Transporting listeners to a spiritual height

Coimbatore’s pleasant evenings were made more enjoyable and meaningful during the ninth Bhakti Thiruvizha organised by Star Vijay TV, held at Sarojini Nataraj Auditorium Coimbatore. The veteran speakers did full justice to their fame. Those making their debut were equally impressive.

Lakshminarayanan used interesting anecdotes to throw light on Thirumangai Azhwar’s great devotion. Bhaskara Bharathy’s speech on ‘Yaadhumaagi Nindraai’ was full of substance. Every single line in this poem of Bharatiar was analysed and the underlying philosophy brought out with simple examples and analogies. He drove home the message that life does not offer as many challenges as opportunities, and it is for us to know an opportunity from a challenge.

Scintillating speech

When it was time for Karunakarachariyar’s ‘Manikkodiyin Thai,’ people kept wondering who the subject would be — it turned out to be a scintillating speech on the mother of Garuda, the flag (Manikkodi) of Vishnu.
Mangaiyarkkarasi spoke on ‘Thirukkural Inbam,’ elaborating on the first Thiruppugazh composed by Arunagirinathar, ‘Muthai Tharu.’ Her photographic memory took her well-planned speech, in which she had packed many fresh details, to another level. Nagai Mukundan’s entertaining speech on ‘Ippadiyum Oru Maindhanaa?’ had all the characteristics that people would expect from him, with liberal digs at present-day life and sufficient humour.

After ensuring the absolute attention of the audience with her absorbing story of Sundaramurthy Swamigal, one of the four important devotees of Lord Siva, Sarada Nambi Arooran focussed on the wonderful thevarams composed by the great devotee who worshipped Lord Siva as a friend. Prema Kumar’s ‘Sakalamum Sainathan’ threw the spotlight on Shirdi Saibaba’s miracle-studded life as also that of Sathya Saibaba.

With generous quotations from Kamban, Periavachan Pillai and Vedanta Desikan, Damal Ramakrishnan brought out the greatness of Bharatha in his speech ‘Padhukaiyum Bharathanum.’ In the end, one had to agree with Kamban’s view that even a thousand Ramas will not equal one Bharatha.

Vijayasundari spoke with involvement on Kulasekara Azhwar, the king-turned-devotee whose passionate devotion to Lord Ranganatha would melt any hard-hearted person. The namasankirtanams by Udayalur Kalyanaraman and Sattanatha Bhagavathar were inspiring and invigorating. The huge hall was charged with bhakti when Pushpa Anand got the audience to join in her energy-filled, energising namavalis.

Finally, without overstepping her limits, Sumathi raised compering to the level of an art. The people in Coimbatore were delighted with the opportunity to take part in the well-conducted Bhakti Thiruvizha.

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