Bhakti Theology Song B

Song B

This song is deeply theological in nature.  I don’t know why I wrote such a song at that time.  In my college days, though we had regular family struggles, I had relatively a good time as a student.  But as the first line came into my mind, rest of the words naturally followed without much inner struggle on a metaphysical level.

A.    தடுத்தென்னைக்காப்பாய்

பூண்கொங்கை அன்னையே

போற்றுதும் நின்திருநாமம்

வீண்பிறவி எடுத்தேனை

வினைநீக்கி ஆள்வாயே

நான்என் வினைசெய்தேன்

நாயினும்இழி இப்பிறவிக்கு

நான்ஒன்றும் அறிகிலேன்

நான்முகனே பழிக்குறியான்

எடுத்தப்பிறவி போதும்

இனிப்பிறவி வேண்டிலேன்

தடுத்தென்னைக் காப்பாய்

தயாபரிநீ சங்கரியே

O Mother who is adorned with gold on the breast; I adore your holy name;

Save me by removing my karmas, the one who took a vain birth

What kinds of karmas I have done to take such a menial birth worse than a dog;

I don’t know the reason and only Brahma needs to be blamed (for creating me like this)

All the births that I have taken are more than enough; I don’t want any more birth

O merciful Sankari, save me (preventing future births).

Interestingly I don’t use the word ‘sin’ in this song for my birth but only ‘karma’ and that too I blame Brahma, the creator god for my births.  Though we often use the word ‘sin’ in our talk, yet on a philosophical level a typical Hindu is more concerned about her karma than sin. 

In lines 5-6 I question the kind of karma that I have done for the present birth, immediately I jump to blame Brahma, the deity of creation for it.  Then seek refuge in the goddess Sankari, to rescue me from future births.  Hindu religious world is too complicated to comprehend neatly, because of its relativism and pluralism.  While personal responsibility is accepted, some kind of excuse is offered blaming others to pass the bug.  It could be Time, Karma or even God, as Goswami Tulsidas well said, (‘kaalahi karmahi Iswar par mitya doshu lagayee’—quoting from memory), ‘Either we blame time (kaliyug) or karma or even god.’  In all this bhakti could overcome any kind of hurdle, as it has the capacity to even bend gods to do extraordinary favour to redeem a bhakta.

This is a big subject and space won’t permit us to go further here.  I have written about this in my book: Living Dialogue—which is waiting for redemption from its karma through my editors to have its salvation from ‘manuscript’ to attain its mukti as a book.

6-5-14. Mathigiri