What's app Selections 3

Bird Meditations, bird thoughts, bird loves, bird conversations and bird beings...

17.11.17-8,30 a.m.

It is such a pleasure watching birds. I mean, it is not even as though i plan to watch them.

I was just getting ready to start correcting a batch of those 130 grammar papers, when their movement on the tree branches sailed into my peripheral vision.

Who says birds don't chase each other? This was a case of two shalik birds, nimbly following each other from the lower to the higher branches. Fast, lithe, ballerina tapering legs.

No worry, no cares. Just living. One has to learn from birds and animals.

English Romantic poetry celebrates the bird as the highest symbol of freedom.

In  To a Skylark Shelley writes, 'higher still and higher/ the blue deep thou wingest' 'Thou' because the bird is holy. Holy. Holy. In the Kathamrita Thakur speaks of the Homa bird, which lives high up in the Heavens. When the young are born they start descending towards the earth. But half way through they realize that the earth is full of pain and corruption, and they go right back to where their mother is in the upper skies...

Indian adage says that Sadhu and Panchi (bird) don't hoard...:)  

18.11.17-5,15 p.m.

Thank God for bird sounds in the city. On Southern Avenue, on the way back from the park one hears them. Chorus of bird voices. Restful, beautiful. Interrupting and providing such a restful and soothing counterpoint to city sounds. Great Mother Nature! May we always be blessed with your presence. No wonder the Bengali character is poetical. Surrounded by so much beauty, how can one not respond? The poet Jibanananda Das said in one of his Rupashi Bangla (রুপসী বাঙলা) poems, "Banglar mukh ami dekhiyachi/ tai prithibir mukh dekhite chahi na aar" ('বাংলার মুখ আমি দেখিয়াছি/ তাই পৃথিবীর মুখ দেখিতে চাহি না আর').

Kobitaar sphuron aaj je aar shesh hoi na. Ekta gaan achhe, 'ami kaan pete roi'. Robi Thakur er gaan. Rabindranath to Baul bhab e bishwas korten. Je bhab achhe oi gaanta teo: 'dekhechhi roop sagore moner manush kancha shona'. Oi 'moner manush' hochhen Atman. Baul ra believe kore je nijer moddhye khunjle Ishwar ke pawa jai. Rabindranath ei eky bhab prokash korechhen ei gaantai; 'amar praaner manush achhe praane'.

(কবিতার sphuron আজ যে আর শেষ হয় না।  একটা গান আছে, 'আমি কান পেতে রই'. রবি ঠাকুরের গান। রবীন্দ্রনাথ তো বাউল ভাব-এ বিশ্বাস করতেন। যে ভাব আছে ওই গানটাতেও: 'দেখেছি রূপ সাগরে মনের মানুষ কাঁচা সোনা'। ওই 'মনের মানুষ' বলেছেন আত্মা কে। বাউলরা বিশ্বাস করে যে নিজের মধ্যে খুঁজলে ঈশ্বর কে পাওয়া যায়। রবীন্দ্রনাথ এই একই ভাব প্রকাশ করেছেন এই গানটায়, 'আমার প্রাণের মানুষ আছে প্রাণে'। )

Tai bochi 'ami kaan pete roi'. Prakritir choron dhwani r jannya 'kaan pete' thakte hoi. (তাই বলছি 'আমি কান পেতে রই'। প্রকৃতির চরণ ধ্বনির জন্য 'কান পেতে' থাকতে হয়।) Hopefully the more receptive and open one becomes, one hears the natural symphonies and orchestras better.

Noti Binodini

The subject resonated with a Kolkata audience because it relates directly to their own cultural inheritance and its integral relationship to theatre. Calcutta and Bombay were the two urban centres in which theatre became an urban idiom in the 19^th century through the rich colonial interface.

The historical context was very well researched except that the early Sri Ramakrishna and Girish Ghosh interface had to be collapsed into one scene, where Girish’s transformation from sceptic to believer, takes place a little too rapidly. The scene where Girish sees Sri Ramakrishna’s reflection in his wine glass doesn’t take place quite that early in the actual chronology of events. 

The play was remarkable for the many debates related to theatre that it introduced. A strong feminist context also intersects with the passion for theatre that marks this period of Bengal’s urban history, particularly embodied in the figures of Girish Ghosh and Amrita Lal Basu or Rasaraj. The appellation of ‘Rasaraj’ earned by Amrita Lal Basu, centralizes the importance of rasa or passion/appreciation of beauty that is integral to both the practice and performance of art within Indian traditions.

Several statements made in this context are important. Girish Ghosh highlights how he gave up his well-paying job at a British firm to devote himself wholly to theatre. When Binodini importunes him to understand how she cannot hoodwink Rajababu in order to further the material benefit of theatre ( theatre production, building of theatre houses), Girish Ghosh tells her that nothing can be greater than the cause of theatre and that she should abjure all concerns that did not relate directly to her vocation as a theatre artist. Another outstanding comment regarding the supreme value of the performer in society, is when in response to  Dasu Niyogi’s condemnation that Binodini is after all only a prostitute/actress, Girish Ghosh replies that she is an artist, a theatre artist, and she needs no other social credentials.

I thought the feminist focus was excellent. Noti Binodini needs to repeatedly validated as a woman actress par excellence who not only excelled in the acting of challenging roles, many of which were those of male historical characters, but also someone who obtained for Bengali theatre a ‘room of one’s own’, in helping to build Star Theatre. She deserves a pride of place, equal to that of Girish Ghosh in helping to locate Bengali theatre within traditions of land acquisition, registration and building of Star Theatre.

