In the wake of what is a truly amazing December Season in Chennai, it is only fitting that I write this post on naadopaasana: worship or bhakti through (carnatic) music.
There is much to be said; Carnatic music is as old as the vedas, and I shall not even attempt to try to summarize three thousand years of tradition in three hundred words. That said, it serves us well to briefly survey the roots of carnatic music for a better understanding of what it denotes. Carnatic music stems directly from the sama veda, expanding from a three note chant to the framework that it has acquired today. This article describes, in great detail, the relation. It is said that “one of the yogic approaches that awakens the Kundalini is the naada or naadopasana or devotion through music.”
It is believed that the root of our spinal column, there is a chakra or stahanam (place/location). Starting from here and going up to the crown of a person’s head, Prana, passes through knots or granthis. There are three knots, Mooladhara Kshetra, Manipoora or Vishnu Granthi and Agnya chakra or Rudra granthi. The path, sound takes through these granthas is called srotha. And, the practice of taking the sound to the prana and achieving liberation is called nada yoga.
Since the vedas, several composers have contributed to the field, most notably the Trinity of Carnatic music.
Carnatic music has been inextricably intertwined with bhakti (or devotion), and most compositions are an expression of this bhakti. Some of the songs are associated with staggering displays of bhakti. For instance,
On Deepavali day,in the year 1835, Dikshithar performed puja as usual and asked his students to sing his song “Meenakshi Me Mudam” in the raga Gamakakriya. As his students sang the line Meena lochani pasa mochani ["The lotus-eyed one who liberates from worldly pleasures"], he raised his hands and saying Sive Pahi, ["Shiva! Protect me"] left his mortal coil.
Or, as Syama Shastri painfully cries out in his Maayamma (Ahiri, Adi):
mAyammAyani nE pilacitE mATlADarAdA – nAtO-ambA
When I am calling out to you Mother, why don’t you respond and speak to me?
Is it fair O Meenakshi, who else is there but you?
Arguably the most famous of the Trinity, Shree Tyagaraja writes in his krithi (song) Sangeeta Gnyaanamu bhakthi vina (Dhanyasi, Adi):
Sangeetha Gnyanamu Bhakti Vinaa Sanmaargama Galadhe Manasa
O Mind (“Manasa”)! Mere knowledge (“gnyanamu”) of music (“sangeetha”) without (“vinaa”) devotion (“bhakthi”) can never lead (“galadhe”) to the right (“san”) path (“maargamu”).
and that “there is no other way to salvation than knowledge of music integrated with unalloyed devotion.” In his Swara raaga sudhaa (Shankarabharanam, Adi), he states the same:
svara rAga sudhA rasayuta bhakti svargApavargamurA O manasA.
The validity of such a claim is obviously questionable, but regardless of whether you believe in his sentiment, the lyrical finesse of this sentiment is indeed admirable.
As Tyagaraja so eloquently puts it in his Nidhi Chaala Sukhama (Kalyani, Misra chaapu):
mamata bandhana yuta narastuti sukhamA surapati tyAgarAja nutuni kIrtana sukham
Is it not obviously the height of bliss to sing the glory of the eternal compassionate Lord, rather than flatter or praise a short-lived mortal bloated with arrogance and self conceit?
There is more:
In his composition, Sribapriya Sangeethopasana in Atana, he conjures up visions of the mind travellin in the swaras – “Sapthaswara Chaari” and melodic ragas manifesting themselves in delightful forms – “Ranjimpa chesedu ragambulu, manjulamagu navatarambulethi.” He stresses other and nearer terrestrial benefits of sangita gana – “Prema Bhakthi [devotion], Sujana Vathsalyamu [wealth], Srimath Ramaa vara Katakshamu [the blessing of Shri Rama], Nema Nishta Yasodhanamu” as the rewards of acquiring Sangita Sastra gnana.
Two weeks ago, I came across an equally endearing understanding of naadopaasana. Every year, as part of the Season, at the Margazhi Mahotsavam, artists pick a theme and base the concert on it. Usually, this involves a deity, composer, raagam, etc. For his concert this year, Shri TM Krishna, did not specify the theme beforehand; he sang about mountains, and love, and fishermen. Later he announced that the theme of his concert was bhakti and explained to a puzzled audience that bhakti doesn’t need a Rama or a Krishna, but that bhakti is an intrinsic quality that can take any form — it was bhakti regardless of what he sang about — whether that was mountains, or women, or love. For those who understand tamil, here is the clip (skip to ~5.00)!
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