The three-day World Culture Festival being organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar headed Art Of living kicked off on the Yamuna floodplains with great pomp and circumstance on Friday despite initial disruptions caused by rain. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and dozens of foreign dignitaries attended the event and witnessed the dance and music jamboree from a special stage.
The inaugural event, attended by dignitaries from 155 countries, was webcast live in 134 countries.
The event began with with 1,008 musicians from Maharashtra playing the Dhangari Dhols. Nadaswarams accompany dhols as performers dressed in white Kurtas and yellow turbans wave saffron flags. It was followed by spectacular dance performances featuring Bharatnatayam, Kathak and many other dance forms performed by thousands of artistes from around the world on what is possibly the world’s largest stage.
Addressing the inaugural session of the event that was mired in controversies over violation of green norms, Sri Sri lashed out at those who were opposing the event as his “private party”. “Of course, it is my private party. The entire world is my family,” he said, recalling Sanskrit phrase “vasudhaiva kutumbakam”, which means “the world is one family”, as one of the loftiest vedic thoughts. “let’s create peace and harmony,” he added.
In an apparent reference the legal tussle with the NGT, Sri Sri said, “Many obstacles come when we want to do something great. But it only indicates that we have taken up something very significant. Obstacles do not come when something wrong is done. Obstacles do come when something great is to be done. But all those obstacles are removed finally and the end result is very sweet.”
Sri Sri told his followers to face with full courage whenever some difficulties come before them.
“let us care for environment. We love nature. It is in our DNA,” Sri Sri said and hailed the farmers for serving the country through their work.
Sri Sri also talked briefly about the benefits of organic farming and cited an instance of a farmer, whose earning grew up from Rs 40,000 to Rs 4 lakh after switching over to that mode from the traditional one.
On the occasion, several farmers were awarded by Modi, who was welcomed by the spiritual guru as a “very dear Prime Minister”.
The festival celebrating the Art of living Foundation’s 35th anniversary saw attendance of people from various countries.
Among the foreign dignitaries who attended the event were HE Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mabarak Al Nahyan from the UAE, Vice-President of Suriname HE MrAshwin Adin, PM of Japan HE Shinzo Abe, Crown prince of Al Fujairah HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Hamad Al Sharqi, Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal Kamal Thapa, Member of the European Parliament HE Ryszard Czarnecki, Former PM of France HE Dominique de Villepin, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuyvashev and Speaker of the Sri lankan parliament Karu Jayasuriya.
Speaking at the event, HE Shinzo Abe “Sri Sri’s message is to spread peace and that is the most essential ideology. We also preach harmony and peaceful coexistence and that is imperative to us.”.
HE Ashwin Adhin in his address, said, “Today we have the opportunity to spread the message of cultural diversity. We need to adopt a society with diverse culture and tradition. Today we all have come together due to Sri Sri’s broad ideology.”
Moments before the festival was supposed to begin, rain and hailstorms led to chaos at the event site with public and artistes running helter-skelter for rain cover. The entire venue along the bank of river Yamuna became a scene of mini pools, making the area slippery and difficult to manoeuvre. The event managers seemed to be unprepared to deal with untimely rain. The younger lot, who were participating in the cultural programme, used the occasion to perform impromptu rain dance. The lEDs went out of order as rainwater seeped into the screen.
However, Nima Kamdar, spokesperson for the event and a senior trainer with the Art of living Foundation, however, said “this is the divine blessing for our event.”
Billed as one of the biggest cultural gatherings in recent times, the festival is being hosted across 1,000 acres of the Yamuna floodplain. Environmental concerns dogged the event days before it kicked off as green activists, fearing environmental degradation of the fragile floodplain, sought cancellation of the festival.
The event is expected to draw lakhs of people over the next three days. People from different parts of the world are also expected to attend the mega event. The Art of living organizers have claimed that around 35 lakh people are expected to attend the mega event.