Binodini is also iconic in terms of actively exploring the limits of theatre for the portrayal of characters in a play, but in bringing a strong intellectual element in the understanding of wherein the spirit of theatre lay. She speaks of how she had heard that actors on the Western stage listened to the cry of the nightingale and tried to emulate it if their art called for it. It is her active search for excellence in her craft and art that places her in the company of all artists who seek to reach the ‘soul’ of their medium/craft.

Her immersion in theatre was also absolute. She accepted her life as a prostitute with resignation. However her area of incandescence was theatre. She speaks for all passionate actors and actresses when she says, ‘ami jokhon Manche, tokhon ami Binodini Dasi theke Noti Binodini hoye jai’. This statement rings with her pride in her professional and artistic status. It also marks her as progressive given her historical context, where women were slowly emerging from the zenana to take an active role in the world outside the house. Kadambini Ganguly and Krishnabhabini Das are some names in context. Such women empowered by their middle class contexts, were perhaps in a more confident position to claim their individual and discrete professional identities outside their homes. What is striking is that Binodini too, displays a commensurate confidence and self assurance regarding her own professional value. Binodini’s life has utmost importance as feminist historiography.

As much as Binodini stands for a certain unusual  validation of  self in a woman who was technically from the margins of Kolkata society in the late 19^th century,  she also participates in the same continuum where women’s bodies are used not only to gratify male desire, but also to  bear the power of male dominance as well as their social and cultural hegemony. The same Girish Ghosh who could argue for sacrificing one’s all for theatre, colluded with Amritlal Basu and Dasu Niyogi, to make Binodini give up her share of Star Theatre. It was after all for her that Gurmukh Rai paid 50000 rupees to build Star Theatre.  Girish Ghosh and Amiritlal Basu and Dasu Niyogi had  promised her that the new theatre for which she arranged a sum of Rs 50000.00, would be named after her. Eventually, considerations of her fallen status in Bengali society as a prostitute and actress, become weightier for them and the theatre house is named Star Theatre. Binodini leaves theatre, never to go back again. Memories of the past, and her exploitation by the men around her, including Girish Ghosh,  whom she had worshipped almost as a God, haunt her.

Sri Ramakrishna’s intersection with this world comes through his defence of Girish Ghosh when his devotees Ram Chandra Dutta and Hridayram Mukhopadhyay excoriate Girish as a drunkard and a libertine. In the Kathamrita  there is reference to how Sri Ramakrishna tells Ramchandra, ‘tora Girish er moto ekta natok likhte parbi?’ Sri Ramakrishna constantly emphasizes the power of theatre to educate large masses of people. Even on stage he says, ‘natok lok shiksha dei’.

What is also communicated in the play and which is true of  Sri Ramakrishna’s relationship with all his devotees, is his unconditional love for them. His courting of Girish to earn the intellectual’s attention is one of the most endearing aspects of a relationship which begins with disdain and indifference on Girish’s part to become one of utmost dependence and desperate importuning to be relieved of the sinfulness of his life.  The childlike nature,  the oceanic capacity to love, the profound humility and the gigantic spiritual strength that made Sri Ramakrishna irresistible, are effectively brought out through Dipankar Banerjee’s acting.  

Overall, a powerful play. In my opinion, the role of Girish Ghosh was most powerfully and memorably played. Sri Ramakrishna was also well played. Binodini showed great competence through her memorizing of long and intricate dialogues. One could see her passion for acting and commitment to theatre.  However, she tended to be somewhat declamatory, i.e., she spoke in a more or less loud voice throughout, without engaging in much voice modulation. That made her performance somewhat less interesting than it could have otherwise been. The Kathak dancing was superb. The idea of introducing the names of the plays through the masked dancer was brilliant. The wonderful teental truly brought the note of celebration that theatre is supposed to be. In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the Fool (Feste),  speaking in his own voice as the actor who plays the role of Feste, says that it is theatre’s business to give the audience what it wants.

However, there was one significant lack. The singing was not up to the mark. Dipankar Banerjee’s ‘judate chai’ was flat and off tune most of the time. Binodini was better but even her ‘mon cholo nijo niketane’ while beginning in tune, faltered significantly in the higher notes. The director may consider play back singing. The effort at realism is good. However, if the singing is tuneless, then in my humble opinion, the aesthetic effect is impaired.

Overall, wonderful.

Sreemati Mukherjee

Professor, Performing Arts

Presidency University

Rabindra Sarovar Lakes: The many interweaves of nature, poetry and humanity

It may be hard to find poetry in the city of Kolkata. Of course, during Basanta or Spring, Kolkata is grand, with its Palash trees providing new and subtle geographies, and the map of the city may be temporarily redrawn along points of Palash trees.  A journey to the  Barisha Math (RKM) , for instance, travelling along James Long Sarani, may become remarkable for the flaming presence of three of these trees at different points of the journey.The cross section at Rash Behari Avenue, close to the Bhawanipore Cemetery,  the Victoria Memorial, La Martinière School, along  Red Road, the Governor’s House and Akash Bani Bhavan, these trees waylay the passer by with  a beauty that is spectacular and almost brazen for a very brief period of two to three weeks. Nature almost seems to be stalking beauty starved eyes, and shocking them into awareness of exactly how magnificent and dazzling Kolkata/Bengal can be.

