Singing the Lord’s Praise
Kausalyaa
suprajaa Raama Poorvaa
sandhyaa pravartate…
The
cultural borders of South India extend till where these lines of the Waking
Song of the Lord is rendered in the divine voice of Bharat Ratna ‘MS’
Subbulakshmi resound in the morning calm of cities, mufassil towns, even one-bullock
villages. Few have even tried to ascertain if there is another version of the Venkateswara
Suprabhatam.
It was the former French colony of Pondicherry, near Chennai, where the great
revolutionary Sri Aurobindo with his band of trusted disciples had sought
refuge and founded the Aurobindo Ashram. Foremost amongst his followers was
the poet Dilip Kumar Roy, who later moved to settle in Poona and founded his
own ‘Hare Krishna Ashram.
The Hare
Krishna Ashram followed a regular routine of Aratis, Discourses and Bhajan
Samagams. There were also occasional special programmes at which nearby residents too also joined in. On one
such occasion, seated on the dais along with Guruji, was an elderly
southern couple. The lady’s face, vaguely familiar but that it was MS
Subbulakshmi became known only when Guruji introduced the guests.
‘MS’ expressed
profound gratitude to Guruji for his kind words and for his advice in
preparation of her (then recently released) album of Meera Bhajans. At
Guruji’s request, she then went on to render a bhajan from the
album - in just her pure pristine voice, devoid of accompaniments, one pleads to the Lord to allow her serve him as his menial servant so
that she can be in his constant proximity:
Brindavan ki Kunj Galin
mein teri
leela raasu re …Mane chaakar rakho ji.
The
‘official’ version of the Venkateswara Suprabhatam is solemnly
sung each morning by a chorus of temple priests at the Lord’s abode in the
Tirumala Hills. Decades ago, the temple doors opened for the first ‘Darshan’ of the Deity around 5 AM.
They now do so a couple of hours earlier. Over the years, the good Lord has indeed
had to work harder to meet the aspirations of his devotees.
Around a hundred
‘paying’ pilgrims several of them with eyes drooping out of inadequate sleep line
up around 2 AM to go through a ticket and security check and walk through barren
queuing enclosures to the foyer outside the gold-plated doors that lead to the
sanctum sanctorum – a door guarded by Dwarapalaks.
Years ago, devotees in crawling queues used
to curiously watch the contents of the Lord’s Hundi – coins,
notes, gold and silver ornaments, rings and assorted trinkets, being poured out
of the hundi sack and segregated. Heaps of coins were put through sieves of
varying apertures and piled into lots, later to deposited in the bank by
weight!
MS’ rendition of the Suprabhatam,
though metered exactly as chanted by the temple priests, creates a different
and soothing ambience. One has to just close the eyes and allow the mind
to be enraptured by her resonating voice and propelled into a higher spiritual
orbit.
What a divine opportunity it was to have the great
MS Subbulakshmi stand hands folded, eyes closed, singing softly in sync with
the priests.
That morning
the Lord himself would undoubtedly have exerted his ears to isolate from the chorus the strand of MS’
melodious voice as she sang in his Praise:
Vinaa
Venkatesham na naatho naathah, Sadaa
Venkatesham smaraami smaraami
Hare
Venkatesha prasiida prasiida, Priyam
venkatesha prayachchha prayachchha.
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