The Centenary year of Paramahamsa Hariharanandaji's 100th Birthday has come to a conclusion with a spectacular programme in Cuttack, a metropolitan city in the state of Orissa, India. To this end, a five day programme, running from 24-29 May 2007, was organized with zeal an devotion.
The eve of the programme: 24th May
The programme was inaugurated on May 24th in the afternoon by a huge spiritual procession (Nagar Sankirtan) with devotees from all over India and all over the world who were marching, singing, dancing and praying while walking in procession through the streets of Cuttack. The procession started at 5 PM at the College Square of the University where Paramahamsa Prajnananandaji used to teach, years ago. Even at 5 PM the heat was still scorching but numerous disciples, monks and interested persons encouraged by some 20 local music groups happily started the march towards the J.N. Indoor Stadion, where the official programmes in honour of Baba were conducted. During the 3 to 4 hours walk, everywhere along the streets people were clapping, throwing flowers and coloured powder from their roofs and many gave pronams to the chariots with pictures of the holy masters, which were carried along with the procession. It was an ever memorable event which was reported largely in the next day newspaper. The newspaper reported that in the last 50 years there had never been such a large spiritual procession in Cuttack.
Next days: 25th May and further
The next few days the morning started early with devotional songs accompanied by music groups, followed by meditation classes at various locations. There were also classes for people who were not practitioners of Kriya Yoga, and these classes were based on some general Hatha Yoga techniques. After the morning meditation and salutation a traditional Indian breakfast was served for many hundreds of people at the inner court of the Cambridge School. The food (breakfast, lunch and dinner) was prepared in huge pots under canvas roofs and the cooks really did a marvellous job. Everyday there was something new on the menu which was prepared with love and devotion and which was relished by both the Indian people and the Westerners.
After breakfast there were spiritual discourses in the Indoor Stadium and is was really nice to see so many devotees from East and West walking along the road to the stadium, or taking a cycle- or motor ricksaw. The programmes were attended by many monks and spiritual persons of many different origins, creeds and convictions. The monks were housed in the Cuttack ashram and were diligently served by the ashramites and residing monks, including Swami Prajnanananda-ji. In the stadium many inspiring spiritual discourses took place, in several languages, including English, Hindi, Bengali and Oriya. After the morning discourses there was a large group meditation, conducted by one of the many teachers (acharyas) who had come from all over the world to attend the programme. After lunch, video presentations were scheduled with some beautiful videos on Baba Hariharanandaji. An afternoon meditation followed and at 4.30 PM the public programme started with new discourses and music by renowned Indian musicians. Some thousands of visitors came every afternoon filling up the already busy stadium. They enjoyed the beautiful atmosphere of spiritual music, combined with the intense fire of Indian spiritual discourse, as a beautiful tribute to Baba Hariharanandaji's 100th Birtday.
Outside the stadium were several bookstalls with not only books on Kriya Yoga, but also with books of other spiritual organisations such as the Vedanta Society, Sri Sathya Sai, Swami Sevananda etc. Because of the extreme hot weather (ca. 40 degr.C.), people were advised to drink plenty of water and so the water stall did very good business, adding every day a new item to its steadily growing number of customers. In the mean time the Indoor Stadium was always a nice and cool place because of the air conditioning that never failed!
At the beginning of every evening there was a presentation by Swami Prajnananandaji who introduced the long awaited new books about Baba Hariharanandaji and Kriya Yoga. They were released by many different monks and other spiritual persons. All these new books will be available shortly at the different K.Y. ashrams all over the world.
The eve of Baba's 100th Birthday: Saturday 26th
The Saturday before Guruji's 100th Birthday was a real symbolic offering of love to Baba. Many hundreds of people had come for Kriya Yoga initiation. The organisation had not counted with such a large number of interested people but managed to serve all. The initiation process had to take place at several locations, because of the many different language groups: Oriya, Hindi, Telugu, Bengali and English. At the same time, in the stadium, an inspirational Inter-faith Conference was going on, with representatives of almost all the different religious streams in India. This was a very coloured and diverse group of people with but one goal: to serve God and to be aware of the Divine Presence in the whole Universe. The many initiations into Kriya Yoga, together with this Inter-faith Conference being conducted simultaneously was a beautiful illustration of Baba Hariharanandaji's life: dedicated to the spreading of Kriya Yoga and open to all creeds of people and religions.
Sunday 27th: Centenary Birthday of Beloved Baba Paramahamsa Hariharananda
Finally, on Sunday 27th of May, the Birthday of Gurudev Paramahamsa Hariharanandaji had come. This started again with Sankirtan and deep meditations at different locations. After breakfast a traditional Vedic worshipping ceremony (Shri Guru Paduka Puja) took place at the stadium, which was conducted by Swami-ji. When this was completed Swami-ji introduced 12 new teachers authorized to teach Kriya Yoga to the public: 4 in the USA, 3 in Europe and 5 in India. Then all those who were present could come forward on the podium to bow and touch the holy and worshipped sandals of Gurudev. As there were thousands of devotees present, this went on till late in the afternoon. After the puja Swami-ji continued with meditation in the spirit of Baba Hariharanandaji, of course also in presence of the many new initiates.
In the afternoon and evening again there were book releases and spiritual discourses by the invited monks and dignitaries (also Orissa's king Shri Dibyasingha Deb and the Mayor Lady of Cuttack). The evening programme was very special, as it was prepared by the art teachers of the Balashram, the charitable children's home in the remote village of Arua, in Orissa. Some 100 children were present in the stadium and many participated in the spectacular performance on the podium. They played music, performed traditional dances, and later on in the evening they staged a real play, presenting the Ramayana, the epic story of Rama, Sita and Ravana. They acted with fervour and fun. This was a lovely, well rehearsed and colourful show which the children and their teachers had prepared with great dedication and enthusiasm.
The day after: 28th May
Next day, the uplifting vibrations of Guruji's Birthday were still dancing joyfully. Highlights during this day was a fantastic Question & Answer session with Swami-ji who answered the more than 100 questions of many disciples, finishing within 1 hour. Another highlight was the presentation in the afternoon, of the brand new collected works of Paramahamsa Hariharananda, compiled in a 10 volumes of books, with the title: "Ocean of Divine Bliss". Next highlight was a spectacular music performance of India's nr 1 spiritual singer, who had come all the way from Bombay, Mrs. Anuradha Paudwal. During that performance the stadium was really filled up to the brim with some 7000 people present. The whole stadium was vibrating with the thrill of both the musicians and the audience. At the end of the performance, late at night, a crowd of people awaited outside the stadium, to catch a glimpse of the divine diva.
Closing day: 29th May
Finally the closing day of the programme had come, again with many opportunities for divine meditation, uplifting discourses and spiritual music. A last "surprise act" was performed by a former magician, now being a monk, who surprised everybody with a spiritual magic show as never shown before. During his performance all the monks and acharyas came down from the podium and sat down in front with the disciples, to even closer enjoy the tricks of the Divine Magician. With this performance the 5 day Centenary programme at Cuttack came to an end.
By this small report we want to wholeheartedly thank everybody who was involved in the organisation of this unequalled programme. This report is only a small impression from a visitor's eye and can never be a true description of all the beautiful persons and events (including all the efforts for registration, transportation and cleaning) which made this programme to such a big success. Surely the organisers have received their inspiration through the all encompassing love of Gurudev Paramahamsa Hariharananda Maharaj.
HARI OM
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