Sri Prasanna Venkata Dasaru was born in 1680 at Bagalkote, on the banks of the river Ghataprabha. Bagalkot in Vijayapura District. He was born in a small family of his Parents, Two brothers, one of them, elder married.The elder brother was Raghavendracharya and younger one was Venkanna. Kaveramma was the name of the brother's wife.
Raghavendracharya had the privilege of little education while his father was alive, along with Pourohitya in the village. It was not difficult for him to meet the family demands. In addition to this, he was earning some from Agriculture, shared with brothers, inherited from their ancestors. Venkanna’s parents passed away when he was very young. Naturally, he had no formal schooling and worked hard in the fields.
Venkanna's sister-in-law was a very a rude woman. She asked him to do all jobs at home and field, at her beck & call, and she never fed him on time. He almost had no playful childhood with family burden on his shoulders.
Venkanna, by nature was a calm boy with patience, doing all jobs which has been assigned to him, but once he lost his patience and calm, showed his anger, when he was not fed properly by his sister-in-law and insulted by his sister in-law’s cruel treatment at home. also she ill treated him. He left home without telling even his brother.
Venkanna was a boy who had undeterred faith in God. He had learnt a few devotional songs just by hearing them from those who sang on festive occasions. Most of the evenings, he attended religious lectures and recital of the stories of Sri Hari's devotees although he would be completely exhausted by doing domestic & farming work. He had keen interest to listen to the stories of Bhaktas. Though he was not very clever in learning, he had wisdom devotion to Lord Sri Hari and understood what the scriptures related..
Once it so happened much to his surprise, a Divine voice called him to Tirupati abode of Lord Srinivasa and he left home. He was very much eager to see the Lord of Seven Hills and get his blessings. On his way to Tirumala, Venkanna reached the holy town of Sri Raghavendra Swamiji, Mantralya, situated on the banks of river Tungabhadra. On account of divine presence of Guru Raghvendra swamy, Mantralaya is indeed the abode of 'mantras'. Reaching the place of hallowed presence of Guru Raghavendra, Venkanna felt happy as if he was in the very presence of Srinivasa. He wished to stay for three days there, however and extended his stay up to three years there. Venkanna was blessed by the holy sight of Sri Raghavendra Swami in his dream, who said " Venkanna! Lord Srinivasa is waiting for you. Go there my boy immediately".
Venkanna was extremely happy by this dream. He left Matralayam, to Tirumala Hills, with a group of pilgrims. While he started to climb the Hills, at one of the cliffs it looked as though Lord Srinivasa's large image had been carved out of it with round smiling face, bearing a beautiful crown, with four hands and a bold stature. Venkanna raised both his hands in prayer and cried aloud " Hare Srinivasa Srinivasa"!. He went to Kapilatirtha and Galigopura and had darshan of Kapilesaraswami and Lord Narasimha.
Along with other pilgrims Venkanna entered the temple of Srinivasa. When he stood before the majestic, graceful image of the Lord, his joy knew no bounds. He lifted his hands high up in salutation and scremed in sheer joy, "Srinivasa!!!". He gained normalcy from ecstasy, only when the temple servants thrashed him with a rolled up deerskin, asking him to leave the place. Venkanna emerged from the inner shrine and went around it on the outside. He saw some of the Haridasas and others engaged in Samkirtanam singing the glories of God. He joined with them. After some time the priests brought food offered to God and distributed it among those that had gathered there.
The inspiring darshan of Lord Srinivasa, participation in the Samkirtan congregation, prasadam distributed by the archak every afternoon made Venkanna extremely happy and made him stay for four years on Tirumala Hills.
One night Sri Raghavendra Swami appeared again in Venkanna's dream and said "Venkanna God will soon give His darshan to you". Venkanna sat up startled and cried: ‘ Where is my Lord? where is my Srinivasa!!. He was in the silent dark mantapam where he slept.
Early next morning, as usual he joined the crowd to have darshan of Srinivasa. He was in the forefront of the group that entered the inner shine. Outside it had begun to rain. Venkanna had darsan at close quarters. Gazing at the blissful image of Srinivasa, tears of joy swelled in Venkanna's eyes. Instead of the image, there appeared a big tambura and a hand playing on its strings!!. Suddenly, he saw the form of Purandara Dasaru there. There appeared a small image of Srinivasa in the master's heart. There was another big image of the Lord standing behind him. A ray from that image emerged and entered deep into Venkanna;s heart. He was thrilled to highest degree and broke down with joy and horropilation. Lord Srinivasa came close to him and scribbled with a darbha grass, on his tongue, the word Prasanna Venkata and disappeared.
