To celebrate the first anniversary of SUNDERKAND at Chinmaya Maruti Temple, an AKHAND RAMAYANA (24 hour, non-stop reading of Ramayana by Swami Tulsidas) was organized starting May 6th, 2011, at Chinmaya Maruti Temple, located at 1, Union Street, Andover, MA 01210.

A special stage was erected for seating Sri Ram Parivar and was beautifully decorated with colorful flowers by the priests of the temple, Pandit Srinivasa Sastry and Shri Nagendra Sastry. It was a treat to watch many devotees singing bhajans while making several floral garlands for the Deities. During every single step in the organizational process, ringing of bells could be heard as if the Lord was in approval of everything.

The event started with the Lord's blessings on Friday, May 6th @ 6.30 P.M. with a samuhika sankalp, followed by Guru Vandana.

Devotee Kumkum Dilwali- ji started the reading of Sri Ramayana first and was  then joined by Sadhna Upadhyay and later by Sangeeta Saxena. Each one of them brought tremendous energy  & continued  inspiration.  During  the course of the reading, Sri Ram Janam ( birth of Sri Rama) was celebrated at 11.30 P.M. with an Arati and brief distribution of sweets, while the reading continued through the night.

The mandir was vibrant with devotees from all walks of life, from far and near, as people had come from New Hampshire and Rhode Island besides Massachusetts.  The devotees, irrespective of their age brought  with them positive energy and enthusiasm.  Some participated in the reading while some came to volunteer in different tasks, unmindful of the time. A wonderful feeling of giving and sharing was experienced.

There were about 90 devotees who took turns to continue the reading while dinner was served. People kept coming even in the very early hours of the day, either to participate in the reading of the Ramayan or to help out in various tasks.

SUNDERKHAND was followed by a brief Arati and distribution of sweets by bhagats, around 10.30 AM on Saturday, May 7th. Nevertheless, the parayan continued sans break.

One wonders the strength of bhagats who sat there reading for many hours without a break. It must be noted that one of Lord  Ram's bhagat sat there continuously for all the twenty four hours reading, not even consuming a sip of water!                                      

At 4 pm, special guests from Shirdi temple Neelkanth Ji,Sitaram Ji along with their Mandali arrived. Words cannot describe the energy they brought with them for the next 4 hours of singing. So vibrant was the atmosphere that Ranjani Saigal-ji and Chand Sripad-ji could not resist the temptation of doing their Pranams to Sri Ram Parivar with a beautiful impromptu dance. Subsequently Ajay-ji and some members of the mandali also followed suit. These were truly breathtaking, beautiful and blissful moments.

In all, a total of about 700 devotees attended the event in the 24 hours span with about 300 were present during the culmination and aarti alone, in the evening.  By the sheer magnitude of devotees present,  all with sincere devotion, this experience was very unique. The vibrations and energies seem to be directly showered upon all from heaven. Many requests to have similar event conducted again are only demonstrative of the great success of this event.                    

May the Lord create more opportunities for conducting many more such events and may His blessings guide us through every step.  

A humble devotee of the LORD.

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