If however one travels to the Rabindra Sarobar Lakes at this time, then one’s thirst for natural beauty, and the poetry of nature, is richly satisfied, because  here,  as Keats says in On the Grasshopper and Cricket, ‘the poetry of earth is ceasing never’. New leaves vying with each other to spring forth, lace, envelop, garland trees, in an infinite variety of shape, size and colour. Many, many shades of luscious green, leading to rich green symphonies, that ifone looks hard enough to find  validation of beauty through form, colour, melody,  human aspiration and  human effort,  then one may still find it at the Rabindra Sarobar Lakes, all year around, but especially in Spring. In Basanta the potential for regeneration and renewal through contact with natural beauty is also made possible through the soprano melodies of one of Nature’s finest and most unforgettable musicians: the Koyel or Kokil. That the music of the Kokil has truly haunted generations of listeners, is borne out by the number of songs that have immortalized the Kokil:

Koyeliya gaan thamao ebar (sung by Begum Akhtar)

Kuhu kuhu kuhu kuhu koyelia (Sachin Dev Burman)

Ajo kande kanone koyelia (Kaji Nazrul Islam)

And a variant of the Kokil family, Keats’s ‘nightingale’, whose music the poet feels has always created rich continuums of listening and responding:

‘The voice I hear this passing night was heard/ In ancient days by emperor and clown’.

Thus music cutting right across social divides. I am sure it is like that at the Lakes too, with all classes and sections of people, thrilling to the sound of the Kokil in Basanta, the season having been magnificently invoked in Tagore’s song Basanti  Hébhuvanamohini, composed 1931.

The year for the ‘conception and excavation’(S.S. Kumar 6) of  the Lakes is 1920. Launched under the initiative of The Calcutta Improvement Trust, Civil Engineer Probodh Chandra Chatterjee, who later also laid the foundations of Central Avenue,  worked under the stewardship of Chief Engineer of CIT, M.R. Atkins (S.S. Kumar 6-7). Rabindra Sarobar Lakes is a fascinating hub of life, if one goes to walk there in the evenings. Cross sections of Kolkata people, mainly from South Kolkata, find the Lakes a must stop, a natural haven in which to shelter in for some time.

The many social groups that cross section at the Lakes, create fascinating kaleidoscopes of social layers, ethnic, sub ethnic groups, that come to the Lakes for different reasons, and also respond to nature in different ways. Some do not see it at all. Walking in the lake at evening allows opportunities for a rich study of multiple interfaces, which include the sociological, predicated on class, ethnicity and gender, and their many varied interfaces with nature. For instance, there are the twig gatherers, who meet their fuel needs at home by gathering twigs. They sometimes work in groups, all the while chattering among themselves. I was able to take the picture of one such person, who offers a rich dramatic comparison, say, to the young woman who comes only to jog in the park, dressed in leotards, earphones in her ears and totally oblivious of her surroundings. On the face of it, she certainly seems removed from the immediate cares of carrying on a life of basic subsistence, like the woman in the picture below:

When I asked this woman in the picture above, how she would get her bags of twigs home, she said that she would now walk from Rabindra Sarovar, to her home at Baruipur. Her face was smiling and radiant. She has sons who study at City College. Everybody likes me for my cheerful ways, she informed me.

Hence, multiple class narratives are generated which intersect in interesting ways. During the evening hours when I walk, the walkers, are from both Bengali and non-Bengali backgrounds. The non-Bengalis, mostly women, are usually upper class, well dressed,  speak Hindi, and walk in large groups. Their ages veer from thirty to fifty. It is possible that that many of them are housewives. They seem boisterous and gregarious, among themselves.  Bengalis, both men and women, are generally from the middle class, mostly above 50, in two’s, three’s and often alone. I once heard  a group of three men who went past me,  robustly discussing some upcoming Cricket match.  One must perforce mention the young people, mostly from poor Bengali backgrounds, who use the Lakes for physical proximity to each other, an opportunity denied in their homes or neighborhoods.

And some like me who are happy that nature and people provide them with so much food for thought.

Mothers of multiple ethnicities, including foreigners, bring their children to play at the Safari Park, run by Lions’ Club. This well maintained children’s park area, has slides and swings, bars, a jungle gym and also a donkey ride, if one wants one.   I once saw a young white mother, with three children, urge her oldest child to reach a hanging bar that was just a little out of reach for the child.  Western cultures seem to have the embedded cultural imperative urging attention towards fitness, physical strength and endurance of the body. The Safari Park also contains in neat engraved tablets, good advice to adults regarding both psychological and physical health!

Along with mothers, one also finds grandmothers walking with grandchildren, old persons with attendants, and some also in wheelchairs.  Some old persons hold the hands of attendants, some prefer to walk alone, but are closely followed by attendants, some have a visiting grand- daughter accompanying them.  Once I met a group of  class III children, mostly from middle class backgrounds, studying at  La Martinière School, whose mothers had brought them to the Lakes as a prize after their Class III, second semester Mathematics examination! Their trilling voices were very much like Kokil cries.

As a study in contrast one also sees sometimes, poor mothers who drag their children through the park on their way to some rich residence, where they work as maids.

I ran into a French group the other day. Parents had come to visit children. They spoke French.  The couple had had a very young daughter, whose antics everybody watched. May be her parents teach at the Alliance Francaise.  I also once saw a young white man, in late morning, in kurta and pyjamas, come and sit by the side of the water, simply by himself.

