Dear Fellow abhimAnis of Carnatic
Sangeetham:
I would like to brief you on a new initative
to
pay our reverence to Saint ThyagarAja and
other
luminasries of Carnatic Music .
The introduction below written for a new web site
on this topic describes in detail the nature and
scope of this initative. Please review and comment
.
Thanks ,
V.Sadagopan
Introduction to NaadhOpAsanaa of Saint Thyagaraja
**********************************************************
Saint Thyagaraja was a Nadha Yogi. He was steeped
in NaadhOpasana of his ishta dhaivam , Lord
Raamachandra.
He performed daily AarAdhanam for the Lord and
practised
"Bhakthi Yogam" through Naadha KusumAnjali
and Naadha
NaivEdhyam . To this great Raama BhakthA , Music
was
both Yoga ( a path , upAsana) and Siddhi (
realization , end
goal) . In this introduction , we will closely
follow the thesis
of late Dr.V.Raghavan of Madras University in
understanding
the NadhOpAsana and Bhakthi yogam of Saint
Thyagaraja ,
Saint Thyagaraja related to Raama as "Saptha Svara
SanchArI"
( the Lord who lives and moves in the
seven notes) . He saw the Lord as
"Susvaramaya bhUshaNan"-- adorned all over with
beautiful
aabharaNams of auspicious svarams) . Succinctly
speaking ,
Lord Raamachandran to him is of Naadha BrahmAnandha
roopam
( Embodiment of the bliss of Naadham)
.
Saint Thyagaraja was an ardent believer of VishNu
ghAnam;
to him , it was a nithya karma ( daily act to
be observed unfailingly).
He evaluated the songs as purposeful or pointless based on
their links to Sri Raamachandra : " It is immaterial if a song
which does not refer to Sri Raama is sung or not sung "
( AsAveri Krithi: Samayumu delisi) .
SwamigaL has instructed us to seat Raama
, the Supreme Lord
on a rathnamaya peetam of suNaadham
and Susvarams
and perform Paadha Sevanam ( worship of His sacred
feet)
and archanam ( worship) Him with the fragrant flowers of
His names ( Sri Raaga Krithi: Naama Kusumamulace ) .
He has also warned us that music without
Bhakthi would
lead us astray and away from Moksham .He
has come down
strongly on the Bhaagavathaas who are deficient in
the knowledge
of Raaga ( Music) and anuraaga (Devotion) .
Thyaga Brahmam is the saadhaka ( UpAsaka--practioner) of
the Upanishadic Udhgitha Vidhya closely linked to
Saama Vedham .
Udhgita PraNava upAsanai led ThyAga
Brahmam to visualize
His Lord as the beautiful parrot sitting
in the cage of PraNavam
( OmkAra Pancharakeeran) . He was OmkAra Sadhanan
( One who resides inside the PraNavam) .He is the
embodiment of
Naadham ( NaadhAthmakan) and its BrahmAnandha rasam
.It is
in this context we have to understand
the proclamation of Saint
ThyAgarAja in his Garuda Dhwani krithi
, Anandha Saagara :
" Oh Raama ! One that does not float on the ocean
of music ,
adored by the gods and the VedAs , which is
BrahmAnandha itself,
is verily a burden to the earth ".
Saint Thyagaraja's intense love and reverence
for Lord Raamachandran
made him dependent on the Lord as his
Father , Mother , Brother and
every thing . For Saint Thyagaraja , " the intense
and sublime attachment"
of the saadhakan to the Lord and His auspicious
attributes is the sure
means to liberation from samsAric bonds (
Mokshamu Galadhaa?).
In his view , the saadhakan surrenders himself to the Lord unconditionally
and is swept away by Bhagavath Bhakthi to gain moksha saamrAjyam .
This is consistent with the teachings of great
AchAryAs. For instance ,
Bhakthi yogam defined by AchArya RaamAnuja is verily " the unceasing
and loving meditation upon the Supreme Being , who is the home of all
auspicious attributes( anantha kalyANa
guNams) , and who is untainted
with any imperfection whatsoever (Sarva dhOsha
rahithan) . Bhakthi
yogam is verily the reflection of the infinite qualities and the glory of
the absolute Brahman
, the PurushOtthaman , whose savroopa
(inherent nature) , roopa( physical form) and
GuNaas( attributes)
are enjoined to be meditated upon ". To Saint
Thyagaraja ,
Raamachandran was that Supreme Being and undisputed
PurushOtthaman ( noblest among all
PurushAs) and SwamigaL
sang abundantly about Lord Raamachandran's
Svaroopam ,
Roopam ( Mohana Raama) and divine GuNams
.
ThyAgabrahmam served Raama from sunrise
(SuprabhAdham)
to late into the night (SayanOthsavam) ,
sang about Him , celebrated Him
and led a simple life free from material temptations . ThyAga Brahmam
had unceasing rememberance of Lord Raamachandra with intense devotion .
Raaga and anuraaga blended together seamlessly and Thyaga Brahmam
dedicated himself " heart and soul to the eternal service " of Lord Raamachandra
as His bonded servant ( BaNDurethi kolu :
HamsAnandhi krithi ) . He could not
live without His Lord even for a moment
and was pulled towards his Lord
like a piece of iron that is pulled towards a
powerful magnet.
ThyagarAja's intense love for the Lord found
_expression_ in various forms
of Krithis as a part of his nithya Araadhanam . The
nine types of Bhakthi
to the Lord identified by PrahlAdha ( SravaNam,
Keerthanam , SmaraNam,
Paadha sEvanam , archanam, vandhanam , dhAsyam ,
sakhyam and
Aathma nivEdhanam) became the guide posts as
well as props
for Thyagaraja SwamigaL . When his Bhakthi yogam ripened ,
the Lord became the sole reason for his existence .
