The denizens of Melbourne who adhere to Sanatana Dharma were held in a thrall for seven days and were treated to an esoteric extravaganza by Dushyanth Sridhar who laid bare the hidden treasures of Srimad Bhagavatham and conveyed to them the higher truths in a simple lucid style. His discourse was also interspersed with humour which sent the audience to splits while keeping the seriousness of the subject intact. Not a soul stirred when the discourse was on for those two to three hours every day in the evening.
The hall was bursting at the seams. The long weekend was convenient, and heaven sent, and people made it in droves. His engaging style kept the audience glued for the entire session. A challenging task considering the fact that audience had young children, adults and senior citizens! His satirical but subtle political pot-shots also won him a lot of plaudits from the discerning and appreciative crowd. Please be mindful of the fact that it is election season in India now and it is going for its Parliamentary Elections this month.
Dushyanth Sridhar is one of the most sought-after public speakers on Sanatana Dharma and he renders discourses in English and Tamil. He delivers discourses on Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita and a host of other subjects in the Upanyasam, Pravachanam or Kalakshepam style. He has collaborated with eminent musicians to deliver discourses in harikatha style and with renowned dancers in the katha-nritya style. His discourses are very popular on regional TV channels.
He is also called in as a Subject Matter Expert on National TV Channels where they elicit his opinion on subjects spiritual and temporal.
He has also directed and produced the movie Sakuntalam, an award-winning Sanskrit movie that was a tribute for the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
He is an amazing singer and versatile in many Indian Languages. His lilting melodies melted hearts and his rendering of tongue twisting poetry, a la Shankar Mahadevan in Breathless, kept the audience spell bound. His proficiency and mastery of the subject that he expounded kept the audience mesmerised.
Srimad Bhagavata Saptaham, as the name suggests is a Seven Day Yagna. Sapta is Seven in Sanskrit. King Parikshit the grandson of Arjuna and a scion of the Kuru dynasty. Once he went on a hunt to the forest and he encountered Kali. He had a duel with him, and he vanquished and banished him but probably owing to Kali prabhava or the malefic influence of Kali, the normally sedate and sober king chanced to visit the ashram of Sage Shamika to quench his thirst but as the king crossed paths he saw the sage meditating and he asked the whereabouts of a deer which he was hunting. The sage was oblivious to the queries of the King as he was in deep meditation. Infuriated, Parikshit tossed a dead snake around the sage’s neck. He felt affronted that the Sage did not respond. This was strange behaviour on the part of the King as normally he was respectful and reverential with an unimpeachable code of conduct. His erratic behaviour is attributed to the ill effects of Kali Purusha. The King continues his journey after he has committed this dastardly act. Shamika’s young son, Shringi comes there after his morning bath. He is dismayed and shocked to find that someone has put a dead snake around his father. Enraged, he immediately pronounces a curse. He said whoever has dared to do this foul act, will be bitten by the poisonous snake Takshaka within seven days.
Once a curse is pronounced it cannot be taken back. Sage Shamika when he gets out of the trance realises that his son in a fit of rage has punished a just king, but it was too late.
Parikshit comes to know about the curse. Without losing a moment, he abdicates the throne and goes and sits on the banks of the river Ganga to do penance and in that state of penitence and remorse he awaits his end, but he makes effort to go through a purificatory process. Shuka, the exalted jeevanamuktha, the son of Vyasa arrives and walks him through the various kathas and upakathas from the Srimad Bhagavatham. Just listening to the Bhagavatham is soul elevating and fosters piety and devotion in the person who listens and ponders. The sequence is called Sravanam-Keerthanam and Nidhidhyasam. Listen, ponder and assimilate and lo and behold the process itself has a pronounced positive effect on the listener.
Srimad Bhagavatham is one of Hinduism’s eighteen great puranas. Composed in Sanskrit and attributed to Veda Vyasa it fosters bhakti (devotion) towards Krishna, one of the Avatars of Vishnu, the preserver in the Hindu Trinity, integrating themes from Advaita(non-dualism) of Adi Shankara, Vishista Advaita (qualified monism) of Ramanuja and the Dvaita (dualism) of Madhavacharya.
The Bhagavata Purana is a central text in Vaishnavism. The text presents a form of Dharma that competes with that of the Vedas, wherein bhakti ultimately leads to inner knowledge, moksha (salvation) and Bliss. Krishna bhaktas assert that the text itself is Krishna in the literary form.
The text consists of twelve skandas or cantos totalling 335 chapters or adhyayas and 18,000 verses. The tenth skandha or dashama skandhas has about 4000 verses. It is most popular and widely studied.
The saptaham is typically seven days. Like the seven days that Parikshit spent, utilising every minute to listen to the glories of God and he attained salvation. It is believed that every blessed soul that listens to Bhagavatham has a fair chance to emulate King Parikshit.
This Saptaham was held under the aegis of The Vedic Society of Victoria. They bring in eminent Vedic Scholars from time to time for the benefit of the Melburnians.
The event was held between 5 March to 11 March at St. Scholastica Community Centre, 348 Burwood Highway, Bennetswood, VIC 3125
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