AdvaithaVarsham 2019 the fifth annual showcase event of Advaitham Kuwait was held on November 1, 2019. Falling on Kerala Piravi day, the celebrations was also intended as a tribute to the language that formed the basis of the formation of Unified Kerala.
Advaitham Kuwait is a socio-cultural organization that had humble beginnings in the year 2014 on a chathayam day, organized by the followers of Sri Narayana Guru, philosopher, intellectual and poet. These aspects of his persona but was overshadowed by his contributions as a social reformer. A stalwart of Kerala Renaissance, he created a new model that rendered the then existing social realities of the state obsolete. A prolific writer and poet that wrote in Sanskrit, Malayalam, and Tamil, propagating the ideas of social equality and universal brotherhood. Some of his works include Darsanamala or Garland of Visions, Atmopadesa Satakam or One Hundred Verses of Self-Instruction
All the great minds of his time, took effort to meet him including Mahatma Gandhi, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Deenabandhu CF Andrews, Ramana Mahirshi to name a few. Buying into his all-encompassing universal vision, he had disciples cutting across not just religions and nation-states, but also disciples with varying ideologies. As is evident from the wealth of disciples he had. Among them were atheists, reformists, Hindus, Muslims, practicing Christians, foreigners and theosophists.
He organized an all religion conference in 1923 -- and he arranged for this message to be displayed at the entrance “We meet here not to argue and win, but to know and be known.” He was also honored by both India and Srilanka with postage stamps.
The first session of AdvaithaVarsham 2019 was a public meeting that began with Daivadasakam – The Universal Prayer in Ten verses penned by Narayana Guru himself in the year 1914.
The welcome address was given by Mr. Brijesh Narayan, General Convener of Advaitham Kuwait. Mr. Sushant Panicker, President of Advaitham Delivered the presidential address. The event was inaugurated by Mr. Ranveer Bharti,
Second Secretary Consular, Embassy of India to Kuwait. Sri Raj Mohan, General Secretary of Advaitham presented the report for the year. The souvenir was released and words of felicitations were given by Mr. John Thomas, Manager of United Indian School and Mrs. Vinita Brijesh, Convenor of Women’s Wing. Mr. Suraj V. Raju Treasurer delivered the Vote of Thanks.
Cultural programs were lead by Cultural Convener, Ms. Jamina V. Raju bringing on stage variety of events by the tiny tots and other members of Advaitham. This was interspersed with power packed musical megashow lead by Ms. Lekshmi Jayan a versatile musician, and violinist and Indian Idol contestant. She along with her band enthralled everyone with non-stop footstomping numbers.