Published on Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 1700 hrs. IST

Remembering the great poet saint Thyagaraja on the occasion of his Maha Samadhi, students from Sri Sathya Sai Mirpuri Music College of Music, Prasanthi Nilayam offered a 'Musical Aradhana', in line with the popular Thyagaraja Aradhana, in Prasanthi Nilayam on the evening of 24th January 2011 in the immediate Divine presence of Bhagawan.

Carnatic lover that Bhagawn is, He took special interest in the programme as the troupe was asked to perform on the stage.

Beginning with a Ganaesha offering "Sri Ganapathi Nee Sevimpa Raray" the next fifty minutes witnessed the students regaling with some interesting numbers that included some hindustani pieces as well. The evening numbers included "Bhajamana Ram Charan Sukhadai...", a hindi bhajan by Saint Tulsidas, "Jagadanandakaraka..." of Saint Thyagaraja, a jugalbandhi, stringing many a chord with various musical instruments, "Rama Kodanda Rama...", one of Bhagawan's favourite bhajans to end with a mangalam song, a thankful prayer and conclusion to the musical event. The programme lasted for fifty minutes. At the end Bhagawan individually felicitated each one of the artistes, draping shawls over them.

Mangala Arathi was offered at 1945 hrs. and Bhagawan retired to Yajur Mandiram at 1950 hrs. not before blessing the concourse with 'abhaya hastha'. Prasadam was distributed to the entire assembly.

Earlier Bhagawan, upon emerging at 805 hrs. appeared on the dais after a full round of darshan in twenty minutes to set the stage for the commencement of the programme.