Balashala Committee: Ranjitha Krishna ( ), Vidya Sridharan Youth Committee: Varsha Kulkarni ( ), Karthik Subramanian ( ) Sports Committee: Raj Garrepally ( ) Community Outreach: Usha Patel ( ), Sona Lal, Sheila Kamath Membership Committee: Varsha Kulkarni ( ), Giri Venkatraman, Harendra Desai, Shaji Kamalasanan Soup Kitchen: Kiran Karanth ( ) Senior Citizen: Calling Post Ravi Verma ( ), Santosh Rani Meena Venkatesh ( ), Sonali Kamalasanan, Vidya Sridharan Ex Officer (Ex President): Ramkishan Shetty ( ) Special Volunteers: Vatsala Unnikrishnan, Madhavi Chokshi, Anju Shah, Rao Pasala, Jyoti Kapuria, Aravind Shah, Ratna Sadalge, Urmil Batra

6 Murali & Me is an article written by Prince Rama Varma, a descendant of Travancore royal family. He is a Carnatic classical vocalist, veena player and has performed at our cultural center. This true story about his guru illustrates that misconceptions about personalities, ego and other apparent obstacles could prove to be trivial, if only one s intentions and quest for knowledge are true. Perhaps there is a lesson in it for all of us! MURALI AND ME A tribute by Prince Rama Varma As the title of the article suggests, this is a very personal account of my own experiences with Padmavibhushan Dr. Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna and not a profile of this very public figure. An unfortunate but inevitable snag with such a kind of story is that I will be forced to use the first person singular rather frequently. But then what has to be done has to be done, I suppose. So here goes. My first exposure to South Indian Classical Music was when I used to attend the concerts organised at the Navarathri Mandapam, Thiruvananthapuram as a child. Usually more or less the same set of artists were invited year after year and the list reads like a virtual who is (was) who of Carnatic Music. But there were some exceptionally notable artists who were not called even once, because of sordid internal politics, which is beyond the scope of this story. One such exception was Dr.Balamuralikrishna or Murali Gaaru as his Teluguspeaking admirers call him or Guruji as his numerous students (Both actual students and those who have mentally accepted him as their Guru without having taken even a single lesson from him) call him...or Muralikkutti as I sometimes think of him affectionately. His given name was simply "Muralikrishna" meaning, "Krishna with the Flute", but then "Bala" was added by an affectionate fan as Little Murali started making waves even as a two year old child. I had the pleasure of seeing him for the first time in my own home where he was brought by an organizer to meet the Late Maharaja Sree Chithira Thirunal Bala Rama Varma... another case of the Bala prefixed to the given name for the same reasons as with Murali Gaaru. At this time some noble souls were trying to mediate between the royal family and Dr. Balamuralikrishna to make him sing at the Navarathri Mandapam, but the damage had already been done and there seemed to be very little hope of a compromise as the Navarathri Mandapam Rules were very rigid and so were the Murali Rules. I was faintly aware of all this but I was more or less a child when all this happened. The thing is that my exposure to music was so utterly restricted to the concerts at the Navarathri Mandapam that I had never heard of this great man properly till then...and believed that Dr.M. Balamuralikrishna, G.N. Balasubramaniam and S.P. Balasubramaniam were the same person whose name seemed to metamorphose Kafkaesquely from one to the other in various situations (Okay, okay! I was a particularly under intelligent and over imaginative child...so sue me!). Anyway, the conversation eddied around between the mediators and the members of my family with Little Murali himself contributing very little by way of words but drenching all of us in his ever so sweet... and a bit cryptic... Murali smile, which I have come to love and observe in it's various shades since. That evening I heard his voice for the first time. After all these years I can't forget how totally I was blown away by his Sound! God! He started with his own Varnam "Amma Aananda Daayini! Akaara Ukaara Makaara Roopin i!" with the miraculous Charanam "Sive! Sive! Sive!" I couldn't believe that this thunderous voice was originating from the sweet little man who was sitting before