As the birth centenary celebrations of Shri Guruji kicked off from Vanvasi-dominated Chakapad in the Kandhamal district of Orissa, twenty-five thousand Vanvasis both men and women had chanted and danced to the tune of mahamantra?hare Krishna hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna hare hare; hare Rama hare Rama, Rama Rama hare hare with sankirtan for two consecutive days with their traditional musical instruments, where five lakh enthusiastic crowd was part of state-level inauguration programme of year-long Shri Guruji birth centenary celebrations.
As the centenary celebrations came to an end at Bhubaneswar a year after, the streets of Bhubaneswar witnessed thousands of swayam-sevaks marching to the tune of musical instruments.
The grand inauguration organised from from April 8 to 10, 2006 in the vanvasi heartland of Orissa. At the mega event, where vanvasis religious fervour was in top of its spirit, Vishwa Hindu Parishad International President Ashok Singhal thundered, ?See every person present here are well versed with dharma and what'sthe need for Christians to teach them dharma, which already is there in every body'sheart in this country.?
With Shankaracharya of Gobardhan Peeth, Puri, Swami Nischalanada Saraswati, Chief of Swami Narayan sect Swami Hari Prakashji and RSS Sarsangha-chalak Shri K.S Sudarshan and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram President Jagdev Ram Oram attending the programme, all eyes in the state were drawn to the unnoticed vanvasi heartland.
Puri Shankaracharya who delivered his fiery speech as part of Gyana Yajna programme accused western countries of using handful of Indian leaders for their benefit at the cost of Bharat.
As part of Seva Yajna programme, seven thousand Vanvasi people were provided with health check-up facilities and free medicines were also distributed. More than 400 doctors from all important medical centres participated in the mega health check-up camp. People from Kandhamal and nearby districts took the advantage.
Earlier eight raths dedicated to as many goddesses reached Chakapad on April 8 marking the beginning of the three-day inaugural celebrations. These raths included Bimala Rath from Puri, Chandi Rath from Cuttack, Biraja Rath from Jajpur, Tarini Rath from Ghatgaon, Samaleswari Rath from Sambalpur, Taratarini Rath from Ganjam, Patenaswari Rath from Patnagarh and Manikeswari Rath from Malkanagiri.
Intellectual meetings, meetings of religious and social leaders of various tribes and castes, conferences of students and Hindu congregations were also held throughout the year as part of the celebrations.
A national seminar on the theme ?India as Supoer Power? was organised at Bhubaneswar. Eminemt persons from the field of defence, economy, internal security and education participated in the deliberations.
The year-long celebrations was concluded on Netaji Subhas Jayanti on January 23, 2007 in a ghosh procession at state capital Bhubaneswar, in which thousands of ghosh swayamsevaks participating in the procession function at Chakapad, Shri Ajit Mohapatra, Prant Pracharak, Orissa, said. RSS Sarkaryavah Mohan Bhagwat addressed the concluding session as chief guest.
