ll Vijayat˜ ¹r¤ B¢lak¨¾´aª Prabhuª ll
Geet Sangeet Sagar Trust
It is a great pleasure to
present before you Kirtans of the legendary "Ashta Sakhas" or the "Ashta Chhapa" devotional poets. The Ashta Sakhas are a
group of eight blessed devotional poets who had the priviledge of
being the Sakhas (friends) of Shri Govardhana Nathaji, the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Ashta Sakhas are :-
1) Shri
Kumbhanadasaji, 2) Shri Suradasaji, 3) Shri Paramanadadasaji,
4) Shri Krishnadasaji, 5) Shri Govinda Svami, 6) Shri
Chatrabhujadasaji,
7) Shri Nandadasaji & 8) Shri Chhita Svami.
(click for details-http://www.vallabhadigvijaya.com/pic_gallery/pic_gallery.htm-Ashta Sakha)
The former four were disciples of Shri Vallabhacharya Mahaprabhu and the latter four were disciples of Shri Vitthalesha Prabhucharana, also known as Shri Gusainji, the second son of Shri Mahaprabhuji. It was Shri Vitthalesha Prabhucharana who established the Ashta Chhapa Kirtan Mandali. These Ashta Sakhas were blessed by their respective guru's to visualize the innumerable divine sports of Shrinathaji with His beloved Svamini's and the blessed ladies (Gopis) and cowherds (Gvala) of the holy land of Vraja.
You must know that the songs of these devotional poets hold a very significant place in the day-to-day divine service of the Lord. The lord would not rise in the morning without kirtans, neither would He eat His meals nor would He sleep. Such is the importance of kirtans in the Pushtimargiya style of worshipping Lord Krishna.
Here, I would like to mention one illustration to show how kirtans would please the Lord. You must have heard of Tanasena, the famous court musician and one of the nine gems in the court of Moghul Emperor Akbar. Tanasena had taken initiation into Pushtimarga from Shrimad Vitthalaesha Prabhucharana. Here, I must also mention that besides Tanasena, Birbal, Raja Mansingh and Tatya Tope, i.e. four out of the nine gems of Akbar were disciples of Shrimat Prabhucharana. Since Tanasena was a great singer, he was permitted by his guru to sing before Lord Shrinathaji. One day, Shri Gusainji came to know from somewhere that Tanasena used to drink alcohol. So, He came upto him and said, "Tanasena ! I have come to know that you are addicted to alcoholic drinks. Don't you know that any form of addiction will keep you away from the Blessed Lord. I order you to stop drinking from today itself."
The following day, Shrimat Prabhucharana was adorning Lord Shrinathaji with jewels. But the Lord was not in His usual mood. He was quite gloomy and was continuously yawning. Shri Gusainji asked the Lord, "My dear Shriji ! What makes you upset ?" Shrinathaji replied, "Your disciple Tanasena is not singing kirtan properly." Shri Gusainji came outside and asked Tanasena why he was not singing properly. Very demurely he said, " O Lord of Mercy ! Since yesterday I have not had any drinks. This might be the reason." Hearing this, Shri Gusainji said, "If it is so, then I order you to drink and sing the kirtans at your best so that the Lord is pleased."
Ashta Chhapa Sangeet or the Pushti Bhakti Sangeet is considered to be equally important as the Vedas. I would personally not hesitate to rate them higher than the Vedas. Though the Vedas are the air exhaled by Lord Narayana, the Supreme Person, yet, they fail to reveal the infinite, divine pastimes of Lord Krishna, the Rasa Personified. The Vedas talk only of His greatness (Mahatmya Jnana), whereas, the kirtans unfold the most fascinating, enchanting, mesmerising, mysterious divine sports of Lord Krishna. Through kirtans, a devotee gets to understand the nature and the different mood of the Lord. In some padas, the Lord is doing mischief with the blessed ladies of the Vraja and in another pada, the Lord is an intense, passionate lover. In one pada, He is the most carefree, prankster, hanging around in the woods with His cows and cowherd friends and in another pada He swears to protect His devotees.
In short, the kirtans gives us an opportunity to visualise and experience the various divine pastimes of the Lord which otherwise we cannot see with our eyes. It makes us feel that we are not just a mere spectator of the divine sports but a participant. I am telling this because the kirtans are not just the poets imaginations but a live description of what they are seeing by the infinite grace of their respective guru's. It's like what you sing is what is happening.
Once, Shri Balakrishnaji, Shri Gokulnathaji and others thought of testing Shri Suradasaji's vision. They wondered how Shri Suradasaji could sing and describe the various divine sports without actually seeing them. So one morning, they made Shri Suradasaji sit in front of Lord Shri Navanitapriyaji, who had not worn any clothes and barely had a couple of pearl necklaces which was not enough to cover the body and asked him to describe that state of the Lord. Shri Suradasaji remembered His guru, Shri Mahaprabhuji and sang the pada, "Aaj hari dekhe nangama nanga" meaning, 'today I see the Lord naked.'
The blessed devotional poets (Ashta Sakhas) did not require any eyes to see the Lord and His splendour but were granted the divine eyes by their guru's with which they experienced the bliss of the Lord's countless lilas. We are fortunate to experience the divine nectar of the lilas through these kirtans. Thus, I conclude that kirtans or the Pushti Bhakti Sangeet plays a very integral part in the worship of Pushti Purushottama.
It is very essential for a devotee to sing the kirtans while performing the divine services. But, at the same time it is not possible for everyone to learn music and sing properly. Do not get disheartened if you have not learnt music. Just try and sing them as you would sing any other popular song. We can sing those songs because we hear it a lot of times. It's melody and various notes gets printed on our minds and that enables us to hum the tune of the song. Similarly, I would request you to listen to these kirtans more often with devotion and learn to sing them not to improve your musical talents, but to please your Thakurji.
"Geet Sangeet Sagar Trust" is doing a wonderful job to popularize the kirtans. We have been regularly arranging kirtan programmes to create awareness. We have also thought of creating a library of kirtans on our website www.vallabhadigvijaya.com . We shall try and provide you with kirtans for all major Utsavas and also kirtans for daily seva as per the season.
Our aim is to spread this divine nectar all over the globe. We want the kirtans to be played and sung in every vaishnava household. We are confident that by the infinite grace of Shri Mahaprabhuji, Shri Gusainji, the Ashta Sakhas and with your kind support and encouragement we shall be successful in acheiving our goal.
I personally request you to come forward to serve our great path, Pushtimarga.
I specially thank Smt. Kokilaben Shah, who used to sing with Shri Mukundarayaji Maharaj and has been training a lot of vaishnavas in kirtans, for generously sharing her exclusive, private collection with us. I would also like to acknowledge the services of Shri Ashutosh Gokani for editing and converting each and every kirtan into MP3 format and Shri Chintan Shah for maintaining the site.
Finally, we dedicate this Kirtan Library in fond memory of H.H. Nitya Lilastha Pujyapada Goswami 108 Shri Mukundarayaji Maharaj (Brihan Mandir-Mumbai) who devoted his entire life in the service of Ashta Chhapa Sangeet.
GOSWAMI PRASHANT KUMAR
BRIHAN MANDIR-MUMBAI
** Any individual / group / organisation / trust willing to distribute their collection of Kirtans on the net are welcome. They will be duly acknowledged.
GEET SANGEET SAGAR TRUST
Brihan Mandir-Mumbai.