[Advaita-l] Saint Thyagaraja's view of Sri Rama

[V Subrahmanian]

A couple of days ago I chanced to listen to this short video:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1705160393608283

which formed the genesis of my post.

regards

On Sun, Oct 13, 2024 at 10:42 PM V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
wrote:

> There is an incident that marks the composition of this Evarani song by
> Thyagaraja, as reported in that blog:
>
>
> https://thyagaraja-vaibhavam.blogspot.com/2007/07/thyagaraja-kriti-evarani-nirnayinchiri.html
>
> //It is stated that Gopalakrishna Bharati (Tamil composer) – a
> contemporary of ThyAgarAja visited the latter and sang a song
> (sabhApathikku) eulogising Lord Siva – that there is no God equal to Lord
> Siva. It is stated that then and there, SrI ThyAgarAja extempore composed
> this song. If this is true, then ‘nara varulu evarani’ would be the correct
> rendering.    //
>
> regards
> subbu
>
> On Sun, Oct 13, 2024 at 10:16 PM V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> In many compositions of Sri Thyagaraja we see that he held Sri Rama to be
>> Para Brahman and did not restrict Rama to a god distinct from other gods.
>> One example is the song 'Rama nannu bhrovaraa' where he says 'cheemalo
>> brahma shiva keshavaadulalo' meaning You are the one inherent in all beings
>> from the ant to Brahma and Shiva and Keshava, etc. Thereby he is holding
>> Sri Rama as the Para Brahman whose forms are the gods and Trimurtis and
>> other jivas.
>>
>> Here is another such kriti 'evara ni...' where Thyagaraja wonders 'How
>> did the eminent persons view You - as Brahma or as Shiva or as Vishnu?'
>>
>>
>> https://thyagaraja-vaibhavam.blogspot.com/2007/07/thyagaraja-kriti-evarani-nirnayinchiri.html
>>
>> SivuD(a)nO mAdhavuD(a)nO 2kamala
>>
>> bhavuD(a)nO para-brahmam(a)nO ninn(evarani)
>>
>> (What did the most Eminent people determine as to who You are, and how
>> did they worship You? – whether Lord Siva or Lord vishNu or brahmA or the
>> Supreme Lord?) He further says that the Shiva mantra 'namah shivaaya' has
>> ma as the seminal syllable and the Narayana mantra has 'ra' and that makes
>> Rama.
>>
>> mAdhava mantramunaku rA jIvamu(y)I
>>
>> vivaramu telisina ghanulaku mrokkeda
>>
>> vitaraNa guNa 4tyAgarAja vinuta (evarani)
>>
>> (For the Siva mantra (OM namaSSivAya), ‘ma’ is the soul; for the vishNu
>> mantra (OM namO nArAyanAya), ‘rA’ is the soul; I salute the great
>> personages who understand this detail.)
>>
>>
>> We have seen Annamacharya too holding the Lord of Tirupati as Para
>> Brahman who is looked upon by various sects as their god:
>>
>>
>>
>>