Controversial Carnatic singer T.M Krishna writes, either moronically or mendaciously, in the Indian Express
He has always been a part of my life: The tales my grandmother told me, Rajaji’s Ramayanam, Amar Chitra Katha pictorials, spiritual discourses on Valmiki’s Ramayana, Ramanand Sagar’s television show Ramayan and the all-encompassing hymn, raghupati raghava, have imprinted him on my mind. I do not have to look for him.
T.M Krishna (who I will refer to as TM, not TMK, because Krishna belongs to me only due to I read some comic book about Smurfs) must also have heard of the Higgs boson- the so called 'God particle' . But the thing had to be looked for. A costly type of experimentation was required. In India it has always been held that the search for God is arduous and requires great dedication and sacrifice. Theophany is not something vouchsafed to you by watching TV or reading a comic book.
According to Vaishnava- or other Theistic- Soteriology, nothing is imprinted on the mind save the curiosity and inborn inclination to seek for more concrete Knowledge of what is best for the soul. The belief that a certain sort of childhood upbringing is all that is required for knowledge of a useful subject is itself utterly puerile, casteist, and unworthy of a grown up. Does any Sage say- 'because I grew up in a Brahmin household therefore I am a knower of Brahma'? No. Of course not. Adi Sankara would not have had to leave home if this were the case. TM is asserting a caste based oikeiosis, or claim of ownership, over Lord Rama. How dare some 'neech' (to quote another Tambram cretin) Ghanchi, that too from Gujarat (where, proverbially, Bhakti goes to die) be given Chief Guest status at a Temple whose deity belongs to TM? These low caste fellows should know their place! Ram is not for the likes of them. TM, by contrast, was born into that patrimony. He had talent and excellent instruction. He had virtuosity. But, 'soul' was lacking. His singing was like a 'cat playing with a paralysed mouse'. Why? He failed to develop spiritually. For purely casteist reasons, his type of music had some commercial viability. But, because it had no soul it could not get an increasing mass audience. Cultivating the soul is an arduous business. It requires humility. It means going from paradigm towards parousia. TM took the short-cut of adopting a 'woke' type of 'paradigm challenging'. But paradigms are part of paideia- they are meant only for kids. Grown ups must approach the 'real presence'. The reason Carnatic music has degenerated is because of laziness and complacency of TM's sort.
Still, some may say, TM knows Lord Rama in his own way. Maybe, the fellow is a cretin. Perhaps, his cretinous way of knowing Ram is as valid as that of a Scholar-Saint.
The problem here is that TM is confusing Lord Ram, as Godhead, with Ram Lalla who has legal personality in India though, theologically speaking, remaining univocal with the Lord.
Indian Law denies legal personality to the Godhead- whether referred to as 'Allah', or 'Christ', or 'Ram'- whereas a specific Temple deity can approach the Court in his own right. It was that Temple deity who won his suit in the Supreme Court. It is unlikely that T.M is familiar with the 'choses in action' or 'possession' relating to chattels ascribable to a specific legal personality. The fellow may be descended from savage eagles of the bar or sage owls of the bench, but he is after all but a songbird. That's not exactly a high I.Q occupation.
I will be charitable to what he writes in English. But, when he gets Tyagaraja wrong, I will be merciless.
But on August 5, I did look for him.
Did you look into your heart? If so you would have found that you have a dislike for a certain political party. This prejudices you. Such prejudice is incompatible with finding the Lord. However, if you were intelligent, you could still find a way to attack the politicians you dislike. But you are not intelligent. You are a cretin.
I looked for him in the celebration at Ayodhya. I looked for him on the stage set for the havan, in the faces of the personages gathered.
What was your purpose in watching this? Was it pious? Were you praying? If not, you looked at the ceremony with jaded eyes. You saw what you wanted to see. But what you want to see has nothing to do with the Divine. It is purely political and that too of a merely gestural sort.
I looked for him in the chants and the cheers. I could see devotion but of a kind — in political robes. I could see religion too, but again of a kind — in the shrill colours of triumphalism.
That is what you were looking for and you found it.
