Nada Sudharasambilanu 🔸Arabhi 🔹Tyagaraja 🔸Dr. M Balamuralikrishna

To Tyagaraja, his music, it’s form and the musical compositions that flowed through him are both the means for and end of his pursuit of Self-realisation. He perceived the music, the “Nāda Yóga,” as the manifested form of Lord Rama, the Brahman. Dwelling in the state of Brahman, Tyagaraja engaged his disciplined mind to contemplate all the attributes of Brahman as music. Here, in this beautiful composition, “Nāda sudhārasambilanu (Ārabhi),” Tyagaraja employs Lord Rama and his bow and arrow as a metaphor to delightfully sing the glory of music and his visualisation takes the listener to stay in the realm of the portrait drawn by him. Dr. M Balamuralikrishna, a genius for capturing the essence of Tyagaraja kritis, yet again guides us in this journey to help us in “seeing the picture” as painted by the saint singer. Here below, I am reproducing an English translation of this beautiful metaphor coated composition. I am thankful to William J Jackson (Tyagaraja Life and Lyrics) for the same. Hope this translation would guide you in your journey of visualisation. 🎵 The nectar flavour of musical sound took shape as a person on this earth O mind! ||p|| The basis of the Vedas, the puranas, traditional scriptures and the shastras ||a.p|| The nectar flavour of musical sound took shape as a person on this earth O mind! The six-plus-one musical notes (tones) are his bow's bells; the noble melody-the raga-is his bow, The three kinds of ragas: heavy, delicate, and regional, are his bow's three-strand string, and the rhythm of the syllables make up his arrows. And all the delectable variations on the theme are his words, just right for each situation It is our great good fortune to worship with the song itself that form of the Lord adored by Tyagaraja in this world. ||charanam|| That nectar flavour of musical sound which took shape as a person on earth O mind! 🎵 Let us listen and enjoy music, learn something new, and discuss our reflections with others. It is to finally facilitate the process of music for posterity by sharing and listening with the younger generation.