Re-consecration of the Old Temple on Wednesday, 25th November, 2015.
Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai, was in festive colours on 25 November 2015, the auspicious day of Srimat Swami Vijnananandaji Maharaj’s Jayanti and Kartigai deepam. Several monks and devotees had assembled by 4.30 am. The Old Temple was illuminated with soothing lights.
The ‘Old Temple’ built by Swami Sarvananda in 1916-17, had been renovated and reinforced due to structural weakening of the building over the course of time. The renovation work began in June 2015 and was completed in November 2015.
The day of the re-consecration began with Mangalarati at 5.00 am followed by Usha kirtan and Vedic chanting melodiously rendered by Swami Swatmaramanandaji of Ramakrishna Math, Bangalore. Over 70 monastics and hundreds of devotees then made pradakshina of the old and new temples. Thereafter, Srimat Swami Gautamanandaji Maharaj, Adhyaksha, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, opened the doors of renovated Old Temple and performed Arati to the tastefully decorated photos of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda in the shrine upstairs of the Old Temple. After floral tributes by him and other monastics, a video was screened in the prayer hall depicting the brief historical survey of the Old Temple. A media website of the Math was then launched. Devotees were allowed almost all through the day to enter the shrine and offer floral tributes to the Holy Trio.
Special puja and homa to Sri Ramakrishna was performed in the new temple to solemnize the re-consecration. Soul-stirring bhajans were rendered by Swamis Atmaghananandaji, Abhiramanandaji, Yogirajanandaji and Atmajnanandaji.
A booklet From A Small Shrine To The Universal Temple containing the article written by Swami Ananyanandaji in Consecration Ceremony Souvenir in year 2000 was released on this occasion.
Sadhu bhandara was arranged for 80 monks and 30 brahmcharins who attended the ceremony. Around 1500 devotees took noon-prasad.
In the afternoon, after readings from the gospel both in English and Tamil, Harikatha and bhajans were rendered by Ramakrishna Hari Bhajan Mandali, Chennai.
At 4 pm, monks and devotees assembled to eagerly hear the nostalgia about the Old Temple, a saga of nine decades. Swami Golokanandaji, Swami Tanmayanandaji, Swami Abhiramanandaji, Sri Nalli Kuppuswami Chettiar, Dr. P. K. Baskar and a few other monks and devotees shared their memoirs of the Old Temple.
Swami Vimurtanandaji, Manager, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, narrated how a hitherto unknown donor had come to the Math at the right time when the project of renovation was initiated and offered 30 lakhs in cash and 5 lakhs as gold jewelry as his donation. This noble gesture of Sri M K Ramachandran was publicly appreciated and heartily applauded. Along with him, other donors, consulting engineers, artisans and other workforce were felicitated with gifts and mementoes.
Sandhya Arati was performed at the shrines of old and new temples at the same time from 6.30 pm.
From 7.00 pm, Smt. Nityashree Mahadevan sang enchanting melodies of the Lord and thrilled the audience with her rendition and devotion.
The fitting finale to this grand function was the benedictory address by Srimat Swami Gautamanandaji Maharaj who highlighted the spiritual glory of the Old Temple where the first president of the Order, Swami Brahmanandaji, had divine ecstasy during Arati performed by his disciple, Swami Yatiswaranandaji, who also had a great spiritual enlightenment.
Overall, around 3000 devotees participated in the day-long programme.