The Rama I know I could not find.
Because that Rama is not about being a dick.
Who is that Rama?
A silly self-important songbird's conception of the sublimity of its own vocation.
For me, the student of music, Rama is there in all I have heard and read but he steps out of texts and stories and comes to life only in Tyagaraja’s kirtanas.
But how did Tyagaraja get inspired to write them? Is Rama from South India? No. He is from Ayodhya where a Temple existed for him. It may be that there were other centrers of devotion to Rama but Ayodhya is distinguished as his birthplace, just as Bethlehem is distinguished as the birthplace of Christ. Christians feel a thrill, during Christmas, to see worship being offered in Bethlehem. TM however can't see anything but his own prejudice against a politician he does not like.
Tyagaraja cajoled, argued, pleaded with, demanded, celebrated and venerated him musically in ragas Kalyani, Bhairavi, Begada, Todi… the list is endless.
Tediously so.
My guru used to explain the meaning of every line, its mythological context and the attributes of Purushottama. And, on occasion, I would like to believe, he sat quietly in a corner listening to us sing.
Well, we all have to make a living somehow. The fellow was quiet because his spirit was dying.
Tyagaraja’s Rama is kind, soft spoken and charming.
This is the root of TM's problem. He speaks of Tyagaraja as either owning Rama or as being possessed of a specific vision of him. This was not Tyagaraja's own view. He believed he belonged to Rama who was ever approaching nigh in such forms as appeared to him- Rupam rupam pratirupo babhuva, tad asya rupam praticaksanaya. Tyagaraja is a good composer because he is moving from paradigm to parousia. TM thinks Tyagaraja created a nice walking-talking doll.
He refers to Rama’s speaking voice as mrdubhasha;
What is the context? Tyagaraja says he is the slave of Rama. The Lord speaks gently to his humble and obedient servants. Why? Because their only desire is to serve Him. Also they are not deaf or stupid. He doesn't have to shout at them. But, Tyagaraja makes clear that he is only making this declaration as part of a plea to the Lord to come and govern him- i.e. improve his artistic ability. In other words, Tyagaraja is describing the sort of tone Rama will use with him- but only because he has made himself fit for such gentle treatment.
A disgusting shithead like myself may want Lord Rama to sound like a Master Sergeant berating me in a loud and harsh voice. But then Tyagaraja was a poet/singer developing the possibilities of a particular Courtly, ultra genteel, musical style. However, he was seeking the same Divinity everybody else was. So there was an 'overlapping consensus' regarding his aim or lakshana. But, precisely because it is so termed, everybody understands the thing is 'kairotic'- i.e. not absolute and substantive but discretionary and 'timely'.
ninnu kOritirA nirupama SUra
nannu-ElukOrA dASarathE
The Lord Himself is the incomparable melody
I seek beseeching His government of me
Time is the ineluctable modality of Music and Poetry. The composer is attentive to the kairotic aspect of economia. TM, lazy cretin that he is, adopts a puerile version of the Marxist theory of history rather than doing what Tyagaraja did, what all musicians who aim at, not virtuosity, but virtue, must do.
TM thinks he is responding in a kairotic (timely) manner to the bhoomi pujan. But timeliness is subtle and relational not substantive or Newtonian. It is not the case that Music gets better in the way that Science gets better. Consider the next caranam-
manavini vinumA marava samayamA
ina kula dhanamA dASarathE
The first line packs in a thousand pages of the highest philosophical meaning. Love and Memory (Smara) are intimately connected. There is a kairotic aspect to 'forgetting'. The lover serenading his love knows there must be a moment when the beloved herself must intervene to give his song wings. That is the moment he forgets himself and becomes part of a univocal Smara that is the memory of Love. How much more must this be the case where the lover seeks the Knowledge of Love that is God? The next line packs a punch. Dasharatha's son received Exile as his inheritance. Yet, of that Sept, he is the wealth which is as inexhaustible as the Sun!
TM, stupid cretin that he is, thinks Tyagaraja's Rama was
someone who spoke mudduga. These adjectives don’t just refer to a superficial aural register.
