CM opens music festival

BANGALORE: Chief minister S.M. Krishna on Friday inaugurated the 65th Sree Ramanavami celebrations and music festival.
The celebrations, organised by Sree Ramaseva Mandali, will be on for 38 days. The music fest got off to a colourful start by saxophone recital by Kadiri Gopalnath.
There will be concerts by artistes every day from 6 pm. They include: Rajkumar Bharathi, Vidyabhushana, P.Unnikrishnan, K.J. Yesudas, Hyderabad brothers, Sri Vijay Siva, Kadri Goplanath, Sudha Raghunathan, Nithyashree Mahadevan and N. Ramani.
Lectures on Ramayana by Sri Sathyathma Thirtha Swamiji of Uttaradi Math, Sri Jayathirthacharya Malagi and D. Ramachandracharya and others; lectures on Bhagavatha by Suvidyendra Thirtha Swamy of Manthralaya Raghavendraswamy Math; lectures on the Gita by Vidyeaha Thirtha Swamiji of Bhandarakeri Math are being organised.
Programmes will be held at the Fort High School Grounds. Musical programmes called ‘Prathibhakankshi’ are from 5.15 pm.
Rama naama japa: The South Bangalore Dharmika Samaj, Jayanagar, has organised ‘Akanta Sri Rama naama japa’ (non-stop chanting of Rama’s name) on Saturday (from 7 am to 7 pm) at Sri Vidya Vinayaka temple, East End Circle, J.P. Nagar III phase. This will be followed by the ‘Valmiki Ramayana Pravachana’ by Gopalakrishna Sharma.