Suprabhatham

 

A household tradition just got revamped – as though with sounds emerging from the skies, with the entire solar system waking up and coming to life, with the purpose of waking up the Supreme. Every word chanted with immense lucidity. The background score is perfect and complementing, it is intended to wake up the Lord after all, so it has to be special.

It’s almost as if you’re transported to the sanctum sanctorum of a temple and standing before Maha Vishnu with folded arms, with rapt devotion and attention. The chant echoes better in the ears as it has special effects which makes it sound like you are listening to a group of people who are standing before the Lord, chanting, in order to wake up the Lord Himself.

Suprabhatam, indeed. For it isn’t just a morning, or a good morning. Suprabhatam has a better ring to it – for it truly means auspicious morning. Su = auspicious and prabhatam = morning. And this isn’t a trite tradition, cliched with the picture of a coffee cup. It’s an adjectivized waking – studded with colors, fragrances, flavors and stories about the Lord. Imagine if someone woke you up like that every day, wouldn’t the morning be auspicious, a gratifying way of waking up? But there’s only so much to a mortal human’s limits, it can get contemptuous. Not quite the case when it comes to the Immortal – there’s no dearth for satiation, there’s beauty oozing out every day, there’s silence and a never-ending satisfaction.

This is the tradition of Suprabhatham, dating back to 14^th century, (Wiki fact – written in 1430 A.D. by Prativādibhayaṅkara Śrī Anantācārya also known as Annangaracharyar, and P B Annan). The first sloka in suprabhatham is from the epic Ramayana written by Vathmiki maharshi who was Ratnakara, a decoit earlier. Sage Viswamithra in order to wake up Sri Rama said "Kausalya Supraja Rama......"This happened in Tretha yuga. We’ve grown up listening to our dear MS Subbulakshmi who still continues to divinize each morning with her voice and rendition of the Shri Venkateshawara Suprabhatham. It is so ubiquitous, that the smell of coffee, combined with the fragrance of incense sticks and MS’ voice in the background is the formula for a perfect morning scene. Not sure if anyone of us wanted to necessarily pay attention to the lyrical glory embedded in it though.

This is no degradation of MS’ version, for it could’ve been so due to external constraints – of which we’d not want to get into the details here. Probably none of us (we laymen) thought that there could be another version of the Shri Venkateshawara Suprabhatham, with such divine, calming fervor in the rendition.

2 weeks into its release, this version of Suprabhatham from Madhavan’s movie – Rocketry, has already replaced my existing morning routine and it has been nothing short of a blissful morning, every single day. As much as I’d like to avoid banality, this version of the hymn is certainly worth replacement, for it helps give a great jump start to the day, regardless of how hectic the day might unfold to be. There’s a certain impetus that it renders to the day, and makes mornings really Su, Prabhathams – quite free-flowing and glowing. For that matter any version of it should still impact the day positively because it’s the Lord’s glory that’s being sung after all. Personally, this version has a slower cadence, which is what makes this one stand out. This post is not written with the intention to compare. What’s key is the divine hymn itself, every day.

So good morning or Suprabhatham? Have a good day ahead 😊