Reading Notes: Soordas The Blind Bard, an Amar Chitra Katha vol613

Soordas The Blind Bard
Amar Chitra Katha volume # 613
Image from DiscoverBooks

Today, I read an Amar Chitra Katha comic book. Have you heard of Amar Chitra Katha? I hadn't either, but they are incredibly famous in India, and generations have now been able to enjoy them. There are more than 400 titles, in more than 20 different languages, that retell stories from the great Indian epics, mythology, history, folklore, and fables in comic book format. It was originally created by Anant Pai, beginning in 1967.

Soordas:

• "Born 1478 A.D. to a poor Saraswat Brahman couple of Sihi Village, near Delhi."
• Born blind, everyone forgot his real name and began to call him "Soor" (Soor meaning blind)
• As a child, his parents and the world were cruel to him, and did not understand him. 
• His Brahman father taught his brothers Shlokas, verses in Sanskrit, and having heard a passing group singing Bhajans, Soordas went to his father and asked him to teach him Shlokas too. He did not.
• So, Soordas followed the same group singing Bhajans that passed by the next day. He followed them to the lake, they abandoned him in the morning. But, Soordas remained and sang devotional songs and ate whatever was offered to him by the villagers. He learnt from the Sadhus and the pilgrims on their way to Mathura and Vrindavan. 
• Deprived of one of his 5 senses, he was gifted with a 6th sense, and became a famous Diviner.
• Soordas divined where Zamindar's lost son would be located, so he came and honored Soordas and built him  a hut. 
• An ektara (musical one-stringed instrument) and vessels were given to Soordas, and disciples began to stay with him and serve him. 
• Soordas had a dream of Krishna with many disciples singing devotional songs. So, Soordas left to go wander the woods with his ektara and sing praise to Krishna. "Jai Gopal! Jai Jai Gopal!"
• He kept stopping and singing Bhajans and gathering large crowds, but each time he had to leave them to excape the world, finding unused paths. 
• He fell into a well, and a week later Krishna came to rescue him out of the well. 
• In his quest to find Krishna again, he stayed in Gow-Ghat near Mathura. Here he composed hundreds of Bhajans, acquired many disciples and his fame as the Singing Mahatma (Great Soul) spread far and wide. 
• Eventually, the greatest scholar-saint of all time, Vallabha Acharya met with Soordas, the poet-saint. Vallabha Acharya corrected Soordas from singing degenerating songs to Krishna to singing only of Krishna's life. Because Soordas was unlearned, Vallabha Acharya taught him all about Krishna so that Soordas might sing about him. He initiated Soordas as his disciple.
• "Shri Krishnah Sharanam Mama" - I take refuge in Krishna. Vallabha Acharya appointed Soordas as the chief singer in Shreenathji's Temple in Govardhan. 
• When Soordas sang of Krishna, the devotees could actually see Krishna in front of their faces, it was so vivid and lifelike. 
• His brothers visited him at the temple, and Soordas embraced them warmly as they apologized for not recognizing his greatness and perhaps causing him to leave home. Soordas would not leave the temple to go visit his parents, however, saying that all mankind was his family.
• His brothers soon realized that his Bhajans were on everyone's lips, and all mankind was indeed his family. 
• Even Tansen, the famous singer at the court of Akbar began to sing the songs of Soordas. 
• Akbar came to visit Soordas because Soordas would not sing outside the Temple of Krishna. Soordas composed a new song for him, and Akbar tried to give him some lands. Soordas would not accept them, and Akbar called him 'Indeed, he is a great Fakir.' (Fakir, derived from Arabic فكير means self-sufficient one who only possesses the desire/need for god. Also, poverty.)
• Once, When Soordas was at Mathura, Tulsidas came to seek his guidance.  The two departed from each other after a few days, and requested that each other sing of their god: '
• Tulsi, sing of Krishna!' 'Of course, but Soordas, sing of my Rama!'
• Soordas stayed in the Temple of Shreenath, yet his songs sung in Brij Boli (dialect of Hindi spoken in and around Mathura) became so popular that they were sung from Rajasthan and Punjab to Assam. 

Page 22-23 of Soordas The Blind Bard, Amar Chitra Katha vol613
Personal Photo, October 2016.

I could write about when he fell into the well and Krishna came to save him out of it. I could also write about his songs being on the lips of all of the peasants.

As far as including a piece of golden jewelry, he is quite poor and lives only on what is given to him. I will have to have a piece of jewelry gifted to him, probably around the time that his hut is built, by the Zamindar. Or I could have Vallabha Acharya gift it to him, since he taught him all about Krishna's life, and as Soordas' Guru, he would probably accept the gift from him.