The Rabindra Sarovar Lakes offer rich fusions of the natural and human, creating fascinating kaleidoscopes  of ever changing shapes, forms and sounds, which include green leaves , kokil call and other bird parties, colors of human clothes, bird chatter and human chatter, superficial talk of in laws and dinner menus, to more heart breaking ones of how a jhal muri wallah, who walked all the way from pre-Partition East Bengal to Kolkata,  has never been able to rehabilitate himself within social fabrics that clearly favor the rich and privileged.  He told me how in 1940’s, when he first started selling muri or puffed rice at the Park,  British Park police did not forbid him to sell muri on the Lake grounds.

The very old jhal muri wallah who walked all the way from East Pakistan

Then there is the story of the tea seller (below), who began his life by selling drinking water at Vivekananda Park , in small plastic cups, from water he obtained from Corporation taps. He lives in the tenements close to Vivekananda Park and is in the Lake grounds every day from 4 p.m.  to 8 p.m.  He makes the tea at home.

These people gather on the fringes of the middle class and rich walkers, who sometimes stop for a makeshift cup of tea, but remain mostly invisible to them, except for certain moments of functionality. 

The picture above is that of another muri wallah who regularly feeds crows (picture below) and who advised me to do the same. I had given him rupees fifty rupees once for that purpose.

I feel that these persons mentioned above give me a fuller context for my city, and enrich my life with their stories.  I have noticed that people from humble walks of life, sometimes care far more deeply for the plants and animals around them, than people for whom privilege and an assured life, are givens. Those who struggle are more aware of the struggles for survival in others. The muri wallah for instance, cares whether the birds are fed or not.

A park sweeper employed by the KMC.

A woman who makes her living out of collecting recyclable material from the lakes

The efforts of leaf gatherers, jhal muri wallahs, balloon sellers, sweepers and plastic bottle salvagers, may sometimes be far more eloquent than those  of well to do and privileged, who mainly come to the lakes to walk and get their daily exercise, in beautiful natural surroundings. Their relationship to the Park is far more immediate and urgent. Their narratives intertwine with the various forms of eloquence that the trees, leaves and birds proffer, creating an incredible polyphony.

The Rabindra Sarovar Lakes offer bird paradises, bird havens, bird orchestras, bird ballerinas and bird plays if one cares to listen. In Spring, as I already mentioned, the Kokil’s call, creates a kokil orchestra if you like, with many kinds of  ‘call’ and ‘response’ between them from different trees and branches in which they are perched, to make one attentive and listen with rapt attention, to both their jabbering and their high soprano singing. Well known dancer Alokananda Roy came to the Lakes to perform Balmiki Prathibha, where the cast comprised of inmates of Correctional Homes, as part of Roy’s outstanding effort to integrate such inmates with society, using Art and Culture as a bridge.  In this context I would like to point out that the kokil too is a splendid artist, who performs without tabla and harmonium, completely spontaneously, joyously, untiringly and abundantly.

 Alakananda Roy as Saraswati in Balmiki Pratibha

One also often runs into artists who are learning to perfect line, design and colour and are students of Birla Academy art school. One sees them painting trees, their whorls and their mysteries, which are as eloquent as the earth herself.  ‘Copy Nature’ or ‘imitate nature’ have been mantras that visual artists and sculptors have had to live by. For instance in the image of the young man below, painting on an easel just outside the Lake Kali temple, adjacent to Birla Academy of Arts, one notices his superb concentration, diligence and devotion to his task.

There are also photographers who wait in reverence and awe hoping that a rare bird will make an appearance from behind a heavy screen of leaves in a large tree. Students of photography also come to the Lakes to find suitable subjects. 

At the Chakra Baithak above, a building of the most fascinating historicity and heritage value, monthly addas on literature, culture and the Arts are still carried out. Begun in 1939, in the home of D.C. Ghosh, the name Chakra Baithak was given by Rabindranath Tagore. This building dates back to 1940 and has been graced by the presence of Kalidas Nag, Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay,  Buddhadev Bose,  Premendra Mitra, Naren Deb and Radharani Deb. Hemanta kumar Mukhopadhyay and other distinguished personalities of Bengal.  Sumita Dutta, its current Cultural Secretary, said, that ‘sanskriti seva’ or ‘the service of culture’ was the motto of this organization. Attention needs to be paid to this heritage site so that a very significant cornerstone of metropolitan Kolkata cultural life almost 80 years may be preserved.

Lakes are home to him part of the time: Nomo Nomo Nomo Janani Bangabhumi…

The Rabindra Sarovar Lakes make poetry in the city of Kolkata possible, by drawing in plants, leaves, trees, birds and humans into endless combinations, associations and  melodies, providing opportunities for many more combinations, associations and melodies.

I am indebted to Mr. S.S.Kumar’s book Rabindra Sarobar-- Lakes for background historical information.  

Sreemati Mukherjee

Professor, Department of Performing Arts

Presidency University

[Formerly of the Department of English at Basanti Devi College]

As I mentioned at the outset of this page, the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita continues to draw and overpower me. In the following essay I look at Sri Chaitanya's powerful presence in the Kathamrita through songs, anecdotes, Sri Ramakrishna's application of Vaishnava Madhura as an important spiritual, epistemological and aesthetic tool for God exploration, understanding and enjoyment. I see in Sri Ramakrishna the embodiment of the Radha bhava, something he himself acknowledged. The following article was published in the Prabuddha Bharata in 2016. 

