NAVAGRAHA SANCHARAM

Pranava Naadam presents  Navagraha SanchAram Date - Saturday 11/23/2019 Time: 3-6pm Venue - Joan Pisani Community Center, Saratoga CA 95070 An inspiring and illuminatory Lec-Dem on Dikshitar's immortal musical nonet- The Navagraha Kritis, collaboratively presented by Sri Shivkumar Bhat, Smt. Kasthuri Shivkumar, and musical choruses from different Bay area schools. We have appreciated and enjoyed singing Dikshitar's navagraha kritis for years and exulted in the Sahityam and the Sangeetam therein, but have often overlooked aspects of the sahityam that have deep roots in Vedic astrology. It is well known that Dikshitar composed Brihaspate Tarapate,  the athAna masterpiece, as a therapeutic prescription for his friend who was suffering from poor health because of an unwelcome influence of the Guru (Brihaspati) planet according to the horoscope of the friend. Dikshitar's belief, as it was corroborated eventually, was that offering a propitiating prayer to Brihaspati would remove the ill-effects of the planet on the life of the devotee. Dikshitar's understanding of astrology was not only laudable, but awe-inspiring. Combining his astrological knowledge with his musical and literary mastery, Dikshitar composed the Navagraha kritis (a propitious song offering to all the nine zodiacal, or celestial objects).