UAE: Traditional Satyanarayana Pooja Performed in Dubai
by Shodhan Prasad
Pics by Ashok Belman / Gulf Kannadiga

Dubai, Mar 21: Shree Satyanarayan Pooja Samithi, Dubai concluded their 3rd annual Samoohika Satyanarayana Pooja in a purely traditional way at The Karama Centre Hall on the fifth floor with more than 1000 devotees attended which was a record till date.  Managing a crowd of this big number in this hall would definitely be a difficult task but with the grace of God it went on very well. The programme started at 9 am with Kalasha Prathistapana by Purohit Raghu Bhat who was the main Archaka of the day and this continued with the pooja formalities until 11.30 pm with Hari Katha rendered by Dr. Pawan Bhat who has come all the way from Udupi enroute his other programme to attend this.  One should appreciate his way of narration which made all the devotees including children to understand the ‘Sathyanarayana Katha’ easily. 

In between there was an exclusive ‘Bhakti Taranga’ devotional song MP3 album release of well known singer composer Ravindra Prabhu's done by B.P. Naik who was one of the main sponsors of the event.  This CD was distributed to all the devotees who attended.

Followed was an unveiling of a self created colourful portrait of Lord Shri Aishwareshwara Swamy created beautifully by the one and only well known artist, ex-President of Karnataka Sangha, a dedicated Kannadiga himself, B.K. Ganesh Rai.  This was unveiled by Shekar Shetty, Managing Director of Arab Udupi Group of Hotels in UAE and the magnificent portrait was purely dedicated to the Lord himself which was distributed to all the devotees.  It was also revealed that the copies of this portrait were offered to some of the great temples of South Karnataka.

This continued with Bhajans by the members of Narayana Seva Samithi followed by light music by the instrumentalists who gave a good presentation with melodious intro of their instruments.

At around 1 PM was Maha Prasada served to all the devotees a sumptuous lunch arranged by Jagannath Bellare and sponsored by the members of the Samithi.

Soon after the lunch was a felicitation to the invited Harikatha exponent Dr. Pawan Bhat which was conducted by Shodhan Prasad.  The Sanmana to Dr. Pawan Bhat was done with Shawl presented by P.S. Kamath, Garland presented by Raghu Bhat, Fruits offer by Shantram Achar, Momento by Vishwanath Shetty and Sanmana Patra Harish Kamath Vittla.

In reply to the felicitation Dr. Pawan Bhat spoke few words which were really encouraging.

Followed was felicitation to the background musicians namely on Tabla a pure disciple of well known Tabla Maestros Allah Rakha & Pandit Zakir Hussain, Manoj Acharya Karkala, on Harmonium, Vishwanath Bhat Karkala, on Floot: Anilesh who is another deciple of the great Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasya and the last one on Voilin, Shankar Krishnan of Cochin.  The felicitation was carried out by the following members of the Samithi viz., Sanmana/Shawl/Phalaka/Kaanike presented by – Rajendra Pejawar, Giridhar Naik, Sadashiva Acharya, Jagannath Bellare, Rajesh Kuthar, Jeevan Kuckian, Dinesh B.M. Achar &  Vasundhar Acharya respectively.

In between Harish Kamath Vittla the founder of the ‘Samoohik Satyanarayana Pooja’ was blessed by Dr. Pawan Bhat with a Shawl and Fruits.

Then continued with the Harikatha Kalakshepa titled 'Baktha Sudhama' rendered beautifully by the one and only Dr. Pawan Bhat who is the well know Harikatha exponent.  This went on till 5.30 PM and all the devotees got glued to the seats listening to this great story.  At the end ‘Panchakajjaya’ prasada was distributed to all the devotees as per the tradition.

The stage was well decorated with flowers, fruits and coconut by Rajesh Kuthar and his dedicated team who have given it a purely traditional look in this part of the world.

Actually the idea behind this pooja was initially set up by Harish Kamath who started this in the year 2001 till 3 years.  In between there was a break and then it again started with formation of a Committee called ‘Shri Satyanarayana Seva Samithi’ in the year 2008.  Rest is history with this committee continuing with the poojas until now in a grand manner.

Every year the said committee donates the proceedings of the programme to the needy viz., Rs.50,000 to Saanidya Special Needs School, Mangalore in the year 2008, Rs.40,000 to Sandeepani Sadhana Ashram, Kemar, Paaladka for childrens education in Kemar Mata in the year 2009 and Rs.10,000 to Bhagawathi Seva Trust, Ashok Nagar Temple for their building construction.  This year too they have agreed to contribute the proceedings to the real needy back home once the account is finalized.

The pooja programme was open to all devotees freely and those who took part in the pooja ceremony need to book their name well in advance as is being done every year.

One should really appreciate the effort behind this, the co-ordination of the committee members of Shri Satyanarayana Pooja Samithi, UAE comprising of Harish Kamath Vittla, Shantaram Achar, Vishwanath Shetty, Jeevan Kuckian, B.K. Ganesh Rai, Vasundhara Acharya, Giridhar Kamath, Dinesh B.M. Achar, Rajendra Pejavar, Sadashiva Acharya, Jagannath Bellare, Rajesh Kuthar and all the women, their wives associated with it.

The whole programme was ably conducted by the golden voice Shantaram Achar who concluded the programme at around 5.30 PM. wherein all the devotees returned home with the blessings of the Lord.