Friday, August 01, 2008

Thyagaraja Kriti - Lemi Telpa - Raga Navaneetam

Transliteration–Telugu
Transliteration as per Modified Harvard-Kyoto (HK) Convention
(including Telugu letters – Short e, Short o) -

a A i I u U
R RR lR lRR
e E ai o O au M (H or :)

(e – short E – Long o – short O – Long)

k kh g gh n/G
c ch j jh n/J (jn – as in jnAna)
T Th D Dh N
t th d dh n
p ph b bh m
y r l L v
S sh s h

lEmi telpa-navanItaM

In the kRti ‘lEmi telpa peddalu’ – rAga navanItaM (tALa Adi), SrI tyAgarAja pleads with Lord to relieve his penury.

pallavi
lEmi telpa 1peddal(e)varu lErO


anupallavi
2A mahimal(e)lla mAni I mahilO puTTirO (lEmi)


caraNam
3nI rUpamunu pUni manasu nirmalulai(y)uNDa lEdA
dhArA-dhar(A)bha SarIra 4tyAgarAja vinuta (lEmi)


Gist

  • O Lord whose body has the splendour of rain-cloud! O Lord well-praised by this tyAgarAja!

    • Are there no great souls who would inform You about my penury?
    • Are they not existing here, donning Your Form, as pure-minded?
    • Or, are they born in this World shedding all those mights?



Word-by-word meaning

pallavi
lEmi telpa peddalu-evaru lErO

Are there no (evaru lErO) great souls (peddalu) (peddalevaru) who would inform (telpa) You about my penury (lEmi)?


anupallavi
A mahimalu-ella mAni I mahilO puTTirO (lEmi)

Are there no great souls who would inform You about my penury? or,
are they born (puTTirO) in this (I) World (mahilO) shedding (mAni) all (ella) those (A) mights (mahimalu) (mahimalella)?


caraNam
nI rUpamunu pUni manasu nirmalulai-uNDa lEdA
dhArA-dhara-Abha SarIra tyAgarAja vinuta (lEmi)

Are they not (lEdA) existing (uNDa) here, donning (pUni) Your (nI) Form (rUpamunu), as pure-minded (manasu nirmalulai) (nirmalulaiyuNDa)?
O Lord whose body (SarIra) has the splendour (Abha) of rain-cloud (dhArA-dhara) (literally water bearer) (dharAbha)! O Lord well-praised (vinuta) by this tyAgarAja!
Are there no great souls who would inform You about my penury?


Notes –
Variations
2 – A mahimalella – I mahimalella. As the word ‘mahima’ has not been explained in this kRti, the word ‘I’ (this) may not be appropriate. Therefore, ‘A’ (those) has been adopted.

3 – rUpamunu – rUpamuna. As ‘rUpamunu’ is appropriate, the same has been adopted.

4 – tyAgarAja vinuta – tyAgarAja nuta.

References
3 – nI rUpamunu pUni – this refers to the stage of sArUpyaM. The four stages of mukti are – sAlOkya – being co-located with Lord, sAmIpya – being in the neighbourhood of Lord , sArUpya – being of likeness of Lord, sAyujya – union with Lord. The following verse from Adi Sankaracarya’s Sivananda Lahari (verse 28) is relevant –

sArUpyaM tava pUjanE Siva mahA-dEvEti saMkIrtanE
sAmIpyaM Siva-bhakti-dhurya-janatA-sAMgatya-saMbhAshaNE
sAlOkyaM ca carAcarAtmaka-tanu-dhyAnE bhavanI-patE
sAyujyaM mama siddha-matra bhavati svAmin kRtArtOsmyahaM

O Lord of bhavAnI! I attain -
to similarity of form with Thee by performing Thy ritualistic worship;
to closeness with Thee by singing Thy praise;
to residence in Thy heavenly plane by associating and conversing with Thy noble devotees; and
to oneness with Thee by contemplating on Thy form constituted of the whole of this living and non-living world.
Thus in this very embodiment I shall attain life’s fulfilment.
(Translation by Swami Tapasyananda)

“To reach the world of the ishTa-devatA (Chosen favourite deity) and live in that world is called sAlokya-padavI. The next stage is the sAmIpya stage. This is the stage where one lives in the beatific presence of that God. The next stage which is sArUpyam is the process of becoming that very form by continuously meditating on the form. The ultimate is the sAyujya-padavI where one becomes in essence the object of one's adoration. This is an identity status, both in form and essence.” (Discourse of kAnci mAhAsvAmi on saundarya lahari)

“gajEndra was, by the touch of the Supreme Lord, instantly freed from the ignorance of being bound, and had achieved the selfsame form with four arms and yellow garments (sArUpya-mukti)....” (Srimad- Bhagavatam.VIII.4.6)

Comments -
1 – peddalu – great souls – SrI tyAgarAja explains ‘peddalu’ in general terms in caraNa as ‘donning Your form’ (nI rUpamu pUni). Therefore, anupallavi (are they born shedding those mights?) should be read after caraNa. That seems to be logical sequence of the kRti.

