Ram Mohan, Bumika: *Tomorrow (21st January 2023) is Pushya Bahula Amavasya, the Aradhana Day of Sangitha Pithamaha Purandara Dasa .*
*A curtain raiser*
*Purandara Dasa*
*Part – 1*
Purandara Dasa was born in 1484 AD in Kshemapura, in, Shimoga district, Karnataka to a Brahmin pawnbroker named Varadappa Nayaka and his wife Lakshmi Bai. The child Srinivasa as he was then called received a good education in accordance with family traditions and acquired proficiency in Kannada, Sanskrit, and sacred music. At age 16 he married Saraswatibai, a pious young girl. He lost his parents at age 20, thereby inheriting his father’s business. He prospered and became known as “Navakoti narayana.” However, unlike his father, he was a miser while his wife always wished to contribute to charity much to the displeasure of her husband.
One day, Lord Vishnu in the guise of a poor priest visited Srinivasa’s shop and wanted financial help to perform the Upanayana ceremony of his son. The miserly Srinivasa, made the priest to visit him many weeks without giving any help. Finally, disappointed by the treatment, the priest went to Srinivasa’s wife Saraswathi and narrated his pitiful story. Saraswathi’s heart melted and she gave him her nose ring as a gift.
The Brahmin promptly took the nose ring to Srinivasa’s shop, where he wanted to pawn it for money. However, the pawnbroker recognized it: he locked it up in his safe and, lent the man his money. Meanwhile, his wife was worried about what to say to her husband, so she prayed to her favourite deity, who gave her a nose ring just like the one she had just given away. When Srinivasa hurried home, he was bewildered seeing her wear the same one. Upon returning to his shop, he opened the safe, only to find that the nose ring in the safe had vanished.
He now realised that the brahmin was none other than Lord Shri Purandara Vitthala Himself. He was ashamed of his miserliness, Srinivasa Nayaka decided to renounce all material belongings and become a dasa (servant) of god. Thus, Srinivasa Nayaka at 30 years of age, gave away all his wealth to charity and together with his family left his house to lead the life of a wandering minstrel to propagate religion.
In 1525, in the course of his wandering he met the holy sage Vyasatirtha, one of the chief exponents of Madhwa philosophy, became his sishya and had his formal initiation, with the name Purandara Dasa bestowed on him. He gave away all his wealth in charity, and together with his family, abandoned his house to lead the life of a mendicant – living on alms and singing the glories of the Lord.
Purandara Dasa, became a devotee of Narayana, and started a new life along with his wife and children at Hampi. He travelled extensively through the length and breadth of the Vijayanagara empire in Karnataka, Tirupati,and Pandaripura composing and rendering soul stirring songs in simple Kannada in praise of god.
Every morning Purandara Dasa went into the town with a tamboori in the hand and sang his own compositions, Hari-keertanas. They were on a variety of themes: some of them described Krishna’s adventures in this world, others sang about God’s kindness to man. A few more verses were simple compositions expounding the philosophy contained in the Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita in simple words. His works have earned the name ‘Purandaropanishad’.
The philosophy of Purandara Dasa is broadly based on the Narada Bhakti Sutras and essentially synchronous with the pan-Indian Bhakti movement. It teaches complete self-surrender and unadulterated love towards Lord Krishna, the Supreme. The philosophy of Bhakti in his compositions stems from the essential teachings of the Dwaitha philosophy of Madhwacharya’s Vaishnavism.
The jeeva owes its existence, knowledge and bliss to the Ishvara, and any sense of independence with regards to one’s actions and the results thereof is to be given up. The mind has to be turned away from transient pleasures and possessions of this world and instead, turned towards the Lord, who alone is the abode of unadulterated, unswerving bliss. His keerthanas have simple lessons in this regard and implore men to lead the noble life of Vaishnavas.
*Purandara gurum vande dasa-sreshtham dayanidhim !*
*To be continued……*
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