No indeed. They refer to the yet more desolating silence that answers one's cries in the wilderness. There, at that moment, there can be, by God's Grace, the distillation of the mead of the Changogya's pure 'madhuvidya'- honeyed knowledge.
Rather, they are descriptive of a person of love,
Not a Person. Saguna is not different from Nirguna. Tyagaraja affirms Monism against sectarian squabbles as to its definition. Love is the univocal Godhead.
in Tyagaraja’s words, “an ocean of compassion”, which extends to all living beings.
If parents had compassion for their neighbours, they wouldn't pay to get their kids instructed in Carnatic music. The thing is a positive nuisance. On the other hand, it drives crows away.
In the kirtana Vachamagocharame, Tyagaraja describes how Rama stopped himself from killing an animal.
No. He stopped another hunter from harming a deer. He himself killed two demons. Does TM really not understand what he sings?-
mAnavati mATeringi chAmaramouTa kastramu nEyaganimAnambukai meDa dAchaga
mAdhavunDu kani karagi vEgamE
deenArti bhanjanuDai prANa
dAnambosaga munnu chanina
bANambu naTu chedarasEyalEdA
gAnalOla tyAgarAjanutu mahima ||
A hunter tried to shoot off the tail of a deer. To protect her modesty (lajja), she angled her neck to receive the shaft. Tyagaraja has a modest virtue- viz devotion. God protects his art out of compassion for the trembling modesty that is its sole defence.
Would this Rama not have thought of the bloodshed and deaths that preceded the securing of this one specific place in Ayodhya?
Under Mulayam Singh, 16 worshipers were killed by police firing. Is that what TM is referring to?
Would he have not hoped that, on this occasion, as a country, we would at least apologise to our Muslim fellow-citizens for having destroyed their masjid?
No. He did not apologize for killing Ravana and conquering Lanka. Is TM really unaware of this? Perhaps. He doesn't even understand the Tyagaraja kirtans he himself sings.
The Supreme Court described the destruction as an “egregious violation of the rule of law”.
And so it was. But far less egregious than the massive ethnic cleansing which occurred previously at the time when Muslims were first barred from worship there.
Rama was also his ideal king. Tyagaraja asks, “Can there be anyone who can administer Saketa like you?”
Rama was Tyagaraja's personal God and Saviour. He did not say 'a good king is one who has power over the Heavens such that there are three good rain showers every month.' The fact is Kings can't control the Weather. However, when one accepts the Kingship of God, the rain of grace falls upon you as and when required. This is the 'kairotic' aspect of Grace. Those granted it contribute greatly to the commonweal. Thus God's Grace upon the devout confers a socio-economic, as well as soteriological, benefit upon the entire community.
TM doesn't understand this aspect of Vaishnava thought. He thinks Ram was worshipped because he was soft-spoken, didn't kill a particular animal, and rainfall was plentiful during his reign. By contrast, Modi has a loud voice. When not running the country, he is probably skulking in alleyways killing stray dogs. Also rain is not falling at proper time. Chee Chee! How you can say Modi is fit to be PM? Neech aadmi hai, na? He should cause rain to fall nicely, isn't it?
Describing his rule as one where the rains are regular, people were healthy and happy sans pride.
Tyagaraja does not say people lacked pride. They were free of arrogance and rancor- but arrogant TM is filled with rancor against a particular political party. This is why he can't excel in his dying craft. Give this exploded volcano a Magsaysay- unless he has one already. Let P.Sainath sing to him while he writes about farmer suicides. Tambram cretinism has reached its acme in this, once so promising!, pair. I don't say, Tambram women can't do great things. But men like Sainath, TM- but also yours truly- are doomed to being gobshites even if God gave us some talent (mine is for eating pizza while binge watching Netflix shows about vampires or werewolves). Why? We are childish. We refuse to develop and mature properly. Our sisters went in a different direction. God alone know what our wives or g.fs really think of us.
