Ananda Marga Canada held seminar and Bhukti Pradhan Elections in Brampton, ON on Sunday March 27, 2016. On Saturday March 26, Mehool Dave, Sujata and family invited all Margiis, Acaryas, friends and other devotees to a grand debut Indian dance performance of Kiirtana Dave held at Lester B. Pearson Theatre in Brampton, ON and attended by around 390 people.
Bharathanatyam Arangetram of Kiirtana Dave. Bharathanatyam is an ancient Indian dance form originated in India centuries ago. This dance form combines complicated rhythmic steps and other foot movements, hand gestures (mudras), facial gestures and dance movements that result in a high sophistication and aesthetics. The dancer has to correlate the movements of the dance to the melody and rhythm of the musicians. For Kiirtana’s performance, highly trained internationally claimed musicians performed live at the stage during the entire performance that lasted from 5:30 p.m. until 11 p.m on Saturday March 26, 2016.
Arangetram means to “ascend the stage” and is among the most important events in a dancers life when the teacher (Guru) is ready to allow the student to have his first solo performance. Kiirtana is now 16 years old and has been practicing Indian classical dance since age 4. Her teacher for the last ten years is Guru Natyalalamani, Smt. Jayanthi Shanmugalingam, a renowned dance teacher and founder of a dance school in Toronto. For the last few months Kiirtana has been taking classes daily and during the performance she was dancing for over three hours – something that requires extreme endurance. The performance was of very high calibre, both the musicians, costumes, lightning, sound control, and most importantly Kiirtana’s dance was full of vitality, and deep expressions through hand gestures (mudra), dance movements, and facial expressions. She showed that she is not only a great dancer but also a great actor and was able to convey the storyline of the dances with elegance, humility and humor.
Ananda Marga Seminar in Toronto. Mehool Dave ji had made his home available for guests coming from different parts of Canada and USA for the entire Easter weekend of March 25 to March 28. Ten Whole Time Acaryas (8 Dadas and 2 Didis) came for the programs of Kiirtana’s dance performance and the Ananda Marga Seminar and the long weekend was full of activities and felt like a full 3 days retreat.
The seminar was held on Sunday March 28. In the morning from9:30 to 12:00 and attended by 30 Margiis and 10 WTs. There were three seminar classes. The seminar trainer, Acarya Diiptimanananda Avadhuta, introduced the topics and lead discussion. The topics for seminar were taken from the published books of Shrii Shrii Anandamurti ji (Shrii P. R. Sarkar) and included The Existential Value of Ideology; The Five Kinds of Conscience; and The only Way to Salvation. Seminar organizer was Acarya Parinirvanananda Avadhuta.
After the lively discussions of the seminar topics there was collective meditation and lunch followed by Bhukti Pradhana Election. The Margiis unanimously selected Vivek Wu to work as Bhukti Pradhana for Greater Toronto Bhukti. Vivek has been working as acting BP for the last one and half year and everyone is happy with his work and requested him to continue. Vivek Wu has already selected members for the Bhukti Committee. The seminar and BP election was an important event in bringing everyone together and accelerating the speed of Ananda Marga Mission in Canada.
After the BP election, everyone stayed for Dharma Cakra and Katha Kiirtana followed by dinner.