Mānasa sancharare

Quadruple volley: a Sanskrit Carnatic Advaitic Siddha treat to the body, mind, intellect & spirit by none other than Sadguru Śri Sadaśiva Brahmendrar HimSELF, prayerfully/soulfully rendered by Smt. Vasantha Kumari Sampath & insightfully/heartfully introduced by yours truly. 

Namaskāram. Check out the linked video for a deeply meaningful & adorable song sung by my mother & composed by one of my favourite & arguably the greatest advaitic siddhar ever, Śri Sadaśiva Brahmendrar, who traversed his birthplace  Madurai, workplace Kumbhakōnam &  samādhi-sthal Nerūr, near Karūr, more than 300 years ago. 

My delight is further amplified by the fact that the specific song of Śri Sadaśiva Brahmendrar chosen by my mother is the one which my most beloved pappaji master used to love so much, thanks to his favourite 1980 Telugu movie, Śankarābharanam, a Śri K. Viśwanāth blockbuster in which Śri Vāni Jayarām & the late Śri SPB had further immortalized this eternal melody enacted in a mind-boggling manner on screen by child actress Śri Tulasi playing the little boy Śri Sankaram & of course the irrepressible late Śri J. V. Somayājulu, teaching carnātic vocal music to the ten-year old boy, not knowing that he’s the son of his greatest fan ever, Śri Tulasi played superbly by Śri Manju Bhārgavi.

It’s heart-rending to mention that my mother was in tears repeatedly watching that touching scene on YouTube, a song which I myself recollect observing my then 40-year old Pappāji hearing zillions of times on his old tape recorder.(https://youtu.be/527MAB6tQi8)

Most of the experts, vocalists & rasikās tend to consider this song “Mānasa sancharare” as a devotional dedicated to Bhagvān Śri Krśnā. But the fact of the matter is that Krśnā‘s name isn’t actually mentioned even once in this entire song! While it’s indeed both beautiful & fruitful to associate Krśnā with a 5,000+ year-old historical personality or even Godhead, I beg such associators’ pardon as I prefer to go beyond the merely literary interpretation & attempt to perceive a deeper spiritual significance, observing Krśnā not merely as a person or even a so-called God, but thro’ the far more piercing third-eye view of the ultimate advaitic siddhā that Śri Sadaśiva Brahmendrar was! 

Hence, this song to my ears 👂, my heart ❤️, my brain 🧠 & my conscious spirit is actually steeped in the untranslatable & unqualified principle or tattvā of Nirguna Brahman. And is a conscious attempt to kindle the fourth Vedic mahāvākyā of “aham brahmāsmi” meaning “I’m Brahman!”

In fact, the song starts by exhorting our normally extroverted mind to undertake an inner pilgrimage in this abstract all-encompassing principle of Brahman, which is all that there ever is! As we all know, the song  directly appeals to our mind to travel inwards to our true nature “mānasa sancarare | brahmaṇi mānasa sancarare ||” in the Pallavi itself.

The song then takes us through 3️⃣ power-packed tiny charanams, involving 3️⃣ birds, which are either  mystical/mythical or have mystical/mythical characteristics. But why birds? Well, it’s because they can fly in air, which is subtler than the 3️⃣ grosser panchabhūtās of solid earth 🌏, liquid water 💧 & energetic fire 🔥. Why mythical birds? So that we can transcend the fourth panchabhūtā of gaseous air too & traverse the all-encompassing space or akāśā. Eventually, our ultimate spiritual evolution requires us to transcend all 5️⃣ bhūtās i.e. panchabhūtās, the final frontier being the sportive field of these mythical birds, namely space-time or kālā too & thus recognize our indelible oneness with nothingness or mahā-kālā. Let’s now check out these 3️⃣ birds in the context of the song 🎧 under consideration:

Firstly, our most attractive National Bird, the peacock🦚, epitomized as the pranava mantrā AUM, the very essence of the vedās, represented by the wings of Garudā 🦅 from whose feathers Mayurā or the peacock is said to have originated. And the peacock’s feather 🪶 in turn is said to decorate the head of the very principle of attractiveness, Krśnā: “mada-śikhi piñch-ālankruta cikure |“ rendering the facade of attraction to be as soft/flexible as a bud 🌹 & its cheekiness as reflective as a mirror 🪞”maha-ṇīya kapola vijita mukure ||” These qualities provide the principle of attractiveness an access to the otherwise impenetrable fortress of the very bosom of prosperity “śrī ramaṇī kuca durga vihāre |” as well as acquisition of the prestigious role as the wish-fulfiller at the abodes of all the service-minded “sevaka jana mandira mandāre ||” So, peacock 🦚 is the first bird mentioned in this song, inspiring classical continuum mechanics.

Secondly, the supreme swan or parama-hamsā 🦢 capable of extracting pure milk 🥛 even from highly diluted milk or, in other words, the core spiritual essence of even materialistic existence, inspiring quantum mechanics. BTW, Paramahamsā also happens to be the pen-name, the renowned stamp or mudrā of Śri Sadaśiva Brahmendrar.

And, thirdly, akin in appearance to the partridge is the untranslatable & exalted chakorā bird 🐦, which is supposed to survive by feeding on nothing more than moonlight 🌝 alone: “parama-hamsa mukha-candra cakore |” inspiring both the special & general theories of relativity, rendering every human body to be a precious flute in the soulful musical play of the one & only consciousness that we all actually are in reality, namely the para-brahman, which culminates the song with “pari-pūrita muralī rava-dhāre ||”

In the beginningless rhythm 🥁 of ādi tālam, akin to Śivā’s damru, this song is typically sung in the rāgam known by an epithet of the dark-hued Krśnā, that is śyāmā, sometimes referred to as sāma or sama, being 28th hari-kAmbhOji-janya, Hari once again being an epithet of the stealer of our hearts 💕 & spirits, Śri Krśnā. Hence, hari-kAmbhOji is the principle of attraction which steals the burdensome fruits of our desires, enjoying the whole process as a treat. While the very word Krśnā symbolises attractiveness <ākarśanā>, it’s also interesting to remember that the movie Śankarābharanam itself is named after the favourite rāgam of its lead character, Śankara Śāśtri.

Śankarābharanam is literally a jewel <ābharanam> of Śankarā, the supremely-attractive principle of nothingness <śivā>. So it all eventually boils down to our internal black hole 🕳!!! Na deho na mano na buddhi sat-chit-ānanda ātmoham... Śivoham Śivoham Śivoham!