Oikos and economia are Greek words connected to the Sanskrit 'artha'- meaning. Sainath and TM settled for a cartoonish 'artha'- or economic hermeneutic- of all that exists. So did I. But Netflix shows about Vampires and Werewolves have gotten so cognitively complex- indeed the Game theoretic concept of 'balancedness' has been so advanced by the Entertainment industry- that I can't even binge on Netflix. I eat a slice of pizza and then stop. The thing gives me gas.
This is what TM is giving us here-
To a ruler, the identity of the praja is irrelevant and, hence, Tyagaraja never mentions a specific section or special treatment for Rama’s devotees.
Does this guy not get that, when Rama was a King, he was not recognised as an avatar of Vishnu? Rama had subjects, not devotees.
Why did Vaishnavites give their lives for Indian Independence? Why do they still happily martyr themselves defending the country on Himalayan heights? Why are they joined by all other Indian Theists but also Atheists? Because they serve India, as it is, not as each thinks it should be, and this means they have to appreciate 'kairos'- timeliness. This guy may be good and that guy bad according to our belief system. But, at this time, this guy should be the Captain. At another time, we must unceremoniously can his sorry ass even if he is of our caste and creed and has the face of a sweetie-pie and a voice dripping with honey.
Everyone is equal, everyone prospers. As Ashoka said, “As I care for my own children, I care for the welfare and happiness in this world and the next of all my subjects.”
Right! Because Emperors are the equals of their slaves! How stupid is TM?
While the ground-breaking ceremony was for a satyasandha (Rama),
No it was for Ram Lalla.
no effort was made on August 5 to remind the people of India that the Supreme Court order also said: “While the ASI report has found the existence of ruins of a pre-existing structure, the report does not provide the reason for the destruction of the pre-existing structure and whether the earlier structure was demolished for the purpose of construction of the mosque.”
So what? ASI reports have their limitations. The Bench was merely clarifying its ratio. This is a matter of law.
That, “since the ASI dates the underlying structure to the twelfth century, there is a time gap of about four centuries between the date of the underlying structure and the construction of the mosque”. That “no evidence is available to explain what transpired in the course of the intervening period of nearly four centuries”.
The Bench comments on the evidence provided before it. But a thing may be true though the evidence is lacking.
Tyagaraja drowned himself in Rama’s bhakti and was consumed in him.
Go thou and do likewise.
No other god could ever come close to his ishta devata.
Tyagaraja was a Hindu. He understood that all avatars arise from a single Godhead. There was some question as to whether the individual soul too is an 'amsha' of the Lord.
He opens one kirtana with the line Rama Ni Samanamevaru (“Rama, is there anyone equal to you?”),
Followers of Sankara would answer 'All souls are univocal and therefore equal to Rama. Disciples of Ramanuja give a slightly different answer. The theism of Madhava and Vallabha, however, would be more Dualist. So what? Tyagaraja represents an 'overlapping consensus'. So did the Indian Independence struggle. So does Hindutva. So does Indian Nationalism, which is different from Hindutva because it need not focus so entirely on destroying the caste system. Parts of India are wholly free of that nonsense. I look forward to the day when those areas provide us with Prime Ministers.
yet he never denounced any other deity, and even went on to say that there is no happiness in debating and arguing over each other’s faiths.
For the reason I have mentioned. Otherwise, some Iyers would have had nothing to do with him.
He emphasises elsewhere that “happiness is only bestowed on people who serve everyone without division or categorisation”.
No he doesn't. Happiness is transitory and can be gained by fools and the impious from time to time. Tyagaraja is speaking of Bliss. But then he also believed that all forms arise from but the Lord's 'Leela' or Divine Play.
Tyagaraja’s Rama was a dharmatma, one with the inner ethical compass of goodness.
He was the supreme Godhead. Tyagaraja calls Him dharmatma because he is beseeching Him not to hide Himself in a cruel and unfair manner. However, Hinduism accepts Divine impassability. God's affects are effects.
Pakistani qawwals- like Faid Ayaz- have an excellent grasp of Islamic theology. TM, it appears, does not understand what he sings. No wonder Qawwali is spreading while Carnatic music is retreating! The Qawwal has Faith. TM has prejudices of a virtue signalling sort.
