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Re: kuzhal isai

From the Bhakti List Archives

Chandrashekaran Venkataraman • Fri Jul 07 2000 - 19:30:22 PDT 


Dear Bhagawathas,

>Thus he changes from one into other and thus leading back to himself - HE
to
>flute- to music - to thoughts on him- finally himself- I is totally lost in
HIM.

   Many thanks to Sri Vasudevan for sharing his anubhavam of Sri UtthukkADu
(UVS)
and what it means to be a nAdhOpAsaka. Dear Sri Vasudevan, your translations
and way of 
expounding the inner meanings of krithi vAkhyams have been always enjoyable.

   For those of you who are not familiar with this composer: Sri UVS lived
before the trinity
composers believed to have lived between 1700 - 1765 AD in Thanjavur
district of Tamilnadu.
He is the composer of the legendary krithi "alaipAyudhE kaNNA" in kAnaDA
(wrongly sometimes
attributed to Sri Papanasam Sivan) where he pours out his heart as a lover
of Sri Krishna.

   In this regard, I have a beautiful incident in Sri UVS's life to share
with bhAgawathAs. 
Sri UVS usually would go to a rudra bhUmi (graveyard) seeking solitude and
there he would sit 
day long singing on his ishTa dEvathA to his heart's content. Wasn't it the
Lord who said,

   viviktha dhESa sEvithvam arathir janasamsadhi (B.G. 13.?)
 
       meaning: the man seeking higher knowledge seeks solitude and shows no
                attachments with the society

   Indeed Sri UVS lived exactly upto the Lord's saying. It was during one of
his solitary
raptures that this beautiful event took place.
   He was singing with eyes closed and heart full with thoughts of the Lord,
in that 
serene atmosphere of the maSAnam... After a long time, when he came back to
the physical 
world, he opened his eyes... To his surprise he found muddy dust on his lap.
He looked around 
and there... What a sight! A blue-hued chubby child got down from his lap
and walked away from 
him! All along the Lord was sitting on his lap listening to the song!

   Such is the greatness of Sri UVS's Krishna bhakthi. His kula deivam was
the kALinga 
nardhana perumAL in UththukkADu which is a village some 20km from
kumbhakONam, Thanjavur. When 
I went on a pilgrimage to Tanjore temples, I had the bhAgyam of having
dharSan of the 
beautiful nardhana perumAL. It was one of those rare occasions that the
temple doors was kept 
open... We incidentally were on our way through that route. Just adjacent to
the temple is a 
serene pond covered with moss. Here is where it's believed that the Lord
re-enacted the 
kALinga nardhana prabhAvam for Sri UVS's enjoyment. The temple itself is
small and some 
renovation work was being done. In the prakAram there is a tuLasi mADam near
to which Sri UVS 
used to sit and sing on the Lord when he came to the temple.

   adiyEn,
   chandrasekaran.



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