Lord Anjaneya – The Master of All Arts- The Great Vainika

Lord Anjaneya – The Master of All Arts- The Great Vainika

Hanuman is known as an immortal genius who had mastered all arts and sciences and other branches of knowledge. He is known as  the embodiment of all knowledge and the Vedas themselves.  He learned all the vedas and all the Vidya Sthanas from Surya, the Sun god.

As per His mother Anjana’s advice, Anjaneya approached Lord Surya and requsested for Lord Surya’s discipleship. But Lord Surya who is always on his celestial path said; “Being the creator of day and night, I could not stop at one place and teach  you”.

Anjaneya replied  that he would face his Guru Lord Surya and run along backwards in the same direction of the Sun and receive  the vedic knowledge from him and Lord Surya need not stop. Upon this agreement, Hanuman took the coaching for twelve years.

The Vidya Sthanas are eighteen in number. 4 vedas, 6 sastras, 4 upangas and 4 upavedas. One of the upavedas,is the Gandarva Veda – The Art and Science of Music.

Anjaneya the Sangeetha Exponent

In carnatic sangeetha tradition there are two classes of sakas (branches), one is known as Narada tradition and the other is  known as Hanumath tradition. It is said that Saint Tyagaraja was the follower of Narada tradition. He was gifted with the “swararnavam” palm leafs by Saint Narada.  Sri Muthuswamy Dhikshathar is follower of Hanumath tradition.

The celestrial sages, Sri Narada and Sri Tumburu, were great players of the fretted veenas. But there was clash of ego  between them leading to bitter rivalry. Both of them would participate in function and compete in all the competition. At the end of the duel nobody would be able to say who is superior. Their ego was seeking a final decision as to who is best. The matter was brought before Lord Narayana (Sri Vishnu), who with a mischievous smile hugging His face suggested seeking the remedy for this from Lord Anjaneya who is an exponent in Sangeetha Sastra.  Both agreeing that there could be no better judge  than Lord Anajaneya they approached HIM. A date was fixed for the contest at the convenience of Lord Anjaneya.

On the day fixed there was a big assembly of Devatas . Both Sri Narada and Sri Tumburu were seated on either side of the dais  with their fretted veena ready to play and Lord Anjaneya was seated in the center. Lord Anjaneya announced Sri Tumburu would  play first followed by Sri Narada. The congregations of Devatas were eager to listen to the sound of the most divineinstrument Veena from the sages who had mastered the playing on the instrument.

Firstly Sri Tumburu started his veena vadhan and the Devatas forgot to wink their eyes, all their attention drawn by the  mystical tones emanating from the instrument. Slowly they could realise that world was coming to a standstill position devoid  of any activity. Even sea waves stopped, oceans started freezing, birds stopped flying and those flying stopped mid air. Such were the effects of the music of Sri Tumburu. He was playing the raga Amirthavarshini which is normally played for bringing  rain when effected by drought.

Now Lord Anjaneya signaled Sri Narada to play the instrument. Sri Narada started playing his fretted veena and the  mesmerising tones emerging from the veena vadhan started moving around like a sweet fragrance enveloping the atmosphere. So sweet was the tone that it brought realisation in every thing. Bringing back dynamism, ocean started melting, waves started tiding, birds started flying with renewed verve. Sri Narada was playing the raga Punnagavarali. In the recent times Sri Thygaraja Swamigal had sung the kriti “Ghandamu paiyarul……” in the raga Punnagavarali. This kriti when sung, will make you feel the fragrance enveloping around you.

The final judgement by Lord Anjaneya

Now that the contesters had finished playing, the attention of the congregation turned towards the His Lordship – the Judge – 

Lord Anjaneya. Since this time also both had done their best, how Lord Anjaneya is going to judge as to who is better? 

Lord Anjaneya paused for some time and got up from the seat and took possession of both Sri Narada’s and Sri Tumburu’s veena  vadhan. Returned to his seat and patiently started removing each of the frets in the instruments. Everybody started wondering  as to what Lord Anjaneya is trying to do. Sri Narada lost his cool and asked Lord not to monkey around the instrument and to give the judgment. Lord Anjaneya replied that both of them had played well, but before the judgment could be given asked them to play the Veena in the present state (ie, veena instrument without fret). Both Sri Narada and Sri Tumburu said it is impossible to play the veena without fret.

Hanumath Veena

Lord Anjaneya with a smile in his face took a small bamboo piece (bamboo in wholesome is cylindrical in shape) and slides this bamboo piece over the melody strings and by using his nails as plectrums plucked the melody strings. The melody that flowed out was no compare to the one that was played by the sages. The melodious tone along with the drone with a soothing continuity had drowned the audience Devas in an immense pleasure and joy as that of having the nectar. Lord continued playing, making both Sri Narada and Sri Tumburu realise the power of pure music.

The audience were so immersed in the music, they had not noticed that Lord Narayana Himself had come to the scene to witness the music of Lord Anjaneya. When Lord Anjaneya concluded playing, both the sages accepted that their music is no match to that of Lord Anjaneya.

Sri Anjaneya saw Lord Narayana and he prostrated before Him and welcomed  Him. Lord Narayana told that He was drawn to theplace by the music produced by the Adi Veena, the one without fret and a forerunner to the present veena used by both Sri  Narada and Sri Tumburu. Lord explained to the sages that music however good it may be, with ego mixed it becomes lifeless and  music with devotion is life, pure, real, and divine. The music of Sri Anjaneya was enchanting since it was over brimming with devotion, but that of the sages were with ego hence devoid of purity. Lord Narayana declared since Lord Hanuman had reinvented the original form of fretless veena it will henceforth be called as Hanumath Veena.

In times the Hanumath veena was known by the name  Chitra veena.

Playing veena is yoga, leading to salvation as  Saint Thyagaraja sings in his krithi ” Mokshamugalada..”. Here the Saint brings out  with all lyrical beauty

“vINA vAdana loludau Sivamano
vidha merugaru, thyAgarAja vinutha”

(Meaning) Is salvation obtainable to those who are not able to perceive the mind of Shiva who derives indescribable pleasure from listening to the divine music of Vina !

So.. What is the lesson we have learnt here..Quoting the words of Lord Narayana once again..

“music however good it may be, with ego mixed, it becomes lifeless and music with devotion is life, pure, real, and divine.”

 So let us all practice Music without Ego..Music as such practised with wholesome devotion will bring all prosperity in our  life like name, fame, money, disciples etc. These are the by-products of divine music. Let us not lose focus and start concentrating on the by-products forgetting TRUE DIVINE MUSIC !