Sant surdas biography
Surdas was a very prominent devotional saint during the 16th century. Even though he was blind by birth, he composed three poetic masterpieces in Braj Bhasha, the local language of Vrindavan. He is considered to be the foremost of the poets the Sri Vallabha Sampradaya designates as its Aṣṭachāp.
Surdas was born in Siri village near Delhi in 1478 A.D. Being blind by birth, the world including his parents, were unkind to him.
In this miserable state, Surdas one day heard a group of singers passing by his house, and realised the great joy of music. At the tender age of six, he followed them. However, the group was not pleased with the idea of being burdened with the blind boy and abandoned him at a lake where they rested for the night. Surdas was now truly alone. The young boy had a natural instinct to survive and by the age of 14 he had developed a keen sixth sense, and was known as the miracle boy.
One night, Surdas dreamt of Lord Krishna and people praising Him through bhajans. Surdas woke up and was convinced that the Lord was calling to him. So he reached Gau ghat, near the Yamuna banks in Mathura. Here he started writing poems and setting them to music.
At Gau ghat, Surdas had the good fortune of meeting the great learned Saint Sri Vallabhacharya. This was one of the turning points in the life of Surdas. Sri Vallabhacharya saw the devotion and humility of Surdas and asked him to sing the leelas of Lord Krishna. Surdas said that he did not know the secret of Lord Krishna’s leelas. Sri Vallabhacharya accepted him as his disciple and recited him the Krishna leelas. The Lord’s leelas occupied the heart and mind of Surdas. This inspired him to create and sing the poems on the life of Sri Krishna. Later Surdas along with his Guru left for Gokul from Gau ghat. Surdas would compose and sing hymns based on Krishna leela to his Guru.
After sometime Surdas with his Gurudev went to Govardhan from Gokul. Here he saw Shrinathji&#
The Life of the Hindu Saint and Poet Sant Surdas
Surdas, the 15th-century sightless saint, poet, and musician, is known for his devotional songs dedicated to Lord Krishna. Surdas is said to have written and composed a hundred thousand songs in his magnum opus the 'Sur Sagar' (Ocean of Melody), out of which only about 8,000 are extant. He is considered a saint and so also known as Sant Surdas, a name which literally means the "slave of melody".
Early Life of Sant Surdas
The time of Surdas's birth and death are uncertain and suggest that he lived over a hundred years, which make the facts even murkier. Some say he was born blind in 1479 in Siri village near Delhi. Many others believe, Surdas was born in Braj, a holy place in the northern Indian district of Mathura, associated with the exploits of Lord Krishna. His family was too poor to take good care of him, which led the blind boy to leave home at the tender age of 6 to join a wandering group of religious musicians. According to one legend, one night he dreamt of Krishna, who asked him to go to Vrindavan, and dedicate his life to the praise of the Lord.
Surdas's Guru - Shri Vallabharachary
A chance meeting with the saint Vallabharacharya at Gau Ghat by the river Yamuna in his teens transformed his life. Shri Vallabhacharya taught Surdas lessons in Hindu philosophy and meditation and put him on the path of spirituality. Since Surdas could recite the entire Srimad Bhagavatam and was musically inclined, his guru advised him to sing the 'Bhagavad Lila' - devotional lyrical ballads in praise of Lord Krishna and Radha. Surdas lived in Vrindavan with his guru, who initiated him to his own religious order and later appointed him as the resident singer at Srinath temple in Govardhan.
Surdas Attains Fame
Surdas' lilting music and fine poetry attracted many laurels. As his fame spread far and wide, the Mughal emperor Akbar (1542-1605) became his patron. Surdas spent the last years of his life The story of this medieval poet and singer born in India during the 15 century is, understandably, shrouded in mystery and some say that his life spanned over 100 years. He composed songs in a relatively crude Hindi dialect called Braj Bhasha and historians claim that he was responsible for ensuring that this version of the Indian language passed into literary folklore. It is believed that he was born around the year 1479 though his place of birth is open to debate. Some say it was in a village called Siri, near Delhi, while others say it was in Braj. This area in northern India is generally linked with Lord Krishna. Legend has it that he suffered blindness when born and, like most families then, he was born into extreme poverty. Perhaps because of his disability he suffered a degree of abuse and was certainly a neglected child. He departed from his home at just six years old to join a wandering band of musicians that were religious. Again, with a nod towards the legend, he is said to have had a dream about Krishna one night who told him that he must live his life praising the Lord and that he should go to Vrindavan. As a teenager, Surdas was taught Hindu philosophy by the saint Shri Vallabhacharya. His meditational methods of teaching put the young man on the clear road to spiritual fulfilment. He was initiated into a religious order by his guru and, because of his abilities as a poet and a singer, he sang regularly at the temple at Srinath. Surdas soon became well known as news of his musical and writing talents even reached the ears of Akbar, the Mughal emperor, who became his patron. He was now able to live out the rest of his time in relative comfort due to the donations and earnings from music, writing and occasionally giving lectures on subjects to do with religion. Surdas had a remarkable talent for memorising Sanskrit hymns such as Srimad Bhagavata along with many others. It was this that made him such an in-demand figure wherever he went, with Indian writer, poet and singer Surdas was a 16th-century blind Hindu devotional poet and singer, who was known for his works written in praise of Krishna. His compositions captured his devotion towards Krishna. Most of his poems were written in the Braj language, while some were also written in other dialects of medieval Hindi, like Awadhi. Sūrdās's biography is most often told through the lens of the Vallabha Sampradāya aka the Puṣṭimārga. The Puṣṭimārga regards Sūrdās as an initiated disciple of Vallabha, and his hagiography is told in the Caurāsī Vaiṣṇavan kī Vārtā by Gokulnāth and Harirāy. Sūrdās' poems, along with those of other Aṣṭachāp poets, form a central part of Puṣṭimārga liturgical singing-worship. However modern scholars consider the connection between Sūrdās and Vallabha and his sect to be ahistorical. The book Sur Sagar (Sur's Ocean) is traditionally attributed to Surdas. However, many of the poems in the book seem to be written by later poets in Sur's name. The Sur Sagar in its present form focuses on descriptions of Krishna as the lovely child of Gokul and Vraj, written from the gopis' perspective. The Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature suggests a birth year of 1258 into a Brahmin family of Uttar Pradesh.Encyclopædia Britannica states that his lifespan is "traditionally" given as 1483-1563. Sources state he was either a Sārasvata Brāhmaṇa, a Jāṭa, or a Ḍhāṛhī. Surdas, whose name translates to "servant of the sun", is celebrated as the pinnacle of poetic artistry in Braj bhasha. This language is linked to the Braj region, where Krishna is said to have spent his childhood. The hagiographer Nabha Dass, in his Bhaktamal, praised Surdas for his poetic skill, especially in depicting "Hari's playful acts", a reference to Krishna's divine activities. Surdas also composed poems about Ram and Sita but primarily focused on Krishna's lif
Surdas
Life and work