Guruprasad Nagarajan's Blog - Posts Tagged "kannadasan"
Bob Dylan and Kannadasan
Kannadasan was a genius poet-lyricist of the Tamil cine field whose career spanned about three decades and whose impact continues even today among the Tamil audience. Educated only till 8th standard, but schooled more than adequately by experience, his songs distilled the profundity of ancient wisdom gleaned from the works of Siddhas and saints, vedas and village folklore, scriptures and the school of Life into digestible simple lyrics that everyone from a rickshaw puller to a college professor could understand.His songs soothed the souls that had lost something precious, gave hope to those who despaired. They explained the movie in a nutshell, which applied to the character that was singing on screen, and the countless audience.Much later I stumbled upon Bob Dylan whose songs resonated with me.
Since everybody learns from the common school of hard knocks, I guess the lessons tend to overlap. I found some similarities of expressions between the lyrics of these two poets whose genius somehow cuts through the commercial clutter to connect at a personal level.
Kannadasan
paramasivan kazhuthil irundhu paambu kettadhu
garuda sowkyama
yarum irukkum idathil irundhu vittaal ellam sowkyame
garudan sonnadhu adhil artham ulladhu
(meaning):
The cobra coiled around Lord Shiva’s neck,
asked Garuda (eagle) flying above
‘How are you? Are you well?’
‘When everyone stays where they are supposed to
Everybody is well’,
said the eagle, there’s sense in what he said.
Bob Dylan
The moral of the story
The moral of the song
Is that one should never be
Where one does not belong.
(From ‘Franky Lee and Judas Priest’)
Originally published at www.guruswriting.com and www.shortstories.guru
Since everybody learns from the common school of hard knocks, I guess the lessons tend to overlap. I found some similarities of expressions between the lyrics of these two poets whose genius somehow cuts through the commercial clutter to connect at a personal level.
Kannadasan
paramasivan kazhuthil irundhu paambu kettadhu
garuda sowkyama
yarum irukkum idathil irundhu vittaal ellam sowkyame
garudan sonnadhu adhil artham ulladhu
(meaning):
The cobra coiled around Lord Shiva’s neck,
asked Garuda (eagle) flying above
‘How are you? Are you well?’
‘When everyone stays where they are supposed to
Everybody is well’,
said the eagle, there’s sense in what he said.
Bob Dylan
The moral of the story
The moral of the song
Is that one should never be
Where one does not belong.
(From ‘Franky Lee and Judas Priest’)
Originally published at www.guruswriting.com and www.shortstories.guru
Advaita, Bob Dylan and Kannadasan
All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie”, rasps Dylan in Things Have Changed. Which is what Advaita Vedanta alludes to in general. Once you know the rope to be a rope, then the fear of it as a snake disappears. It’s not that everything you see in the world is an illusion. It’s not that there is no cruelty around, or that people are not killing people, and that there is no violence. It’s the wrong identification with the body that gives rise to the sense of reality curated by the five limited senses. As Ramana Maharishi would often remind people, “Did all these occur to you in deep sleep?”
Meaning, all of this came to life with the waking up of the wrong ‘I’. We see the world after we open our eyes, the world doesn’t come and tell us it exists. In deep sleep, we have no nationality, no religion, no beliefs, no gender, no family, no name, no worries, no anxiety, no plans and we don’t even have our body. Yet, we wake up and declare that ‘I’ slept well. Bhagwan Ramana would ask questioners, “Who is the I that says I slept well and who is the I that has all the problems and questions and doubts?”
Or that’s what I understand (that’s the trouble with limited knowledge, isn’t it?). So all that we think is true, all that we think is the ‘snake’ is, in fact, a strand of rope.
Kannadasan, the greatest Tamil lyricist of the 20th century who distilled the most profound truths into easily digestible, simple cinema songs, has a similar yet more powerful take on it. In a song titled “Yaarada mandihan ange” (meaning “who is the real man there?”) he says, “In laughter, Man isn’t. In tears, Man isn’t. In his heart, Man isn’t. In sleep, man is. Living beast, sleeping god, in between is Man”. Brilliant.
It is the Man in sleep who is real. Not the beast that reacts and repents. Not the Man in between two stages who is confused and confounded. It is the Truth that lies behind one Big Lie.
*Originally published on www.guruswriting.com*
Meaning, all of this came to life with the waking up of the wrong ‘I’. We see the world after we open our eyes, the world doesn’t come and tell us it exists. In deep sleep, we have no nationality, no religion, no beliefs, no gender, no family, no name, no worries, no anxiety, no plans and we don’t even have our body. Yet, we wake up and declare that ‘I’ slept well. Bhagwan Ramana would ask questioners, “Who is the I that says I slept well and who is the I that has all the problems and questions and doubts?”
Or that’s what I understand (that’s the trouble with limited knowledge, isn’t it?). So all that we think is true, all that we think is the ‘snake’ is, in fact, a strand of rope.
Kannadasan, the greatest Tamil lyricist of the 20th century who distilled the most profound truths into easily digestible, simple cinema songs, has a similar yet more powerful take on it. In a song titled “Yaarada mandihan ange” (meaning “who is the real man there?”) he says, “In laughter, Man isn’t. In tears, Man isn’t. In his heart, Man isn’t. In sleep, man is. Living beast, sleeping god, in between is Man”. Brilliant.
It is the Man in sleep who is real. Not the beast that reacts and repents. Not the Man in between two stages who is confused and confounded. It is the Truth that lies behind one Big Lie.
*Originally published on www.guruswriting.com*
