RAga Rathna mAlikache - bhAga sEvimpa rArE

Dear Friends, srI: jai sathguru sWAmina: jAnakI kAntha smaranam, jai jai rAma rAmA. The 59th dasakam in the SrinArayaneeyam composed by the great devotee of guruvAyoorappan,srinArAyana bhattathiri goes like this rAgasthAvajyAyathey hi swabhAvAth mOkshOpaya: yatratha syAnnavAsyAth thAsam tvEkam tadvayam labdhamAsIth bhAgyam bhAgyam pAhi mAm mArutheshA || He says that all the gOpikA sthrees went to krishna bhagavan only with intense love and desire to be with him. They left everything else behind. Friends, relatives, wealth ,everything behind. This is rAgA in its highest form. Thinking bhagwan as ones bharthA (husband)and this bhAvam is refered to as nAyakA- nAyakI bhAvam. This kind of intense desire towards bhagawan gives jnAnam and mOksham.(mOkshOpAya) whereas the desire for anything else gives only bhandham (attachment) and pApam (sin). Only very few mahAthmAS have shown this kind of highest for of bhakthi bhAva. SRi nammAzhvAr, Sri AndAL, Sri RAmAnujAchArya are some of the mahAns in the vaishnava sampradAya who enjoyed this kind of sAThvikA nAyaka- nAyaki bhAvam. A pathivrathA (a chaste and loyal wife) will always think about her husband when separated even while performing the daily chores. Just like that, these mahAns performed all the karmAs but were always immersed in thoughts about bhagwAn. Just like that sathguru has melted his ishtanAthan, sriRAmachandran with hundreds of krithis in the nAyaki bhAvam. Not only that, he has lived along with sreeRAman and has enjoyed him as koThanda Raman , kalyAna RAman, pattAbhi RAman,bAlya rAman, vEEra rAGhavan, sharanAgatha vathsalan and so on. When he enjoyed him so and so, all the bhAvam and the RAgam came out as beautiful krithis shining brilliantly like the rays of the morning sun. Here, in this post, we are going to enjoy one such moving and highly enjoyable krithi in reethigowla rAgA , which i heard and learnt from brahmsri TS bAlakrishna sAstrigals upanyAsm in tamil. The krithi starts with a special gift for sreerAmachandran. pallavi: rAGA rathna mAlikache ranjillunata hari shatha (rAGa) Sathguru says he is offering rathna mALikAS to sree rAmachandran. Being very poor, how can he afford rathnA mAlAs? Not just one rathna mALA, but hundreds of them. Also, there are only 9 rathnaS right? (navarathnAs). Stop wondering! He himself says what are those rathnAS. Shatha rAga rathna mAlikachE i.e 100s of rAgAs. Each rAgam is a rathnamAlika to sree rAmachandran.One doesn't need to have money to offer these garlands but sathbakthi and sangItha jnAnam. rAgam also mean intense love for bhagawAn like those of the gOpikA sthrees. Thus, he is offering hundreds of rAGa rathna mAlikAs representing 100s of bhAva rAgAs. bhagavAnukku romba Aasapattu pOtta rAga rathna mAlAigal. (These are the garlands of rAga that our sathguru offered to bhagawAna with Thus singing sathguru's krithis without those bhAva rAgAs is like flowers decorating a dead corpse. Both rAGam(musical sound) and anurAgam (desire to be with god) should be present. rAga lakshana can be obtained by constant practise but anurAgam can not be obtained so. anurAgam can easily be obtained through the anugrahAs of utthamAs like sathguru thyAGabrhmam. Let is move further in the krithi. When one offers us something, we should thank him for that and we should feel happy that he has given us something. It can even be a very small thing. bhagAvan showed this in rAma avathARa when he tasted the fruits offfered by old shabari and in krishna avathARa when he partook food with vidhuran. Just like that, we should feel happy and content when someone offers us something. Sathguru says that his ishtanAthan will listen to his krithis with joy. (ranjillunata) The anupallavi goes like this bAga sEvinchi sakalabAgyamandu dAmu rArE. He invites us all to his little house in thiruvaiyARu to enjoy the darshanam of sreerAmachandran adorning the rathna mAlikAs. More importantly and rightly, he asks us to listen, sing and enjoy those krithis, which adorn his rAGhavan. He asks us to enjoy those krithis, which gave joy to him and to sreeRAman. Somebody might ask, sir. why should