Bhajan singing preserves Indian traditions
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By BOB REEVES/Llincoln Journal Star
It’s Friday evening and the bhajan singers are arriving at the home of Vikas and Nisha Padhye. Women in flowing Indian dresses with colorful sashes and scarves. A few men in what westerners like to call Nehru shirts or jackets, but most are all-American in jeans or khakis, T-shirts or plaids.
They leave their shoes at the door — within an hour some 60 shoes are stacked there — and gather in the basement recreation room. They sit cross-legged or on their knees before an altar adorned with pictures of Hindu deities. The evening begins with slow intonations of the sacred word AUM, followed by a half hour of unison chanting of ancient Hindu prayers.
Several participants close their eyes during the chanting and bring their hands together in prayer. It’s a scene of peace and contemplation.
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But when the chanting ends, the atmosphere changes. Cymbals, bells, a tambourine and drums come out. The tempo picks up as they move on to the main event: bhajan singing.
Ram Bishu leads the opening bhajan, a song of praise to the Hindu god Ganesh, beating time on a jangling shaker. “We always start with a song to Lord Ganesh, who removes obstacles and conflicts,” explains Bishu, unofficial leader of the group.
A hymn to Ganesh seeks blessings for the gathering, which brings together people of many ages and backgrounds for a night of music, worship and socializing,
Bhajans are devotional songs from throughout India, characterized by lively, lilting melodies and repetitive choruses that make them easy to learn and sing. Unlike classical Indian music, which is the province of musical masters, bhajans are a part of village and community life and appeal to people on many levels.
The Lincoln bhajan nights, held every week or two, include people from India or of Indian heritage from throughout the Lincoln area. The get-togethers have been taking place for 15 years, said Bishu, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln engineering professor.
“It’s really going strong,” he said. “On a good day we may get 30 to 40 people. It’s a totally democratic group, I’m just the leader because no one else wants to be.”
In each song, one person sings a phrase, then the group repeats it. The words are in Sanskrit, Hindi or other Indian languages, depending on the region of the country from which the song derives. Most songs follow the same basic rhythm — two short beats followed by one long — known as theentaal. “It makes it easier to learn the songs,” said Radha Balasubramanian, associate professor of modern languages at UNL, who has participated since the evenings began in 1991. She jokes that her son Suhaus Nataraj has been coming to the bhajan singing since he was minus nine months.
“We call them soul songs,” Bishu said. Each song has a devotional message, focusing on the names and attributes of one or more gods or goddesses, all of whom represent different aspects or manifestations of God, he said.
Some songs praise deities from outside Hindu traditions. At one recent bhajan, Sri Mayasandra, a Mennonite Christian, led a song that included the names of Allah, Jesus, the Sikh guru Nanak, Zarathustra and Buddha.
Participants take turns leading the songs, passing around a card with a deity’s picture to determine who’s next.
This night, a young man named Saravaman leads a bhajan with some verses in English: “Deep in my mind I want to see you; deep in my heart I want to serve you; come my Lord, come unto me; O my Lord, come unto me.”
That’s one of a number of devotional songs written or inspired by Sathya Sai Baba, a spiritual leader who teaches that all religions are paths to the same truths. The story of Sathya Sai, who turns 80 this year, as well as the institute he established in Andhra Pradesh, India, is on the Web at www.sathyasai.org. The site also has music and words to songs available for downloading, plus prayers and devotional readings.
The Lincoln bhajan group generally meets every other Friday at a different family’s home.
The word “bhajan” means “singing to glorify God,” explained Asha Jayaprakash, who led several of the songs with a beautiful, practiced singing voice.
Jayaprakash sings a recitation from the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most sacred books of Hinduism, at the end of the bhajan session. She sings a verse, then Bishu reads it in English along with a short commentary.
Jayaprakash studied music and scriptures in India and won a statewide competition in Gita chanting when she was in 12th grade. “My mother knew Sanskrit well,” she said. “My daughter, Anusha, is 2½ and already knows all the songs,” she added.
The songfest lasts for about an hour, the pace of the music increasing as the evening progresses.
Songs are in praise of such deities as Siva, Rama, Vishnu and Krishna, but the concluding song always honors Lord Subramanya, the brother of Ganesh, who combats evil and dispels ignorance and disease.
The exuberance of the Subramanya song brings the evening to a climax, followed by more slow repetitions of “AUM.”
Then comes the Gita recitation, which this evening focuses on the importance of “doing a pure act, not caring for a reward.” Bishu reads a commentary about the value of living and acting unselfishly.
That provokes a short discussion in which one young man asks whether an act can be pure if it causes suffering for anyone. An older gentleman, wearing the traditional turban of a Sikh, answers that the moral person considers the consequences of every act, even though not seeking a reward.
The devotional time concludes with Vikas Padhye, the host, carrying a flame around the room, allowing participants to pass their hands over the flickering fire, drawing the smoke toward their foreheads.
“After seeking the blessing of the god we want to pass the flame (blessing) to everyone,” Bishu explained.
Following the formal part of the evening, it’s time for a party, with a dinner of Indian foods and pastries prepared by Nisha Padhye. A special surprise is a cake with candles and a silly paper hat for Vikas Padhye, who is celebrating his 50th birthday.
The bhajan evenings are a way of preserving Indian traditions and giving expression to spiritual feelings, Bishu said. “It’s also a great stress reliever.”
Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or at breeves@journalstar.com.
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Singers to perform at prayer breakfast
Those attending this year’s Mayor’s Interfaith Prayer Breakfast on May 4 will be treated to some bhajan singing from India.
Ram Bishu is chairman of the event that starts at 7:30 a.m. at the Cornhusker Marriott Hotel, 333 S. 13th St. He and some other regular participants in the local bhajan singing sessions will share their devotional songs.
The keynote speaker at the event is the Rev. Dr. Otis Young of First-Plymouth Congregational Church.
Tickets are $15. For more information call the Lincoln Interfaith Council, 474-3017.
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