With the grace of the All pervading Brahma, a poetic symposium was organised on the 11th May 2002 at the Nirankari Bhavan, Walsall Street, Wednesbury by Birmingham's Gitanjali Multilingual Literary Circle.
The event commenced at 6pm and was graced by many distinguished poets from all over the United Kingdom. The Second National Hindi Poetry Programme was conducted by, Shri Bhartendu Vimal of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC World Service) and the chief presiding guest was Dr Satyendra Srivastav of Cambridge University.
The opening was conducted by Sanjay Sharma of the BBC Asian Network and all the poets were welcomed in the traditional Indian way with garlands by Rev Sukhjinder Singh Ji and H. S. Bhatia (Upashak Ji) on behalf of the Sant Nirankari Mission. (Universal Brotherhood) Thereupon all were presented with literature packs about the Brotherhood.
During the course of the opening, the Lighting of the Lamp ceremony was undertaken, the significance of which was to illustrate how Light of knowledge is the only way to dispel the darkness of ignorance. Subsequently, a "Vandana," was carried out by Dr Nikhil Kaushik of Manchester.
It was a great occasion in which many faces from the Literary world were present and in the normal way the poets took to the stage and examined within their poetry topical social issues and of course making philosophical enquiry about the existence of God and identifying with him. The poets also included contributors from the Universal Brotherhood who gave expositions on the knowledge of God Almighty.
There was a gathering of approximately 150 prominent personalities of the community representing all faiths and walks of life who sat through the evening and enjoyed the event. Food and refreshments had been arranged by the Sevadal Volunteers which was served at the end of the evening.
The occasion was enhanced by the presence of an exhibition of contemporary Indian paintings at the Bhavan. The well known painter Utkarsh Pratisthan of Lucknow provided the display which added greater colour to the already colourful evening.
A special thanks goes out to Dr Krishna Kumar for his hard work in making the programme a success. The Brotherhood received many appreciation calls after the event for the warm welcome given to all poets and for the love and affection shown by all the Sevadal Volunteers.
This was another example of the Sant Nirankari Mission marching on to achieve its cherished goal of Universal Brotherhood, this time by promoting an appreciation and understanding of poetry, to society at large.