Our story of KnowYourRoots starts in the sacred city of Kanchi near Chennai,
India.
Vani and I were visiting the Kanchi Matham (Center of Excellence) to receive
the darshan of Sri Sri Sri Sankara Vijayendra Saraswathi Swami who is the main
seer of the Matham. We were sitting in the mandapam (hall) with our friend
Kompella Sarma and awaiting the arrival of Swami.
We were deep in conversation about the magnificence of Indian arts, culture,
tradition, Sanatana Dharma, and the importance of our young people in India
especially NRIs (Non-Resident-Indians) to fully recognize their rich and powerful
heritage, which is where they come from no matter where they are physically
today in the world. We shared our vision of starting a program called
KnowYourRoots where we will organize trips and programs for NRIs to visit India
and learn about Indian history, science, mathematics, Vedas, Ayurveda,
Astronomy, Archaeology, and more. We were so engrossed in conversation when we
were told Swami varu is arriving.
We stood up and there he was with a divine smile walking towards us. There
were about a hundred people all around when Swami varu said in our mother
tongue Telugu, “where is the couple from America who do SivaPadam?”.
We need to go back a few years for you to understand this question. Our
guru is Bramhasri Dr. Samavedam Shanmukha Sarma garu who we consider as the
combined incarnation of Jagadguru Adi Shankara and Swami Vivekananda, for our
guru’s infinite wisdom of Indian scriptures and Vedas (like Adi Shankara), and
for his immense love for Sanatana Dharma and India (like Swami Vivekananda).
Guru Shanmukha Sarma garu wrote over 1,000 lyrical poems (songs) on Lord Shiva
in the language Telugu and some in Sanskrit, under the label ‘SivaPadam’. Vani,
deeply inspired by the profound essence of SivaPadam started to organize dance
performances with SivaPadam compositions. Dance gurus all over the world began
to get mesmerized by these songs and what’s miraculous is that more than 75% of
those dance gurus don’t speak or understand Telugu or Sanskrit. Ravi, who loves
to sing, ended up learning over 100 SivaPadams by heart. We organized multiple
SivaPadam shows mostly in California, USA.
Back in Kanchi now. During that visit to India in Dec 2017, Vani
organized a SivaPadam performance tour in Vijayawada and Hyderabad with 35 NRI
dancers. For reasons only Lord Shiva knows, Vani sent an invitation to Swami
varu to let him know about these performances. Swami varu sent his blessings and
prasadam with our friend Sarma garu to one of the SivaPadam shows in Hyderabad,
with a message that Vani and I should visit Kanchi.
So, here was Swami varu looking for us. He said in Telugu
“You are mesmerizing the world with Lord Shiva with SivaPadam”.
He blessed us with a divine smile that we both remember vividly even today.
We were elated with joy and felt the divine energy to continue our journey.
Interestingly, that was our very first visit to Kanchi. Our friend later
narrated our vision of KnowYourRoots to Swami varu who was so happy with our
ideas and gave our vision the Sanskrit name of ‘Dharma Moolam’. Thus
KnowYourRoots / Dharma Moolam was born.
The next 4 years have been magical. Vani organized multiple SivaPadam
performances in the USA, Singapore, and Angkor Wat in Cambodia. She formed a
SivaPadam Global Team and organized global singing competitions in 2021 and
2022, with participants from over 14 countries. During the pandemic, she
organized 100% online show with dancers from Australia, Singapore, Russia,
India, the Middle East, the UK, and the USA.
Vani conceptualized and produced the Jyotirlingam album along with her
friend Smt. Sakunthala Kovvuri. Jyotirlingam is a SivaPadam album written by
our guru Bramhasri Dr. Samavedam Shanmukha Sarma Garu, with music composed by
Violin Vidwan Anuradha Sridhar, her legendary mother Violin Vidwan Smt.
Srimathi Brahmanandam. Smt. Anuradha’s students provided the vocals, Anuradha
herself played the violin, and her world-renowned brother and Mridangam guru
Shri Sriram Brahmanandam played the mridangam. In July 2021, Vani produced a
dance production with Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam, Andhranatyam, Odissi, Kathak,
Mohiniattam, and Manipuri dancers bringing alive the glory and story of 12
Jyotirlingams.
In July 2022, Vani produced Kashi Samdarsanam dance production with
SivaPadams depicting the stories and divinity of the sacred city Varanasi (also
called as Kasi). That same month, she was awarded the title ‘SivaPadaamkita’
(one who dedicated her life to SivaPadam) by our guru and author of SivaPadam,
Bramhasri Dr. Samavedam Shanmukha Sarma Garu himself.
Many more SivaPadam projects are underway which we will write about in the
next few weeks.
But why did we name our vision ‘KnowYourRoots’? Coming soon…