Bhagavan
Naama Sankeertanam
SanAtana Dharma followers
believe in the mythical time measure of ChaturyugAs.
The Time between the Creation and the Deluge is known as one Kalpam consisting of 4,320,000 years. Each Kalpam
has four yugAs and the last and shortest is the Kali
Yuga with about 432,000 years before the Pralaya or the Deluge. [Holy] Scriptures have
described that depending upon the pace of the Yugas, the prescribed methods of devotion
and prayer
differ; and that Kali Yuga, though believed to be one when materialism dominates over
spiritualism, is also the best of the Yugas where ordinary mortals can unite with the
Supreme Lord, the ParamAtman or Parama Purusha or the Cosmic Presence through simpler
forms of devotion.
At the advent of
Kali, it is believed, that the Lord Supreme was asked by his immortal grandson, NArada, of
the simplest SAdanA which will help the ordinary mortals realize the Lord Supreme
easily. To
dispel doubts, the Lord Himself pronounced that in Kali he would not reside in Vaikunta, the celestial abode, nor in the hearts of great Tapasvis
[sages], nor permeate in the
Solar system, but would stand in attention wherever His devotees do sing His
name [sankeertanam].
NAham VasAmi VaikunThE Na YogI hridayE Ravau
Mat BhaktA: Yatra Gayanti tatra
tishThAmi nArada !
Sage Veda Vyasa narrates in
the seventh canto of Srimad Bhaagavatam, under ‘PrahlAda Bakthi’, the nine
sAdanAs or worshipping methods of Bhakthi, or the supreme devotion to Lord:
SravaNam Keertanam VishnO: SmaraNam pAdasEvanam
archanam vandanam dAsyam Sakhyam AtmanivEdanam
(Listening
to Glory like King ParIkshit:
Singing
like Sukha Brahmam;
Remembering
like Sage PrahlAda;
Serving
at the feet of the Lord like MahAlakshmi;
Offering
personal worship like SanatkumArAas;
Prostrating
in admiration like akroora;
Rendering (Service)
like Aanjaneya;
Courting friendship
like Arjuna;
Offering Oneself [surrender]
like cakravarti MahAbali).
Lord Krishna helped nArada choose the simplest
three of the above nine forms of worship,
SravaNam, Keertanam and SmaraNam.
The finest of
those three is, of course,
Keertanam,
as
‘Mokshasaadanam’; it has two facets,
GuNakeertanam
and nAmakeertanam.
The easiest path to
tranquility and self-realization and thus to reunite with the Lord supreme is
nAmasankeertanam. When
nArada and all other nityasoorIs, the permanent attendees at the
celestial abode, raised the question as to how to induct the ordinary mortals into this
most sacred form of worship, the Lord ordained that: (i) He himself along with his
manifestations would reincarnate amidst ordinary mortals to extol the benefit of
nishkAmya nAma Bhakti; and that (ii) all the DevAs, nityasoorIs,
and SanatkumArAs would also be born in Kaliyuga as saints composers, singers,
devotees and the
like, and would lead ordinary mortals on to this simplest of path to Mukti or spiritual
liberation.
Believers of sanAtana dharma maintain that
VedavyAsA took three births,
the first in 12th century, as
Bhakta JayadEva and offered to mankind the
immortal
Geeta Govindam, a SringAra MahAkAvyam
highlighting Premabhakti, the quintessence of Bhagavatam in 24 songs or Ashtapadis
(an ashtapadi means “of eight stanzas”). He was born again in 15th
century, as Mahaa Vidwaan Kshetrayya or Kshetragnya and reportedly composed about 24,000
padams/songs in praise of Lord Krishna; and finally, as
Yatiraja
Naaraayana Theerta in the 16th
century and offered the immortal Krishnaleela
Tarangini. Many others descended as saint composers and spread the Sankeertana Bhakti
through the length and breadth of the sacred Bharata Kandam: Narada descended in 15th
century as (Sangeetha Pithaamaha)
Purandara Daasa and set the tone for the modern
Naamasankeertanam with about 475,000 ‘padagalu’.
Regrettably, there are only about 2000 of them available, today, in
documentary form. Around the same time, one
of the panchaayudaas of The Lord Supreme was
born as Taalapaakka Annamaacharya and gave more than 14,000 keertanams, most of which have
been preserved in copper plates in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. Lord Krishna himself took birth as Krishna
Chaitanya (Mahaa Prabhu) in Bengal, about 500 years ago, to propagate Naamaprabhaavam and
Naamasankeertanam. Leelasukhar from Kerala
desam offered Krishnakarnaamrutam.
Vijayavittala daasar, Kanaka daasar, and many more from Karnataka,
Sant Tukaaram,
Srisamartha dasar, Nivritthinaath, Gyaandev, Shobaan, Mukthaabai, Eknaath, Naamdev and a
host of others from Maharaashtra, Badraachala Ramadaas from Andhra Pradesh,
Goswami
Tulasidaas, Surdaas, Meeraa Bai, Kabhirdaas, Brahmaanand, Kaalasa Saheb, and others from
northern and Bhojpuri provinces, Narsi Mehta from Gujarat, the Carnaatic Trinity (Sangeeta
Trimurthis) and their disciples, and Sri Sadasiva Brahmendrar from Tamilnadu, are a few of
the great Sants (saints) who contributed to this great tradition over the last 800 years.