In one book, such ‘great souls’ have been referred as ‘nitya sUri’. garuDa, AnjanEya, tuLasi etc are considered as ‘nitya sUris’

3 – nI rUpumunu pUni – this might refer to personages like garuDa, AnjanEya, sage nArada. SrI tyAgarAja considered sage nArada as his guru – please refer to kRti ‘SrI nArada muni’ rAga bhairavi.

Devanagari

ऎ,कॆ,चॆ.. - e,ke,ce..(short);
ए,के,चे.. - E,kE,cE..(long);
ऐ,कै,चै.. - ai,kai,cai..;
ऒ,कॊ,चॊ.. - o,ko,co..(short);
ओ,को,चो.. - O,kO,cO..(long);
औ,कौ,चौ.. -au,kau,cau..;

प. लेमि तॆल्प पॆद्द(लॆ)वरु लेरो

अ. आ महिम(लॆ)ल्ल मानि ई महिलो पुट्टिरो (ले)

च. नी रूपुमुनु पूनि मनसु निर्मलुलै(यु)ण्ड लेदा
धारा-ध(रा)भ शरीर त्यागराज विनुत (ले)


Tamil

க,ச,ட,த,ப - 2-ख छ ठ थ फ; 3-ग ड द ब; 4-घ झ ढ ध भ
(ச3 - ஜ)
ஸ1 श - शिव - சிவன்
ரு2 ऋ - कृप - கிருபை

ப. லேமி தெல்ப பெத்3த3(லெ)வரு லேரோ

அ. ஆ மஹிம(லெ)ல்ல மானி ஈ மஹிலோ புட்டிரோ (லே)

ச. நீ ரூபுமுனு பூனி மனஸு நிர்மலுலை(யு)ண்ட3 லேதா3
தா4ரா-த4(ரா)ப4 ஸ1ரீர த்யாக3ராஜ வினுத (லே)

(எனது) வறுமையினைத் தெரிவிக்கப் பெரியோர் எவரும் இலரோ?

அவ்வல்லமைகளையெல்லாம் துறந்து இப்புவியினில் பிறந்தனரோ?
(எனது) வறுமையினைத் தெரிவிக்கப் பெரியோர் எவரும் இலரோ?

உனதுருவத்தினைப் புனைந்து, உள்ளத் தூயோராகத் திகழவில்லையா?
கார்முகில் வண்ண உருவத்தோனே! தியாகராசனால் போற்றப் பெற்றோனே!
(எனது) வறுமையினைத் தெரிவிக்கப் பெரியோர் எவரும் இலரோ?

உனதுருவத்தினைப் புனைந்து - சாரூபம் எனப்படும் முத்திப்படிகளிலொன்று


Telugu

ప. లేమి తెల్ప పెద్దలెవరు లేరో

అ. ఆ మహిమలెల్ల మాని ఈ మహిలో పుట్టిరో (లే)

చ. నీ రూపుమును పూని మనసు నిర్మలులైయుండ లేదా
ధారా-ధరాభ శరీర త్యాగరాజ వినుత (లే)


Kannada

ಪ. ಲೇಮಿ ತೆಲ್ಪ ಪೆದ್ದಲೆವರು ಲೇರೋ

ಅ. ಆ ಮಹಿಮಲೆಲ್ಲ ಮಾನಿ ಈ ಮಹಿಲೋ ಪುಟ್ಟಿರೋ (ಲೇ)

ಚ. ನೀ ರೂಪುಮುನು ಪೂನಿ ಮನಸು ನಿರ್ಮಲುಲೈಯುಂಡ ಲೇದಾ
ಧಾರಾ-ಧರಾಭ ಶರೀರ ತ್ಯಾಗರಾಜ ವಿನುತ (ಲೇ)


Malayalam

പ. ലേമി തെല്പ പെദ്ദലെവരു ലേരോ

അ. ആ മഹിമലെല്ല മാനി ഈ മഹിലോ പുട്ടിരോ (ലേ)

ച. നീ രൂപുമുനു പൂനി മനസു നിര്മലുലൈയുണ്ഡ ലേദാ
ധാരാ-ധരാഭ ശരീര ത്യാഗരാജ വിനുത (ലേ)


Updated on 19/3/10

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