Meaning of Bhaja Bagavantam

[shibi]

Could someone please post the meaning of the following song in simple english perhaps:


bhaja bhagavantam. rAgamAlikA. Adi tALA.

(rAgA: dEs)
P: bhaja bhagavantam ramaNam kAntam paramAtmAnam mAnasa nityam
C1: anudita mamatA antam shAntam abhidhita bhEda mahAgama rUpam
mauna vyAkhyA kamudita darpam paramam dattam satata vimuktam
(rAgA: basant)
2: satyam jagadabhi dEgama pItvam matvA mahA mOhA vEdyam
vishvA jIvA jagatikEtE mutti vikalpA svahi paridEtyE
(rAgA: sindhubhairavi)
3: dEvOnatvam jIvOnatvam pashya krtantaha kOsti vigjnEham
IshO purarabhi jatmA ramaNam datyAm mUrtim satkaruNaina


Thank you very much,

Shibi

[classicallover]

Shibi,

The lyrics seem to be incorrect in some places. Have you transliterated the lyrics ? If yes, it may have been erroneous. Can you please check your source and post again or atleast scan the page and upload it ?

[krishnaa]

Yes I also had the same feeling... If you got the lyrics from the internet, could you please post the link..

[Lakshman]

The audio by Malladi Brothers is here:

http://www.raaga.com/channels/carnatic/ ... id=CL01178

[shibi]

I got the lyrics from this web page:

http://www.mayyam.com/talk/viewlite.php?t=8451

Thank you,

Shibi

[classicallover]

The lyrics from the link in #5 was given by Shri. Lakshman. The rendering of the songs by the duo is very tentative - just like light classical devotional. Please do not take any lyrics sung by this duo or any other as any kind of standard for any purpose. This duo especially ( as well as many other singers from AP ) are well known to morph the lyrics and also the ragas at their will. They always sing from an array of books hidden behind the shruti box and shawls. Snatch the books and their vidwat is gone !!

[VK RAMAN]

It is sad we have to deprecate artists, mode of singing,etc in our search for correct lyrics!

[classicallover]

VKR,

They are supposed to be artistes, not "artists" as written by you. It doesn't give me any pleasure in denigrating them. It is with great disappointment and anguish that I wrote, that , such bookish performers and "kathu kuTTis" are the bane of our art and culture. How can you afford to respect anyone who openly criticise Semmangudi, MSS, Madurai Mani Iyer, and the whole lot of artistes from TN and dubbing their music discriminatively & degradatively as "Tamila Sangeetham" ?

[krishnaa]

Give me some time, I think I can grab a few corrections from the audio...

[Lakshman]

Classicallover: I feel it is unfair to blame musicians from one part of the south for poor diction. I have heard singsrs from Chennai singing jiva jiva jiva ena rAdA, paNDurIdi kolu, magA gaNapatim, vandE sadA batmanApam etc. With the exception of a handful of musicians most mispronounce some hindi, marAThi and samskrt words.
As for referring to notes I have seen even senior musicians do it sometimes. The purists refuse to use characters like ha, sha ja and instead is a, ca and ca (as in amsadoni, sakti and cananam) when lyrics are written in tamil script. Thus one cannot isolate a single group for criticism.

[classicallover]

Mr. Lakshman,

I never raised the question of pronunciation of lyrics in my previous post. But, obviously, you have a right to your opinion. What you are referring to as mispronounciation is called " MTI " ( Mother Tongue Influence ) in linguistics. This affects many people but most of the standard learners and performers ( especially from TN & Kk ) do take very good care to sing correctly without MTI. Did you ever hear mispelt lyrics with such frequency that you mentioned from MSS, MMI, SSI, OST, TNS, TVS, TVR and many others of the next generations ? Even native Hindi speakers ( including the literates ) from Bihar & UP do not speak distinctly the three letters sha, Sha and sa. When they write, they ask for the spelling - " how shall I write this - with shankar sa or shanmukh sa or saraswati sa ? " .

There is no need to mention the fanatics ( your purists ) as they are anyway an incorrigible minority.

If you read my post once again, my point was that performers from AP take it as their birthright to morph the lyrics and ragas since Telugu is their mother tongue and they own it. When you attempt to correct them, you are rebuffed with arrogance that they know better. This hatred has increased with the advent of Annamacharya as a glorified vaaggeyakaara.

The culture of referring to a mini library spread out conveniently behind the shruti box and shawls is the ingenuity of AP's performers , very importantly standardised by Nedunuri Krishnamurthy and his disciples, the Hyderabad Brothers, etc.. Karnataka's performers also use this method. Now laptops, mini notepads and tablets have replaced books.

[VK RAMAN]

I suggest let us not dwell on this any more as we are deviating from the very subject of sahityam MHO

[classicallover]

Exactly. I agree.