There is no attempt made
here to list out all the names of the Saints and the names of the Prolific Saint Composers
who have contributed to the rich tradition of Sankeertanam. Adi Sankara, a reincarnation
of Lord Dakshinamoorthy, was an example of his own saying, ‘Pragnyaanam Brahma
(Knowledge is Brahman)’. His immortal work ‘Bhaja Govindam’ summarizes all
that has been said above and more on the need to repeat the Bhagavan Naamam before time
runs out on us, the mortals. Over the last 2000 years, the twelve saints known as
Alwars
offered to mankind the immortal Dhivya Prabandam, a compendium of 4000 versus, which are
otherwise known as ‘Tamil Marai (Vedas)’.
Sixty-three saints known as Naayanmaargal offered the finest of Tamil
Poetry in praise of Lord Siva. The most
eminent Nithyasoori, Sukhabrahmam (who narrated Srimad Bhaagavatham to Parikshit
Maharaaja), was the one who was born as Sant Kabhir Daas, and united mankind from the
divisive influence of religious fanaticism. Over
the last 250 years, we have been blessed with the reincarnation of The Lords’
‘Amsams’ (aspects) as the Sangeeta Trimurthis – (mentioned earlier) Sri
Syamaa Saastri, Saint Tyaagaraaja, and Sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar.
By around the same time
three other eminent saint composers firmly established the current tradition known as
Dakshina Bhaarata Praacheena Paddati. They are Srimat Bhodendra Satguruswaamigal, 59th
pontiff from Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, Sridhara
Venkatesa Sadguru, and the most illustrious Marudaanallur
Sri Venkataraama Sadguru Swaamigal. Marudanallur
Sadguru was also one of the teachers of Saint Tyaagaraja and he initiated Sri Tyaagaraaja,
the Taaraka Naama and unto Naaamasankeertanam.
Marudaanallur Sadguru,
popularly known as Sadguru Swaamigal, traveled the length and breadth of Bhaarata Desam
within the short life span of 40 years (1777-1817), and compiled the current tradition
which has been kept intact for over 200 years. He
brought about true national integration through Sankeertanam by including compositions of
eminent Saint Composers from all over India and structured it as a five-part classical
tradition. The invocation section (first
part) is known as Totaka Mangalam. Traditional
dancers have used this section with abandon and there is a misnomer that it is known as
Todaya Mangalam, as if the songs are set to Todaya meter.
As the five principal songs of this section are set to different
meters, the Todaya name does not augur well. The traditional belief is that the first song
‘Jaya Jaanaki Ramana’ was from
Thotakaacharya, the leading disciple of Adi Sankara. The two that follow are from
Annamaacharya, and the last two are from Sri Bodendra Satguru and Sridhara Venkatesa
Satguru. The second part is primarily ‘Guru
vandanam’. The satgurus who gave us this tradition are remembered here by singing
in praise of them as well as by singing their compositions. This would include keertanams
from north and south Indian composers. The third section commences with Jayadeva’s
Ashtapadi followed by Krishnaleela tarangini, Daasar padagalu, Sadasiva Brahmendral
keertanams, songs from the Sangeetha Trinity and many other saint composers from the 19th
and 20th century. The fourth part is Divya Namasankeertanam with Deepa
pradakshinam which would include almost all of the composers noted above. After muscial
Thiruvaaraadhanam, and Naivedyam (offerings to Lord), the last part, Dolotsavam (service
to Lord at His bedside, gently making Him sleep with mellifluous music) will conclude the
(Sandhya) sankeertanam. This tradition used to begin at about 6 PM and usually conclude at
around midnight.
With the mechanical and
fast life filled with material pursuits, distractions, comforts and pleasures, available
time for such relaxing and tranquil form of worship has become very limited and it is rare
today to even witness a four-hour sankeertanam in session except in small towns and
villages in south India where the tradition is still kept alive. But, it would suffice
to reiterate here that the format of today’s classical music concerts, particularly
that from the Carnatic Music tradition, has been derived from this immortal sankeertanam
tradition. Due to paucity of time and due to the advent of commercialism, the format
of modern concert music was redesigned by famous musicians in early 20th
century possibly for popular appeal.
Fortunately the tradition
has been kept alive and the Renaissance came about in the form of
Swami Haridoss
Giri (aka Guruji), the leading disciple of Tapovanam Gnanananda Swamigal. He
rejuvenated this divine form and the tradition in the early Nineteen Sixties and
popularized it throughout the world over the next three decades, wherever Indians live.
The flame he kindled in the hearts of millions lives with great glow. Awareness has
already set in.
The
word ‘bhajan’ is carefully avoided while denoting/describing this traditional
form, ‘Sankeertanam’, as there is popular misconception that
‘Sankeertanam’ is sung by devotees who have minimal formal training in the two
most complex musical traditions of the world, i.e., Carnatic and Hindusthani musical
traditions. In what is commonly known as ‘bhajans’, the singers usually repeat a
few lines of devotional hymns in a limited number of tunes with less importance to grammar
of music, talams, sense of timing or rhythmic patterns. Sankeertanams encompass Bhajans
but with high classicism and esthetic appeal. Sankeertanam experts are usually well
trained in both Carnatic and Hindusthani systems of music, are expected to possess an
average repertoire of about 1,500 to 2,000 keertanams and should be fluent in about a
dozen languages. As the fathers of the tradition were saints with divine influence,
humility is expected to be the hallmark of the practitioners of this tradition who make
this event a divine group effort and not a solo performance for exhibitionism.
The above description is
a very brief attempt at describing the evolution of the Naamasankeertana Tradition, and by
no means an exhaustive summary. It
is the intention of the writer, with God’s Grace, to elaborate, periodically, on this
tradition and to highlight on the lives of the hundreds of its contributors, in this
website -
http://sankeertanam.com
Endaro
Mahaanubhavulu Andariki Vandanamulu
-Thiruvaiyaru Krishnan