“Jai Bharati V”
11th to 13th March, 2010 at Chinmaya Centre of World Understanding, New Delhi
The Jai Bharati Series celebrated the completion of five years on the 11th of March 2010 at Chinmaya Centre of World Understanding in New Delhi. This year’s festival was built around the theme of the ‘Anant Leela’ or Eternal Play of the Brahmaswara that revels in you and me. Like all years it was made special by the presence of Pujya Guruji Swami Tejomayananda ji.The festival was also a celebration of the ethos of Chinmaya Naada Bindu — the unique ‘gyanalaya’ for teaching music and dance in the wondrous environs of Chinmaya Vibhooti at Kolvan near Pune.
The 3-day festival interfaced rapt audiences to the pristine purity of Indian Classical Music, the vibrant aura of India’s Classical Dance and the bond of spirituality that links them both to the soul of India. This year the dominant colour was ‘pitambar’ and the Little Blue Boy of Vrindavan played hide and seek with the Divine Lord of Dwarka at every moment of the festival.
Jai Bharati-V opened with a powerful vocal performance by Dr. Veena Sahasrabuddhe, accompanied by Shri Vinod Lele on the Tabla and young Vinay Misra on the Harmonium. A stalwart of Khyal and Bhakti Sangeet traditions, Dr. Veena Sahasrabuddhe opened her performance with a sublime rendering of Raga Ambika (Madhuvanti). In an age in which artistes draw attention with extravagant vocal calisthenics, Veena ji drove home the magical power of simplicity and directness of musical rendering. Magical taranas punctuated her presentation which on the request of Pujya Guruji, culminated in a memorable presentation of a popular Pt. Kumar Gandharva composition of Kabir. When the music-soaked audience departed for the sumptuously spread Food Court, they had food for thought too.
When an artiste becomes a legend in his or her lifetime, he or she pens a little bit of history every day. The second day of Jai Bharati-V was no different because the man who beheld the spellbound audience in his grip with just one flick of the wrist and one shy glance of the eyes, was none other than Pt. Birju Maharaj — the undisputed Nataraja of India or as I prefer saying, ‘The Narayana of Nritya’. And what happens when Narayana takes avatar as Krishna? Braj blooms in every heart! That is exactly what happened as Tapovan Hall reverberated to the sounds of his new presentation, ‘Chidananda Roopah’. Pt. Birju Maharaj ji played the drums, sang, danced and re-lived the Braj Leelas of Sri Krishna. In doing so, the rhythmic journey anchored itself in the works of the great saint-poets and visionaries like Rabindranath Tagore. The best part of it all was that the performance did not end on the stage. It picked up later in one corner of the Food Court as an inspired Maharaj ji, along with his wonderful disciple Shashwati Sen, re-lived the magical ‘thumris’ and ‘bols’ of the Kalka-Bindadin Gharana in the presence of Pujya Guruji and a small group of awe-struck listeners. But alas, Krishnas never stay in Vrindavans forever!
The story, quite symbolically, was picked up in Sri Krishna’s Dwarka the next day — the grand finale of Jai Bharati-V — as Pujya Guruji brought home to a packed audience, the underlying Vedantic message of the tale of Krishna and his friend Sudama. Singing tears of bliss, Pujya Guruji invoked the glory of ‘Friendship’ in each and every heart. No soul was left untouched. No eye was left dry. Threading out the tale of Sugriva and Lord Rama from the Ramayana, Pujya Guru ji weaved a fabric of emotions that was dipped in the colours of the highest of all friendships — The Friendship of The Lord. And also, ‘The Friendship of The Guru’! And when he came to the tale of Krishna and Sudama there were a thousand Sudamas in the hall that evening and one Sri Krishna on the stage… every Chinmayee’s divine friend, our dear, revered Pujya Guru ji, Swami Tejomayananda! The emotionally surcharged high point at which this year Jai Bharati ended will be difficult to equal. But with Pujya Guruji you can be sure that the crescendo will rise higher and higher. Why? Because one of the first questions he posed to us when we all got together late on 13th March evening was… “Have you thought of the theme for Jai Bharati-VI ?”
Chinmaya Naada Bindu’s directors, Pramodini Rao, Ramaa Bharadwaj and Himanshu Nanda were also present for the festival. While Ramaa gave the audience a glimpse of the vision of Chinmaya Naada Bindu, Himanshu and Pramodini accompanied Guruji with instrumental and vocal support on the last day, with Lalit Kumar and Satish Kumar providing Sitar and Tabla accompaniment respectively.
This year’s Jai Bharati was also made special by the presence of Swami Swaroopananda, and Swamini Vimalananda. We also drew strength from Swami Nikhilananda who was so supportive with his valuable advice at all stages of planning. Swamini Gurupriyananda’s commitment to excellence also bore fruit, yet again. It was also encouraging to have Swami Chidarupanada amongst us, along with our very dear Brahmachari Navaneet Chaitanya ji.
- Shyam Banerji
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Programme Highlights
