The recent visit of Parama Poojya Sri Swamiji to Madras Ashram (17th Jan to 21st Jan) coincided with a very rare Inter-School Bhajan Music competition on 20.1.1998.
In this unique competition, 17 leading Higher Secondary Schools of Chennai (Madras) took part and 12 students from each school sang Sri Swamijiís compositions the whole day amidst a big gathering of devotees.
Parama Poojya Sri Swamiji was kind enough to bless accord permission to conduct this competition. It was first of its kind. Sri Swamiji also deputed judges from Mysore Ashrama for the competition.
The organising committee had planned this competition well and had given two albums of Sri Swamiji - Namasankeertana and Bhajana Mala two months in advance to all the participating schools. All the schools evinced tremendous interest in this Bhajan Music Competition.
The competition was inaugurated by Nada Nidhi Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman in the benign presence of Poojya Sri Swamiji, by lighting the Kuttuvilakku (inaugural lamp). Lalgudi Jayaraman also gave an inaugural address in which he emphasised about Sri Swamijiís interest towards music and said that Sri Swamiji was the only religious head who employed music for therapeutic purposes.
The performance of the participating school children was indeed outstanding. The audience and the judges were stunned by their enthusiasm and total involvement. The following schools excelled in the competition.
Sri RKM Sharada Vidyalaya, Thyagaraja Nagar, Chennai - 1st prize
PS Higher Secondary School, Mylapore, Chennai - 2nd prize
Padma Sheshadri Bala Bhavan School, Chennai - 3rd prize
All these schools were given special prizes Veena Shaped shields - with Sri Swamijiís blessing posture photograph in it.
All the winning students received individual medals. In His benedictory address, Sri Swamiji said that He was immensely pleased to witness the competitions and expressed satisfaction that the school children had also evinced interest in understanding the inner meaning and message of the bhajans. He also said that the Beejaksharas hidden in the Bhajans would linger in the minds of the children and would certainly help them in their future life.
Among the many dignitaries who were present were Nada Nidhi Sri Lalgudi
Jayaraman, Sri Karaikudi Mani, Dr.Nalli Kuppuswamy Chetty, Sri Natarajan
(director of Doordarshan, Chennai) and Sri C.Nateshan of Anubhav Group of
companies.