The following report is written by Miss Sangeeta Adhikary, who was born into a saintly family of great musicians. Her father is the illustrious Sitar-Maestro, Shri Jagat Adhikary, direct disciple of the world-famous Shri Ravi Shankar. Sangeetaji has inborn aesthetic talent, which expresses itself in her beautiful poems and many other artistic activities. She is also a wonderful and highly dedicated educationist and Head of Department of Computer Science in Omkarananda Saraswati Nilayam.

Indian Music is basically the combination of three streams: Gaayan (Singing), Vadan (Playing Instruments) and Nritya (Dance) and perhaps 'Dance' is considered as the most important and powerful medium because it includes the other two streams in it. India has a very rich tradition of classical dance. For many centuries the dancers were attached to the temples. This maintained a strong religious flavour to dance. Sacred dances are connected to the temple, and in India, dance and music pervade all aspects of life and bring colour, joy and gaiety to a number of festivals and ceremonies. In fact, dance and music are tied inextricably to festivity of any kind. Therefore no celebration could be completed without the dance performances.

Thus the 9th Day of Mahotsava was dedicated to 'Nritya' (dance performances) which was performed by none other than our most talented, dedicated, divine soul Kumari Somashekhari. She has a unique combination of God gifted beauty, melodious voice, with expertise in mostly all traditional Indian dance styles which are mainly Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kuchipudi and Kathak. She has developed her own dance-style by including all the delicate and sophisticated dance techniques, especially in her choreography. Since Kumari Somashekhari selected the temple-style-dance performances therefore the celebration was organized in front of Omkarananda-Kamakshi-Maa in Omkarananda-Kamakshi-Devi Mandir. The beautiful evening was unveiled with 'Omkarananda Vandana' which was sung by Kumari Somashekhari with her melodious voice and the dance performed by her very talented tiny girl students. A number of solo dances were performed by Kumari Soma on the songs 'Shivanath teri Mahima', 'Maa Vedon ne jo Teri mahima kahin hain, sahi hai'. Both of her dances were so lively and wonderful. At times it was realized by everyone that Devi Maa had appeared herself before us and all the idols of the Goddess with different postures of the temple became alive and joined her in dancing. No words could be used to explain that spiritual cosmic aroma created by her dance numbers. At the beginning of each dance performance Kumari Soma had explained nicely the meaning of the songs in Hindi as well as in English so that everybody could enjoy it.

At the dawn of the day one magnificent Aarti was performed by Kumari Soma and her students in front of Omkarananda-Kamakshi-Devi on the song 'Main To Aarti uta'run Re'. Everyone was very impressed when they saw all the dancers holding a number of oil lamps in their hands and performing the Aarti. The choreography of that dance number was really excellent. In fact the choreography of each dance was wonderful and in majestic style. The entire programme was just like a bouquet in which all the songs and dances were like flowers, picked up from a divine garden and offered by Kumari Somashekhari at the lotus feet of Devi Maa.

Dr. Varshney praising the performances of the artists

Ms. Sangita Adhikary expressing her admiration for Kumari Somashekhari

In spite of the chilly weather, a large number of distinguished personalities witnessed the Dance offerings. Among them many educationists, like Dr. I.D. Joshi, Dr. Varshney, Mrs. Meenakshi Gupta, other intellectuals and musicians like Sitar Maestro Sri Jagat Adhikary shared their views and feelings and one thing was observed common in everyone's verses that they were not on the earth during the dance offerings, but somewhere in the cosmic world and the performances were mind blowing indeed.

The evening had come to an end with the Vote of Thanks by H.H. Swami Vishveshwaranandaji Maharaj. He appreciated Kumari Somashekhari and her students for their beautiful performances and congratulated her for the success she could achieve in giving the training to her students. Swamiji distributed some prizes to each of the participants. Exactly during this time, completely unexpected, thunder and lightning started and also rain. This added an even more mystical touch to the whole atmosphere of the evening. It was as if Gurudev Swami Omkarananda and all Gods and Goddesses would answer our prayers and shower Blessings upon us.

Undoubtedly this evening left a spiritual aroma among each one's heart and mind, which will remain forever.

God Bless Us All, I pray.