Bulletin – December 2022
Goodbye 2022
The year 2022 came as a “Mritha Sanjeevani” to the mankind. The catastrophic impact of the Covid during the previous two years will be recorded in history. The world is revived to the post covid period. The lessons learnt during these years, will leave an everlasting impression on the world. Let us be thankful to the entire medical force, social workers, police personnel, for their relentless efforts and sacrifices during the toughest phase of mankind.
The plights of our forefathers, to survive, protect their families, preserve the tradition and culture, Worship their ‘Kuldevas’ is all history. The hardships they might have faced would have been unbearable. Without money, coming to an unknown terrain, lack of local language knowledge, hostility of the residents, residential facilities, inability to worship their Deities, must have been some of the threats they might have gone through. Yet, with the blessings of the Almighty, slowly the “Grace” happened. The then ‘Naaduvazhis’ gave asylum to the GSBs, and the ‘Grace’ came in the form of land, provision to build temples and above all, the acceptance to be treated as natives. Slowly and steadily, GSBs became an integral part of the society and their contribution towards development was commendable.
Two epicentres were the icon of our Strength and progress. The temples they had built, helped the GSBs to continue their worship. Our culture, tradition and values were maintained by the forefathers, and the temples were the common assembling places. Second pillar of our strength was the ‘Kashi Mutt Samsthan’. Our ‘Guruvaryas’ were our beacon of Guiding forces during the toughest times.
Trivandrum GSB settlements came later. People came from ‘Ashtagramas’ after getting employment in the Capital city of Kerala. Like our forefathers, history repeated. The earlier gathering of a very minority of GSBs were organised at Narasimha Vilas, which was the property of the Ashtagrama and was managed by AATTD. Later on in1993, when the building was rebuilt, our Parampoojya Gurudev, Sudhindra Thirtha Swamiji, through their divine vision, requested the AATTD authorities to allow the Trivandrum GSBs to use the third floor of Narasimha Vilas complex, for their religious worship, as there was no GSB temple in Trivandrum for them to carry out their Dharmic activities, and furthermore, the residents were part and parcel of the Ashtagrama. The then authorities, carried out the Swamijis ‘Wish”, and from the day one, we had gathered at this venue, every month, carrying out only Dharmic and Religious functions of GSBs. Of late, the attitude of the temple authorities changed. The temple committee started viewing things for their economical gain and not the religious parlance and slowly support given earlier was not made available. We got deprived of our freedom to carry out our Dharmic activities. The lift has been inactive during the past so many years, provision of supply of water was denied during crucial pooja days, and now ultimately, our entry inside the premises needs permission as the building is kept under lock and key. The fourth floor, which was converted into Dhyan Mandir, is fully kept locked and not available.
The need for a permanent place for our Dharmic Activities has come now. Unless we arrive at a solution for this issue, GSB activities, which we carried on during these years, will come to a standstill. The Capital city of Kerala will be devoid of GSB activities in future, and our next generations will be deprived of our tradition and values.
Like our forefathers, let us pray for the “Grace” to happen.
Report: Sree Sathyanarayana Vritha Pooja during the month of November was performed on Sunday, 20th. Sri M S Balakrishna Hegden was the yajman for the pooja. Samajik attendance was good. Bhajans and Keerthanalaap were well performed.
Monthly Sabha Sammelan was held after the Pooja and Prarthana. The Sabha President Adv K G Mohandas Pai, addressed the gathering. He briefed about the visit of our representatives to Mangalore seeking the blessings of Poojaneeya Guruvar H H Srimad Samyameendra Tirtha Swamiji, Mathadhipathi of Shri Kashi Math Samsthan, during last month. In his speech, he said that our representatives briefed Swamiji about the need of Trivandrum Samajiks to acquire a place for constructing a Mandir, so that our samajiks including elderly persons can participate and worship. It will be beneficial to all GSBs across the country who visits Padmanabha Swamy Temple, Kanyakumari and Rameshwar. In response, Swamiji gave their ‘Ashivaads’ in this matter and Blessed us to proceed.
Representatives of the 38th Akhila Bharatha Srimad Bhagavatha Mahasathram, which is going to be held from 13th to 23rd December at Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple were present at the meeting. They explained about the program which is going to be a historical event in Trivandrum. They sought the cooperation of our Samaj.