me...and the smile still playing around his lips and in his eyes. Though I didn't know it at the time I was hooked! But as his music was so utterly unlike anything I had heard at the Navarathri Mandapam I still couldn't accept it as "Classical" as I had been led to believe till then. The composition itself was a miracle which was completely original and utterly unlike anything which had been composed by anybody ever before. The Swarams have Literature to go with them, which makes one's pulse rise. Ni Sa Ga Ma Ga Ma Ga Ma Ga Ma Ga Pa Ma Ga Sa Ni Pa MA Ga, Ma Ga Sa Ni Pa Ma Ga, Ga Sa Ni Pa Ma Ga, Sa Ni Pa Ma Ga SA GA! Sa Ni Pa Ma Ga SA GA! SA GA! Sa Ni Pa Ma Ga SA GA! SA GA! SA GA! Becomes Vidhi Hari Ganapathi Saravanabhava Shuka Sanaka Asura Sura Gana, Rathi pathi, Sura-Pathi Vinutha SIVE! Nirathishaya SIVE! SIVE! Parama Para SIVE! SIVE! SIVE...BOOOM! It is like the scene of the Thunderstorm from Beethoven's Sixth Symphony and an unparalleled opening piece for any concert of Carnatic Music. My next meeting with Balamurali Sir was several years later at a concert of a common acquaintance. As I mentioned, my family had never been close to him and I also carried the seed of contempt towards him, which was inculcated in me by the local Anti Balamurali Mafia of which my family was a part. Around halfway through the concert, which I was attending, suddenly there was a hubbub among the audience and I noticed that Murali Gaaru had made his entrance. I was led to believe that he was self opinionated and arrogant... and with arrogant people I normally respond in kind. To my horror I noticed that the only empty seat in the front row was next to me...and Little Murali was slowly making his way towards me, stopping to greet every single person in the front row, who had stood up reverentially. I suddenly made a decision: - "I will NOT get up when he comes!"... And there I remained, with my eyes glued to the stage. Finally he reached the seat and I couldn't help shooting a quick glance 'Muraliwards', as P.G. Wodehouse would have put it. And lo and behold! Before I knew what was happening there was Murali Gaaru

7 shaking my hands, patting my shoulders and asking me to sit down...which I did in a sort of daze only after he was seated himself. The thing, which struck me most, was the kindness in his eyes and the graciousness with which he asked me to sit down. I felt that the Arrogant Bastard Theory had to be reconsidered very seriously, because the man seated next to me was one of the sweetest and kindest I had ever seen...and I have always been more than partial to people older than me who have a certain quality of peace warmth and tranquility emanating from them... and in the case of this gentleman it was so obviously palpable...rather, so palpably obvious. Still I didn't bother to make his acquaintance as I had a real treasure of a Guru back home in the form of Vechoor Shri N.Harihara Subramania Iyer with whom I was more than happy. And most of my Heroes in music had left for a better world; so I could love them and hero-worship them as much as I liked, without any negative side effects. The years passed and I heard snippets of Murali Music (Still not quite able to leave the idea of despising him and equally unable to resist him) most memorable of which was a Televised concert with Pandit Bhimsen Joshi (The very first of their innumerable Jugalbandis) where he did South Indian Classical Music more than proud. One day my beloved Guru Vechoor Sir passed away unexpectedly. I was completely devastated. The field was full of competent musicians who were horrible as human beings, nice enough human beings who were horrible musicians and the worst of the lot...horrible musicians being horrible as human beings too in the hope that at least their bad behavior would make others think "He/she MUST be a fantastic artist to be able to AFFORD to be SO horrible!"