Thou Shall Be Pleased, I Owe My Existence to you Lord!…. Suhradam House
A student may be exceptionally brilliant, hardworking and focused but without the divine grace, things wouldn’t work for him or for any body. Today what others call as good luck or bad luck is what I call as Grace! In fact this is the simple yet profound fact conveyed by Suhradam House.
It was the most memorable assembly hosted by Suhradam House with a detailed perspective of ‘Devotion’- one that might relate to human love and care for the Guru or God, or affection and faith, or something stretched to the limits of fidelity.
A stimulating start of Suhradam House assemblies was witnessed with an out-of-the-box theme on Monday. Parth Amipara of VIII A, through his speech shared his views with the students that Devotion is the ladder that climbs to God. The first step, he said, of devotion is to call upon the God in times of need. Our next step is when our faith begins to grow, with every prayer answered. Then a feeling of attachment comes and at other times, a feeling of confusion, when things go His way and not ours. Our next step is we bond in love with Him and God becomes our source of comfort.
On Tuesday, in his speech, the Suhradam House Convener, Prabhudarshan Sir elucidated that we should give due consideration to anything we have a feeling for and feel a certain devotion toward. If, after exploring the situation carefully, we find it to be good and that it serves our purpose and the purpose of life, then and only then should we become devoted to that particular pursuit. He shared a wonderful thought saying If we stay faithful to God, then He will ultimately take care of any other problems that we may face.
On Wednesday, Suhradam House celebrated the Poshi Poonam marked as the Diksha Din of Gunatitanand Swamiji. The students depicted devotion for God and Gunatitanand Swami, reflecting a rare combination of poetic and devotional flair. P. P. Kothari Swamiji graced the occasion with His significant presence in the assembly. He addressed the assembly and spoke about the splendor and majesty of Gunatit. “It is His strength which binds the electrons and protons in an atom, it is His strength that gives taste to fruit, it is His strength that prevails in all the living and non living things” explained P.P. Kothari Swamiji.
On Thursday and Friday assemblies, Aneesh Sharma (Class 10) and Parikshit Patel (Class 8A) presented a detailed explanation of different ways of getting linked with God. They talked about nine different forms of devotion also commonly known as Navdha Bhakti.
Listening (shravana): Listening to devotional songs, recitations, scriptures and the life stories of saints and devotees can arouse feelings of devotion and love in the listeners.
Chanting (kirtana): Praising the Divine in various aspects by singing simple songs which are either stories, prayers, divine names or mantras. This is a way of joyfully keeping concentrated on the Divine through music.
Remembrance (smarana): Smarana means to constantly think of the Divine by either recalling the glories and leelas (stories) of the Divine or by constantly repeating the Divine names in a process called japa.
Service at the feet (pada sevana): Worshipping the feet can be a part of the ceremonial worship of a living teacher (guru) or it can also be meant as a symbol of surrender to the guru. The latter has traditionally been outwardly expressed by bowing and/or touching the guru’s feet.
Ritualistic worship (archana): This is the sincere performance of the various prescribed devotional rites.
Prostration (vandana): This stage describes an attitude of surrender towards the Divine, it can be seen as a physical action or exercise meant to lead to the inner attitude of surrender.
Servant attitude (daasya): This is the stage where the devotee does every act out of service to the Lord.
Friendship (sakhya): Sakhya describes a very intimate, close state of association with God as the result of long, sincere devotional practice.
Self-offering (atma-nivedana): This is a stage of complete surrender, where the devotee worships and loves God without any thought of reward or personal gain.
Saturday Creative Assembly: When God Descended………
Devotion took a completely different meaning in the creative assembly in form of dance drama, a group dance by eminent dancers of Suhradam House who portrayed the theme of devotion in a contemporary context, offering the viewers an aesthetic panorama of expressions that resonate around the concepts ranging from bhakti, loyalty to dedication and commitment that bring together faith, fact and fantasy.
Clad in pink and bright coloured costume, barefoot student-dancers filled the stage with graceful and delicate movements. The styled multimedia multiformed dance drama on the “forms of devotion” with a sterling performance kept the audience enthralled. Dhwijesh Vankawala, sophisticated in his footwork, who played the role of the Lord, had flamboyant costume with extensive jewels, a shimmering blue, complimented him godly beauty, as he commenced his magic with a calm posture.
Each form of dance had a specific depiction of form of Bhakti or devotion. Colourful costumes, synchronised moves and riveting stagecraft – glided on to the stage the enthusiastic students and hearts skipped a beat or two. As the students began their performance, unleashing moves and various avatars, rapture and exhilaration sprung forth from them…they were just stunning!!!!
The student dancers were very focused on gestures, postures, and expressions. They burst with verve and vitality. As the dancers performed, several students instantly joined them, crooning the songs, a few mumbled and the rest orchestrated it with their claps.
One of the teachers hastily flipped off his mobile as his students nudge him signaling the start of a dance show on stage. For the next 30 minutes, the students of Atmiya Vidya Mandir sat spellbound, occasionally craning their necks to get a better view of the dancers.
It was a fusion of all forms of devotional offerings to the Lord, choreographed by Respected Suhradam (Montu) Sir and Shreejichintan Mam and conceptualized by Shreejichintan Mam and the Suhradam House team members.
“Dance, music and backdrops are perfectly fused into a whole, which forms a very excellent fusion of best dance forms as a whole. This is distinguishing feature of this assembly of Suhradam House.” said one of the teachers. “The performance is overwhelmingly touching!” said the Principal Swayam Madam.
The participating students were Mishal Kansara, Piyush Sarda, Harsh Ambaliya and Akshay Patel from Class 9; Yash Dandawala, Parth Amipara, Nishit Banka, Lalit Desai and Ronak Mistry from Class 8; Prashant Gupta, Chaitanya Patel, Krutarth Rangunwala, Deep Chamaria from Class 7; Vaishvik B Patel, Amit Choudhary, Diven Patel, Vishal Patel from Class 6; Madhav Ladha, Niramay Joshi and Yogin Patel from Class 5.
Thus, the direct message of Suhradam House Week was: “Devotion does not mean being confined to a religion. It is an attitude, a way of life assuring growth through unshakable devotion to God.”
The creative assembly was of its kind titled as ‘a Devotional life is a blessing of God’. Bhakti bhagvan ni den chhe…… Devotion allows us to be prepared for life.
