About the Book
Book: Nourishing Your Soul
Author: Swami Mukundananda
Publisher: Rupa
Price: Rs 395
Swami Mukundananda’s Nourish Your Soul beautifully explores the inspiring lives and journeys of eleven Indian sages, says KUMAR CHELLAPPAN
It was during the 2020–2021 hospitalisation due to the Covid-19 pandemic I read Death – An Inside Story, authored by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev of Isha Foundation. I was in the ICU of Kochi Medical College and had the unfortunate experience of watching other patients being rolled out after they succumbed to the pandemic. The book by Sadhguru helped me to get rid of whatever apprehension I had about death. Sadhguru, in his characteristic style, convinced the readers that death too is a beautiful experience as birth.
This time around during my sojourn in hospital, I had two books with me, both authored by Swami Mukundananda. The books were Nourish Your Soul and Spiritual Secrets from Hinduism (both published by Rupa Publications) and gave me good company even as the nurses were struggling to find the veins in my body to jab the high-power antibiotics into the system every six hours or so. Mukundananda (64) holds a B.Tech degree from IIT-Delhi and an MBA from IIM Calcutta and had worked as a corporate chieftain for a few years before renouncing materialistic life to become a disciple of Jagadguru Kripaluji Maharaj, a renowned spiritual leader.
What makes Swami Mukundananda different from other authors is the ease and élan with which he communicates his thoughts to the readers without hurting anybody and taunting any religions. While evangelists and preachers proselytise people by addressing them as sinners and kafirs, Mukundananda does not discriminate against people based on their religion or ideology. For him, all are equal and his mission is to spread the real Good Word.
The book Nourishing Your Soul is about the life and times of 11 great Indian sages and the sufferings undertaken by them in their journey while crossing the ocean of life. All of them are enslaved to the Supreme Being and never dreamt of any luxury or well-being for themselves other than peace and prosperity throughout the universe. He has carefully selected the sages and monks who attained spirituality through their prayers, deeds, words and commitment. The chances of the present generation of Indians having heard about them are quite remote, as our ‘ace’ historians successfully succeeded in wiping out even the last vestiges of these great men and women from our academic curricula for obvious reasons like national integration and communal harmony.
Meerabai, Adi Shankaracharya, Soordas, Tukaram, Kabirdas, Ravidas, Andal, Ramanujacharya, Purandara Dasa, Vallabhacharya and Tyagaraja are the sages and seers who have been featured in this collection. The author has presented a crisp and sharp account of these persons and the readers are moved to tears when they come across the sufferings and dedication experienced by them in their path to eternal sainthood.
According to Mukundananda, saints are the embodiment of purity and goodness, being endowed with God’s infinite love and grace. “Their mere presence makes a place holy. Elevated devotees transform wherever they go into a pilgrimage site, for they hold God in their heart,” says the author in the introduction to the book.
“Eleven remarkable God-centred saints who graced the land of Bharat,” is how Mukundananda describes the characters he has selected to feature in this parade. The book begins with the life story of Meerabai, the bhakti-saint who lived in the 16th century. For our generation, Radha and Meera were the embodiment and epitomisation of love, dedication and devotion. Meera, popularly known as Meerabai, is unique in all respects as her love for her Giridhar Gopal is filled with selflessness. She knew very well that she would never be able to serve her master and lover in human form. Despite this truth, she was committed in her devotion and love and she wrote hundreds of poems like Payo Ji Maine Ram Ratan Dhan Payo... a bhajan/hymn which retains its charm and lyrical beauty even today.
Adi Shankaracharya, the Kaladi-born monk who held the famous Shankara Digvijaya Yatra along the length and breadth of the subcontinent and unified Bharat society through his teachings and lyrical compositions, should be a source of enlightenment and inspiration to ordinary mortals. Shankara taught the world that the science of mind management was the most useful skill in life. The Kanakadhara Stotra, composed by Acharya in praise of Goddess Lakshmi, and the Ganesha Pancharatnam Stotra, penned by the saint philosopher way back in the 8th century, remain unparalleled and take listeners on a one-way flight to heaven. The lyrics by the mystic get life and emotion when they are rendered by the likes of M.S. Subbulakshmi and M.L. Vasanthakumari.
The debate between Shankaracharya and Mandan Misra on the relative merits of Mimansa and Advaita viewpoints, in which the former demolished the concept of the so-called Dravidian philosophy, is enthralling.
Bhaja Govindam – described as a wake-up call to a soul in slumber. The exotic poetic beauty and perfection of composition elevate Bhaja Govindam to a state of devotional bliss.
Space constraints prevent me from elaborating about all the saints who feature in this collection. But if I fail to mention Saint Tyagaraja (1767–1847), one of the Trinity of Carnatic Music, it would be an unconscionable sin. Tyagaraja, the saint and composer of Carnatic hymns and kritis (poems), a proof of his adoration and salutation to Lord Rama, should be heard to enjoy them. Born at Tiruvaiyaru on the banks of the River Kaveri, Tyagaraja is described as the most famous son of this landscape. His parents were Rama Brahmam and Sitamma. When Tyagaraja wrote and sang Sitamma Mayamma, Sri Ramudu Matandri, he was celebrating his earthly parents as well as proclaiming Sita and Rama to be his parents (It Happened Along the Kaveri by Padma Seshadri and Padma Malini Sundararaghavan – Niyogi Books). One gets the feeling that this world is a beautiful place because of the hymns and bhajans composed by the likes of Meera Bai and Saint Tyagaraja. Nourishing Your Soul is not an ordinary work; it is the much-needed energiser and nourisher of the mind and shows to the world that Bharat was a Vishwa Guru even before the advent of AI, satellites and the internet.