: The environs of the PWD Grounds on Bandar Road here are charged with spirituality with the rhythmic bhajans and rendering of songs by the bhajan brindams (teams).
The Dasa Sahitya Project (DDP) of Tirumla Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has roped in about 60 bhajana brindams to perform bhajans and sing songs from dasa sahitya, which is mostly in Kannada.
The grounds where the TTD constructed a replica temple of Tirumala, is reverberated with singing bhajans amid the rhythmic beating of traditional drums and cymbals, and kolatam of the bhajan teams.
The dasa sevakulu, bhajan brindam members, were seen singing the songs with ease despite the literature not being in their mother tongue. When contacted, DPP special officer Pagadala Ananda Teerthachar said it is true that the dasa sahitya is Kannnada. But, an interesting fact is that the Telugu-speaking devotees from coastal Andhra Pradesh are more in the bhajana brindams of the DPP. There are about 4,500 bhajana teams in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. Of this, 50 per cent are from costal Andhra Pradesh. It shows up how the people here received and embraced the Dasa sahitya irrespective of linguistic barriers, he explained.
Record effort
The special officer said that the TTD was organising the bhajans during the pushkarams as it has a religious significance. A holy dip would wash away sins of a person who took the dip. But, the bhajans would bless entire humanity. Rendering a sankeertana in praise of Lord Srihari is equivalent to performing one aswamedha yaga and rajasooya yagam. More so, 33.50 crore gods and goddess reside in the river where pushkaram is observed. They shower their blessings on people where sankeertanas and bhajans are rendered. “At one instance, Lord Vishnu tells Narada, ‘madhbhakta yatra gayante tatra tishtami’ —I am there wherever my devotees sing songs in praise,” he explained.
Mr. Teerthachar recalled that more than 30,000 Telugus congregated at Chagallu in West Godavari two years ago when the DPP organised a programme. More than 75,000 DPP bhajan brindam members assembled at IGMC here few years ago when the TTD organised a programme.
The project also organises Purandara namanam at regular intervals.
