Please enjoy this excerpt from Shyamdas’ book Path of Grace (© Sacred Woods, 2009) and below, an audio recording of a Mahaprabhuji Badhai poem from the “Pushti Kirtan Seva” project. We plan to add more sound files in the future!

This is perhaps the most important festival for the lineage and typically occurs in April. Songs in praise of Shri Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya begin two weeks before this day. The very form of Shri Swaminiji, Shri Vallabhacharya manifested upon the earth to uplift divine souls. He taught his disciples to love Shri Krishna in the devotional mood of the gopis of Vrindavan. Shri Acharyaji coupled a pure non-dualist philosophy with divine appreciation and gifted his intimate ones the experience of Shri Krishna’s lila. These are a few of many poems sung during the weeks of celebration leading up to Mahaprabhuji’s appearance day:

Raga Sarang

Shri Vallabhacharya is wearing
a saffron-colored dhoti and shawl.
Tilaks and mudras adorn his body.
He sits at his father, Lakshman’s home; it is his birthday.
From head to toe, his form conveys amazing experience.
His beauty vanquishes a million loves.
He is the zenith of loveliness.
The power of his brilliance is without limit.
Nearby, divine women sing Lila praises.
Padmanabhdas sees Shri Krishna as Vallabh, the Lord of speech.
Those who were there are truly fortunate.

Raga Kanharo

The Lila would become old if Shri Vallabh did not appear;
the earth would become barren.
Everyday, Shri Vallabh’s beauty is new,
like an exceptional jewel set in gold.
Sagunadas sings, “I am a follower of his home.
His glories are sung by the sages.”

Click on the “more information” links below the sound player to view poem lyrics in devanagari, roman transliteration and English translation. (Rough translations by Vallabhdas – any suggestions more than welcome!)

The recorder only faintly picks up the gorgeous response vocals of the Vermontians that equally drove Shyamdas, as usual, right over the edge of devotional madness. But it leaves us with an intimate audio experience, as if sitting up close, right next to Shyamdas, Adam and Alan as the three brothers in bhakti playfully feed off each other’s pure improvisation. Radhe Govinda! Around the 26:50″ mark, the last of many peaks of nectar filled recitation, Shyamdas switches entirely to from “Shri” to “Sweet” Radhe, and for good reason.

As the three bhakta-musicians manage to wind their way softly back to earth, Shyamdas speaks a sly, “Good evening,” as if that wasn’t obvious already. “So nice to chant with you all here in the land of bliss, Vermont — a land where the hairs stand on end in ecstasy…We’ve come here to Burlington with the sole intention of just singing kirtan, and celebrating the sacred sounds, names, lilas, and expressions of what is called kirtan. Some people call it nada or sound yoga. You can just call it good fun. You can take it into your heart, and leave it there.”

In appreciation of the Shyamdas Foundation’s compatible mission to disseminate materials for learning and listening to kirtan, particularly the “lila kirtan” style that Shyamdas sang, Ravi has donated a set of “Pushti Kirtan Seva” CDs and books to us and has given us permission to freely share the kirtans via our digital archive.

One of the main singers featured in this collection is Hari Vallabh Sharma of Govardhan, who was the temple singer in Mathuradheesh Mandir in Jatipura, where Shyamdas first met his guru and took up residence for much of four decades of his life. Gopi Rasik Tailang, one of Shyamdas’ early kirtan teachers and friends from Gokul, the popular kirtan recording artist Bhagavati Prasad Gandharva of Baroda, Shyamlal Sharma of Varanasi, Haribabu Kaushik of Mathura (sarangi), as well as Vallabhkul gurus Goswami Shri Shyamsundarji of Chaupasani and Goswami Shri Kalyanrayaji of Kamvan (pakahavaj) and others are featured in these priceless recordings.

We encourage anyone with deep interest in these recordings to request a full copy of the CDs and accompanying two kirtan books directly from Ravi and the Samvaliya Mandir in Kolkata (ph: 033-2448-4941) for the extremely reasonable exchange of Rs. 1500 for the full 22 CD set, Rs. 300 for the books, or Rs. 70 per CD, plus shipping.

Click on the “more information” links below the sound player to view poem lyrics in devanagari, roman transliteration and English translation. (Rough translations by Vallabhdas – any suggestions more than welcome!)

Track 2: Unless you hung with Shyamdas at home while he was singing away in the kitchen, you probably never heard him sing full on Haveli Sangeet poems without the accompaniment of harmonium or other instruments. We have found one such recording, made in 2011 in Jatipura. Shyamdas would go downstairs to the main temple for darshan every day, and during this Holi season he often sang a poem that his friend and teacher Mishralalji loved to sing, “sānci kaho,” in the spring raga of Basant:

Track 3: One day during the spring season of Holi, Hasmukh sang and explained this Rasiya poem (by Ghasiram, a poet from Govardhan) to Madhu-ji. Rasiyas are an often innuendo laden, sometimes raucous, often insulting, passion-filled style of poems sung during the latter part of the 40 days of Holi. During this recording Shyamdas seems to have been bustling around as usual in the kitchen, but he chimes in every once in a while with some English translation.

Click on the “more information” links below the sound player to view poem lyrics in devanagari, roman transliteration and English translation. (Rough translations by Vallabhdas – any suggestions more than welcome!)

During Thanksgiving 2012, Shyamdas, Sacinandan Swami and a group of friends took a pilgrimage to Barsana, visiting the Vallabhacharya baithak, Barsana and Nimbarka temples, and eventually found our way through the mustard fields to the town of Kamvan, where neighboring temples host two famous forms of Krishna: Shri Madan Mohanji and Shri Gokul Chandramaji.

We sat at the feet of Gokul Chandramaji right before the temple doors closed for one last kirtan to our Beloved Lord for the night, in the mood of mana, annoyance in love. The kirtaniya at the Gokul Chandramaji temple has held his position for decades, blessed through his seva with one of the most profound voices I have ever heard. These two songs that the kirtaniya and Shyamdas sang together are traditionally sung in the cold season during the evening hours.

As Shyamdas explains, in the first poem Krishna sends His sakhi (friend), to go tell Radha to forgive Him. Radha retaliates against this tactic, “What? Does He have wet henna on His feet that keeps Him from coming here Himself? Get out of here, go back to Krishna!” The second poem describes how the bed is made beautifully, the room is decorated and warmed to make the cold season feel like summer. The poem ends as the divine couple cover themselves in warm blankets. “The rest,” Shyamdas says, “you have to figure out.”

–Ally Gopi

Click on the “more information” links below the sound player to view poem lyrics in devanagari script and roman transliteration

Click the image below to order:

Radha Rani ki Jai
Maharani ki Jai
Barsani Wali ki Jai Jai Jai

Recorded (Aug. 7 2007) and donated by Shambhu
Featuring Naren Budhkar (tabla), Richard Davis (guitar), Adam Bauer (bass), Martin Brading (pakhavaj)

To read Bhakti Beat’s full story behind the video, click here.

Featuring: Shyamdas, Steve Gorn, Daniel Paul, Nina Rao, Adam Bauer, Arundhati, Ally Gopi, Shruti Ram, Ishwari

Copyright 2013, The Bhakti Beat