Sri Radhakalyanam
Bhagavan Sri Krishna emphatically told Naradha that he always resided with his devotees performing Namasankeerthanam. It may be noted that namasankeerthanam is the only sadana available in kaliyuga to reach god as other ways and means like doing yagna and yaagas are more complex and need money and manpower.
Namasankeerthan does not require anything else except pure devotion towards Him. Hence it has been recognised as the purest, easiest and surest path to reach God for any aspirant irrespective of caste or creed. All our religious scripts and hymns direct every one of us towards this path only.
Alangudi is a small village in the district of Tiruvarur, in Tamilnadu. People from all over India visit this place to have a dharshan of Lord Dakshinamoorthy. Here Sri Radhakalyanam is Performed every year since 1948. Early history reveals that aastigas of this village were conducting Ekadisi Bhajans and established a bakthi movement since 1945. Prominent figures like Sri Gopala Iyer and Sri Duraiswamy Iyer were responsible for this establishing this satsang at alangudi.
Bagavathars like Pandur Bagavathar, Chandrasekapuram Durai Kurukkal, Pulavarnatham Visvanathaiyer, Narikkudi Seenu participated in the ekadasi bhajans. Later, it was Sri Pandur Bagavathar who suggested that Sri Radhakalyana Mahotsavam could be celebrated at Alangudi to bring in fame and glory to this village. Thus the seed for this great divine event Radakalyanam was laid.
Since 1948 this function has been conducted at Alangudi without a break. Those days, our elders faced a lot of difficulties in conducting this function. We used to collect funds from devotees and conducted this function. Now, at Alangudi, we celebrate Sri Radhakalyanam in a larger scale. Many ardent devotees of Alangudi Sri Radha Krishna give unstinted support to the trust and as such almost all the expenditure are met by sponsors.
Some people bear the entire expenditure for vegetables for the event. Someone sponsors rice. The other takes care of milk supply for the entire function. Some people spend for entire decoration and it goes on that way. The villagers, especially the odayar community of Poonayiruppu and Narikkudi, provide financial as well as moral support to this event.