The 70th annual Hindu religious meet, organised by the Travancore Hindu Dharma Parishad, will be held at the Dharma Sastha Nagar on the sand bed of the Pampa river at Ranni from February 21 to 28.
Swami Kesavananda Maha Saraswati of the Elaneer Math in Kasaragod will inaugurate the meet on February 21 afternoon, according to P.N. Nelakantan Namboodiri, Parishad president, and P.A. Balakrishna Pillai, general secretary. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will be the chief guest at the inaugural function.
He will release the souvenir to be brought out on the occasion.
Swami Vedananda Saraswati, head of the Geetha Mandir Ashram at Paruva in Kottayam district, will deliver the benedictory speech and Thuravur Viswambharan, religious scholar, will deliver a discourse later.
Swami Viviktananda Saraswati of Chinmaya Mission will inaugurate the Mathrupuja on February 22 afternoon. Viswakarma Maha Sabha president P.R. Devadas will preside over the function and Swami Atmaswaroopananda of the Sri Ramakrishna Math will deliver the keynote address. N. Gopalakrishnan, scientist and Indologist, will deliver the religious discourse later in the evening.
Poets’ meet
Travancore Devaswom Board president Prayar Gopalakrishnan will inaugurate the Ayyappa Dharma Sammelan on February 24 afternoon and S. Ramesan Nair, poet, will inaugurate the poets’ meet on February 25 afternoon.
Kerala Pulayar Maha Sabha president T.V. Babu will inaugurate the Acharya Anusmaranam to be held on February 26 afternoon and Minister for Tribal Welfare P.K. Jayalakshmi will open the women’s s meet on February 27 afternoon.
Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala will inaugurate the valedictory meet on February 28 afternoon. Vice Chancellor of Kerala Kalamandalam Deemed University P.N. Suresh will preside over the function.
Swami Poornamrutanandapuri, general secretary of the Mata Amritanandamayi Math, will present the Chinmudra Puraskar instituted by the Parishad to Bharatiya Janata Party State president Kummanam Rajasekharan on the occasion.
The week-long meetiwill conclude with the Maha Sarvaiswaryapuja which will be led by Swami Poornamrutanandapuri.
Chandy will be the chief guest at the inaugural function to be held on the Pampa sand bed