Guruvayur Srikrishnan

Guruvayur is the famous pilgrimage town in the southwest Indian state of Kerala. The presiding deity of the Guruvayur Temple is Maha Vishnu, worshipped in the form of his avatar, Krishna. While this town has been developed a lot, the yesteryears saw a series of houses on the left side of the temple while facing from the east nada (entrance from the east side). My grandfather Shakaranarayanan Iyer and my grandmother Kanakambal used to live in the first house next to the temple. For some time, they did not have any children and my grandmother had taken to a 41-day prayer in the temple asking for blessings from Lord Krishna, popularly known as Guruvayurappan.

On 12^th of March 1936, Kanakambal and Shankaranayanan were blessed with a baby boy whom they fondly called "Srikrishnan". He was given away to the temple in a ceremony called “Nadathal”. In this ceremony the child is offered to the temple and the parents walk away about 10 steps. If anyone picks up the child before that, then they take the responsibility of bringing up the child. My grandmother turned and looked at the baby and he was still there. She then happily went ahead and took the child, promising to take care of him. This is how the intense bonding of my dad (Mr. Srikrishnan) and The Lord Guruvayurappan began.

Young Srikrishnan showed interest in music and was initiated into Classical Carnatic music was by my grandmother. N Krishna Bhagavathar and K V Ramachandra Bhagavathar were the two teachers from whom he learnt flute in the beginning. At the age of 6, he did his formal performance - a flute concert, during the festival timing at Paramekkavu Bhagavathi Temple, which is one of the largest Devi temple in city of Thrissur, of Kerala state in India. Hearing him play, one of the elderly and prominent persons from the King's Palace (of Cochin), presented him with a Sruthi box. He felt so happy that he could now practice better. Soon he was to be invited to perform at various festivals and occasions. Thus began the journey of Guruvayur Srikrishan, the flautist and vocalist.

Photo: Guruyayur Srikrishnan in younger days in All India Radio (AIR), Calicut

Royal Award

My father has told me many anecdotes about how he has travelled to various places for flute concert and also enjoyed his favorite “masala dosa’s” enroute. There was a time when he was in Class 3 or 4, he played a flute during the annual festival of the school. My grandfather was the English Teacher there as well. The guest of honor was none other than the Maharaja of Cochin, Parikshith Thampuran himself and he loved the flute recital. After the recital was over, he called the little boy (my father) and asked me, “Will you come to the Palace and play flute on my birthday?” Without even thinking for a moment, he answered, “I have to get my father’s permission. Also, it is a working day so if I have to miss my class, then my Headmaster has to permit”. While the Maharaja smiled, both my grandfather and the Headmaster were speechless for a moment, but they quickly responded that “They will ensure he is present on the day at the palace to perform the flute concert”. When the D-Day arrived, a car was sent to take my father to the palace. The audience was mesmerized by his performance. He was awarded the “Veera Sringala” – a special gift of title and honor, which has a ponanda and a Kappu (Wristlet).

Renovation

The maharaja took the boy on his lap and covered with him for 15-20 minutes about his school, education and any challenges they faced. I remember my father telling me, “I was not aware what I should say or not say, so I told him everything that came to my mind, such as we did not have a playground, the desk and chairs were broken, we did not have enough books in the library and teachers had difficulty without good board and chalk etc.”. Then he added, “When I reached home, my Headmaster was also sitting along with my father in the veranda of the house and they asked me to explain everything that happened. I went ahead and told them everything I said. Both of them were a bit upset about what I communicated to the Maharaja and worried what would come of it.” I eagerly asked, “Did they scold you?” My father smiled and said, “No, they understand I was a child but advised me that I should think before I speak! After all, no one else was there, so I could not have done much. But what happened within the next one week was truly amazing. All the furniture’s were replaced by new ones. An empty plot of land neighboring the school was donated by the Maharaja, to be used as school's playground. It was cleaned within a week and children could play there. We got new books both for teachers, students and for the library. The school looked new! I think heart of heart our Headmaster would have been very happy! Oh, by the way, that day of my performance at the palace was declared a holiday, so I did not miss my school.”

Poomully Mana

I remember was when he was 11 years old, he was invited to “Poomully Mana” for a performance during the Navarathri festival. The day before the performance, my father’s grandfather had visited them, and he announced that he will take him to Poomully Mana. These were times, when elders announce something, there is no other word to it, so it was settled. Next day early morning, my father started his journey holding the hands of his grandfather. I remember him telling me, “My grandfather will only walk and never get into a bus or a bullock-cart (which used to be the means of travel those days).” My father also had Polio when he was six months and while he survived it, one of his legs were weak. Naturally, he would not be able to walk long distances. My father continued, “Since we were walking, my grandfather knew some of the shortcuts and we were going through a forest area. After a few hours, I looked at my grandfather and told him that I am both tired and hungry. He immediately replied, ‘let us find a way out!’ He then called out to some of the Adivasi’s in the forest and told them, ‘My boy is hungry, do you have the forest rice?’ They immediately took them near a fire lit with woods, gave them some bench to sit and pulled out a cylindrical shape (elbow length) Bamboo shoot covered with clay. They broke the clay, cut open the shoot and poured the contents into a leaf and gave it to me. It was piping hot bamboo rice mixed with honey from the forest. I never tasted such an awesome food before!” After resting for a while, we continued our journey for another one hour, when I looked at my grandfather and told him, my legs were aching. He immediately understood and told me to hold his hands and close my eyes. Within 5 seconds he told me ok, now you can open and to my biggest surprise, we were in front of Poomully Mana. I was shocked since it would have taken another 6 hours to reach there if we were walking.” Before my father continued, I stopped him to ask,” How did that happen”. He replied, “My grandfather had some Siddhis (Super normal abilities) and this was one of them.” I could not control my curiosity and asked him, “then what happened?” He continued, “Well, we went there, we were welcomed. We took bath and refreshed ourselves and then had dinner (it was a custom to have early dinner those days). I was also surprised to find Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar (who was also the guru of Poomully Rammaphan, another extremely talented musician and a lover of performing arts. There were other senior musicians as well including Palghat Mani Iyer.” I remember my father telling me, how Chembai had asked Poomully Ramaphan “Will this little boy be able to perform a full concert?”. He had performed for almost three hours and got appreciation for all those senior musicians as well as senior members of the family there. I was curious to know about the “Siddhi” he mentioned about his grandfather and hence asked him to explain. He said, “these are special powers you can get through meditation and ‘sadhana’ (discipline and dedication). But people who gain them never speak about it nor do they use it for any materialistic need. He had the power to reach anywhere in the speed of just thinking about it. His house used to be extremely far of, and I often wondered how he started in the early hours of the morning and would reach our house within one hour.” My comment to my father was, “Why did you not learn all this from him? Then there would not be a problem in traveling…we could have gone places!” He smiled at me and said, “It is not easy as you think!”

To be continued...