After arriving inside the kaikarya paras (sripadham thangis, chatram, samaram, kaivilakku, visri) received sri sadakopa honours. The screen was put and azhwa:rs took back their yatastanam. Then rajabogam was offered to Peruma:l, along with Azhwars and Acharyas. Once done they received a grand Sa:ttrumurai. Arulappa:du was done to Mudal Azhwars and Iyal Sattru (a group of tamil slokas made together by swa:mi Manavalamamunikal to be chanted after any iyal prabhandam) took place. Sambavanai to Muthal azhwa:rs was done. Later, theertha viniyogam and delicious prasa:da viniyogam took place.

The evening started with sahasra nama parayanam. Then Sannidhi Archaka Sri Seetharamachar swa:mi chanted mantra pushpam, archana to perumal and ubaya nachimars followed. The evening gosti started with the chanting of Thiruppallandu, kanninun chiruthambu and Kovil thiruvaimozhi. The gosti chanted till Malai Nanni thiruvaimozhi and it was held for sattrumurai. The rest of two 10s(soozh visumbu and muniye) were left for the next day. It ended with a grand sattrumurai with Arulappadu to Swami Pillailokacharyar, naal pattu(7 paasurams from upadesa ratnamalai on the greatness of Srivachana bhooshanam a Magnum opus by sri Pillailokacharyar), theertha viniyogam and sri sadagopam was offered to all the assembled devotees. Sambavani to swa:mi pillailokacharyar was done. The gathering of devotees was filling up the hall for the next event which was the discourse by sri U.Ve. Velukkudi Krishnan swa:mi.

Sri U.Ve. Velukkudi Krishnan swa:mi was received at Sri T.Balaji swa:mins house, and after that swa:mi was chauffeured to the temple. swa:mi was welcomed by the temple committee, Sri Ravi Aharam, Smt Vasanti Aharam, temple Archaka Sri Seetharamacharyulu and many devotees at the temple entrance, by offering poorna kumbam. Then Sri Krishnan swa:mi was taken to the balalayam where perumal currently resides and was offered sri sadakopam maryathai and then swa:mi proceeded to dias to give discourse.

He started with the importance of sri Venkatesvara worship in kaliyuga. he explained why sri Malayappa swa:mi grants what we ask for (so that the next time we reach him we refine a bit more thus eventually we ask him the kainkaryam at his feet). He then started with the current utsavam and explained the importance of guruparampara. He explained from upadesa ratnamala the importance of srivachana bhooshanam and swa:mi Pillailokacharya. He explained how swa:mi pillailokacharya got his name(from his fathers acharya swa:mi Nampillai) why he gave ashtadasarahasayam(to protect pramanam) how to lead life as srivaishnava (srivachana bhushana saram:: acharya abhimanam and guruparampara dyanam). It was sevikku iniya senchol. The gathered devotees were enthralled. This will continue the next day as well.

After the upanyasam(lecture) devotees partook prasadam offered to perumal.

The day started with kalasandhi thirupallandu, thirupalliezuchi and Thiruppa:vai goshti and Sattrumurai followed by Theertha goshti. The morning prasadam was distributed as bala bogam to bagavatas.

After a short break Sri U.Ve.Velukkudi Krishnan swa:mi arrived for the gosti chanting of dhivya prabhandams. Along with sri U.Ve.Krishnan swa:mi Bagavatas started to chant the Dhivya prabhandams, Thiruppallandu, Kanninunchiruthambu, Kovil thiruvaimozhi last two pathigams, iramanusa Nootranthati and Upadesaratnamalai and Yathiraja Vimsathi. It was wonderful to listen to the corus of that many srivaishnavas chanting in unison. There were more than 60 srivaishnavas in proper attire to chant the prabhadams. Sri.U.Ve.Krishnan swa:mi graced the gosti by taking part in it. Suddenly Fairfax, Virginia was transformed into a dhivyadesam.

swa:mi Manvala mamunikal was given a simhasanam by perumal and he was seated on the side looking on perumal and azvar and swa:mi ramanuja. special malli(jasmine) and mullai pushpams(flower garlands) were procured for perumal, azvar acharyas by Smt Shanti Srinivasan of New Jersey. The dhivyaprabhandam chanting took about 1 and half hours to complete.

Then sri U.Ve. Krishnan swa:mi started the upanyasam on swa:mi Manavalamamunikal. The title read "masarra sempon manavala mamunivan vanthilanel aril karaintha puli anro thamiz araname" hadn’t the flawless sri MAnavala mamaunikal took avataram, the tamil Vedas (thiruvaimozhi and the 3000 prabhandams) would have been like dissolved tamarind in the river. He started with guruparampara , how the commentary of thiruvaimozhi (dravida veda sagaram:: tamil Veda ocean) came into life?, why sri Ramanuja chose his gyana putra sri Thirukurugai piran pillan to write the commentary?, and how it grew under swa:mi Parasara bhattar, swa:mi Nanjeer, swa:mi nampillai swa:mi vadakkuthiruveedhi pillai?, how the mangnum opus 36000 padi commentary came into existence?, who were the pravarthakacharyas (Eyunni madhavar,, eyunni padhmanabhar..)?, how swa:mi manavalamamunikal and his acharya sri Thiruvaimozhi pillai took vow to distribute the commentary under the guidance of sri Deva perumal of Kanchi?. It was fantastic to hear guruparampara prabhavam. It was great to hear the prabhavam of the idu vyakyanam. It took over 1 and half hour for the upanyasam but when the time went none of the assembled bagavatas knew.