Was there any dharma in flaunting the bhoomi puja, making a national spectacle of it, knowing full well that an entire section of the population, not just Muslims, was feeling excluded, deprived, in fact diminished?
TM assumes that Muslims are stupid and abject. This is not the case. They are aware that Hindus build temples and then consecrate them. Lakum deenukum waliya deeni. They are not obliged to watch or participate in such rituals. There may be a duty of Jihad. But it is a farz e kifayah- i.e. only dischargeable collectively. But that is a matter of kairos- timeliness.
Is there any dharma in TM flaunting his distaste for the bhoomi puja? Why is he making a national spectacle of himself in the pages of the Indian Express? He knows full well that an entire section of the population, not just Muslims, will think him a cretin.
When the occasion could have been used to embrace them, it was decided to prove a point.
Muslims don't want to be embraced at an idolatrous ceremony. Nor do they want to 'play Holi' or teach Hindu priests how to perform Hindu ceremonies. They understood that there was a law-suit about a piece of real estate. The Court gave title to one party and compensation to the other party. That is the end of the matter. True, India, as an overwhelmingly Hindu country, will celebrate the construction of the Temple but non-Hindus and cretins like TM can do nothing to avert this outcome.
With such contrivances at work, would Ayodhya be even a semblance of Rama Rajya?
Of course not! Nobody will be killed if they want to chant Sanskrit mantras but belong to the wrong caste.
In multiple compositions, Tyagaraja says, “If a person cannot keep his mind under control, if he is egotistic, what is the point of a pooja or dipping oneself in the holy river?”
TM should keep his mind, or at least his pen, under control. What is the point of writing this virtue signalling shite in the Indian Express? The Left may publicize him but they won't sit through his deeply boring performances.
Self-reflection and surrender to the divine are two sides of the same coin
No. This is only true for those who follow a particular type of Theistic askesis. Tyagaraja is not claiming that Vaishnavism is a Humean 'natural religion'. TM does not seem to understand that extreme sectarian claims- e.g. a jivanmukta is wholly impossible- would have divided the Carnatic Music fraternity so much that the thing would never have got off the ground.
and Tyagaraja never lost sight of this. He hoped that human beings would put aside thoughts that led them astray, “chede buddhi manura manasa”, he said.
Which Religious poet has said that one should embrace thoughts that lead you astray?
And in the composition Dhyamane he asks us to shun slander and violence.
TM is slandering Hindus who rejoiced at the bhoomi pujan. He ascribes unworthy motives to them.
Those who claim to be true bhaktas of Rama but engage in or silently subscribe to retaliation, abuse and hatred must reflect upon his words.
and not write shite like this in the newspapers.
And we should keep in mind Tyagaraja never indulged in whataboutery; neither did he point fingers at others to justify his own shortcomings.
TM, by contrast, is unaware of his own shortcomings. He says Tyagaraja has a kirtan in which Lord Ram stops himself from killing an animal.
Tyagaraja was a pilgrim, travelling across towns and villages, seeking his Rama.
TM too travels, but isn't seeking his Rama.
Yet he was acutely aware of the need to seek Rama within.
But TM isn't.
Even as he sang the praise of the deities in every temple he visited, he spoke of the pointlessness of it all, if we are unable to experience and hold on to that purity within.
Very true! Don't go to the brothel the moment you exit the Temple.
Even Ayodhya becomes immaterial.
No. It remains merely material.
In the words of the ideal devotee:
Nadachi Nadachi chucheru ayodhya nagaramu ganare
They walk and walk, all the way to Ayodhya, yet they were unable to find him
In the words of this reader- 'They talk and talk about Ayodhya yet are unable to find a good stick to beat the BJP with. This is because they are cretins.'
