NAMASTHE
Dasa sahitya is a rich treasure of wisdom that is relevant for our every day life.
Purandarasada who composed lakhs of songs in Kannada was a contemporary of Tallapaka annamacharya, the Padakavita Pitamaha of Telugu and a friend of Srikrishnadevaraya, the Vijayanagara King and the disciple of Saint Vyasaraja, who for a long time worshipped Lord Sri Venkateswara of Tirumula.
Tirupati, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams published Sri Purandaras ke Bhakti Geet, during 2000. Sri Dr.V.R. Panchamukhi did the English and Hindi Translation. Dr. I.V Subba Rao I.A.S. Executive Officer, T.T.D. has written the foreword for this book, where he says, Saint Composers of Karnataka, popularly known as Karnataka Haridasas occupy a prominent place int he galaxy of great souls who spread spiritual knowledge in various Indian languages.
Dr.I. V. Subba Rao, EO thanked Dr. V.R. Panchamukhi, an intellectural with a deeply spiritual orientation, has succeeded in perfectly bringing into his translations the true feel of Saint Purandaradasa, in his compositions.
In this compilation of songs, we have classified the selected songs broadly into the following five groups, according to the nature of the man contents of the songs:
- Perceiving Lord Krishna
- Reflections on Life and Messages for Social Reforms
- Messages for Managing the Self
- Philosophy of life and Moral Principles
- Bhakti, Surrender and Meditation .
There is one sloka in SrimadBhagavatha Purana, which says When man gets distracted fromLord Krishna and pursues unrighteous path and hence becomes unhappy, then these saints move on this earth as the auspicious forms of Lord Janardhan, to bless the mankind with right path.
There are two systems of spiritual leadership:
- Vyasakuta
- Dasakuta.
The Spiritual leaders in Vyasakuta include the three main Acharyas of the Indian Philosophical world, Sri Sankara, Sri Ramanuja and Sri Madhva. All of them derive their valuable and strong thoughts from the basic sources of Vedas, Upanishads and Veda-based literature of Vedavvyasa.
dasakuta systems becomes a relevant system of spiritual leadership. Dasakuta provides guidance to the mankind not only through the teachings given in the songs composed in the common man’s languages but also by setting of examples through the practice of the preceptors.
In fact, there are many luminaries int he Dasakuta system of spiritual leadership. Dasakuta has existed side by side along with Vyasakuta from very ancient times. For example, Gopitaks the devotees of Lord Krishna who practiced the teachings of Sri Krishna, the approach of complete surrender and purelove sysmbolise the main characteristics of Dasakuta.
Sri Hanuman signifies a blend of Vyasakuta and Dasakuta.
— to be continued.
V.MEENAKSHI JAYAKUMAR