After that the thirai(screen) was put and rajabhogam was offered for perumal. As a special item Pudalangai pal koottu a favourite of swa:mi Manavala mamunikal was offered to perumal and to swa:mi manavala mamunikal. The devotees gathered for the sattrumurai. Then grand sattrumurai of kovil thiruvaimozhi, iramanusa nootranthathi and pallandu was chanted and stopped. Sri perumal then offered his garland, his vastram, theertham and sri sadakopa maryathai to swa:mi manavala mamunikal. Sambavanai was done to swa:mi Manavala mamunikal.The arulappadu was rendered to swa:mi Manavalamamunikal and the thirunakshatra thaniyan was chanted by the gathered devotees. It was followed by chanting of last three paasurams of upadesa ratna malai. Then goshti started chanting the vazhi(long live) thirunamams starting from periya perumal, periya pirattiyar, nammazvar, ramanuja, pillailokacharyar and srimad manavala mamunikal. Devotees chanted all the 8 vazhi thirunamams dedicated by the 8 main sishyas of swa:mi manavalamamunikal called ashta dig gajas. They are namely swa:mi Appillar, swa:mi Koil Annan, swa:mi Prativadhi Bayankaram Annan, swa:mi Erumbiappa, swa:mi Ponnadikkal Jeeyar(Vanamamalai), swa:mi thiruvenkata Ramanuja Jeeyar(Pedda Jeeyar Thirumala), swa:mi Paravasthu pattarpiran Jeeyar and swa:mi Appullar.

Sri U.Ve.Krishnan swa:mi then distributed upanyasam CDs as the prasadam of swa:mi manavala mamunikal thirunakshatram to all the srivaishnavas assembled. Then the assembled srivaishnavas were treated with grand thadiyaradhanam (serving prasa:dam to bha:gavatha:s). All the five indriyams of bagavatas were blessed. They had divya darsan of perumal along with acharyas and swa:mi Manavala mamunikal, thus eyes ( ruupa) were blessed. They had chanted divya prabhandams and upadesa ratna malai thus tounge (shabda) served its purpose. They heard vagamrutharm of sri Krishnan swa:mi thus the ears were full with guruparampara dyanam. They partook prasadam and theertham thus the (rasa) was blessed. They had sri sadakopan on thier head (sparsam) thus they themselves got blessed. The whole place was smelling with srivaishnavam (gandam) thus that indriyam was also blessed. All in all a fantastic weekend to celebrate azvar(poigaiazvar, bhoodathazvar and peyazvar) and acharya(swa:mi Pillailokacharyar, swa:mi Manavalamamunikal) utsavam.

Various kainkaryams to Perumal and bagavatas were done by local bagavatas, again this listing is by no means is exhaustive.

Sannidhi Archaka Sri Seethramacharyulu swa:mi held the function with utmost discipline and grace. The way he does thirumanjanam, alankaram, and the way he take care of perumal without foregoing any sastric rules is outstanding. He takes care of perumal as if he is his own son tells a big tale. Sri Pattangi Mukundan swa:mi helped sri Sannidhi Archaka as paricharakas.

Thirumadaipalli kainkaryam(cooking) was taken care by Sri Seshavathara Swami, Sri Venu Eyunni Swami and Sri Padhmanabhan swa:mi and sri TNC.Vijayaraghavan swa:mi. Many bagavatas , Sri AMR.Kannan, Sri Ananth served bagavatas prasadam.

All the out of station SriVaishnavas were accomodated by local hosting swamis Sri Venu swa:mi, Sri Virginia Padhmanabhan swami and Sri T.Balaji Swami, Sri A.Narayanan swa:mi, Sri Kasturi Rangan swa:mi, and many others at their houses. There were so so many srivaishnavas who came in that some had to stay in the hotels nearby. The locals also shuttled bagavatas from airport to home and return. Sri Manivannan swa:min who inspite of his leaving to India the same night, hosted bagavatas at his home and made sure he attended the Utsavam and then leave for India.

Sri TCA.Venkatesan swa:mi of Detroit Michigan had made pdf documents of all the prabhandams to be chanted in this function. Sri sampath swa:mi, Sri Balaji swa:mi, Sri Kazhiyur Rajagopalan swa:mi took printouts and Sri Atlanta Sampathkumar swa:mi got the folders out in proper format to help devotees chant the prabhandams in order.

Sri Sundar Saranathan swa:mi and Sri Sridhar sowmyan swa:mi managed the program of sri U.Ve.Velukkudi Krishnan swa:mi.

The dhivya prabhanda gosti was managed by Sri Alvar Srinivasan swa:mi (Houston), sri Kannan Srinivasan swa:mi (California) and Sri TNC Narashiman swa:mi.

Sri Raviji and Smt Vasanthiji along with temple management committee managed the overall function with the dhivyagya from Peruma:l Azvar Acharya and prakrutham a:charaya. With causeless grace from Peruma:l and Azhwar Acharyas, the function was a grand success.

Srimathe ramyajamatru muniindraya mahatmane |                                                                                   ^{Sriranga vasine bhuyath nithyasrir nithya mangalam ||}   

Jai Srimannarayana !

Azhwar Emperumanaar Jeeyar Thiruvadikale Saranam.

Some links to look at various pictures taken during the function.

Temple web Album: