Sri Tyagaraja Kriti Series: Kriti: bhajana sEyavE Raga:kalyANi

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SrI:

SrI raghunandana parabraHmaNe namaH

Song bhajana sEyavE

raaga kalyANi

In the kRti ‘bhajana sEyavE manasA’ – rAga kalyANi, srI tyAgarAja urges his mind to chant the name of Lord with total devotion.

Pallavi:

bhajana sEyavE manasA parama bhaktitO

Anupallavi:

aja rudr(A)dulaku bhUsu

(A)dulak(a)rudaina rAma (bhajana)

CaraNam:

nAda praNava sapta svara vEda varNa sAstra

purAN(A)di catuS-SaSTi kaLala bhEdamu kaligE

mOdakara sarIram(e)tti mukti mArgamunu teliyani

vAda tarkam(E)la srImad-Adi tyAgarAja nutuni (bhajana)

Gist

O My Mind! With supreme devotion, engage in collective singing of the names of the Lord rAma - who is rare even for brahmA, Lord Siva and others and also brAhmaNas and others.

Having embodied in the most joyous human form - in which sprouts the sixty-four fine arts like - seven musical notes emanating from nAdOMkAra, vEdas, grammar, epics etc - why (indulge in) disputations - arguments and reasoning without knowing the path of liberation? With supreme devotion, engage in collective singing of the names of the Lord SrI rAma – praised by auspicious Lord tyAgarAja and others.

Word-by-word Meaning

P O My Mind (manasA)! Engage in (sEyavE) collective singing (bhajana) of the names of the Lord with supreme (parama) devotion (bhaktitO).

A O My Mind! With supreme devotion, engage in collective singing of the names of the Lord rAma - who is rare (arudaina) even for brahmA (aja), Lord siva (rudra) and others (Adulaku) (rudrAdulaku) and also brAhmaNas (bhU sura) and others (Adulaku) (surAdulaku).

C Having embodied (sarIramu etti) (sarIrametti) (literally having taken body) in the most joyous (mOdakara) human form - in which sprouts (bhEdamu kaligE) the sixty-four (catuS-SaSTi) fine arts (kaLala) like - seven (sapta) musical notes (svara) emanating from nAdOMkAra (nAda praNava), vEdas, grammar (varNa sAstra), epics (purANA) etc (Adi) (purANAdi) - why (Ela) (indulge in) disputations - arguments (vAda) and reasoning (tarkamu) (tarkamEla) without knowing (teliyani) the path (mArgamunu) of liberation (mukti)?

O My Mind! With supreme devotion, engage in collective singing of the names of the Lord SrI rAma – praised (nutuni) by auspicious (srImat) Lord tyAgarAja and others (Adi) (srImadAdi).

Notes -

C – nAda praNava – though this may be taken as separate words, in my humble opinion, srI tyAgarAja seems to mean ‘nAdOMkAra’. This is more so in view of the ensuing words ‘sapta svara’ which emanate (differentiate - bhEda) from nAda brahman. Please also refer to kRti ‘rAga sudha rasa pAnamu’ – rAga AndOLika. nAda PraNavam refers perhaps to the udhgeeta Pranavam of Saama Vedam, where from Music is generated … V.Sadagopan

C - varNa sAstra – In the book of CR, this seems to have been translated as ‘grammar’; in the book of TKG as ‘mystic chanting’. Though this may also be taken to mean ‘manu sAstra’, that would be included in the term ‘sAstra’. Manu's dharma saastra is more about codes of conduct for men, women and society . The meaning grammar is more appropraite under the circumstances. Please see below ---V.Sadagopan

Therefore, the meaning ‘grammar’ has been adopted. Any suggestions???

C – catuS-SaSTi kaLa – Please refer to Appendix ‘C’ for the details of 64 fine arts.

C – srImadAdi tyAgaraAja nutuni – In the book of TKG, this has been rendered as ‘rAma adored by Lord Siva’. It is not clear whether the word ‘tyAgarAja’ means Lord Ssiva (tiruvArUr). At ‘tirukkArAyil’ (tirukkAravAsal), the Lord is known as ‘Adi tyAgarAja’ or ‘Adi viDangar’ – http://www.indiantemples.com/Tamilnadu/s090.html

I prefer the attribution to Lord ThyagarAja, the presiding deity of ThiruvArUr, where Sri ThyAgarAja was born …. V.Sadagopan

Additional Comments By SrI V. Sadagopan:

Seeing the foolish and futile ways in which human beings around him engaged in disputations and arguments, Saint ThyAgarAja composed this Maanasa SambhOdhana Kriti. He advises his mind not to follow the path of others, who engage in the wasteful disputations during their life time on this earth instead of displaying deep devotion to Lord Raamachandra, the redeemer from this samsAric life. SwamigaL tells his mind that it is well known that Raama Naama bhajanaa is very dear to Brahmaa, Rudraa and all BhAgavathAs. He instructs his mind further about the great boon of being blessed with a human body capable of acquiring saamAnya and ViSEsha SaastrAs and yet throwing all that away in favor of meaningless disputes that takes them farther and farther away from the path to Moksham (mOdhakara Sareera mEtthi mukti mArgamunu deliyani Vaadha tarka mEla SrImadhAdhi ThyagarAjanutuni bhajana sEyavE manasaa! paramabhaktito).

Saint ThyagarAja was impatient with those who engaged in mere learning for learning’s sake and was against those who perform arts without dedicating them to the Lord and he rejected those who sought siddhis for siddhis’ sake and believed in the power of navagrahams. Sadhguru SwamigaL was totally against those who cultivated arts for the sake of one’s livelihood (Cf: Dheepaka rAga kriti: KaLala nErchina).

SwamigaL was disgusted with pOli bhAgavathars (deceitful persons) and visualized them as “corpses dressed in lace turban and adorned with precious jewels†and begged the Lord to grant him the alms of saatvika bhkati ( SanakrAbharaNa kriti: bhakti biccha miyyavE bhAvukamavu sAttvika). In his kriti set in NaadavarAngini raagam (NrupAlavAla!), Saint ThyagarAja condemns clearly the pursuit of siddhis to attain salvation and get disillusioned at the end about the futility of such pursuits. To those who believe in the power of the navagrahams, SwamigaL’s answer is that the real power is Lord RaamachandrA’s blessing. In his Revagupti kriti “Graha BalamEmi SrirAmAnugraha BalamE Balamuâ€, Sadhguru informs us that the Nava Grahams can not do any thing adverse to those, who meditate with faith on the tEjOmaya dhivya roopam of Lord Raamachandra.

Such was the Mahaa Viswaasam of Saint ThyagarAja in Sri Raama Bhakti and the advocacy of the same for the disillusioned SamsAris to overcome their pitiful plight engaged in fruitless pursuits.

DhAsan, Oppiliappan KOil VaradAchAri Sadagopan

 

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