Krishna…..kanha….lalla…from the
early childhood days heard a lot about HIM. Even in our evening prayer Ma used
to pray only Him, but not in its idol form. Ek saraniya naam dharma or
Vaishnavism is very much prevailed in Assam. MAHAPURUSH SRI MANTA SANKARDEVA
and his disciple MAHAPURUSH SRI MANTA MADHAVDEVA were the preachers of Bhakti
movement in Assam. So in Assam Krishna janmastami is very largely
celebrated. Time passed by..somehow it
so happened that I got introduced to Bhojpuri musical culture, and to perform I
have to travel a lot through Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Recently I was invited to
TAJ MAHOTSAV in Agra. As you all know to reach Agra you have to come to Delhi
to take any flight and you have to cross Mathura-Vrindavan to reach Delhi. So
how could I miss this opportunity to meet my childhood deity, hero, sakha….oh I
was so exited you know…but I didn’t have so much time to explore the whole area
as there are above 5000 mandirs. So I selectively chose to start from GOKUL.
Lots of small streets, gallis… Many thousand years ago Kanha with his friends
might have roamed around here-“Makhan Chor”, how he used to tease all the
Gopis…through these streets. I was literally in front of Kanhas house. The NAND
MAHAL - I don’t know-but I got a little emotional. Lalla ko ma ne kaise bada
kiya hoga..mitti khane pe yashoda ma ne kaha-muh kholo-she saw the whole galaxy
inside his tiny mouth..Now Nand Mahal is turned to a mandir, and Kanha is there
in a form of golden abode. The local panditji said here one should remember their
parents..so I donate something remembering ma-papa. Then I thought of meeting RADHA RANI. To meet
HER i had to go to VRINDAVAN. As an artiste this was the most exciting part of
the journey. In The LEGACY OF BHIKHARI THAKUR there was one track namely RAASLEELA.
While rendering my voice, I imagined the blue moonlight atmosphere of MADHUVAN,
tried to find the Radha deep inside me. And now this was time to physically
experience it to some extent......green lush bushes were in front of me…the
locals said these are symbolically the Gopis performing leelas with Krishna.
The place have a mystical feel. There is also a shringar kakshs of Radhika. One
kinnar was sitting there. I took some bangles exchanging it for 101 rupees. In
my day to day life I never like to put bangles but that day I was very happy to
feel the feminist of myself…the trees look like as if it is in a “Alingana”
mode. Then while returning I went to
Mathura to the jail premise where Kanha was born, from where later Vasudeva
transferred him to Nand Mahal.
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