Devotees Offer Satyanarayana Pooja in Dubai

by Shodhan Prasad - Daijiworld Media Network
Pics by Ashok Belman - Gulf Kannadiga

Dubai, Feb 13: Shri Satyanarayana Seva Samithi Dubai devotionally concluded their 4th annual ‘Samoohika Satyanarayana Pooja’ at Elite English Speaking School, Deira yesterday the 11th February, 2011 which started at around 8.30 AM in the morning until 4 PM with over 1000 devotees from all over UAE and India participating the holy pooja.  The Samithi changed the venue this year to accommodate more devotees but even this time it was a record numbers who flocked to take part in this auspices ceremony and have to think about another bigger premises for next year.

Veda Moorthi Anil Bhat Mulki, Vinayak Bhat & Vishwanath Bhat were the chief archakas who arrived from Mangalore to exclusively conduct the pooja ceremony.  On behalf of Samoohika Satyanarayana Pooja, Udaya Suvarna & Suprabha Udaya Suvarna sat for the pooja performance on the pedestal.  All the three archakas performed the pooja in a dedicated manner and narrated the importance of the pooja to all the devotees. They said that the day was so auspicious and thus was able to conduct the pooja as per the holy rites without any hurdles.

At the entrance one could see a well erected structure of Thirupathi Venkataramana Gudi nicely carved and designed by Ganesh Rai, ex-President of Sharjah Karnataka Sangha, wherein a huge picture of Lord Venkataramana was placed with flowers and decorations.  The ceremony started with the Ganga pooja at this spot with filling in the pure ‘Ganga water’ into the ‘Kalasa’  with Kalasa pooja and then the procession of Sumangalies carrying the ‘Kalasa’ and the deepas to the beautifully erected main Satyanarayana Pooja Mantap on the stage of the venue for further procedures with kalasa prathistapana.  The main mantap was very well decorated with flowers, pingara, fruits and pictures.

In front of the main mantap was a huge deepa with rangavalli and flower decoration around it.  Seva Samithi’s main representatives, Shantaram Achar, Harish Kamath, Ganesh Rai, Vishawanath Shetty and Giridhar Naik lighted the lamp as a part of the proceedings of the pooja.  Later ladies of the Varalakshmi Samithi lighted the lamp on the main pedestal.  Later the Archakas started the pooja with ‘Saaligrama Abhisheka’, ‘Ashta Dikwalaka Pooja’, ‘Navagraha Pooja’, ‘Shri Satyanarayana Ashothara’, ‘Lakshmi Kumkumarchane’, and then inviting the Lords to the pooja continuing with the ‘Katha’ in Sanskrit recitation.

The venue turned into a religious atmoshphere with the huge mantap of Lord Venkateshwara at the entrance, inscripted pillars  of Jaya Vijaya at the mahadwara alongwith life size portrait of Lord Venkateshwara decorated with tulasi and huge flower garland on it, narration of hyms and veda vaakyas on both sides of the walls all over, huge portrait of Lord Aishwareshwara Swamy, Lordess Lakshmi Ventaramana, the cutout portraits of Lord Hanuman and Lord Garuda on both sides of the main mantap of Lord Satyanarayana.  The whole concept was created with the combined idea of Ganesh Rai and being beautifully erected with the physical support of Chidanand Poojary.  The aroma of the burning ghee, incense sticks, camphor, flower and the aarathis blended with the beatings of the drums and jagante created a devotional world all around made the devotees glued to the seats throughout the pooja ceremony.

To witness this programme additionally there were Dharmayogi Mohan Swamiji of Mudradi Aadhi Shatki Temple, his son Sukumar Mohan of Nama Tuluveru Kala Samsthe, Mithabail Govardhan T. Naik & Mithabail Shashidar T. Naik who came all the way from India.  Other than them were Pravin Shetty of Fortune Hotel, Presidents and Executives of various Regional Associations like L.V. Puthran of Mogaveers UAE, Jithendra Suvarna of Billawas Dubai, Ex-President Umesh Kuckian of Billawas Dubai, Chandrashekar of Billawa Balaga Dubai, Sarvotham Shetty of UAE Bunts, Rajendra Pejavar of Vishwakarma Seva Samithi, Ramachandra Hegde of GSB Samithi, K.B. Ravi Shettigar of Padmashali UAE, Achhandira Ganesh of Kodagu Dakshina Kannada Gowda Samaja, and many other Community Leaders belonging to various groups who actively participated in the pooja ceremony with their whole hearted support.