Sri Chaitanya as affect and epistemology in the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita

In the richly layered and plural text that the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita is, Sri Chaitanya is one of the most referred to figures, at once an historical example through whom Sri Ramakrishna grounds the states of bhava and mahabhava, yet,  also mythical, in participating and extending the divine Eros of Radha or Sreemati, herself. Even if it is possible to establish Radha as a historical personality, it is for her quality of affect, her absolute and complete self-- forgetfulness in her love for Krishna, that she functions as myth and archetype to the Indian mind, setting absolute standards for love, both quotidian and spiritual. She becomes the pivot or the fulcrum through whom generations of poets and singers have explored the limits of self-- transcendence offered by Love, as an integral response to life.Sri Chaitanya becomes  a participant in Radha’s affective continuum  by  embodying in himself, her consummate love for Krishna,  and of  being able to lose the world in a state of perfect divine eros, that  Thakur describes in the following manner: ‘Bon dekhe brindavan bhave/samudra dekhe Sri Yamuna bhave’ which translates into ‘ He sees the forest and thinks it is Vrindavan, and when he sees the sea, he thinks that it is the Yamuna’ (599).1 

However, to the reader of the Kathamrita, Sri Ramakrishna, who often remained immersed in a state of  Samadhi,  who was transported to intense bhava during Kirtan singing, and  who pined for his devotees with such longing that he felt that his heart was being wrung like a wet towel, inhabits the same affective continuum as Radha and Sri Chaitanya. As Master Mahasay describes Sri Ramakrishna ‘nishidin  Haripreme—Ma-r preme—matowara’ which translates into ‘ constantly intoxicated with the love of Hari and Kali’ (130). In this  context, one is also reminded of how during his pilgrimage to Benares with Mathur Babu in his early life,  Ganga Mata, the famous woman saint of Benares, identified Sri Ramakrishna as ‘dulali’ or Radha. 2

Thus, if in the Kathamrita,  Sri Ramakrishna, Sri  Chaitanya and Sri Radhika, seem simultaneous, where  Radhika is mythical, and the other two historical personages, the text  demonstrates how myth and history may  mutually inhere in each other, and set up a rich universe of correspondences, parallels and affective mutuality.  Through Sri Ramakrishna’s constant recall  and remembrance of  Sri Radhika and Sri Chaitanya,  his ecstatic responses to songs from the Gaurchandrika and Chaitanya Lila, Madhura resounds through the text, is constantly recalled and reinforced, creating an incredible sound universe,where Radha and Chaitanya become powerful leitmotifs, both epistemologically and artistically.  If Radha is Ananta premamayee, who worshipped in the madhura rasa,   then Sri Chaitanya who worshipped in the Radha mode, is similarly premamay, and a yogi in the madhura rasa. Sri Ramakrishna, who in Swamiji’s words was “Love personified” was similarly both premamay and rasamay, so compelling was the joy that emanated from him,  through conversation, song, and his ecstatic response to both Kali and Krishna, Radha and Chaitanya.

Before one goes further, one needs to talk of the madhura bhava, of which Radha is the prime exemplar, and Sri Chaitanya, an equally important one. And their inclusion in this text, throws a different light on Sri Ramakrishna, where they function as extensions of each other, complementary to eavh other and variations of each other, which unquestionably leads to great richness. The most important bhavas through which the Vaishnav worships Krishna are madhura(love) shanta(quietness), dasya (servanthood) and vatsalya (childlike worship of God) and sakhya (friendship).These bhavas are all mentioned in the RamkrishnaKathamrita too. Sri Ramakrishna cites the case of Sreemati or Radha and says, “Sreemati had madhurbhava” (65). He further adds that within the “madhurbhava” there is “shanta, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya” (64), and adds, “I have the attitude of a child.”(65). Vatsalya which is to relate to God as a parent,  is how  Sri Ramakrishna related to Kali whom he called the ‘Divine Mother’. Shivaprasad Bhattacharya claims that “happiness over love,” or “Premananda”, “happiness in the world,” “Bhumananda”, and “experience of the ultimate happiness of Brahman,” or  “Brahmananda,”  come together in the madhurabhava, the bhava with which Radha worships Krishna (55).

This tattwa also merges with Shaktatattwa where the Divine Unity is seen in the conjunct figures of Shiva and Shakti or Brahman (Krishna) and Shakti (Radha).   Refracted through this Shakta epistemology, Radha also becomes Adhyashakti On October 5, 1884, Sri Ramakrishna refers to an incident where Jashoda not being able to bear the absence of Krishna, seeks solace from Radha. Whereupon, Radha tells Jashoda that the latter should take a boon from her, because she is Adyashakti (630).   Radha is also Brahman’s Hladini form that allows the lila of form, color, beauty, emotion to take place, in infinite combinations and variations. 4

Some of the most memorable moments of the Kathamrita, or one of the most charged descriptions in the Kathamrita, are of Thakur’s ecstatic references to Radha and Chaitanya, and his singing and dancing on such occasions. That Sri Ramakrishna was a great artist, in fact, a consummate artist, is well demonstrated in his frequent use of song to elucidate subtle philosophical issues, and his use of stories, to constantly draw in the world of everyday lived and observed experience, with spiritual states, inabilities, progress and elevation. He was a born musician and a born storyteller. His parables, like Jesus’s contain great immediacy, and simplicity of appeal, have a wide range of accessibility, because the language is direct and unpretentious. They are of the style of folk artists or baul songs, or Ramprosad’s lyrics, where the spiritual aspirant speaks in simple language and homely metaphors, and draw him/her, depending on the reader’s level of artistic and spiritual discrimination, to read wider and wider circles of meaning, in these stories. This also locates Sri Ramakrishna, within a very grounded folk tradition of Bengal, which once again, strikes a resonating chord, with the great mass involvement of the Sri  Chaitanya movement. 

