Mannina Vasane 1

 

Mannina Vasane

I have always wondered if I would have settled down here in USA. Or what makes me stay in India ? There are many reasons and I want to explore one of them. When I keep thinking about it I lose track and it would slip away.

A little nebulous.

Please listen to it before reading further.

It is a folk song and I have listened to it many times over the years. The singer and also music composer is P Kalinga Rao. I consider him the best Kannada singer of ' bhava geethe ' .

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_sxAJ6oNto&list=PLtUk3ZLC-N8e9rSs0L8TzH6gkBupeXWYC&index=2

 

I use this song to convey one reason that holds me to my home.

Dasvalada huva tandu
Nanjunda
Daryage pooje madi
Hoo badi hoyitayya
Nanjunda
Eddu barayya manege

I like local gods. They are more intimate , amenable to our persuasion , we can talk to them in many ways as our moods swing. Our own in short ! . Each one can have her own personal God. Sometimes a small community, village or caste could own.

Sometimes God belongs to our province ( Karnataka seemedavane  ) , residing in the hill we see everyday , consuming food we eat and sometimes becoming abstract ( bayalada ropadavane ) . He watches and we watch Him.

They are not distant all powerful Gods - away from us , floating on unknown seas, moving in snow bound mountains that we cannot imagine, speaking in a language alien to us. Neither are they formidable ones punishing us in horrible hell , or promising eternal life.
Here and now is our Lord Nanjunda.

That is why he pleads and almost complains to Him to get up and come. In a tone that exudes familiarity.

Perhaps He does not oblige.

Then :

Nina karune tappida myale
Nanjunda
Paradesi nanadeno

Paradesi nanadeno
Nanjunda
Parapancha nanagyathako
Nanjunda
Nana chinte ninagyatako

Such a simple and straight forward appeal. Matter of fact.

I can not imagine addressing the Lord in such familiar tones , coaxing, cajoling, pleading, self pitying. As if he is conversing with a friend. How odd it would look in Christianity or Islam where God is to be respected , revered, feared. Here for many Hindus he is a lover ( God is masculine of course and our attitudes show up ) , friend, child, mother, father, Lord . We can praise , cajole, love, show affection, respect, devotion or anything else including blaming and ignoring. I love it.
(  Aside :

In a slightly different context, more elite and Sanskritised , is the nine forms of worship ( nava vidha bhakti ) from Narada Sukta.

To Quote

‘sravanam kirtanam visnoh smaranam pada-sevanamarchnam vandanam daasyam sakyam atma-nivedanam’

 

https://youtu.be/NKIhGn1QyZg

 

Listen to the above nine forms of worship. TMKrishna's sloka ).

Now back to the song :

His ( protagonist's ) life is linked to Him. He talks about his work, his joys.

Swaatiya male huyyito
Nanjunda
Sampangi kere thumbito

Here it tugs my heart. Why does Sampangi kere and Swati male resonate and evoke  memories and associations that Lake Tahoo does not.

That is why I live in India.

Jala nodi bavi tegeyo
Nanjunda
Kula nodi henna tegeyo

  

Wisdom of the age . So retrograde. So be it.

Hadinalku paradakhina
Hadinalku kirudakshina

I don't  get the full meaning. Nevertheless I feel like going around the temple or the hillock with the devotee.

I do not have to have all the mental makeup of the protagonist.
But I can sense it through him. See, hear, feel the devotion. Or as Coleridge said ' willing suspension of disbelief ' as I live through him for a while.

I do not.know how it fits here. Pico  Iyer  is a writer - Indian patents, Studied in England, later in USA , writer , traveler. Married a Japanese and lives in Nara, Japan . He has no roots in the traditional sense. I have read a couple of his books. He says ' .... I am not rooted in a place, I think, so much as in certain values and affiliations and friendships that I carry everywhere I go; my home is both invisible and portable. ..'. 

There is some element in it that echoes what I feel.

I do not pretend ( or aspire ) to be a global person. I do wonder about their ideas, attachments and feelings.

I feel my cultural heritage. What  ’ my ‘ people did, thought, felt is dear to me even if I am not in sync with their belief systems.

 

This may be one pull that I am unwilling to break.