Venkanna got up and stood looking at the majestic image of Srinivasa and began to sing in his praise in a mellow voice. Formerly he used to come for darshan and walk out quietly. Seeing him singing a melodious song on that day, made the gathering of Dasas & devotees surprised. Now Venkanna was not just the old himself, he seemed to have forgotten the world around him. With tears of joy, he went on singing one song after another, with dancing steps using his hands as cymbals.
The same night, the Mahant of the temple had a dream. Lord Srinivasa showed Venkanna to him and said: "This is Prasanna Venkata Dasa, my great devotee. Treat him with all Temple honour, make arrangements for his comfortable stay". Later Mahant met Prasanna Venkata Dasaru on the temple platform, prostrated and conveyed the message of his dream and invited Prasanna Venkata Dasaru to have darshan of Sri Venkateshwara. Venkanna just uttered "Srinivasa all this is your will!". From that day onwards, Venkanna became Prasanna Venkata Dasaru and he got respect and honour during his stay on Tirumala.
His brother came to know all these miracles happened to Venkanna, from pilgrims and went to Tirupathi, requested him to return to his house. The people of Bagalakote were glad to see their Venkappaiah coming out as Prasanna Venkata Dasaru. He adorned his head with a saffron turban, which also covered his back, strings of tinkling bells tied round his ankles. He had tambura hanging by the shoulder in front and a pair of clatter-cymbals in the left hand.
Sri Prasanna Venkata Dasaru went round in the town every morning singing glories of Sri Hari and teaching people the moral path that would lead them on to reach the Happy Abode of Vaikunta.
Sri Prasanna Venkata Dasaru used to spend his time in meditating upon God's greatness, in singing His glory and in composing songs and stories of God. "Samastanama manigana shatcarana" is one of his longer poems, which is almost like Sri Vishnusahasranama. "Naradaru Korvanji Vesha talida caritre" is full of humour, telling how Narada Maharshi put on the role of a sooth-sayer woman, and assured Rukmini Devi that Sri Krishna only would be her husband. He has rendered into simple beautiful Kannada stories from Srimad Bhagavatam. The themes dearest to his heart are those about the childhood pastimes of Sri Krishna. His ankitha as Haridasa is "Prasanna Venkata".
Many of his songs are familiar to people in North Karnataka. In Bagalkote, each year his punya dina is celeberated on Bhadrapada Masa Suddha Dvadashi of 1752. Even today one can see in Bagalkot the single-stringed accompaniment ( Ekatari) used by Sri Prasanna Venkata dasaru.
ಸತತ ಕಳ್ಯಾಣವಚ್ಯುತ ಭಟರಿಗೆ
ರತಿಪತಿಪಿತನಂಘ್ರಿರತ ಮಹಾತ್ಮರಿಗೆ ||
ಅರಿಗಳ ಸಖರಕ್ಕು ಅತಿವಿಷಮೃತವಕ್ಕು
ಶರಧಿ ಗೋಷ್ಪದವಕ್ಕು ಶರಘಾತ ಬೆಂಡಾಕ್ಕು
ನರಹರಿಯ ನಾಮವನು ನಂಬಿ ಭಜಿಪರಿಗೆ ||
ಆಧಿವ್ಯಾಧಿಗಳಿಲ್ಲ ಅಶುಭವಾರ್ತೆಗಳಿಲ್ಲ|
ಕ್ರೋಧನೃಪಭಯವಿಲ್ಲಾ ಕಾಕುಮತಿಯಿಲ್ಲ||
ಖೇದ ಮನಕಿಲ್ಲೆಂದು ಖಿನ್ನತೆಯು ಮುಖಕಿಲ್ಲಾ|
ಶ್ರೀಧವನ ನವಭಕುತಿಶೀಲರಿಗೆ||
ಪಾಪತಾಪಗಳೋಟ ಪರಿದು ಬಹು ಎಡರ್ಗೋಟ
ಆಪತ್ತುಗಳಿಗೋಟ ಆಲಸ್ಯಕೋಟ |
ಕೋಪದಾರಿದ್ರ್ಯಕೋಟ ಕಲಿವ್ಯಸನಮದಕೋಟ
ಶ್ರೀಪ್ರಸನ್ವೇಂಕಟನ ನಂಬಿ ಭಜಿಪರಿಗೆ ||
No comments:
Post a Comment