TM is not a drunkard. He is not a Pizza guzzling Netflix binge-watcher. He is cultured. He has the domestic virtues. Yet he has harmed Tyagaraja. When you hear a beautiful song vulgarly sung- you turn away from its deeper value. There were good reasons why people like me- acharabrashta shitheads steeped in squalor- valued our LPs- and later CDs of Carnatic Music. They were a magical remedy for a futile nostalgia. TM was valuable to me at one time. But times change. The internet has liberated us from Casteist silos of 'Nadabrahma'. Can TM compete with Farid Ayaz or Abida Parvin? No. But maybe that is because he comes from a Secular nation. But can he compete with A. R Rahman? He never even tried. Carnatic Music had given up any pretense of being anything other than a Casteist credential. TM wasn't a senior UN bureaucrat or Professor of Chemical Engineering. He stood out because you didn't say to yourself 'this performer is showing excellence in 'multi-tasking'. While singing with precision, she is simultaneously organizing her lecture notes on Chemical Engineering after which she is checking her dhobi list. This is praiseworthy- a feat similar to an Avadhanam! You have mediocrity but it is a multi-tasking mediocrity!'
Vak- Voice- is the matrix of the Godhead of Scripture. Yet 'Nada Brahma'- Sound is God. The Vaggeyakara- composer- resolves this seeming contradiction. Tyagaraja has survived not because of any particular virtuosity, but a virtue- that of modesty. He did not preach. But TM must screech! Why? Is it because Tamil Nadu's one true Mozart, A.R Rahman, is not wetting himself because this Temple will be built?
What is TM's major malfunction? Long before his book about low caste drum makers I, in my novel 'Samlee's daughter' satirized the type of stupid 'jhollawallah' culture vulture who might write about the paradox that 'the sublime anti-casteist message of the Saints nevertheless entailed the percussive beating of low-caste Mridangams by High Caste Bhagvatars'. I wrote that book 20 years ago. At the time I thought TM would be the next Dr. Balamurali. He would have jugalbandhi with not just Bhimsen but Qawwals also! Why is this slim and handsome man so utterly shite on You tube? One reason is that his voice is not good. The fucker is too thin. The second is that he is shouty. That's the problem with wanting to look like a jhollawallah doing some shite Poli Sci MPhil at JNU. Shouty is all that you can do. It is noteworthy that he can only modulate his voice when doing the old kirtans he learned as a kid. There are long silences in his later work- but the voice is weak, the technique is not holding up- more fundamentally, the timbre just feels plain wrong.
TM was precocious. But so where so many of our Leftists. They could not mature because they believed they were a 'vanguard' but of a 'casteist' type. Such a thing is an impossibility. At least in Tamil Nadu. Iyers are cretins. We deserve Extremely fucking Educationally Backward and Mentally fucking Retarded Caste status right now! Only for males above a certain age, that is. Girls- like that Kamala everybody is talking about- need not apply. Compare an Aruna Sairam performance to one by TM. On the one side there is superb showmanship, on the other there is Rahul Gandhi type awkward pauses and a reedy, self conscious, timbre.
I advise TM to eat a lot of Pizza and have a lot of beer and binge watch Kung Fu films or other such 'dharmic' material. Come back to Music when you are fatter and have a better timbre. Or else seek Rama in Tyagaraja- not the reverse- and for no virtue signalling purpose.
I wish this handsome young man and his super-talented wife and their gorgeous kids the best of... British fair play. But then, Rama's Leela is like that only, innit?
India was once good at Yoga and Body Building and Voice Science. Our fathers may have been right to think that Sovietism would have helped us rise more quickly. But only along objective lines such that a TM Krishna would have been able to compete with a Dimash Kudaibergen or Gong Linna's Aiyayo song.
TM can't compete with such people. He has his niche. Sanjay and the NRI's are going to take market share from him anyway. He may as well try to be Muslim friendly. But, he forgets, A.R Rahman is an actual convert to Islam. And Rahman has genuine talent, genuine spirituality, genuine Patriotism.
Tyagaraja was a person who served the very poor and ignorant and 'sinful' by compressing the 'artha' of all modes of being into one 'motivic cohomology'. My bathroom singing is better than TM's concert singing from one perspective. I get physically cleaner but TM is getting spiritually dirtier by treating Tyagaraja's kirtans as a way to display virtuosity not cultivate virtue.
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