To commemorate the 155th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda and celebrate National Youth Day, the Capital's Ramakrishna Mission organised a series of cultural programmes at Vivekananda Auditorium last week. The event was attended by about 650 students from various schools of Delhi.

In his welcome address, Swami Shantatmananda, Secretary, Ramakrishna Mission, briefly explained the relevance of Swami Vivekananda's teachings of national regeneration through character building along with career development. He urged students to actively participate in Ramakrishna Mission's 16-module value education programme titled "Awakened Citizen Programme", which has now reached 1,700 schools across the country.

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Students of Sarada Children Forum, in the age group of 5-14 years, presented songs based on Swamiji's teachings followed by Vedic mantra chanted by the students of Greenfields public school, Safdarjang Enclave. The school orchestra band of Bal Bharti Public School, engrossed the assembled audience with a rendition of Raag Bhairav. They jammed to create a variety of rhythms, using contemporary and western instruments.

A skit based on Swamiji’s life and teachings was portrayed by students of Little Flower Sr Sec School, Shivaji Park. A special song "Murth Maheswara", written by Swamiji and sung by the students of Amrita Vidyalam, Saket, was truly melodious. Group dance by students of Sachdeva Global School Dwarka, was a visual feast with scintillating mythological dance drama Ganga Ki Maha Gatha, depicting the flow of River Ganga from Shiva's matted hair on to the earth to quench the thirst of parched souls of ancestors of Bhagirathi. The anchors of the show kept up the tempo throughout the function. S N Subba Rao, an 88-year-old Gandhian, working among the youth for more than 50 years, was the chief guest. He praised the children for their efforts and also lauded the efforts of teachers. He said Swamiji was a deep admirer and lover of music. In spite of a variety of languages and religions across our country, music can only be the sole medium to unite them in a string, he added. At the end prizes were distributed to the winners of the Annual Swami Vivekananda Competition, in which 1,800 students from nearly 160 schools participated.