Weekend Communion with God

Normally our weekends end up rushing to shops that offer Flat 50% or Upto 70% discount, and returning home disappointed, having been taken for a ride.

“Weekend for a retiree for whom everyday is a Sunday, hmm?” You might murmur. Unfortunately it is. We still haven’t gotten over it.

Luckily it was different this weekend. The Odakkathur Mutt in Ulsoor was hosting Bhajan Utsav with renowned artists from all over. Sengottai Hari had the Saturday afternoon slot. We missed him earlier when he performed in Aunty’s native village during Ratha Utsav, because we would not get a taxi to hotel past midnight.

So no mistakes this time. Hari combined the qualities of both Carnatic music and Bhajan songs with equal felicity to churn a jugalbandi that brought rapturous delight to the audience. A stage came when the organizers had to reorganize to make space for 20 or 30 ladies, from ages 20 to 65, to dance in merriment to his tunes.

The surprising element, however, was the presence on dais of our SFV’s own Asthana Bhajana Vidwan, Ravichandran (8022), rendering second-line support to Sengottai Hari. Ravi did it creditably; not just that, he sung a few solos drawing equal applause.

As though to give a fitting finale to the previous evening’s programme, Ravi had organized (though planned earlier) a Bhajan in his apartment yesterday evening. The artists here?  Well, not just one or two. Five of them, from different cities: Ramakrishna Bhagavatar of Delhi, Srirama Bhagavathar (OS Sunder’s nephew), Alappey Suresh, Sri Krishnan, son of famous O V Ramani Bhagavathar of Delhi, and Thyagarajan of Chennai. Two mridangam artists and one Dholki player took position to support. They took turns systematically and played in unison when the occasion demanded. And the harmonium player was of a stand-alone quality. The Delhi singer wore two caps – singer as well as flute player. And mind you, all this over and above our own homegrown brands, Ravi and Thyagarajan ji. What a conglomerate.

The team began with invoking the blessings of Gnanananda Giri Swamiji, Pudukottai Gopalakrishna Bhagavatar, and other pioneers of Divya Nama Sankeertanam (or, Sampradaya Bhajan?). Then they went on to sing Jayadeva ji’s Ashtapathi.

The unleash of songs in quick succession in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Hindi and Malayalam witnessed an equally responsive audience who lost no time to go into a trance, what with a mixture of meaningful lyrics, soulful renderings, or mood-elevating Marathi Abhangs.

To rate the songs is a tall order, nor is it fair. However, I might say the “Radha Ramana, Radha Ramana” song rendered at expressway speed by Sri Krishnan attracted fullest participation from the audience. Even my hitherto unperturbed Krishnan (8091) was seen clapping his hands and swinging his body in supreme joy. The enchanting Purandara Dasa kirtana, Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma, was rendered with aplomb. And the song, Mahesha Parvathy…Kailasa Vasa Isha… soon after Mahashivaratri, was especially welcome.

The highlight of the session was that though each singer specialized in one format or the other, one never failed to appreciate or applaud the other person’s performance. It reminded me of the good old Bollywood days when the then top musicians, Naushad, SD Burman, Madan Mohan, Shankar-Jaikishan, C Ramchandra and others met regularly at a park in Mumbai to take stock of each other’s songs in their recent releases.

The ladies know best that nothing works on an empty stomach, even if the session was enchanting. So they made sure that coffee, tea, juice, or hot badam milk was served at regular intervals, with assorted dry fruits to nibble.

As the ceremony drew to a close, the aroma of prasadam items began wafting from the kitchen. A simple but delicious dinner.

As I stepped out I wondered if I was witnessing a revival of Bhakti Movement, or just that I was getting re-connected to it after a span? Either way the net result was: it was a pleasant weekend. The impact is sure to last longer before fading into oblivion, and we are back to our old self.