Indic Activists Appeal For Funds To Help ‘Heritage Parampara’

We often hear people on social media talk about the undying value of temples in nurturing the growth of our economy, culture and knowledge. Temples hold the balm of spirituality for our tired souls, the spark of knowledge for our battered intellect. Temples seem to offer one the universe with the deities’ divinity.

On social media, we have seen people put up gorgeous pictures of temple and its architecture quite regularly. People have walked to temples nearby and spoken about how even their journey was a spiritual one. Full of stories, untold. When one looks at those pictures, one wonders the enormity of our ancestors’ spirit – the devotion it must have taken for them to carve out the stones armed with nothing more than a chisel and hammer. The days and years it must have taken to give a physical form to divinity. A gift for generations to come.

It is therefore fair to say that it is our dharmic duty to preserve what was handed down to us. It is perhaps the travesty of our times that most us have lost the knowledge of our cultural past. And that is what Bengaluru-based Vijayalakshmi Vijayakumar attempts to fix.

Vijayalakshmi along with a few others formed a trust called “Heritage Trust”, a not-for-profit charitable registered trust, in 1994, for the promotion, preservation and dissemination of our heritage and culture through seminars, workshops and cultural festivals to bring us closer to our roots.

Since 2010, Heritage Trust has been conducting thematic festivals: “Gudiya Sambhrama, the temple festival” and “Srishti Sambhrama, the Earth Mother Festival”. Both are a celebration and a coming together of our cultural and natural heritage in haloed sacred spaces of worship and learning.

The Gudiya Sambhrama is held across multiple Bengaluru temples each year between January and February. The working committee of the Heritage Trust develops a theme for each year. Last year, the theme was “Sacred Flowers”. The festival brought together over a hundred artists and scholars of repute from across the country. Starting in the month of January for five weekends and eight venues, 20 temples resounded with the rhythm of dancing feet and the melody of music mingling with mystical chants and temple bells.

The main goal of Gudiya Sambhrama is to inculcate a feeling of ownership of the temples and oneness among all strata of society. Towards this end every year, the trustees ensure that all people are participants of the festival – the flower sellers outside the temples to the artists – and the audience of all sections of the society are affected with a sense of pride in their culture and tradition.

The unique feature of 2017 was the inauguration of Gudiya Sambhrama at each venue by the regular flower supplier to that particular temple. The floral artist was felicitated and appreciated for their dedication to the temple. This was an effort to understand the important role that the floral artist plays in enhancing the experience of the devotee.

The Gudiya Sambhrama is spread across Bengaluru city over a period of six to eight weeks. In 2017, it was performed at several locations across Bengaluru – precincts of Gudada Ramanjaneyaswamy Devasthanam in Hanumanthanagar, HSR layout; Nandi Thirtha Devasthana in Malleswaram; Koramangala Ganapathi Temple and Banashankari.

A glimpse

Apart from the main stage performances, artists performed inside each of the 20 temples as part of the sangeetha and nrithya upachara to the Supreme. This was the highlight of the utsava to bring back the devopacharas in the temple as this practice is slowly fading away. Artists have found devopacharas inspiring and uplifting.

This year, the Gudiya Sambhrama starts on 27 January and has a unique flavour to it. The festival will also hold a week-long programme on “Bhaagvata Saptha” with daily upanysam by Dushyanth Sridhar. The dance and music programmes will be presented through the day across venues. A special highlight is “Bhaagvata Chintanam” to be held by Swamini Svatmabodhananda.

The Gudiya Sambhrama is slowly becoming a flagship festival of the city of Bengaluru, a festival that the citizens can be proud of being associated with, and spread the message of uplifting arts, culture and spirituality.

Vijayalakshmi is fighting to sensitise people through her thematic festivals. Everyone treads a different path in life, and every deed, done truthfully, brings you closer to dharma. However, it is every Hindu’s duty to support the ones, who, against all odds, choose to tread the path of preserving our cultural heritage. It is perhaps our duty to make their fight a little easier.

Indic Activists through the Indic Academy has donated Rs 1 lakh towards this year’s Gudiya Sambhrama. Typically, the festival budget is around Rs 15-17 lakh, which is met with from sponsorship and donations. The Heritage Trust has followed a principle of not taking corporate sponsorship, as they expect product displays and other mentions by way of sponsorship, to maintain the divinity of arts and culture. This year’s programme with the addition of Bhaagvata Saptaha has increased the budget requirements to Rs 27.8 lakh.

GUDIYA SAMBHRAMA 2018 BUDGET DETAILS

Indic Activists appeal to you to donate and participate in this temple festival and make it an enduring and memorable event.

Please find below the bank details for HERITAGE PARAMPARA:

NAME OF ACCOUNT: HERITAGE PARAMPARA

NAME OF BANK: STATE BANK OF INDIA

TYPE OF A/C: CURRENT ACCOUNT

ACCOUNT NO: 37475950196

IFSC CODE: SBIN0003357

You can visit their Facebook page here.

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