Bhajan News : : September 18, 2004

In bhajan we celebrate September month as the Children's month and encourage children to practice on some religious theme to share. As it was Ganesh Puja today, most of the children presented stories on Ganesh. The rest of the children presented stories on Hanuman except Mrunali Das who presented the story on Durga and how she killed Raktabija. Bagmi Das coordinated the children's presentation and ended with the sloka "Yada yadahi dharmasya gLAni bhabati bhArata...".

     
     

The children were presented quiz books for their effort.

Mahashakti prabhu took the audience to the highest level of spirituality with his melodious singing of the bhajan "Krishna Jinka Nam He, Gokul Junka Dham He". Nrusingha Chaitanya Prabhuji in his discourse reminded the audience to focus on the unique superiority of the Lord. There was discussion on whether we have any unique God or not and whether Ganesh, Durga etc. should be considered as demigods or gods.

     
     

Today's prasad was sponsored by Dr Joy Gopal Mohanty and Mrs Sulochana Mohanty of Columbia, MD.

Bhajan News : : August 21, 2004

Chirantana

Bhajana Mandali completed seven years of congregation. Lord Jagannath was decorated very uniquely today.

Bi-yearly newsletter chirantana's 13th issue was published today to celebrate this auspicious moment. Dr Indu Mishra released the newsletter and the congregation members shared their stories of last seven years. Dr Joy Gopal Mohanty and Mrs Sulochana Patnaik volunteerd to take charge of bhajan communication and newsletter related publication and distribution. Bhajan singer Debaki Nandan Chowdhury requested everybody just to remember the easiest 3rd Saturday rule even if they do not get any communication.

 
     

The children were taught Srikrisna Astakam from the newsletter Chirantana.

A child member Satish Mishra started playing tabla in the bhajan program for the first time. He accompanied his father's singing. Although he is learning Tabla, he was shy and today he came out of that shyness and amazed his uncles and aunts.

 

The food was tasty and the extra taste was added by the sweets prepared by Dr Joy Gopal Mohanty. All the sweets were gone in the first round. The members sat together and discussed the past and the future of the bhajan program while enjoying delicious dinner.

Today's program was sponsored by Bimal and Leena Mishra of Potomac, MD to celebrate the happiness of their parenthood with the gift of a lovely daughter.

 


Bhajan News : : July 17, 2004

Bhajan and Prabachan

Bhajana Mandali was blessed today with the presence of Bhakti Sidhanta Swami. Bhakti Siddhanta Swami had spent 25 years in ISKCON Bombay and often visits temples in New Yor and other places in USA. He explained the meaning of Gita Sloka 29 which explains the secrets of getting peace. Arjun had asked Krishna- "Who is peaceful?". Krishna had replied - "My devotees". In his Prabachan, Bhakti Sidhanta Swami narrated a story to emphasize the fact that the sins of the bad people can be relaxed if other people talk about his sins and thus share the sins. We had a good gathering today. Bhajan Mandali welcomed 3 new families. Bhajan continued before and after Arati for about 3 hours.

     
     

Dinner Discussion

Plan for summer program for children was discussed.

Sponsor

Today's bhajan was sponsored by Prasanna and Babita Nayak of Bowie, MD. The sponsorship was made in the memory of Prasanna's father for his death anniversary.

     
     

Bhajan News : : June 19, 2004 (Rathayatra Day)

Bhajan and Prabachan

It was an auspicious day; the day of Rathayatra. Bhajan Mandali welcomed many new families from other states. Bhajan singers were very enthusiastic with the crowd of new people and sang Rathyatra bhajans continuing or about 3 hours.

     
     
     

Nrusingha Chaitanya Prabhu gave prabachan. In his Prabachan he narrated stories to emphasize the fact that human beings are born as the supreme creations of the Lord. The quality that differentiates them from other animals is the ability to think and judge good from bad.