... I am sure you must have come across the kind more than once in life, whatever be your profession. The bond I had with my Late Guru was as sacred as the one shared by the partners in a perfect marriage; assuming such a situation can exist in reality too of course... and it was next to impossible to think of any other person occupying his place in my heart, mind, music and life. One day, while pondering over certain differences between the West and India like the fact that while dozens of letters written by Beethoven and Mozart were still preserved carefully in the West we had very little memorabilia left from our Great Composers who also lived at the same time as them and so on, a thought took shape in my head: -"What if I could learn a Thyagaraja Krithi from Thyagaraja himself?" It was a bit too late for that though...and I couldn't stand modern compositions from the little I had been exposed to till then. Then I suddenly remembered the cassette of Thillanas by Dr.Balamuralikrishna. What exquisite creations they were! How wonderful it would be if I could learn them from the composer himself! Wow! The very thought made my skin tingle! But then I was scared how he would react to my request to teach me because I came from the family with whom he had had nothing to do till then. But I thought, "Nothing ventured nothing gained" and proceeded to give him a call. I didn't know any Tamil at the time and spoke to him in English, though I had heard that he had never gone to school nor learnt English in his life. I was taken aback not only by the fact that his telephone voice was as impressive as his onstage version, but also by his command of the language, spoken ever so sweetly in his own utterly quaint and disarming accent. I said simply "I am Varma." And he said equally simply "You can call me some other time." So that is exactly what I did. I called him again...and again...and again...twice a year as I didn't want to become a pest... for more than two and a half years. Finally an audience was granted for ten minutes at nine twenty in the morning...around the time I normally wake up. I found out his house a little before eight o clock and sat on the low wall of a building nearby till the appointed time reading a book (I always carry one. One of the few good habits I have). Then I stepped in to the his house (Called Mahathi which was the name of his youngest daughter, the only one among his six children who has given concerts professionally and the name of a Raga which Murali Gaaru created which uses just four notes, Sa Ga Pa and Ni.) which has become a home away from home for me during the course of the next few years. He was, as usual, very polite but he made it very clear how he had established himself right at the very top of the heap without any help from the Travancore Royal Family, Thank You Very Much. I said that I couldn't be blamed for things, which happened decades before I was born. Then I said I would like to learn a few of his compositions. He was rather shocked at this request because people generally criticized him for singing his own compositions. And here I was coming all the way from Kerala Seeking his compositions. He asked me "Which one?" and I said I would love to learn his Thillanas and a few other songs like Omkaaraakaarini in Lavangi, another Amazing four note Raaga created by him. He said "Hmmmmm" and really was in a quandry, for he had no legitimate reason to turn me away now. Finally I offered to sing a song against his faint protestations...and as God seemed to be in a good mood that day he liked the sound of the sounds I produced. And thus began my lessons with him. I had heard that he loved money, so I was terrified of what he would charge for lessons. But then the lesser heard Murali Story proved to be true... that he never accepted money for teaching. Though I joined him with the sole intention of learning a few compositions from him, after the first couple of minutes of the first class itself I started yearning to be his Disciple in the fullest sense of the word. His generosity was amazing! If I asked for a composition, which I had heard him sing in an old recording, which he had forgotten completely, he would hunt up ancient books with yellowing pages and refresh, sing and teach the said composition to me. As a mere fourteen-year-old child he composed songs in all the 72 Melakartha Raagas, which form the very backbone of the South Indian System of Raaga Music. When he finally finished teaching me the seventy second of these he exclaimed in sheer delight and childlike pride, in a booming voice very much resembling Amithab Bachchan in Kaun Banega Crorepathi "YOU HAVE WON ONE CRORE NOW!!!" followed by a cascade of Murali Laughter. Many people think he is arrogant. The fact is that I have been dealing with musicians as a lover of music, as an artist myself and as an organiser for more than half my lifetime. And I am yet to meet another person in the music industry who is so universally polite and kind as this man. Whether he is chatting with another world class musician like say Ustad Zakir Hussain, whether he is playing around with his little grandchildren, whether he is joking around with one of the boys who brings coffee during the breaks during his numerous CD recordings, whether he has just finished giving a very successful concert in a top class venue, he is always the same Balamuralikrishna. The more people I meet, in various walks of life,

