BhAva Bhakthi, pancharathnams and ThyAgarAja RAmAyanam

Dear Friends, srI: In the last post, we enjoyed the greatness of the pancharathnams and the thAna varna paddhathi. We also came to know that our sathguru composed the pancharathnams for the quick upliftment of his sishyAs sangeetham and bhakthi levels. As we all know, our sathguru believed that an increase in levels of nAdhoPAsana should be accompanied and enlivened by an equal/ greater bhakthi levels. Keeping this in mind , he has blessed his disciples (sishya paramapara) and all of us with the pancharathnAs. All that is required from the practitioner/listener is prapatti, which will give rise to humility and bhakti. Our Sathguru has wrapped up the essence of upanishadic truths which are very bitter to an average samsArin in his pancharathnams and asks us to feep up on them just like a mother who feeds her child with healthy but bitter stuff for the childs growth by wrapping/concealing it with a tasty food(something the child likes). One doesnt have to know about any VEda ShAstrAs nor should have done any tapas/ observe any vratAS/perform yAga yagnAs/ visit punya sthalAs. They all require a high degree of discipline and focus , which is hardly achievable to a common man in this kali yugA.Keeping all this mind, the great dAsas and AchAryAs have devised a simple way through sravanam and keerthanam by surrendering into the lotus feets of all dAsAs and AchAryAs. Our punya bhoomi has given birth to sishyAs who have revered the pAdukAS (sandals) of their AchAryAs more than the lord himself. One should listen (sravanam ) to the stories of god like the bhAgwatham and rAmAyanam . One should sing in praise the glories of the lord. (keerthanam). Here "bhAvam" (emotion) is very important. For ex, when a mother plays with her child, she embraces the child,hugs and kisses him and utters sweet words. A child would love to goto such a person. This act is full of bhAvam. Instead, one might buy a hundred dollar toy from singapore/usa and give it to a child. The child will touch something here and there and breaks the toy within seconds. Will the child be happy? This kind of bhAvam should be there when listening and singing the glories of the Lord. There are so many different kinds of bhAVams one can develop and express by singing krithis in suswara sangeetham. Seing god as the upanishadic antharyAmin, as ones own child, as ones own father/mother(thalli/thandri),as ones friend, as ones intimate lover are some of the ways to express the sanchAri bhAvA. Old parents usually complain about their problems to their children and not to any one else. A mothers joy when seeing her new born baby knows no bounds. Even greater is her joy when her child grows old and becomes a noble person. Just like these one can express all kinds of bhAvAS by imagining god in different forms. This is not so easily achievable. Can we enjoy the beauty and the valour and feel proud for seethaRAmachandran the way kausalyA would have felt when she would have seen her son break the Shiva dhanu or the way Vasishtar felt when sreerAma wielded a bow to kill maricha or the way old shabari felt when bhagawan tasted the fruits she had collected for him. A mother rejoices the way her son eats the food to her husband, "Atho pArungo annA, namba kozhandha eppadi nannA sAppadarAnnnu,pAvam romba pasi pOla irukku". (Beloved, look at the way our son is eating the food, poor fellow, he should have been very hungry). How then would have shabari enjoyed when empurumAn himself was tasting the fruits after he searched and walked all around for SEethA dEvi. The lord is not easily accessible even to the greatest of the rishis. How can a person who is dominated by rAjasa and thAmasa gunAS enjoy such bhakthi? Our sathguru had enjoyed all such bhakthi and bhAvAS and during that time, the krithis filled with pRAsA (poetical skills) and su-swara sangeetham will start to flow from his mouth. He did not have notebook and pen to sit ,think and compose those krithis. One well known and often quoted example is the krithis "ElA nee daya rAdhu" in the melting AthAna rAga when he starts the krithi magnificiently by singing "Bala kanaka maya (O BAla! Adorned with rich garments!) ChEla sujana paripAla ( O Protector of the virtuous)shri ramA lOla ( O Joy of ramA(lakshmi)) vidhritha sharajAlA (Wielder of Arrows) shubadha (Bestower of Auspiciousness) karunAlAvAla ( Treasure of Companinon) ghana neela navya ( O sky like hued) vana mAlikA bharana! (the one adorned with vanamAla ),ElA nee daya rAdhu". after he had a darshan of his compassionate Lord seethaRama for a split second in the thirumanjana veethi (street) at thiruvaiyARu at noon time. Until ElA nee dayA rAdhu it is all sanskrit and they can be rendered with meter and felicity even without music. Where did it all come from? After chanting Rama nAma crores of times and with such bhakthi, the devaThA called "prASA" and the saptha swara dEvathas all get seated in the tongue. He has described all the delightful qualities of sreerAman here. One doesn't have to read the entire rAmAyana thousands of times. Even if one does read it , if one cannot enjoy its essence, who is sree rAman, what is the use of reading rAmAyan? I have just given you one example based on a wonderful upanyAsam of Brahmasri TS BAlakrishna sAStrigal. I wouldnt have done enough justice to the way he had given it in his upanyAsam. Now, it is for enjoying such kinds of bhakthi bhAvams for a common man in kaliyuga, our sathguru has blessed us with the pancharathnams. Some might