This year, Chaitra Poornima (Shri Hanuman Jayanti) Rathotsava was celebrated on the 9th of April at Gurushakti complex, Dahivali village Karla with great devotion and enthusiasm by Parijnan Parivar.
 
The preparations had started earlier, about 15-20 volunteers had reached the Gurushakti complex 7 days in advance to give final touches to the 16 ft. teru. The holy padukas of Parijnanahsram Swamiji too reached the venue a few days prior to the actual date of the ceremony. The place was decorated to give a festive look to the entire complex, including a beautiful pandal put up. The teru was polished and all ready for the function.
 
This year Smt and Shri Kishan Hemmadi were the yajman couple to perform the poojas on behalf of the Parivar. The event began with Samuhik Prarthana followed by Guru Ganesh poojan, Punyavachan, Ganesh poojan with abhishek of tender coconut water (shiyala) and milk. Bhavanishankar and Guru paduka poojan, Rudrabhishek, Mahanaivedya and Mangalaarti. About 2 busloads of devotees and a dozen vehicles had come from Mumbai and Pune to attend this unique and divine function.
 
After Ratha-poojan, Swamiji’s holy padukas were taken in a small procession and installed in the teru with vedic chants by Ved. Dattatrey Kaikini Bhatmam who was in charge of all the rituals and poojas of the day, Ved Honnavar Yogesh Bhatmam, Ved Guru Kalbag Bhatmam. After the rituals and bali, the beautiful teru was pulled for a few yards as a mark of Ratha-rohana amidst chanting of Swamijis Jaijaikars which made the atmosphere divine. As if in acknowledgement of the devotees’ shraddha and symbolizing H H Parijnanashram Swamiji’s blessings, two garudas came hovering over the ratha just when the ratha was pulled by devotees. All felt His presence making the atmosphere more divine and His assurance because of which this Satya-Sankalp of rathotsav made by Parijnan Parivar had turned from mere dreams to reality. After this, the 300 odd devotees headed to the pandal near Naimpalli Mohanmams bungalow for Prasad bhojan.
 
This year a Sangeet seva by Shri Ravindra Bijur was organized from 3 pm to 4.30 pm. The program brought out a treasure of his experiences with Param Poojya Parijnanashram Swamiji and he decided to sing the songs which Swamiji liked the most. This enthralled the audience and brought back many memories bringing tears to many present. A naamasmaran in true sense. He was accompanied by Shri Gurudatt Heble on Harmonium and Shri Vivek Kaikini on tabla, the same duo which used to accompany Ravindramam many times during his performances at Khar mutt in His presence.
 
It was the Parivar’s desire to honour a Bhanap who has made an outstanding contribution to society in any field. Our Swami Parijnanashram III also used to honour outstanding achievers during “Abhinav Sammelan” during Rathotsav at Shirali. Keeping in tune with our Swamiji’s scientific bent of mind it was decided to start this initiative by honouring a nuclear scientist of international fame – also a bhanap – Shri Suresh Kati, for his contribution to Atomic Research. Accordingly, on behalf of Parijnanashram Swamiji, the Parivar Chairman, Dr Uday Andar, honoured Shri Suresh Kati with shawl – Shreephal and a silver plaque with ‘Saraswat Ratna’ engraved on it. Shri Dayanand Balse, secretary of Parijnan Parivar gave a brief introduction of Shri Suresh Kati and his outstanding achievements and research in the field of nuclear energy for which he was recently honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the hands of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Shri Suresh Kati was indeed very happy to get such an honour and thanked the Parivar for the same which he felt was much more than any other honour he had ever received. He gave all credit of his success to God and his dear wife Smt. Malati Kati for her faith in him and untiring support.
 
Shrikala Hattangadi who was recently conferred with All india Manik Puraskar for Best serial ‘Dam Dama Dam’ on Sahyadri channel and her contribution to Marathi Televison, was also honoured with Shawl and Shreephal and photo of HH Parijnanashram Swamiji.
 
Dr Uday Andar, Chairman of Parijnan Parivar thanked everyone present especially Shri Suresh Kati and Shri Ravindra Bijur and gave a brief background of Parijnan Parivar and its social activities. He elaborated on activities held in the span of last three years which had details of our visits to many social organizations working for various causes, the details of all Medical camps held, the details of Aid distributed to needy Amchi families and individuals in their distress and sickness. Lastly he thanked our only source of inspiration, our strength, Param Pujya Parijnanashram Swamiji, without whose blessings nothing could have been achieved and with prayers at HIS HOLY FEET to give us similar strength to support more amchi brothers/sisters in need of help in the future.
 
At about 4.45 p.m. the teru was taken around entire Guru Shakti complex and the neighboring complex comprising of bungalows belonging to many amchi familes. All the devotees holding on to the rope, pulling it, singing bhajans and Swamiji’s jaijaikars arrived in Gurushakti complex an hour later. This time Nashik Dhol–Tasha was arranged from the neighboring Dahivali village and Maharashtrian traditional dhol sounds made all devotees dance to their wonderful tunes. The teru was stopped at the entrance of each bungalow in the Gurushakti complex to be received by the families for their traditional offerings and aarati. ‘Vokulli’ was played and sweets and dry fruits were thrown towards devotees by  our senior parivaris, Chandavarkar brothers, fondly known as ‘Trimurty’. It was fun to see young and old scrambling for the prasad and competing for the most collected, bringing sweet memories of olden days where in HH Parijnanashram Swamiji would toss dry fruits and sweets as Prasad from the balcony of the math during the Chitrapur teru.
 
Devotees were served panak-panawar before the two buses left for Mumbai. Six bungalows, Shirur’s, Andar’s, Naimpalli’s, Karnad’s, Chikermane’s and Hemmady’s were beautifully lit with floating diyas for the ‘Deepotsava’. After Deepnamaskar, the sky was brightly illuminated by fancy fireworks and some kandeel – kite flying by the youngsters. With the blessings of Lord Bhavanishankar and the grace of our Poojya Parijnanashram Swamiji and the untiring efforts of all the volunteers, this year’s Rathotsav too was a grand and memorable event.
 
JAI PARIJNAN !