8 the more I witness role playing and not just duplicity, but multiplicity at various levels, the more impressed I am by his consistency. MURAL At seventy-five years his voice is more golden than ever. He has released hundreds and hundreds of cassettes and CDs. He was one of the earliest South Indian Classical Musicians to perform abroad. He has acted in films, sung for films and even scored the music for films. Apart from his own compositions numbering more than two hundred he has breathed life into compositions of other composers whose original tunes were lost in the sands of time like Narayana Theertha, Annammaachaarya, Purandara Daasa, Kaiwara Amara Nareyana, Sadasiva Brahmendra, Bhadraachala Raamadaas and Maharajah Sri Swathi Thirunal. He has recieved awards too numerous to list including the Padma Vibhushan so many years ago, several Doctorates, the coveted Sangeetha Kalanidhi, the Fellowship from the Central Sangeeth Natak Academy and the latest being the Chevalier des Lettres et des Arts from the French Government. He has top grading in the All India Radio for singing, violin playing, viola, Mridangam, Kanjira, Music Direction, Devotional Music and for the spoken voice. He is probably the only South Indian Vocalist loved, feared and respected in equal measure by almost all the artists of the North Indian Classical Tradition (Not to mention by the film industry and by the man on the street and by the connoisseurs alike). With all this and more under his belt simply because of the fact that he doesn't put on a sickening air of false modesty which others seem to be so good at doing, there are people who have condemned him as "Arrogant" for it is against our "Aarsha Bhaaratha Samskaaram" to be aware of one's own worth...and this sense of insecurity about one's own identity more than amply reflects in the state of affairs in our country as the newspapers show day by day. From him, I learned the importance of taking the trouble to study the word-by-word meaning of each song I sing. In fact if I ask him the meaning of a word in a composition of Annammacharya in archaic Telugu for example which he doesn't know he takes out an old wellworn dictionary and finds out the word commenting, "I am also learning!" with a little laugh. He allows students to record all their classes...as I said, without charging anyone a single pie. His kindness and magnanimity has to be experienced to be believed. I for one have never forgotten my original and much beloved Guru Vechoor Shri Hariharasubramania Iyer...and keep mentioning his name from time to time. Instead of being jealous or angry or disapproving of this, Murali Gaaru blesses me for remembering him. He himself thinks the world of his own Guruji Paruppalli Ramakrishna Pantulu Gaaru on whom he has written several incredibly beautiful compositions. Here is an example: - For those of you who are not familiar with South Indian Classical Music, a normal composition in this form is divided into three parts called the Pallavi, the Anupallavi and the Charanam. In his composition in Raaga Sushama (One of his own creations incidentally) he says: - Ayya! Guru Varya! (Oh Sir! Precious Guru of mine!) Nee aanathi tho paadu chuntinayya! (It is only with your blessings/permission that I sing) Nee Mridu PALLAVA Vachovilaasamu PALLAVIgaa (The soft lotus petals of your conversation is my Pallavi) Nee ANUBANDHAMU ANUpallaviga (The relationship I have with you is my Anupallavi) Nee CHARANAMULE CHARANAMUga (Your feet are my Charanam) and finally Nee AAKRITHIYE MA KRITHIgaa (The whole of your physical aspect is my Krithi or composition). His compositions are chock full of literary content and poetry instead of simply being lines of synonyms, descriptions, requests, complaints or praise. He