The morning cession started with bhajans by Shri Rajarajeshwari Bhajana Mandali and Chende vaadana by Yaksha Mithraru Groups.  Continued with Saxaphone presentation by Machendranath Puthur and his daughter Sindhu Bhairavi.  They were both felicitated during the conclusion.

The main attraction was devotional songs rendered by the couple who came all the way from Mangalore, Nagaraj Kini & Namratha Nagaraj Kini whose golden voice attracted all the devotees and took them to the eternal world blessed with purity.  Their singing was spell bound and all the devotees were stringed to them singing along with ‘jai karas’.  The devotees wanted to hear more from the couple after the morning cession as promised but unfortunately could not continue the afternoon cession because of the time factor.  The felicitation programme was conducted by Shodhan Prasad who called upon the guests on to the stage who were felicitated with Shawl by Harish Kamath, Fruits & Flowers by Vishwanath Shetty, Memento by Giridhar Naik & Sanmana Patra by Shantaram Achar.  The sponsors were also called upon and felicitated were P.S. Kamath, Sangeetha Satish Shetty, Suprabha Udaya Suvarna, Dinesh Shettigar, Mamatha Suresh Hegde, Satish Poojary, Nandini Ravindra, K.B. Ravi Shettigar, B.P. Naik, Vittal Acharya, Jitendra Suvarna & Pravin Shetty.  Sadashiva Acharya one of the senior and ardent member of Satyanaryana Seva Samithi was specially felicitated during the programme for his active contribution all through these years.  The musicians who accompanied the devotional singing were also felicitated with flowers, fruits and shawls.

Around 1 PM was the Maha Mangalarathi followed by devotees accepting the prasada in a proper queue well arranged by the Samithi Volunteers.   This time it was the special arrangement by the Samithi to have a banana leaf maha prasada.  Lead by Anand Shanbhag and his team of both men and women volunteers of Narayana Seva Samithi enthusiastically wearing the common T Shirt were successful in arranging the afternoon special delicious vegetarian lunch prepared by Giridhar’s Swadisht Restaurant Karama and distributing the same in a good and clean manner enjoyed by all the devotees who savoured the rich flavour requesting for more and more since it was a unique reception of a Mangalorean tradition.

The volunteers included Akshatha Shiva Shetty, Saujanya Kiran Shetty, Vedha Yogesh Shetty, Usha Vishwanath Shetty, Aishwarya Ganesh Rai, Satish Poojary & Kiran Shetty at the main registration counter.  While the floral decoration of the main mantap wad volunteered by Satish Ullal & his able team as always.  The whole programme was ably monitored and conducted by Jagannath Bellare, Jeevan Kuckian and other members of the Samithi.  The sounds and lights were coordinated by Prasad Rai and his associates.  Distribution of the prasada was coordinated by Dinesh Achar, Vasundhara Achar and their team of Varalakshmi Samithi.

The programme’s media public relation was done by Jayakar Rai through SMS, while websites publication was done by Shodhan Prasad for Daijiworld, B.G. Mohandas & Ashok Belman for Gulf Kannadiga and Vinay Kumar for Namma T.V.  Namma TV will telecast this programme live in India soon.

Finally it was a programme which was ably conducted by the able leaders of Sree Satyanarayana Seva Samithi UAE under the leadership of Harish Kamath Vittal along with his associates Shantaram Achar, Vishwanath Shetty, Ganesh Rai, Giridhar Naik, Rajendra Pejavar, Sadashiva Achar, Dinesh Achar, Vasundhara Achar, Jeevan Kuckian, Satish Poojary, Jagannath Bellare, Kiran Shetty, and all self volunteered devotees who supported in this presentation to make it a devotionally successful programme in this part of the world.

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