In his HarikAmbhOji
krithi , " DinamaNi Vamsa Tilaka LaavaNya " and
Kaapi Raaga Krithi ,
" Paahi KalyANa Raama , Paavana guNa Raama"
SwamigaL declares
with utter faith
that Raama is " my youth , my love , my beauty and its
display , my joy , my strength and He is the very
foundation of my being
( jeevAdhharamu) , the source of my auspiciousness,
the bliss of
my mind , my Supreme Brahman" . Raama becomes
thus ThyAgarAja's
Sarvasvam ( Every thing) .
Out of this intense bhakthi flowed the tidal
waves of bhakthi-laden
krithis of Saint Thyagaraja untill the last moments
of his blessed life
devoted to uninterrupted service to the Lord .
Thyaga Brahmam became
Naadha Brahmam; latter was the title taken by him
,when he entered
into sanyAsa asramam towards the very end of his life .
This is to inform Carnatic Sangeetha rasikAs that a
group of us here
have created a new web site on the Raama
Bhakthi of Thyaga Brahmam
entitled "NaadhOpAsana " ; here , we will present selected
krithis of
his and add brief commentaries on them in English
to illustrate
how his multifaceted
devotion to Lord Raamachandran
intertwined with
his practise of Naadha yogam . He was indeed
a supreme Saadhaka ,
who practised the Saadhana Sapthaka described by AchArya RaamAnuja
in his SrI BhAshya : VivEka ( discrimination ), VimOka( freedom from
the cycle of desire and anger) , abhyAsa ( unceasing rememberance of
the Lord ) , Kriyaa ( Vedic recitation ,
Yaaga-Yajnams , benevolence and
penance ) , KalyANa ( Practise of virtues ) ,
anvashtaa ( Freedom from
weakness) , anuddharsha ( freedom from excessive
merriment) .
Viveka was followed by nirvEdha ( sorrow over lost
time spent on
fruitless pursuits) , virakthi( detatchment from
worldly things)
and samsAra bheethi
( fear about being locked into the unending
cycles of births and deaths) .
We have selected illustrative krithis of
Saint ThyagaraAja
sung by Masteros like MaharAjapuram Viswanatha Iyer
,
VeeNai DhanammAL , ThiruvAduthurai Raajarathnam
PiLLai ,
Ariyakkudi , Semmangudi , Chembai , Madhurai MaNi
Iyer,
GNB , T.V.SankaranArAyaNan , BalamuraLi KrishNa
,
KVN , T.N. Seshagopalan ,D.K.Jayaraman , S,Ramanathan
and many others from public concerts .I would be adding
the Commentaries in English for
those songs to gain
a better appreciation of the Saahithyams and the
Bhakthi bhAvam
enshrined in them by the Saint-Savant of
ThiruvayyARu. This is
a minimal effort to kindle deeper studies on these
immortal
Krithis .
We are a group of Sangeetha rasikas based overseas
and would like
to extend this
approach to selected Krithis of other great
Sankeerthana
AchAryAs like Dikshithar ( SrI RaamAshtakam to
start with ) ,
Purandara Daasa ( krithis on :Lord VenkatEsa) and
AnnamAchArya
( Krithis on Lord Narasimha and Ahobila dhivya dEsam ).
We plan to spend net proceeds from any income
from these initatives
to support the cause
of the advancement of Carnatic Music in India
and abroad thru our own modest efforts :(1)
Awards to recognize
budding talent (2) encouragement of research in areas that need
attention to protect and preserve rare krithis and
PaadAntharams ,
(3) Women composers and (4) the creation of krithis
in 72 Mela Raagams .
It is a long journey that I hope that number of you
would join
to succeed in these efforts .
The songs chosen for these "Lec-Dem " will
be from public concerts
of Sangeetha VidhvAns for Educational purposes . We
will scrupulously
avoid inclusion of songs from commercial CDs and
recordings .
From time to time , we will seek the help of the
Members of this
illustrious group for identification of rare
krithis and their sung
versions by Sangeetha VidhvAns for content
development .
We thank you in advance for your encouragement and
support of
our modest efforts to serve the noble art of
Carnatic Sangeetham .
Please write to me about your views and comments
about
the relevance and directions of this proposed
initative . It will
be very valuable to hear from as many of You as
possible
at this commencement stage of this
initative.
Thank you all in advance for your inputs
,
Oppiliappan Koil V.Sadagopan
Scarborough , New York
P.S : Some sixteen years ago , with the
blessings of Sangeetha
Kalanidhis Semmangudi and KVN , a major effort was
completed
to have an appreciation of the Bhaava Thrayam of
Saint ThyagarAjA's
Ghana Raaga Pamcha Ratnams in the from of a book in
Tamil .
Detailed notations , meanings as well as the
rendered versions of
Pancha Ratna Krithis were included. That book is
out of print now .
Hence an e-book version of this printed book was
released
last year with the help of a friend from Bangalore
.It is a 300 plus
page book . You can access it at :
"NK" here stands for Naadha KusumAnjali
.
It is in the spirit of this e-book , the new
initative
to cover other Krithis of Saint ThyagarAja
,
Dikshithar , Daasar , NaarAyaNa
Theerthar,Annamayyaa
is initated . We approach this gigantic effort in
the spirit of
the proverb : " A Journey of 1000 miles starts with
a single step".
I feel that many of You will join in and
multiply this effort .
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