i do that? Let us see what our sathguru says. sakalabAgyamandu dAmu rARE. He says that one will be blessed with everything. (sakala bhAgyamandu ). Another person is asking already, athu eppadi avar appadi sollalAm , appadi enna thAn irukku andha krithigalil ( what is there after all in his krithis so that one can be blessed with everything). Brahmasri TS BAlakrishna sAstrigal says in his upanyAsam that some of his gurus had the perception that "thyAGaiyer krithis la appadi enna irukku. rAma enna kaapAthu, avana kApathiniyey, athey madhiri ennaiyum kApAthu, deekkshithavAL thaan neraiya sollirkAr ( what is there in his krithis, RAma,please save me, you saved gajEndrA on that day, just like that save me too.Only deekshithar has told us lot of things). Let us see sathgurus answer in the charnam, which goes like naigama sath-SAshthra purAna sahithamada He gives a foreword on his krithis , "vEdam,shat-Sastram, purAnam, Aagamam " everything is present in his krithis. He doesn't have to tell us. It is there but we are not digging those things. We are digging only " neravals, swarams, rAgAlApanA,tAnam pallavis et al". We quickly sing the keerthanam and rush to the swaram part so that we can display our manOdhArmic skills and our proficiency in music, which we got only through bhagawath and bhAgawatha katAkshams not just because we did hours of sAdhakam. We seldom realize that the saptha swarAs emerge from pranava nAdham . By getting closer to the pranava nAdham,we also gain mastery over the saptha swarAS. More importantly, we get sathbhakthi and are directed in sanmArgA. Thus, the main ingredients of sathgurus krithis are the sArAms of those veDAs and upanishads and the rAGAs are just spices that add flavour to the truths that are bitter to an average samsArin. Just like a mother who feeds her child with healthy but bitter food by mixing it along with something that the child likes and by uttering sweet words, our sathguru feeds us those krithis rich in the true values of life, which are bitter to an average samsArin by giving it rAGam and anurAGam. Let us continue with the charnam yOgivarulu Anadhamu nondhE sanmArgamata We are all bOGis. He says that ,yOgis, who have sacrificed everything will forget themselves and enjoy these krithis. bhAGavathOthamulu koodi pAdE keerthanmulata These krithis are sung in chorus by sathbhAgawathAs just like the group rendition of pancharathnams. When such a group renders his krithis, the joy we get knows no bound right? thyAgarAju kadathEra thARakamani chEsina Why did he sing those krithis? to please us or his contemporaries? or to impress his contemporaries and to get name and fame? Not at all. He himself says, "ThyAgarAju kadathEra thARakamani chEsina" . For getting his ishtanAthans krupai to get closer to him and to attain vaikunthA( kadaithEra). What a beautiful krithi? One has to enjoy the taste of his krithis word by word. Not just stick to the notes and do sAthakam to attain musical harmony,melody and perfection. This article is 90% based on Brahmasri TS BAlakrishna sAstrigals upanyASam and I have added my own comments occasionally. If there are mistakes in this write- up, it is only because of my ignorance and all credits go to Sathguru and Brahmasri. I have attempted to render the krithi, based on what i heard from the upanyAsam,which will, of course will not be musically perfect as a seasoned carnatic musicians rendering. I am recording and sharing the audo just to share my anubhavams. SreerAman will listen to it anyway:) You may download it here. Having known the greatness of sathgurus krithis from himself , i will most likely start posting on the pancharathnams one by one from the next post. Also, I have recently added a podcast(streaming music) to the blog. Some of you might not like the auto-play feature that i have enabled. If you are one of them, let me alert you that the sound can be played, stopped, and paused anytime using the XSPF player. ( located on the left sidebar) .There is also a volume slider to control the volume. with sathguru dhivya kamala pAdha smaranams, adiyEn thyAgayya and rAmAnuja dAsan. sarvam seethArAmachandrARpanamasthu.