ask, sir , "naa nithyam kAlaila endhirchu, andha pRatah-kAlahthila pancarathna krithigalai sAdhakam pannitA pOdhumA" (would it be sufficient for me to wake up early in the morning and before sunrise, practise the pancharathnams). Athukku pEsAma neenga Paal dippOku poi pAl vAngittu vandhu thirumba paduthukkOngO. (You can instead goto your milk depot for buying some milk and go back to sleep). FYI, especially in Tamil Nadu, milk has to be purchased early in the morning before sunrise) Practising/ listening to the pancharathnams with the appropriate bhAvams (will be discussed in future posts) of each krithi will lead to the experience of other advanced bhakthi bhAvams as quoted above. Thus, the pancharathnams are krithis that cleans up ones mind of the rAjasic and thAmasic gunAS that are inherently present in a common man in the kali yugA. Just like one takes bath to clean ones body, practising the pancharathnams with the bhAvams will clean up the mind so that one can advance to higher levels of bhakthi. This should be done in a daily basis. How to experience the bhakthi bhAvAS? The bhakthi bhaVAs are nothing but imagining and enjoying the lord as ones child, ones friend, ones parents, ones intimate lover and the like. These are nothing but taking the roles of King dasharatha, Mother KausalyA, Brothers lakshmana and bharathA, sage vasishTA and vishwamitra et al, citizens of AyOdhyA, as king janakA, as parashuRAmar, even as rAvana (for eg, when rAvAna approached SeethA dEvi who is none other than jegathAmbAl , he felt to himself, Amma , please come and rescue me from samsARa( because no one else can do it for him. He felt so because he was a gayathri dEvi upAsaka,So when he approached seethA DEvi, he saw for an instance the jegadhAmbAl). Imagining as one child , lover etc in not sufficient. One should express it. How then would one know it? The emotions were expressed as beautiful krithis in the case of our sathguru and this is what brahmasri T.S bAlAkrishna sAstrigal, a great devotee of Sathguru thyAgaybrahmam had rendered upanyAsams on so many times during his life time as "ThyAgarAja rAmAyanam". Being a great devotee of sri Rama, unlike other rAma bhakTas like tulasi dAs et al, it is often believed that sathguru didnt write a version of rAmayanAm ,which is untrue. Sathguru is considered as Sage vAlmiki's amsam. He is known as the AdhikaVi and rAmayanam is aAdhikAvyam(first poem).Sage VAlmiki rendered RAmAyanam with a flow after chanting crores of rama nAma. Just like that the sathguru rendered his krithis with a flow as he enjoyed being the differnt characters in rAmAyanA. Listening and practises such krithis with sathbhakthi will bring such a nearness to SreerAman and will give all the benefits of <b>RAmAyana pARAyanam (FYI, Parayanam is the repetition of any scripture or sacred words with complete concentration.) Such perception of sathgurus krithis were not well known until Brahmasri Sri TS Balakrishna sAstrigal gave upanyAsams in temples on thyAgarAja rAmAyanam for days together. Here is an abridged biography of him --quote-- A retired Senior Executive of State Bank of India, Brahmasri Sastrigal started learning the wide spectrum of fundamentals required for performing Harikatha at the very tender age of 8 under the guidance of his father, himself a doyen in Puranic Upanyasakams called Brahmasri Sambamoorthi Ganapaadigal. The training included Vedas, Puranas, Sastras, Karnatic Music, and Multiple Languages like Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit, Malayalam, Kanada and English. His Tyagaraja Ramayana discourse is worth listening to a thousand times, such was his repertoire of the saint's kriti-s. His explanations and illustrations attracted pundit and illiterate alike. Honours : ' 'Sat Kathamrita Kalanidhi & Bharat Kesari - Sri Sankaracharya of Kanchipuram "'Bala Vyasa' - Sri Sankaracharya of Sringeri 'Harikatha Ratnakara - Sri Sankaracharya of Kanchi & Sringeri Kalaimamani - Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Mandram 'Sangita Kala Sikhamani' - Indian Fine Arts Society 'Gayaka Sikhamani' - Sabhas of Bombay 'Madhura Kala Praveena' --Unquote-- Very recently, a punyavAn had uploaded and shared 10 volumes of Brahmasris "tyAgarAja rAmAyanam" (more than 10 hours). Brahmasri upanyAsams are all in Tamil, the native language of tamil nadu. You can download all othem from here . Thus, Brahmasri always recommended to sing those krithis (krithis from thyAgarAja rAmyanam) during thyAgarAja utsavams instead of the pancharathnams because the best way to remember sathguru is to listen and render the krithis that our sathguru liked the most. The pancharathnams are for us and are supposed to be practised and listened daily not only on bahula panchamis/ other thyAgarAja utsavams. I have one more pleasant information to share with you. Starting next post, I will also include articles on sathguru's krithis as experienced by another rasika who is devoted to carnatic music (esp our sathgurus). His name is M.G VAsudEvan. He is a civil engineer in active service and he has already been contributing to the "Raama bhakthi" yahoo groups and www.karnatik.com . He has agreed to be a co-author of this blog. By this way, the readers can enjoy more of sathgurus krithis in a more frequent basis. He also writes on the krithis of devout krishna bhakta sri Oothukkadu VEnkata kavi. I am sure that this will add to another bhakthi rasA. EndharO mahAnubAvulu, Anthariki Vandanamulu with sathguru dhivyakamala pAda smaranams, adiyEn thyAgayya and rAmAnuja dASan.