Profound Philosophy in Tyagaraja’s Kritis

Sri Thyagaraja Swami (1767-1847) was a saint par excellence who lived and moved always in the inner joy of Supreme Consciousness of his personal deity Lord Sri Ramachandra. He has chosen the path of Sangeeta or Divine Music to commune with the Lord of his heart every moment of his conscious existence. His unfathomable love and innocence, devotion and dedication to Sri Rama were beyond compare. Even in the thick of adversities he displayed unshakable faith in Ram and bore insult and injury with rare equanimity. He lived beyond the tyrannical hold of the dualistic experiences of life. The flame of renunciation shone in every activity of his life because of his total abandonment of self (ego) and complete surrender to Ram. Indeed, he lived upto his name as ‘Thyagaraja’, the king of renunciation and self-sacrifice.

Sri Thyagaraj’s passionate yearning for the realization of the Truth was so deep and intense that it unravelled the hidden, sublime poet-composer and the brilliant genius of enthralling music in him. He poured out his heart of pure love in divine ecstasy singing soul-stirring songs which not only glorified the personal and impersonal aspects of the God-head but also carried the content of divine ministration to the world of spiritual aspirants.

Sri Thyagaraja’s majestic and mellifluous lyrical compositions are traditionally christened as Kritis and Kirtans adoring the Lord Sri Rama in great exuberance. They give us a glimpse of his Spiritual Perfection of having had the clearest perception of the Non-dual Truth. His Kritis are, therefore, replete with the currents of Bhakti, Jnana and Vairaagya. Those exuding the nectar of Bhakti are in wide circulation while those of Tattwa-bodha or Jnana are less frequently heard inasmuch as their content demands deeper attention and quiet contemplation for complete understanding. Now, let us learn and enjoy a Tattwa-bodha Kriiti:

MANASU SWAADHEENAMAINA YAAGHANUNIKI
MARI MANTRA TANTRAMULELA           
.. Manasu ..

To the Spiritual Hero who has complete mastery over his mind what use is there of religious disciplines such as the Mantras and the Tantras?

The central issue in spiritual life is one of chastening, refining and gaining mastery over one’s mind so that it is available for deep spiritual enquiry and apprehension of the highest truth, the Atma-Ram hidden within. Mastering the mind involves a diligent process aimed at understanding the very structure, nature and the operational movement of the mind by being constantly alert, attentive and aware. A ritualistic rigmarole ridden with Mantras and Tantras, incantations and harsh austerities is not of much avail. All efforts of will and wish however strong and sincere and nobly inspired finally flounder and fail for the simple reason that the entity seeking control over the mind is not at all different and separate actually from the mind that is sought to be controlled. One cannot ignore the fact that man is but his mind. So when one part of the mind is trying to control another part in itself it is certainly a delusory artificial bisection. The Subject-Object dichotomy apparent in the mind is a patented trick perpetrated by the mind itself for its own security. This fact is almost always forgotten by the majority of seekers. And it is exactly the reason why many people suffer from a sense of despair and frustration after years of struggle to control the mind.

Mind cannot be controlled through actions of Will or expediency. Knowing this, one must turn upon oneself and begin self-enquiry which means, mind looking into itself and diving within to trace its own source, the non-dual Pure Being or Self that is timeless and immortal. Once this is accomplished there shall be no more any need to control the mind for, it is now aware of its Source, the fount of Intelligence. It, therefore, functions in the world outside with extraordinary sanity and serenity most rationally bereft of all contradictory thought currents with opposing interests which breed conflict and sorrow.

A conflictless mind, indeed, is the Swadheena Manas. The word ‘SWA’ indicates the Self or one’s being, the Atma-Ram. ‘ADHEENAM’ connotes abidance. He whose mind finds self-abidance is described by Thyagaraja as ‘Manasu Swadheenamaina Ghanudu’, The Yogi who has control over his mind. ‘Ghanudu’ expression corresponds to Yogi in religious parlance. Unto such a Yogi of spiritual eminence the usual practices of Mantras and Tantras are totally irrelevant.

TANUVU   TAANUGADANI YENCHUVANIKI
TAPASU CHEYANELA   DASARATHA    BALA
.. Manasu ..

O son of Dasaratha, why should any one undertake Tapas or Penance having once realized that one is not the physical body?

