About Sri Purandara Dasaru:
Sri Purandara Dasaru (1480-1564) who is hailed as Daasa Sreshtam Dayanidim is no exception and in all his Keertanas, Suladis and Uga bhogas he has highlighted several aspects of Sri Madhva philosophy.
Sri Purandara Dasaru has composed nearly 4,75,000 songs. Sri Vyasarayaru,his teacher himself has called his verses as “Purandaropanishat”.How great is Sri Purandara Dasaru talents?He has also said, among the devotees of Hari,Purandara Dasa is the greatest!
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Aradhane of Sri Purandara Dasaru:
Aradhane of Sri Purandara Dasaru for this year falls on 09th Feb 2024, and the below article is submitted at the holy feet of Narada avatara Sri Sri Purandara Dasaru anthargatha guru Sri Vyasaraja Mahaprabhu. May the dust from the holy feet of greatest Haridasaru cleanse our mind and show the holy feet of Lord.
His View on Untouchability:
The word Untouchability as per him is defined that those who are NOT pure in thoughts, actions are called Untouchable and sudra jeevas. Otherwise he never discriminated Jeevas based on their birth at any cost. Our Dasaru proved many times when he travelled as Tirtha Yathra along with Kanaka dasaru(who was birth by shepherd caste). Sri Kanaka Dasaru, though took birth in lower caste proved that those who have inner bhakthi on Lord is a uttama soul. Those who does Brahma dharshan innerself are called Brahmana. There is no iota of doubt in that. Purandara Dasaru recognised and appreciated the Vairagya of Kanaka Dasa, and other devotees during his life time, same like how Sri Vyasarajaru treated Kanaka Dasaru.
Disclaimer: Some of those who took birth as “Brahmins” may not agree with my way of understanding, and I am sorry my view of seeing Caste is same like how our great saints/gyanins treated. I echo 100% that, Caste is not by birth, but by action!
Compositions of Purandara Dasaru:
Sri Purandara Dasaru in one of the songs mentions that he composed total of 4,75,000 divine songs, in the name of Lord Vasudeva and importantly with the blessings of his guru Shri Vyasarajaru. This shows how our Dasaru was humble in doing service to his guru Shri Vyasarajaru. And Guru reading all 4,75,000 songs of Dasaru kept them to his Vyasa peeta(along with his pooja idols), and called the collection as “Shri Purandaro Upanishad”.
Shri Purandaro Upanishad – reason for the title:
(Sri Keshava Tirtha Swamiji of Sripadharaja Mutt doing samasthana pooja)
Why Shri Vyasarajaru called all the compositions of Sri Purandara Dasaru as Purandaro Upanishad? Is it just because seeing the volume? Is it because guru showed affection on Dasaru alone? It is ONLY because each one of the compositions of Sri Purandara Dasaru brought the essence of Upanishad. Sri Purandara Dasaru before composing songs on Lord he himself was a great sanskrit scholar, who got deeksha from the hands of Vyasarajaru, and had divine Bimba roopa dharshan of Lord within himself.
The only reason why he wrote songs in our language(Kannada mostly), because
- Few of people do not have knowledge on Sanskrit
- Few of people do not understand the right meaning
Each Vedas, Sastras like Mahabharatha,Gita, Puranas all were translated to an easy language so that all devotees of Lord would understand the meaning, and attain the aproksha gyana. This was the intention of our great Dasaru and this was the toughest task given by his guru Sri Vyasarajaru, which Dasaru completed easily with Guru anugraha.
4,75,000 Compositions of Sri Purandara Dasaru in a nutshell:
| Rameswara, Udupi and all other Shethra Mahima | 1,25,000 |
| Guru Madhvacharya and all holy saints of Shri Madhvacharya parampare | 5000 |
| Brahma loka, Purana stories, Kailasa | 1,80,000 |
| Dhayana, Saligrama mahime | 60,000 |
| Ekadashi mahime and other vratas | 16000 |
| Suladhis | 64000 |
| Dasapadhagalu | 25000 |
What should be our primary Duty?
We are ever indebted to Sri Purandara Dasaru till our last breath, but at the same time we should also understand every song with the right meaning, with Guru upadesha. Though Sri Purandara dasaru composed 4,75,000 songs for welfare of Humans we could trace only thousands now unfortunately due to foreign invasion, destroy of Vijaya nagara samrajya etc.
If we would have got his entire collection the great language of all time “Kannada” would have been leading scorer in Carnatic music, while comparing other languages like Tamil,Telugu etc. Of course, language is just to convey the message and I do not divide people based on language. I am shocked to see that lot of new comers to learn Carnatic music are not taught the compositions of Hari Dasarus like Purandara Dasa, Kanaka Dasa, Vijayadasa etc especially in Tamilnadu and Andra Pradesh. We should bring the change across all the states. New learners should remember the word “Carnatic” comes from Karnataka because of Purandara Dasa only, as he was born in Karnakata.
Dasaru brought in Balapadam(lessons) such as “Saralivarisai”, “Billari Geetham”, “Jantavarisai”, “Suladhis” etc for the students who are aspiring to learn Carnatic Music. This has been still in practice and followed even now which made everyone to learn the great art easily by the grace of Dasaru. This was the great work of Naradar avatara Sri Purandara Dasarus to Carnatic Music and we should ever remember the service of Purandara Dasar. Hence he is always called as the Pithamahar of Carnatic Music. Click here to read more in detail.
Every one must respect and appreciate the compositions of Hari Dasaru’s like Sri Purandara Dasaru, Kanaka Dasaru, Vadhirajaru etc all the time, till this Universe exist! We should not divide any language songs, but we want to translate them and understand the meanings. All these songs are only for us to reach the state of Aproksha Gyana, all time truth!
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Ever in the service of Hari Dasa Sahitya,
Venkatesh Rajendran
Hare Srinivasa
About The Author
Namaskara having aparoksha gyana is not easy joke so let’s all we can retain by MR. Venkarash Rajendran enormus service of Hari dads sahithya.
Thank you sir,
Of course possible by holding the feet of Vayu with bhakthi and vairagya, and we should do Meditation. Once mind is cleansed vayu will show the feet of Lord(bimba roopa dharshana)
Purandara Dasaru had said the above in many of his songs, especially “Biduvennaya Hanuma”
Manava janma is very difficult to get, and we have to make use of it now, else never.
Sri Raghavendraya Namaha
Very informative. I dont have vast knowledge regarding the subject.but it is interesting to know