Special Aradhana Prayers Day, Saturday, April 25th 2020 

As par of our Aradhana Mahotsavam we will be celebrating a dedicated prayers day for world peace and health. We are happy to let you all know that we will be chanting various sacred mantras starting off with multi-faith prayers. The agenda is below.

Who is expected to participate: This is open for all. We are encouraging each family (all members) / all devotees to at least participate and chant one sacred mantra during this offering. Please note, you can participate in all of the chanting. There is no limitation for your participation.

How can we participate: It’s very simple, please fill out this simple survey. It takes less than 2 minutes to submit. The button is below. Please fill this out asap. Since this is online, we need to plan ahead on assigning. The deadline to fill and submit is Friday, April 17th 2020.

Once we compile the details based on your submission, we will reach out to you about who will be leading and when. The final assigning will be shared with you so that you can practice. Since this will be online experience we need to be more smooth in our moving from one family to another during the chanting. More details will be shared when we have completed with the assignment.

For any questions, please reach out to the office bearers. Thank you.

Where can we be seated?
1. Please ensure that you and your family members appropriately assemble at your own home altar.
2. Ensure that your laptop (see below requirements) is also visible to all of you.
3. Ensure that you all are seated at the altar comfortably and also joined into the meeting.
4. Ensure NO background noise of any kind is present as much as possible. If not, please kindly mute your phone or go to a silent room where the noise is near zero.

How do we log in?
1. Please log in by clicking the links above.
2. If all of your family members are together then we suggest to limit to one login and one laptop to join the meeting.
3. If you are assigned singer, then please ensure you log in separately using either another laptop or your phone or ipad.
4. If one of your family member is not with you, then have them log in by themselves separately.
5. Ideally one login per house, excluding singer logins.

When can I turn on my Video Cam?
1. Only by lead singers when they are leading a bhajan (optional)
2. Only when Arathi is being done.
3. We are requesting to hide your video cam for the rest of the time in order to ensure that we all have a better experience in terms of audio quality and reduced latency (lag).

When to Mute and When Not to Mute my Audio?
1. During 1:45 PM – 2:00 PM – Please mute your self
2. During assigned bhajans 2:00 – 2:40 pm: All will be muted by default only the lead singers will be un-muted as needed when they lead bhajans.
3. During Closing Prayers 2:40 – 3:00 PM: You can un-mute and you will follow with others. Some we will play recorded chanting and you can provide chorus along.
4. During Bhajan Workshop 3:00 PM – 3:45 PM: Please mute your audio and when needed you can un-mute as it will be a bit interactive session.

How will the bhajans be rendered? (Note: After various options finally we will have the lead singer to render the first line and as well render the chorus by themselves or their family members while all of us will join during the chorus (this is done to reduce the latency (lag). At the same time we will have harmonium / tabla played).

1. We will pre-assign bhajan singers and the order will be known.
2. Lead singers are expected to join separately by themselves using cell phones or land line.
3. We will try to have limited instruments where possible to maintain the beat, if not we will just use clapping.
4. We will follow regular sunday pattern of slides, that will be shared on the screen.
5. Since to make it more touching, we can request lead singers to enable video cam so they can be seen while singing bhajan (optional).
6. Closing Prayers will be lead by assigned singer while all of us will render together..
7. Vibhuthi Mantram is lead by designated singer, please ensure you have vibhuthi at your altar and ensure that your family members get the same.

By Who and How will Arathi be given?
1. When we start arathi, we request all devotees to do arathi at their altars.
2. We will have arathi’s offered by all devotees at their homes at the same time. So please be ready with deepam / or others.
3. During this time you can all show your video camera so we can all see all arathi’s that are done at the same time.

NOTE: Please kindly forgive and excuse us if this does not meet with your standards. We know this cannot mimic the real time bhajans session or center meeting but this ensures that we all are wired at the same time to the divine. We will take feed back and continue to improvise for next meetings.