On 12 April, on the auspicious occasion of Sri Rama Navami, marking the birth of Lord Rama to King Dasharatha and Queen Kausalya of Ayodhya, Australia Mission of Sai (AUMSAI) performed Sri Sitarama Kalyanam. Ram is supposed to be the seventh incarnation of the Dashavatara of Vishnu.
For the event, supported by VMC, panchaloha idols of Lord Rama, Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman were brought from India, made by the famous silpasala, who make idols for the Tirupathi and Badrachalam temples.
The idol pranaprathista was also performed before the kalyanamahotsavam.
The heavenly marriage of the divine couple was celebrated by AUMSAI with great passion and spirit in a magnificent manner with the chanting of hymns by priests in a splendidly decorated altar with beautiful flowers and traditional plantain trees. The event took place at the AUMSAI Sansthan Temple at Mordialloc, where more than 250 devotees gathered.
The kalyanamahotsavam took place from 6.30 pm and the sacred talambralu (rice mixed with turmeric) was showered on deities at 8 pm, after which the procession with the palanquin took place, and was followed by Shej Arati to Shirdi Sai.
Mayor Cr Paul Peulich, Kingston City Council, Mr M C Bhagat, Vice Consul General of India, and Cr Geoff Gledhill, Kingston City Council were the guests of honour at the event.
Cr Peulich congratulated all the members of AUMSAI for organising the festival. Mr Ravichandra Rangaswamy, Mr Raja Kailasam from Melbourne, Ayyappa Seva Sangham and Mr Sugumaran from Australian Tamil Academy also attended the event.
All the guests were served with mouth-watering food and panakam (traditional special water made with jaggery, pepper and cardamom).
This event was made possible by the efforts of the families’ of Mr Anil Kumar Kolanukonda, Mr Saseendra Chowdary Amarneni, Mr Rampal Reddy Muthyala, Mr Rajkumar Devrajan, Mr Ram Surapaneni, Mr. Nagendra Prasad, Mr Adinarayana Reddy Bhimireddy, Mr. Satya Madahavan Voleti, Mr Anil Karpurapu, Mr Giridharnath Siddulagiri, Mr Sudhakar Boyapati, Mr Kishore Yannam, Mr Prakash Tirumalareddy, Mr Srikanth Tatireddy, Mr Vijay Vardhan Reddy Gade, Mr Aswin Sirimalla, Mr Venkatesh Upadhyayula and Mr Pradeep Reddy Yedavelli.
Mr Anil Kolanukonda presented the vote of thanks in which he spoke about the efforts of the volunteers, sponsors of the idols and support of the devotees who made the event memorable.
Published in The Indian Sun (Indian Magazine in Australia)
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