An afternoon in the life of Thyagaraja

                It was a quiet afternoon in the house of Thyagaraja. The morning prayers, singing and lessons were over and after lunch, Thyagaraja as his won’t went to read the Holy Scriptures. He was reading the Bhagavatam of Krishna and was reading the part where Krishna was teaching a lesson to the Gopikas who had become vain and possessive of him. He wondered if he could write a dance drama for this episode and was lost deep in thought.

                Thyagaraja had a neighbor who was like a son to him. He had gotten recently married and had come to Thyagaraja to seek his blessings. Thyagaraja inquired of the girl’s father who was a famous Carnatic music exponent and was renowned for his pallavi’s. Thyagaraja was glad and requested the girl to bring her dad to meet him when he came over.

                The girl’s father had come over to visit her. He had had his lunch too and was sitting in the patio. He was hearing the students singing and practicing one of Thayagaraja’s kirthanas and was mocking them for not doing pallavi exposition. The daughter came out and talked to the dad and asked him whether he knew of Saint Thyagarja. The father got upset at this and started mocking Thyagaraja and telling him that he was not a great exponent of Carnatic music and was just a basic song composer and had no clue of the intricacies of Carnatic music. The daughter who was no slouch in music either and had come to admire the Saint realized that her father had not realized the greatness of Thyagaraja and was ignorant and arrogant and was regretting her father’s loud rant.

                The students who heard this went inside and called the bard and explained what was going on told him that the neighbor’s father who was a Carnatic music exponent and was criticizing and mocking his music and compositions. The saint smiled and said, “I am getting criticized. Really? If my favorite god and deity, Sri Ramachandra who lived a perfect life and Vasudeva (Krishna) who was the epitome of Dharma could be criticized, why not me? I think I have a song for this. O students, leave those bad thoughts and intentions and focus on Vasudeva who is Vishnu himself. We only accrue our karma so as we perform our dharma.”

                So he composed a song in the spot. “Chade Buddhi Manura”. This was in the raga athana. This is a hard raga to set songs to and he just composed it on the fly on a sleepy afternoon.

                The pallavi exponent who heard Thyagaraja heard the song was stunned by the deep meaning of the composition which basically synthesized Vedanta in six lines in a hard raga and in a tala that was not easy. He was moved and came to Thyagaraja and asked for his forgiveness and for his harsh reviews.

                Thyagaraja who was always calm and composed asked the pallavi exponent to join him in his evening prayers and sing a song in his prayer room of his favorite deity and a pallavi on Lord Rama. The pallavi exponent spent the rest of the day conversing with Thyagaraja and teaching his students.

                The Pallavi exponent then went to the court of Tanjore and told his fellow musicians about the amazing transforming experience. The rest of the musicians decided to then visit him one evening and planned on a visit.

Sadhguru Thyagaraja Swami ki, Jai.

Author’s note: This story was taken from a harikatha on the life of Thyagaraja.