{"id":1605,"date":"2009-09-28T00:28:44","date_gmt":"2009-09-27T19:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/?p=1605"},"modified":"2009-09-28T00:28:44","modified_gmt":"2009-09-27T19:28:44","slug":"different-takes-dashavatar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2009\/09\/28\/different-takes-dashavatar\/","title":{"rendered":"Different Takes – Dashavatar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Being in love with God. Filled with passion for God. Having a mystical connect with God. Having communication with God that bypasses organsied relgioun. Where you stop referring to God in the terrifying patriarchal formality – and refer to him in the second person. where you fight with God, personify him – dance for him, sing for him, want to marry him … these are just some of the aspects of the bhakti movement. Bhakti <\/em>goes beyond mere devotion.<\/p>\n

Some of the best poerty – be it bhakti <\/strong>or sufi <\/strong><\/em>– is a living testament to this obsession. If you listen to saqia aur pila<\/a><\/strong>, for example, you will realise that the poet is not talking about alcohol, but the high from loving god.<\/p>\n

For, Meera <\/a><\/strong>– Krishna was her true husband – the man she married as a young child. Chaitanya <\/a><\/strong>saw himself as Radha and the gopis who performed the Raas Leela with Krishna; Aandal <\/a><\/strong>was so in love with Ranganatha that, it is said, that the Lord absorbs her as his bride; Jayadeva<\/a><\/strong>, it is said, has Krishna come by to finish his poetry.<\/p>\n

In a way, Jayadeva began the bhaktification <\/em>– if one can call it that – of Hinduis, a good two centuries before the rest of them, north of the Vindhyas<\/a><\/strong>. His work took away faith from the hands of the priests and put the individual at the centre of the relation with God.<\/p>\n

I grew up listening to Jayadeva’s works in bits and pieces – primarily as Carnatic Music . The ashtapadis – or 8 line verses – are fairly popular in Carnatic music ; but i have never heard the Geeta Govinda in the Hindustani Classical style.<\/p>\n

Here is M.S.Subhalakshmi in ragamalika <\/a><\/em>singing the dashavatara <\/a><\/em><\/strong>that forms the prelude <\/a><\/strong>the Geetagovinda<\/p>\n