Suddenly appears in the horizon and goes, he gets the glimpse of the Lord fromĪ little distance, in between the two heads of the devotees in front. Moves forward and reaches the second gate. Reciting the sacred names of the Lord, he Happy at the prospect of seeing his favourite God, Guruvayurappa. Happy event or remain in expectation of a great event gives more happiness than
He has no other thought now except that of Great moment when he would be before Lord Guruvayurappa. That moves forward at a very slow pace, he anxiously looks forward to that Sacred names, “Narayana”, “Narayana” being recited and he is transcended to a Sound of bells ringing, devotional music being rendered, mantra being chanted, As he steps in through the tower gate and The ‘Heaven on Earth’ ( Boologa Vaikunta). Indeed is one who is able to set foot to this holy land of Guruvayur, known as “Narayaneeyam”, which hails the glory of Guruvayurappa, begins with the above verse. Blessed indeed is the humanity that such a divine Supreme exists among them as the image of Sri Krishna”(Sandranandava…Narayaneeyam, Canto 1 Verse 1) In a city, where everything is branded and sold for a price, an old couple imparting musical talents and knowledge to the coming generations without any profit motive indeed makes a difference.“ There shines in holy temple of Guruvayur what at first appears to be an image but in reality, the Truth-Consciousness and Bliss, the Brahman, the Supreme, the incomparable, the incomprehensible, limitless, the ultimate end which all the scriptures, Vedas and human seek. The response to the classes is inspiring and that makes us carry on,” says this delighted couple.
Now, around 100 students participate in our classes. “We don’t attempt any publicity measures instead, interested people come to us - even from the city outskirts - through word of mouth. Since they keep a flexible schedule, there is no fixed number of students at a given time. In his Sunday classes, Ayyar trains a gents’ batch to improve their understanding of this medieval work of musical excellence. This ‘Ganabhooshanam’ graduate from Swathi Thirunal Music College, who was a batchmate of K J Yesudas and Neyyattinkara Vasudevan, leads the Saturday and Monday classes on Thiruppugazh. Like the ‘Pancharatna krithis’, Thiruppugazh songs also have a fixed structure and are sung in chorus.Įven if the student doesn’t have a knowhow of classical ragas, or classical Tamil, since it is sung in chorus, they gradually pick it up along with others, says an always pleasant Subbalakshmi. The verses which are in Tamil are transliterated into English or Hindi or Malayalam for students who don’t have a grip on Tamil. “He has given tune to about 500 verses of Thiruppugazh based on Classic Carnatic ragas which helped the difficult rhythm structure of Thiruppugazh to come handy to musicians and devotees,” says the couple.įrom the year 2000 onwards, the couple has been conducting weekly classes on Thiruppugazh for interested people. It was A S Raghavan - his disciples respectfully called him ‘Guruji’- who diverted the musical genius of Mr and Mrs Ayyar towards the spiritual and musical bliss of this classical Tamil poetry. The meters are different and elite so that vocalists as well as the supporting instrument players should have enough expertise to set up a good show,” says Subbalakshmi. “Singing the verses in Thiruppugazh is quiet difficult without proficiency in classical music. The composition of Thiruppugazh verses point not only to the devotion of its composer, but also his musical genius.