Thanks Giving by Sri Ramakrishnan Murthy - Sri Govindan

[hnbhagavan]

Here is a posting by Sri Ramakrishnan Murthy on Face Book. Special mention of Sri Govindan in his posting.

LONG POST ALERT!

Dear friends,

Today (4th May 2020) was Sadguru Shri Tyagarajaswamy's 253rd birthday. On this special day, I would like to share with you all links to a few blogs that have been to me, since I chanced upon them, somewhat akin to what Webster's dictionary might be to an English scholar:

http://thyagaraja-vaibhavam.blogspot.com/
http://guru-guha.blogspot.com/
http://syamakrishnavaibhavam.blogspot.c ... betica-lis…

As someone who doesn't know Sanskrit and Telugu (and for that matter even Tamil, aside from it being my mother tongue), the languages that our immortal compositions are predominantly in, these pages have been the greatest blessing. The word-by-word meaning, overall gist, and most accurate transliteration, have been immensely helpful in my musical pursuit. Furthermore, going into these compositions in-depth and getting to understand their import through a comfortable medium (English) has been nothing short of a revelation; I find myself constantly stunned at the prosodic genius and use of various forms of figurative language.

I would like to quote the late V. Raghavan from his monumental work, The Spiritual Heritage of Thyagaraja. Dr. Raghavan was a Sanksrit and Indology scholar who also served as the Secretary of the Madras Music Academy for several years.

"Evening after evening we sit and listen to our artists rendering pieces of Tyagaraja; neither the artists nor we have any idea of the wealth of precious, fancy, sublime thought and poignant feeling that lie hidden in the many famillar lines, catching turns and exhilarating effects to which our musical hunger makes us return again and again! It is as if the dazzling charms of a lady's beauty should blind us to or make us never curious about her infinite qualities of head and heart; it is as if, reveling in the joys of a poet's masterly style and diction, we care not for the noble thoughts in the poem; it is as if, stunned by the grandeur of a gopura [temple tower], soaring tier upon tier, each studded with mouldings, we stop there gazing, missing the evening service at the sanctum of the Deity. But were one to resist or renounce the overwhelming joys of the sangita of Tyagaraja, were one to get boldly to the sahitya, he would come across a treasure of thought the contemplation of which would make one forget everything about his music. Poetic fancies, learned allusions, moral precepts, enunciation of doctrines, high Upanishadic truths, condemnation of sham, hypocrisy and false paths, happy smiles, worldly wisdom, popular sayings, and ABOVE ALL EVERY SHADE AND MOOD of religious, devotional, and spiritual experience - renunciation of worldly good and the flattery of the rich, prayer, plaintive pleading, yearning, anguish, remonstrance, sportive rebuke, despair and dejection, self-deprecation, faith, hope, exhilaration, ecstasy of realisation, endearment, joy of service, surrender and dedication, satisfaction at his own devout life, gratitude - these make his songs an endless epic record of the mind of a great Bhakta which was, till the end, erupting like a ceaseless volcano."

Honestly, it is quite easy to get lost in the beauty of Dr. Raghavan's language as well and miss his point, just like he says we tend to with the great compositions. Basically, the expression of every conceivable human emotion in the kritis of trinity have been so beautifully conveyed, and it is upto us to explore it and partake in that beauty.

Eternal gratitude goes to one Shri. V. Govindan, who is the author of these blogs. I cannot imagine what pain-staking effort he must have put in to bring these out and make it so easily and freely accessible to us all.

Dear Govindan Sir, I don't know who you are but if you are somewhere in the world and happen to read this, please know that someday I would like to meet you and prostrate before you and thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me (and presumably countless others) the fruits of your labour.

I end with a line from Sadguru Tyagarajaswamy and Shri. Govindan's translation of the Bard's immortal words.

inta saukhyam(a)ni nE jeppa jAla
entO EmO evariki telusunO

(I am unable to express that it is this much comfort; whoever knows as to how much and how it is!)

I hope you all are able to experience this same joy I do.

Love,
RKM
THYAGARAJA-VAIBHAVAM.BLOGSPOT.COM
Thyagaraja Vaibhavam

[Ranganayaki]

Nice.. It’s true! We all are indebted to Sri VG here. I refer to his word-by-word meanings a lot during concerts and it brings me enjoyment that I could not have had without his work at my fingertips.

[rshankar]

+1
Thanks are also due to our Rajani for her translations in the guru-guha blog, including the splitting of the words.

[shankarank]

I refer to it to get all capitalizations - the dhIrghas in the transliteration . Well that is in jest.

The mERkOL or citations of divine literary works and their connections, bring truth to the legend that SrI tyAgarAja is an avatAr of SrI Valmiki and SrI nArada and ParamEswara as SrI Balakrishna SAstrigal used to say - i.e. it lends an apauruShatvam to the works as they were composed in a state of bhakti or bliss!

[Sachi_R]

Sri Govindan sir, RKM is one of the bright stars today. His sentiments show his head is screwed on in the right way.

It is a fact that your painstaking and devoted efforts of long hours have been the precious gift you have given to all of us. You exemplify a satpurusha.

And by the way, recently I explored if there is any printed book other than what RKM quoted from, which would be a great Tyagaraja compendium for me. I could not find it.

Geetha Book House, Mysore, had published in Kannada a beautifully notated collection of Tyagaraja kritis in several volumes. The gentleman who owned Geetha Book House had himself given me all those volumes during early 90's.

Sadly I no longer have them.

May God give you long years of good health and prosperity sir!

[cienu]

Here is a posting by Sri Ramakrishnan Murthy on Face Book. Special mention of Sri Govindan in his posting.

Dear Govindan Sir, I don't know who you are but if you are somewhere in the world and happen to read this, please know that someday I would like to meet you and prostrate before you and thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me (and presumably countless others) the fruits of your labour.

I end with a line from Sadguru Tyagarajaswamy and Shri. Govindan's translation of the Bard's immortal words.

inta saukhyam(a)ni nE jeppa jAla
entO EmO evariki telusunO

(I am unable to express that it is this much comfort; whoever knows as to how much and how it is!)

I hope you all are able to experience this same joy I do.

Love,
RKM
THYAGARAJA-VAIBHAVAM.BLOGSPOT.COM
Thyagaraja Vaibhavam

Delighted to read this outpouring of praise from Sri Ramakrishnan Murthy towards our forumite Sri VGV

[Nick H]

Dear Govindan Sir, I don't know who you are but if you are somewhere in the world and happen to read this, please know that someday I would like to meet you and prostrate before you and thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me (and presumably countless others) the fruits of your labour.

Surely one of our fellow members can make the introduction?

Sri RKM is indeed one of our great youngsters. Given the feeling with which he sings, I am surprised to hear that he is not a scholar of those languages!

[shankarank]

The power of recitational tradition - where language is sound or music first!