I will now refer to the events of 18th June, 1883. The occasion is the Panihati festival where Thakur is described as dancing in front of the Radha Krishna temple. M refers to his state as  ‘gargar matowara’ or ‘drunk with ecstasy’ (224). Sometimes he is described as passing into a state of  Samadhi (224). The Sri Chaitanya and Sri Ramakrishna tie that the text highlights, which leads to the mutuality of Radha/Chaitanya/Ramakrishna, to deepening and intensifying of the madhura bhava, is brought out by narratorial comments like the following, where M says

the many people assembled at the Panihati (Peneti) festival were thinking that ‘Sri Gauranga must have manifested himself inside this Mahapurusha.’ Indeed ‘some were thinking  that he was Sri Gauranga  incarnate’(225).

After the dancing and the kirtan, Thakur sits down to talk to Nabdwip Goswami. He tells him that when Bhakti matures it becomes bhava, which leads to mahabhava, which in turn leads to prema and after that  ‘bastu labh’ (the thing itself) or Ishwar.

He further tells Nabadwip Goswami that ‘Gauranga had mahabhava. Also love Prem (love). That is why he jumped into the blue ocean thinking that it was the Yamuna’  (225).

He then adds,  ‘Jiva does not have mahabhava or prema. They stay with bhava only. Gauranga had three states—right?’ (225)

Nababweep answers: antardasha( entirely immersed within the SELF), ‘ardhabajhyadasha’ (when the consciousness is divided between the world and the SELF ) and ‘bajhyadasha’ or ( state when one is fully engaged or aware of the world)

Sri Ramakrishna responds to Nabadweep’s answer by adding: ‘in the state of antardasha he used to stay in Samadhi, in ardhyabajhyadasha he used to only dance, and in bajhyadasha he used to do naamsamkirtan.

An epistemological and intellectual dimension comes in with Thakur explicating Sri Chaitanya. Not only does he  respond to Chaitanya with joy, inhabiting his affective space like a sahardaya, but he also has keen intellectual perception of the many spiritual ontologies of this celebrated medieval Bengali saint. Therefore, a dialogue between Thakur’s affect and intellect also takes place through Sri Ramakrishna’ exegesis, adding to the splendour if both spiritual figures and of the Kathamrita as intertextual and myriad faced text.

On 14th December, 1883, Thakur tells Ramlal to sing the following Kirtan. A kirtan often has akhar or refrain, and it comes out in the following song, through the words in the parenthesis

Ramlal sings:

Ki dekhilam re , Keshav Bharatir kutire

Oh, what did I see in Keshav Bharati’s house

Aparupa jyoti , Sri Gauranga murati, du nayane prem bohe satadhare

The glorious and  resplendent Gauranga, from whose eyes Love flows out in mighty streams (327)

The  greatness of Radha’s personality, and  the rareness of the Radha like state, is brought out through the haunting questions that the next song asks:

                Radha-r dekha ki pai sakale

How many people get to see Radha?

          Radhar prem ki pai sakale  

How many people can love like Radha?(327)

Thakur then asks  Ramlal to sing the following song: “Gaur and Nitai, you are two brothers”, and then Thakur himself starts singing with Ramlal:

Gaur Nitai, tomra du bhai, param dayal he Prabhu

Gaur and Nitai you are two brothers, very compassionate Lords

I have always heard that, Oh Lords

Ami giyecchilam Kashipur e, amai koye dilen Kashi Bisheshwar

I had gone to Kashi and the Lord of Kashi, Kashi Bisheshwar, said to me,

               

Se je parambrahma Sachi r ghar e[Sachi is Sri Chaitanya’s mother]

The Parabramhan resides in Sachi’s house (I have recognized you, O Lord),

Ami giyechhilam anek thain, kintu emon dayal dekhi nai (tomader moto)

I have gone to many places, but nowhere have I seen anybody like the two of you

Tomara braje chhile kanai balai, Node hole Gaur Nitai (se roop lukaye)

               

In Brajadham you were Krishna and Balaram, in Nadia, you are Gaur and Nitai

(You have hidden that original beauty, Oh Lords).

I will now refer to another incident of  July 3,1884, which enacts a magical coalescence of song, dance, and of Kali and Krishna songs together. As Thakur dances at Rathayatra in front of Balaram Bose’s house, M describes Thakur as being full of the bhava of Sri Chaitanya (502). M further states that it was like Gaur was dancing full of ‘Hariprema’ (love of Krishna) at Sribas’s courtyard. . M further says that Balaram’s house was Nabdweep from outside and Brindavan inside (503).  The song in this context is:

Amar gour nache sribas angane bhakta sange (503)

My Gaur dances with his devotees in Sribas’s courtyard

In The Chaitanya Movement, Melville T Kennedy posits that:

Chaitanya gave himself whole heartedly to his musical worship, called kirtan. The courtyard of a certain Srivasa was the centre for the evening devotions. Here, night after night, Chaitanya found an atmosphere so highly emotionalized and a fellowship so congenial and enthusiastic as to arouse him to a high pitch of excitement. This courtyard figures very prominently in the history and hymnology of the sect in Bengal. Chaitanya himself in later days, when a sannyasi residing at Puri, used to speak of it with affection and a trace of  homesickness (20).