has written beautiful love songs, songs harshly criticizing the ways of the world, taking a jab at politicians, religious heads and even musicians. He takes total care to sing each language, as a native would speak it whether it is Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali or Sanskrit. Which is one reason the Rabindra Bharathi University gave him an award for his impeccable rendition of Tagore songs and the reason why the Life Insurance Corporation of India has chosen him to sing their advertisement on TV in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu. I have learnt so much from him not just about music but also about life in general. Once I saw a terrible review for one of his Best Ever CDs of Purandara Dasa Compositions. I was really and truly upset. So I blurted out to him "How COULD the idiot write the way he did? It is such an EXTRAORDINARY CD!"...Then Balamurali Sir smiled and asked me softly "Do you really think it's extraordinary?" I said "Of COURSE I do" emphatically. And then he smiled and said, "That is the problem... It is extraordinary, isn't it? So ordinary people will find it difficult to understand or appreciate!" followed by a cascade of Murali laughter, which seems to be his constant and adorable companion. His critic's rant and rave all they can, but the man quietly takes it in his stride, being fully aware of who and what he is. After more than two years of my association with him he finally relented to break all His Rules and perform at the Navarathri Mandapam following all the rules of the Mandapam like a good little Murali including the fact that he had to sing without wearing a shirt. The crowd that turned up for the event was nothing like anything witnessed ever before at the Mandapam. When Little Murali made his entrance the whole gathering stood up deferentially without making the slightest sound or applause and finally the festival of the Goddess reverberated with the magic voice of Dr. Balamuralikrishna for the first time...and everyone who had the good fortune to be present there on that day agreed that it was well worth the wait. It seems to be human nature not to accept or appreciate the true greatness of the truly great when we have the good fortune of still having them with us. But Jesus Christ had His disciples, Ramakrishna had His disciples, Van Gogh had his brother, Mozart had Sussmeyer, who all had the blessings from God to realize the exact worth of their Masters while they were still around. And I thank God for having blessed me to be one of the Chosen Few vis-à-vis my beloved Guruji, Dr. Balamuralikrishna.

9 January 2014 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday a New Year Havan 9a Kartikeya Puja 11 a Priest Busy 7p Krishna Archana 7p Devi Puja 11 a Priest Busy p Krishna Archana 9a Vaikuntha Ekadashi 11a Priest Busy p Jain Puja 7p Satyanarayana 7a Venkateshwara 7p Krishna Archana Puja Kalyanotsavam 11a Priest Busy 19 8a Venkateshwara Kalyanotsavam 11 a Priest Busy 7p Ganesh Puja p Krishna Archana a Thaipoosam 11a Priest Busy 2p Senior Citizen Program 26 2p Jain Puja 27 7pShiv Puja p Krishna Archana February 2014 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday p Krishna 10a Saraswati Puja Archana 11 a Priest Busy 7p Devi Puja 7p Geetanjali Music Prog p Jain Puja 7p Krishna 9a Venkateshwara Pooja Archana 7p Satyanarayana 11a Priest Busy 2p Senior Citizen Prog. Puja a 3rd Sunday Puja 11 a Priest Busy 6:30p Hanuman 7p Krishna Archana 10a Ramakrishna B Day Celebration 7p Ganesh Puja 23 2p Jain Puja p Krishna 27 7p Mahashivaratri 28 Archana

10 The Hindu Temple Society P.O. Box Augusta, GA The last day of input for the next newsletter is 20 th of February. Please send your input to: DONATE GENEROUSLY TO YOUR TEMPLE PLEASE RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP BE A PERPETUAL DONOR Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Augusta, GA. Permit # 426 SCHEDULE Mondays 7 pm Shiv Puja Tuesdays 7 pm Hanuman Wednesdays 7 pm Krishna Archana Fridays 6:15 pm Krishna First Friday 7 pm Devi Puja Saturdays 8 am Suprabhatham 1 st Saturday 9am Karthikeya Puja 2 nd Saturday 9am Venkateshwara Puja 3 rd Sunday 10am Monthly Puja 2 nd & 4 th Sunday 2 pm Jain Puja Temple Hours: 8-10 AM and 6-8 PM Temple is open every day at these hours except on Thursday. Temple is CLOSED on Thursdays and last Sunday of the month.