“GurubhyO namah!” Program Launch on Webpage
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Asmath gurubhyo namah!
I wish to thank the Mani Krishnaswami Academy, Mangalore, https://www.facebook.com/ManiKrishnaswamiAcademy/ and the entire team led by Sri NIthyananda Rao and Sri Vibhu Rao for first conceiving this very creative concept of “gurubhyo namaha” and then converting it into an excellent series of online interactive program on the social media platform that is accessible to hundreds of people all over South India but especially in Karnataka. Well done! You should be proud of yourselves indeed.
This program of “gubhyo namah” seeks to bring guru, sishya and rasikas altogether on one platform. It gives an opportunity for the gurus to talk about their long “musical journey” in life in which their sishya-s as fellow travelers were able to learn so much from them – not only classical music but also other valuable life skills. For ordinary rasikas like me who watch and listen to this program, in which guru and sishya interact, it becomes a rare musical experience that we normally do not get in a kutcheri. So, I want to thank the Mani Krishnaswami Academy team for this gurubhyo namaha program for this rare rasika experience.
My mother Sangitha Kalanidhi, Smt. Mani Krishnaswami learnt her own musical and life skills from many great gurus. I am going to name them all here as a mark to tribute to them – Mysore Vasudevachaar, Tiger Varadachari , Budalur Krishnamurthi Sastrigal, T.K.Ramaswamy — all from the Kalakshetra Madras, and then violinist T.K. Jayaraman in New Delhi. The longest period of tutelage, almost 2 decades, under one guru that my mother underwent was the great maestro Sri Musiri Subramaniya Iyer. Under him both her personality and career as a classical performing artiste began flowering rapidly. By the time “Musiri Sir”, as she used to call him reverentially, passed away, Mani Krishnaswami was already an established vidwaan or vidushi known all over India and abroad. Besides the music that Musiri Sir taught her, my mother used to say, the most important lesson she learnt from him was this: there is never any end to learning Carnatic music; learning the art must remain a lifelong passion. And that is why, even after her guru passed away, Mani Krishnaswami did not want to stop learning. She continued her own musical journey by teaming up with another mentor of hers who came from another great school of Carnatic music – Sri Chingleput Ranganthan who was an illustrious heir to the famous Alathur Brothers “baani”. Thereafter, Mani Krishnaswami’s standards and values of classicism reached even greater heights and she reached the pinnacle of her musical journey when recognition and rewards, from peers, institutions and fans, both in India and abroad, were showered upon her right until her last days in the year 2002.
I have now narrated very briefly the story of my mother’s own musical journey in the hope that the young population of budding and talented young artistes of Coastal Karnataka who are attending this “gurubhyo namaha” program will not miss the important point that is emphasized in it.. viz. that sishya-s of Carnatic music gurus, if they want to find fulfilment in life, whether it is in the art of music or in the career of the music, must always remain passionately committed to their guru-s tutelage throughout life. There is no other short-cut to success in that endeavor. The guru-sishya sambhandham is a lifelong one and must always remain so.
Let me conclude now by quoting from the Taittiriya Upanishad. From the meaning of this Vedic prashnam, we understand that while sishyas can find fulfilment from what their guru teaches them, the guru-s themselves find fulfilment only when they are able to gather under their wings a large number of sishya-s… In this famous Upanishad vaakya we hear a guru crying out his prayers to God Almighty to please bless him with large number of students coming from all quarters and walks of the world… because, he says, it is his students alone who are for him the true source of all wealth, fame and fulfilment in life.
“yasho jane.asani svaha . shreyan.h vasyaso.asani svaha .
tam tva bhaga pravishani svaha . sa ma bhaga pravisha svaha .
tasmin tsahasrashakhe nibhagaham tvayi mrije svaha .
yatha.a.apah pravata.a.ayanti yatha masa aharjaram.h .
evam mam brahmacharinah . dhatarayantu sarvatah svaha .
prativesho.asi pra ma bhahi pra ma padyasva ..”
(May I become famous among men! Svaha! May I become richer than the rich! Svaha! O gracious Lord, may I enter into Thee! Svaha! May Thou, O gracious Lord, enter into me! Svaha! O Lord, I am cleansing my sins in that Self of Thine, which is like a river of a thousand branches. Svaha! O Preserver, as waters flow downward, as the months merge in the year, so may brahmacharins come to me from all directions! Svaha! Thou art a refuge. To me do Thou shine forth. Accept me unto Thyself completely).
“Guru brahma, gurur vishnu, gurur devO maheswaraha;
Guru saakshaat param brahman, tasmai sri guravE namaha.”
🙏🙏
THANK YOU!
Sudarshan Madabushi