Sarvaguna Inc.

Glimpses from SarvaGuna's 10th Anniversary School Bharatanatyam performance in Cubberly Theatre. Felt truly blessed to be able to celebrate SarvaGuna's 10th anniversary event with all our dancers, students, families and friends in a befitting manner! Here are some glimpses from the 4 hour show titled AshtaLakshmi Sukriti where we presented various items under each of the 8 segments of different facets of AshtaLakshmi. Beautifully explained by Dhaya's lucid announcements and a...ccompanied by melodious music by Bay Area artistes such as Smt Chandrika Pai, Smt Jayanthi Umesh, Smt. Lakshmi Balasubramanyam, Shri Ravindra Bharathy Sridharan, Shri Prasanna Rajan, the dancers enthralled the packed audience!. Messages and notes of appreciation still pouring in from so many regarding the beautiful performances - we were so blessed to have my mother and Guru Smt Usha Narayan (who just arrived from India last week) give a mesmerizing performance even at this age, it is so inspiring for the rest of us! Smt. Vasanthi Venkataraman, founder of SIFA gave an inspiring speech especially noting the brilliance of a senior Guru like Smt Usha Narayan and congratulating everyone on bringing out the divinity in each of the performances, highlighted by the thoughtful choreography! We also had Smt Kavita Sreedhar share insights on how Pragnya is working with children in the autism spectrum and SarvaGuna is happy to be their ally in this noble endeavor. At the end of the brilliant Andaal Thillana and sublime Mangalam, the audience rose and gave a standing ovation to all the performers!Hearty Congratulations to all SarvaGuna families and a big THANK YOU to all for their support in so many ways - MC(Dhaya), volunteer coordination (Aparna, Mythili), altar and foyer decoration (Priya and Reshma), costumes (Gayathri, Brinda, Sindhu), makeup, backstage (Vidya, Vincey and others), snacks (various parents)! Photo credits go to Suneel Kelkar and Joe Bosky for the snapshots in this video. See more

Lovely memory from a couple of years ago..

A big hearty Congratulations to G S Poornima, a SarvaGuna student, who has been selected in the Top 10 Bharatanatyam Solo Adult dancers by an esteemed panel of judges at the Sargam Utsav Competition. Apart from the final judgement of top 3 which will be done on Feb 28th, there is a popular vote category based on the number of likes amongst the Top 10 candidates, all very competitive! So proud of Poornima - she has put in so much of effort into this! Please go ahead and view her beautiful performance of the Todaya Mangalam so we can support our SarvaGuna student amongst all these international candidates from all over the world! Glad that I taught this intricate piece to her group last year! The Todaya Mangalam is both a raaga malika and taala malika using 5 different rhythmic cycles. https://youtu.be/A2sGUyTPvtM

Some more pix from our Thiruppavai Kainkaryam performance recently. We are already getting involved in our new session classes and working on new areas..meanwhile a minute to look back on our beautiful dancers, who bring beauty both to the outer world and the inner world! So thankful for the wonderful rains that have been giving much needed relief to our areas for the past 10 days after our Thiruppavai performances!

Beautiful Day 1 performances of Thiruppavai Kainkaryam program by the junior students of SarvaGuna! So thankful for this divine family that is creating beautiful memorable moments for our youngsters while cultivating insight and discipline and passion for all the values our tradition holds and the knowledge that pours forth from Andaal's Thiruppavai!!

Happy Pongal, Makara Sankranthi and Lohri harvest season wishes to everyone! Looking forward to our annual school performance this year, bringing together 30 Thiruppavai pashurams presented by over 100 students, all on Zoom! Since March our students have been continuing online classes and we are presenting this January performances online on Jan 23rd and 24th from 5:30pm PST to 7:30pm PST both days! Looking back at our stage performance pix from last January, it seems like so long ago! Wishing everyone a bright, fulfilling and enlightening year ahead!

It has been wonderful to see some of the youngest of SarvaGuna dancers start to learn Bharatanatyam using Thiruppavai pashurams as a motivational tool! The second pashuram of Thiruppavai presented by SarvaGuna students during performances in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. Some of the youngest students who had learnt Bharatanatyam only for a few months also had an opportunity to present Andaal's meaningful pashurams. In this second pashuram, Andal reminds us of the dos and dont'ts of... following the Pavai Nombu vrata during the 30 days. She guides us to wake up early during Margazhi, and bathe in thoughts of the divine, to donate charity to those who seek and those who deserve, to avoid speaking harshly about anyone, to avoid spending time on beautifying oneself such as wearing kajal or adorning flowers in the hair, to avoid milk and ghee mainly so one stays focused on spiritual growth and not on physical aspects. In general to not do anything that is not acceptable by the learned traditions so one can stay on the right path for spiritual growth and seek the joy of union with the Higher Self. https://youtu.be/vlmcQE8QNBk See more

As the month of Margazhi starts, it infuses us with fresh energy and gives us another opportunity to bond with the Higher Self! We find such depth of meaning especially from divine Goda Devi's Thiruppavai compositions! In the first pashuram Andal beckons all of us to join her in the 30 day Margazhi vratam, something that the Gopis of Brundavan used to practice to be able to have the opportunity to be with Krishna. This is the best month to immerse ourselves in divinity and ta...ke a dip in the thoughts of the Higher Self, in whichever form that we relate to (after all God's form is like a cloud ('kaarmeni'), just as a cloud can take any form, so can He take any form that you wish to relate with. A cloud is still a cloud no matter what shape it takes!). Andaal herself is deeply in love with Krishna - that Krishna who is dear to all the innocent Gopis and Mother Yashoda whose eyes grew larger seeing his valiant acts, protecting all, with eyes like the brilliant Sun and the serene Moon, to guide us correctly and forgive our faults respectively. Andal urges us to follow the Pavai Nombu vratha for these 30 days, for Narayana himself is the one who will grant us the greatest gift (Parai) of all.. whether it is moksham or more lifetimes in his service! https://youtu.be/ZkmQmDUfD_s

A Vijaya Dashami post that was delayed but given how, today, a peaceful democratic process is working to replace the ageold war of the good over evil in a more methodical and inclusive way, a post on Vijaya Dashami, the 10th day of victory of the forces of Good, made sense! Sharing some glimpses of our beautiful Golu dolls - this time online - as the 3 devis.. Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Shakthi - sourcing the energies of knowledge, prosperity and power for all!

Wishing my mom and Guru a very Happy Birthday! Thrilled to share the good news about our starting a new center in Mountain House this Vijaya Dashami (just bought another home in MH recently). We will continue to keep our home in South Bay as a base for teaching our South Bay students while adding this new center for many of our student families who are starting to move towards those areas. Please let your friends in Mountain House, Tracy, Livermore/Pleasanton know in case anyone wants to start with online classes which we will be starting this Vijaya Dashami. #mountainhouse #bharatanatyam Feel free to WhatsApp at 669-268-5501 for more info on these classes.

During lockdown, it is a challenging time for students of all ages, especially the young! Without any social interactions of the school, it is online dance classes that provide some respite in terms of physical exercise as well as some level of social interaction. Here is a recent collation of sadhana (or practice) videos by some of our students, which we are presenting as part of our Lockdown Sadhana Diaries series. Hope you enjoy and keep encouraging our young dancers!

Wishing everyone a happy, vighna-vinashaka Ganesh Chaturthi! May all the world challenges scale to a level that we can deal with - whether it be an infectious pandemic, crazy fires, devastating floods or anything else! Pix from a 2016 SarvaGuna school performance!