He who thinks that he is a bundle of matter, a mere body-mind complex, ever remains in the lower realm of body-consciousness only. He is not the one with ‘Manasu Swaadhinata’. He has no capacity to lift the mind to the higher in him. He is necessarily subjected to the travails of the material existence with all its characteristic pains and sorrows. He is called a ‘Samsarin’ and an ‘Ajnani’. But he who transcends the body-consciousness or the ‘I-am-the-body-idea’ through a devout process of discrimination (Viveka), dispassion (Vairagya) and dedication to Self-enquiry and inner exploration (Atma-Vichara) is verily a Jnani or a Man-of-Perfection. He is the real Tapaswin who has attained mastery over his mind and discovered the Energy-Source behind the sense of his conscious existence; and he is the one who has experienced an abiding thrill of fulfilment and bliss. He alone is ‘Tanuvu Taanugaadani Yenchuvaadu’, who thinks that he is not the body but not others who just blabber about it. Unto such a Jnani all other forms of Tapas become redundant. Verily, as Sankara puts it, “Tapas consists of thought; it is just a form of HIS Knowlege, which is of the nature of Omniscience; It is Tapas characterized by effortlessness or spontaneity.”

ANNINEEVANUCHU YENCHINAVAANIKI
YAASHRAMA BHEDAMULELA
KANNUGATTU MAYALANI YENCHUVAANIKI
KAANTALA BHRAMALELA DASARATHA BAALA      
..Manasu.. 

O Son of Dasaratha, why should all these distinctions and differences of Ashramas exist for one who sees the entire Universe of names and forms as thine own manifested expression? And how can there be any delusory temptation and infatuation for women, O darling of Dasaratha, to the exalted one who understood the play of illusion (Maya) that veils the truth of all things and beings?

In Hindu tradition, man’s life is demarcated into four stages known as Brahmacharya (the period of learning as a celebate student), Grihastha (the period of married life), Vanaprastha (the period of retirement from active worldly affairs seeking a contemplative life) and Sanyasa (a life of complete Renunciation, Thyaga and Meditation). In any case, these man-made social divisions, classifications, rules and conventions, gender distinctions and artificial disparities do not touch the Sage who sees the whole Universe of creation as wrapped up in One Supreme Truth –”ISAVAASYAMIDAH SARVAM YATKINCHA JAGATYAAM JAGAT”. In the Light-of-Wisdom, he sees the pranks and play of illusion concealing the truth behind the glamour and temptation apparent in the opposite sex. He sees everything as Ram and remains poised in silent adorations to Him.

AAJANMAMU DURVISHAYA RAHITUNIKI
GATAAGATAMIKA YELA
RAJARAJESA NIRANJANA NIRUPAMA
RAJAVADANA THYAGARAJA VINUTA
..Manasu..

How does time as past and future affect one who lives one’s conscious life from moment to moment, in complete freedom, conquering all worldly impulses of negative nature? O Ram, the Lord of king of kings, stainless and matchless, endowed with moonlike visage of cool luminosity, acceptor of lavish praise and adoration from Thyagaraja. May thy grace lift us into thy timeless abode of bliss eternal.

The auspicious attributes glorifying Rama indicate new Thyagaraja’s mind and heart constantly envision the Supreme Being, the non-dual, impersonal, timeless Truth through the personal form of Sri Rasa.

Sri Thyagaraja in a very subtle expression proclaims who can go beyond the realm of time marked by mortality. He says, he who has annihilated by virtue of Knowledge-of-the-Self all the worldly ‘Samskaras’ and ‘Vasanas’ gathered in the psychological field, in all the previous incarnations right from the beginning when ignorance became operative, is ‘Aajanma durvishaya rahitudu’. And he adds: ‘unto such a one how does time matter as Past and Future, Gatam and Aagatam’. In other words where is the question of rebirth for him since he has annihilated all worldly impressions positive or negative? As long as one is caught in the psychological time constantly fuelled by Vasanas, the cycle of birth and death is inevitable.

Everyone is a product of his own psychological past, old Vasanas accrued through past actions and experience. Even as he lives through his past, it is modifying itself in the present to proceed further to be the future. But seen carefully, the future is nothing but ‘what is’ right now. The NOW contains all Time both past and future. The wise one abides in the NOW and shuts down the movement of time and thought which are together, for the sustenance of the self or the ego. When his consciousness is rooted in the ‘NOW’, the soul of eternity, the movement of life is from moment to moment, each moment fully lived and experienced without any residual impression of it left behind. No more does he have ‘Gatam’, the pressure of the past impressions; nor is there an ‘Aagatam’, the production of new impressions to create a delusory time process on the substratum of Timeless Eternity. For the Sage of Wisdom time is dead; Life moves on with eternal resplendence wafting the fragrance of immortality.