Dinner and Discussion

The dinner was enjoyable with varieties of cakes for Raja, sweets and vegetable curry. Plan for summer program for children was discussed.

Sponsor

The program was sponsored by Chitaranjan and Namita Das of Pennsylvania.

     

Bhajan News : : April 17, 2004

Bhajan

We had a good gathering today. Bhajan Mandali welcomed 3 new families. Bhajan continued before and after Arati for about 3 hours.

Oriya School

The children learned the days, months and seasons in Oriya. Also some translation exercises were discussed.

Dinner Discussion

Plan for summer program for children was discussed.

Sponsor

The program was sponsored by Naresh and Bigyani Das of Columbia, MD.

Bhajan News : : March 20, 2004

We had a special bhajan program at DURGA TEMPLE, 8400 DURGA PLACE, 8400 Fairfax Station, VA - 22039 (http://www.durgatemple.org/). The program was arranged by Prof. Tumuluri Ramakrishna and Debaki Nandan Chowdhury. Although the number of Oriya families joined was very less, some of the Durga Temple devotees joined the program and praised our effort. They also invited us to organize bhajan program during temple festivals and on Sundays when the temple is full. Here are some of the photographs of the bhajan program at Durga Temple.

     
     
     
     
     
     

Bhajan News : : February 21, 2004

Bhajan

It was a good gathering. We had a full agenda of the bhajan program including prabachan. The children sang the group bhajan "keDe sundara shYAmaghana". The adults enjoyed the kirtan and bhajan singing. Bhajan Mandali welcomed the new Oriya family Asit and Smita Satpathy to the bhajan program.

Prabachan

The question was discussed about the reasons behind the bhajan program. The question created some awarenes. According to Nrusingha Chaitanyaji, a wise person gets knowledge from the surroundings. When he/she observes days and nights, winter and spring, he/she sees the truth and realises.

He also emphasized that when a master's dog who wears the lease of its master does something wrong, the master is blamed. Likewise, if a devotee wears a "Tulsi Mali" and does something wrong, God takes care of the devotee.

Dinner Discussion

Plan for upcoming Holi program was discussed.

Sponsor

The program was sponsored by Dr Indu and Jhunu Mishra of Columbia, MD.

Bhajan News : : January 17, 2004

Bhajan

There was predictions for snow and freezing rain in the evening. However, our devotees kept faith on Lord Jagannath and dared to perform their rituals by driving in the snowy weather. The temple priests like everyday had decorated the deities in new cloth and golden crown and jewlry. The air of the prayer hall was serene and fresh. Devotees sang their regular bhajans. Maushumi Patnaik's "sanje sakale", Pratap Dash's Bhikari Bal style singing, Nrusingha Mishra's Salabega bhajan, Brahmapriya Sen's "Tora Sharana Galire Murali" and sepcifically Mahashakti Dash's "Dasabatara" were very touching. Debaki Nandan Chowdhry's touching prayers dedicated for Sangram Mahapatra were very emotional.

The Arati started at 7:00 PM. Mahashakti Dash's "Jaya Jaya Gourachander Aratika Shobha" and "Chala Mana Dekhijiba Sandhya Arati" with the sound of mridangam and singles created a very enchanting feeling in people's heart.

 
     
   


Bhajan Mandali welcomed Dr G.S. Mishra and Prashanti Mishra of Cuttack, Orissa who were visiting their daughters in New Jersey. Bhajan Mandali also welcomed Amaresh and Ritanjali Mishra from New Jersey.

Children's Program

The children practiced the prayer they had learnt in the last month. Opinions were discussed on their plans for their Holi involvement. They decided to perform a drama where they can themselves speak Oriya.

Dinner Discussion

"Bisnupurana" serial was shown during the dinner time. The plan for upcoming Holi program was discussed.

Sponsor

The program was sponsored by Dr Shashadhar and Meera Mahapatra of Silver Spring, MD.