In another instance too, when Thakur starts dancing ecstatically in response to Neelkantha’s singing of kirtan, M concludes that Thakur’s room at Dakshineshwar, was like Srivas’s courtyard. The educated and erudite references of the narrator and documenter of the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, help to set up mythical as well as historical parallels and correspondences to Sri Ramakrishna’s lila at Dakshineshwar.

These references widen and broaden the historical and mythical implications of this invaluable text. It creates a historical continuum, in which Sri Chaitanya and Sri Ramakrishna figure, it also creates a continuum sahardya, or affect, whereby Bengal, itself, becomes implicated, whereby kirtan, khol and dancing becomes a Bengali cultural and spiritual response.  The added strain of Radha as an affective pivot, a centripetal source from which Sri Chaitanya and Sri Ramakrishna, are both taking their spiritual charge, brings bhakti and kirtan, into a wider field of Indian spiritual modes. Past and present, inhere  through myth and history, setting up intricate and rich interrelationships and correspondences. Dakshineshwar, Vrindavan and Nadia become coterminous and co extended. Each inheres in the other and sets up an intricate and layered symbolic liturgy, which resounds with the madhura bhava. Panihati, Balaram Bose’s house, and all such places are drawn into this magnificent universe of call, response and echo. This interpenetration also makes the Kathamrita one of the most musically resonant of texts, as various melodies cross and interfuse.

This incident in the Kathamrita, is a very interesting one. It is October 5, 1884. Neelkantha, the kirtan singer has come and Thakur tells him that his song, ‘shyamapada asho nadi teere bash’ is a very nice one (631).Whereupon Neelkantha starts singing. After this song, Neelkantha sings, ‘Mahishamardini’. As he listens, Thakur becomes ‘samadhisthha’ or goes into Samadhi (631). After this Neelkantha sings’ ‘jar jatai Ganga, tini Rajrajeshwari ke hridaye dharan koriya acchen’(631), which translates into ‘He who carries the Ganga on head, carries Rajrajeshwari in his heart’. The reference is obviously to Shiva.

Intoxicated with divine love (premunmattwa), Thakur starts dancing. Neelkantha and the devotees encircle him and also sing and dance (631). What a scene of divine beauty and the transporting delight to music! How music, dance and a common spiritual goal, creates these contingent and also permanent communities where love of the divine is established and resonates. M says, the room was full of people who all seemed drunk on divine bliss. The place was reminiscent of Sribas’s courtyard. Thakur’s devotee, Manmohan Mitra seemed to go into a trance. Women from his household had also come, and one of them, was also similarly affected (631).

Soon Thakur himself starts singing,

Jader Hari bolte du nayan jhure, tara dui bhai eshecche re (631).

Oh, those two brothers whose eyes overflow with tears on hearing the name of Hari (631)  

After this ecstatic singing and dancing, Neelkantha boldly declares, ‘Apniy sakkhat Gauranga’ or ‘You are Gauranga, himself’! (632). Sri Ramakrishna is of course,incredulous and in his humble way says, ‘ What on Earth! I am everyone’s servant’s servant. The wave is of the Ganga, not the Ganga of the wave (632).

I will now refer to the Kirtan singing on 24th April, 1885. The various states of Radha or Sreemati’s vyakulata (yearning for Krishna) are described—Her state of complete abandonment on hearing Krishna’s flute-- how she becomes ‘vyakul’ (lost with yearning) to see Krishna (816). On hearing the words ‘aha sakal madhuryamaya Krishna naam’ (Oh all sound is full of the sweet resonance of Krishna’s name) in the kirtan, Thakur cannot remain seated anymore, and stands up in a state of Samadhi. On partially regaining consciousness, he sweetly keeps uttering the name ‘Krishna, Krishna’. He seems close to the state of Radha, who says in the kirtan, ‘je dekhechi Yamuna tate/sei dekhi ei chitrapate’ (816), which translates into ‘He who I saw on the banks of the Yamuna, is He who I see now in the painting’. This would imply a state of complete oneness with one’s chosen ideal.

Therefore, we find the two distinct strands of the madhura bhava,  one focused on Radha and the other on Sri Chaitanya, closely interlocked or intertwined in the Kathamrita, where mention of Radha, often leads to the mention of Sri Chaitanya, and vice versa. The interlocking,  interpenetration and merging of the two heightens the quality of madhura based affect in the text, and sets up as I have mentioned a system of recall, whereby each distinctive strand of madhura is refracted through the other, causing ever expanding levels of melodic and thought resonance.

Another interesting musical seam that enters the Kathamrita, comes in through the Kali or Shyama songs, which many of the Kirtan singers mentioned here, also had as part of their repertoire. In fact, it is a frequent occurrence that right after the bhava of the kirtan singing, focusing on Radha and Chaitanya, many of the Kirtan singers, like Vaishnavcharan and Neelkantha, break out into Kali songs. Amateur singers like Ramlal, and also Swami Vivekananda, during Ratha Yatra day at Balram Bose’s house, also do the same.

A significant instance is when Thakur comes to Adhar Lal’s Sen’s house on October 1, 1884. Among the people who are present are Kedarnath Chatterjee,  himself a kirtan singer, Vijaykrishna Goswami ( a leader of the Brhamo Samaj, yet, initially born into a family of Krishna worshippers), Baburam Ghosh (later Swami Premananda), and Master Mahasay.  Vaishnavcharan, a renowned Kirtan singer, who is also present, requested by Thakur, to sing.  M describes him to have an extremely sweet voice.

