Actually if you look at it logically it is entirely possible to have a male version of sringara bhakti, with God playing the feminine. But it can very easily lead someone right back into identification with the physical so I do not see it as a very effective path of sadhana. So unless we have a hypothetical scenario where such an avatara of the feminine was actually present in front of us to relate to, there's too much mental manipulation here to lead us to jnana. For spirituality to happen, the mind actually needs to eventually quieten down and quit fantasizing. But if I read my Bhagavatam right, Shiva has actually gone that route once.
@Ranganayaki Actually the problem I am seeing amongst all of you is also one of a generation gap. My generation at this age doesn't find sringara bhakti a big conundrum like your generation and the one before it. It is your generation that is quite uncomfortable with sringara. Maybe it's because of our young age and a more liberal approach.
Maybe it's because there are no kids around to worry about also. Now we may not sing some of those in public, and to me no one other than Krishna is allowed the right to parakiya bhava (it is dangerous in real life), but other than that we have no issues with the more explicit expressions of love privately, because we know all humans have felt them.
@vgovindan I am going to make another statement to make your heads spin from my spiritual side of things -- that exploring bhakti's rasas as a sadhana is one thing, and it comes with many limitations but exploring them AFTER enlightenment as an inward experience is something else altogether. Almost everyone knows only the first - where bhakti ends up in the jnana of oneness. Very very few know the second, the bhakti that jnana leads to. If one great soul had not shared that with me, I might have never known that existed. But now I know it does.
In this context let me drift away from Telugu for a second and turn to the Godfather of madhura bhakti and his 8 verses.
http://www.krishna.com/info/siksastaka
The audio for Sikshastaka is sung by MS Amma in Balaji Pancharatnamala. In the last verse, Chaitanya openly calls Krishna 'lampatah' or an unfaithful debauchee, in the mood of Radha. What can we say then?
Ignoring the mundane composers who sang on their patrons and friends and partners, I am sure a lot of bhakti composers are actually in the second category rather than the first. As Ramana Maharshi said it best, "Adayartukku pAdradum aDanjapparm pAdrattukkum vidyasam undu" (the difference between singing to attain vs singing after attaining)
Normally I don't write this far into bhakti and music, but I feel a lot of bhakti composers are misunderstood and grouped on par with the "rest".
@kvchellappa Beyond lyrics, the music, the melody and rhythm, has a power entirely of its own. It is why we can thoroughly enjoy these songs as music while being totally oblivious to their lyrical content, and still sing them even after knowing their actual meanings. Not knowing the meaning as it was couched in an unknown language certainly helped, no doubt about it.
!
(These are NOT my words...).
I’m not letting my outburst get me down, but it’s been a lesson. Thank you for your kindness.
