Devotional Songs

I am deeply devoted to music, in any case. So when it comes to devotional music, I am doubly devoted. My music collection has a large set of devotional songs in the Hindu, Buddhist and Christian traditions. They move me to tears and uplift my spirit.

Recently I came across a YouTube channel called Beyond Conscious. All the music on it is AI generated. The first song I heard was devoted to Bajarang Bali, also known as Hanuman.

Hanuman is depicted as a monkey. The name Bajarang derives from the Sanskrit word vajra (diamond, thunderbolt) and anga (body.) He is immensely strong. He is very popular. As kids, we used to walk to a Hanuman temple every Tuesday to ring the temple bells.

The song is sung in Bengali, my mother tongue. But one does not need to understand the words. The meaning transcends language. The first words are “Jai Bajarang Bali, jai pawan putro . . . ” Pawan is wind, and putra is son. Hanuman was born to Vayu, the god of wind. Hence son of the wind. Listen.

From the same channel, the next song is devoted to Ma Kali, as Bengalis like to refer to her.

Ma Kali. Here depicted as Dakshina Kali.

A bit of background about Ma Kali. See the image on the left.

The iconography is fascinating. Note that she has her right foot planted on the chest of a man. The story goes thusly.

A terrible demon called Raktabija had to be destroyed. Ma Durga was called to action. Learning of what was going on, Ma Durga became intensely angry. Ma Kali is the personification of Ma Durga’s anger.

Incidentally, the word kala means both time and black. Thus Kali is time and death and destruction. Anyway, Ma Kali destroys many demons but then goes on a rampage out of uncontrolled anger.

Vishnu confronts Kali in an attempt to cool her down. She is unable to see beyond the limitless power of her rage and Vishnu has to move out of her way. Bramha (the creator) and Vishnu (the preserver) fear that in her anger, Kali would end up destroying the universe. They go have a chat with Shiva (the destroyer.)

Shiva comes up with a cunning plan to stop Kali’s endless destruction. He lies down in Kali’s path so that she would have to step on him. When she sees her husband under her foot, Kali realizes that she had gone too far. She comes to her senses and in her shame she sticks out her blood-red tongue.

OK, now to that song about Kali. The words are in Persian, Bengali and Sanskrit.

The next one is for Ganesha. He is my favorite. I always have a little Ganesha riding on my dashboard. Having a dashboard Ganesh is universal among Hindus and Jains in India for sure, but the easiest way to tell if an American car has a Hindu owner is to look for that dashboard Ganesh.

Ganesh is the remover of obstacles. His name is invoked before embarking on any enterprise. This Sanskrit shloka says it well:

vakratuṇḍa mahākāya sūryakoṭi samaprabha
nirvighnaṃ kuru me deva sarvakāryeṣu sarvadā

Translation:

(one) with a curved trunk and a large body, whose splendour is equal to that of a million suns, remove all obstacles from my tasks Deva, always and in all undertakings.

Let’s listen.