Vaishnavcharan starts with the Abhisar (journey of Radha amdist difficult circumstances ,to meet Krishna) and also sings the Raaskirtan (the union of Radha and Krishna). Dance is another performance oriented response to Life and music, that the text sometimes highlights, as Thakur responds in delight to Kirtan and starts dancing. The above instance is a case in point. M describes the situation:

As soon as the kirtan based on the union of Radha and Krishna started, Thakur started dancing and the devotees too, encircled him and danced  (598).

After the dancing was over, Thakur says to Vijaykrishna, he (Vaishnavcharan) sings well (589). Vaishnavcharan sings an oft repeated song in the Kathamrita:

Sri Gaurangashundor naba natabar, tapata kanchan kai

Sri Gauranga who has skin like molten gold is the new actor of this stage (589)

Yet oddly Vaishnav Charan, the kirtan singer, soon turns to the singing of Kali or Shyama songs. This signals a change of mode, mood and aesthetics. However, this must have been culturally a la mode, where Kirtan singers not only sang Radha/Krishna and Chaitanya lila based songs, but also songs based on love for the divine mother Kali. 

All the bhavas flow into each other Vaishnavcharan sings:

Sri Durga nam japa sada rasana amar

Oh, my tongue chant the name of Durga

Durgame Sri Durga bine ke kore nist

Oh, who except Durga, will protect us during times of trouble?

The fact that Neelkantha, Vaishnavcharan, Ramlal, Narendranath, and Sri Ramakrishna  all sing both Shakta and Vaishnav songs, attests to the rich plurality and synthesizing characteristics of Bengali culture. This is a culture  marked by deep community appreciation of music, where the appreciation was so keen, that during moments of whole hearted musical response, the philosophical disputes between Shaktas and Vaishnavas would be forgotten.  This great catholicity is to be seen in the figure of Sri Ramakrishna who often ordered for both modes of music, who constantly spoke of ‘joto mat, tato path’. Attesting to the simultaneity of Kali and Krishna worship, are the Radha Govinda temples at two very significant Kali temples of Bengal, Dakshineshwar and Kalighat. 

In the Kathamrita all the bhavas flow into each other,  reinforce and recall each other,  set up rich parallels, contrasts and interfaces, startling juxtapositions, and interpenetrating symbolic layers that render the text inexhaustible and incomparable. Perhaps no other religious text in the world is this polyphonic or multitudinous, with a melodic resonance that is almost unsurpassable.  . Affect, performance, melody, philosophy, and orality, merge dramatically and unforgettably in this great text, which is also one of the most performance oriented texts as well.

The impact of the rhythmical and melodic ethos Sri Chaitanya’s sankirtan, lives in Bengal, even today. Rabindranath Tagore modeled his ‘O amar desher mati’ from ‘sonar Gaur kene kende elo O Narahari’. The song is sung within and without nationalist contexts. ISKCON adopted Chaitanya’s ‘Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare’, and made it a world mantra, which had and continues to have global impact.  The latest and most entrancing pop melody, arousing the magical power of the sankirtan is a song sung by the  pop band Bolepur Bluz, which expresses deep yearning for the figure of Sri Chaitanya. The song carries the power to enfold hundreds within its rhythmical and melodic world:  “boli chhede dile sonar Gaur, aar to pabo na/boli chhede dile sonar Gaur, ar to pabo na, na, na, chhede dibo na / amar hrid majhare rakhibo chhede debo na/…../ bhuvanamohana Gora, koto muni janer mono hora. Jaya Radhar name pagol hoye thakbo mono na/na, na chhede debo na.

Notes

1.            All references to the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita  are from the Udbodhan edition. Kolkata: Bagbazar. 23rd impression. 2007. Translations are mine.

2.            Swami Saradananda. The Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga. Udbodhan: Kolkata. 11th Impression. 1963.68.

3.            Shivaprasad Bhattacharya.  PadavalirTattwasoundarya O KaviRabindranath. Kolkata: RabindraBharatiVishwavidyalaya. 1967. 1.

4.            Melville T. Kennedy translates from Chapter II of the Chaitanya Charitamrita, which  explains Hladini Shakti : “ Hladini is so named because of giving delight to Krishna, who tastes delight through that power. Krishna himself is delight and tastes delight. Hladini is the cause of the bhakta’s delight; the essence of Hladini is called prema (love). 94.

Works Cited

Bhattacharya,  Shivaprasad PadavalirTattwasoundarya O KaviRabindranath. Kolkata: RabindraBharatiVishwavidyalaya. 1967.

Bolepur Bluz. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TkwtPWTUks

Gupta, Mahendralal. Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita. Vols. I&II.  Kolkata: Udbodhan Karyalaya. 23rd Impression. 2007.

Kennedy, Melville T. The Chaitanya Movement: A Study of Vaishnavism in Bengal. Delhi: Munshiram Manohar Lal Publishers. 1993. First published in  1925.

Swami Saradananda. Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga. Vol 2. Kolkata: Udbodhan Karyalaya. 11th Impression.  1963.

Acknowledgements: I thank Srimat Swami Prabhanandaji Maharaj, for introducing me to Melville Kennedy’s book.

Sreemati Mukherjee

Associate Professor

Department of English

Basanti Devi College