Geeta Chandran steers viewers through a ride on the river of Govind bhakti

 

Guru Geeta Chandran

On 2 September 2023, Guru Geeta Chandran presented ‘Govind Gatita’ at Chinmaya Auditorium in New Delhi. The stage setting, with flowers on the edge and a little pond in the centre, created an atmosphere of serenity. Geeta ji goes into the minutest details and flowers are her favourite for stage décor. She wore a blue chequered sari. 

‘Govind Gatita’, the title of her performance, is in fact the truth of her life. She is a Krishna bhakta and the pieces performed were reflective of the sentiments imbued into her years of dancing and experiencing Krishna as her ishta. Sadly, I missed the first piece. The second was a bhajan by Parmanand Das ji, ‘Yeh dhan dharm hi se payo’. The lyrics are very meaningful – the bhakta says that the he has gained the treasure of calling Krishna his own by following the path of bhakti. It was Ma Yashoda who had prayed for Krishna as her son and had attained the ultimate relation with the lord. The wealth that the Brajvasis had of calling Krishna their own – that is the wealth that the bhakta strives for. The vocals by Sudha Raguraman gave soul to the bhajan. 

In her abhinaya, Geeta ji depicted Ma Yashoda rocking Krishna in the palna. She plays with him with a jhunjhuna in her hand. And in contrast, she showed in a broad plie, bending backwards, the shesha with its flared hood on which Shri Krishna reclines. From Vishnu’s navel emerges the lotus from which the creator, Barhma, emerged to create this srishti. But here in Ma Yashoda’s palace, there is no shesha, no lotuses and no Brahma. There is only a mother who sings her baby to sleep, picks him up and put a kajal tilak on his face to ward off evil eyes. It was very heart-warming imagery that came from a dancer who dances with her heart. 

The next piece was a varnam, ‘Sundar Gopalam’, from the Nandkumarashtakam composed by Shri Vallabhacharya in the Pushti Marga tradition in praise of the lord. It was called a roar, a swirling of the river, the Govind Gatita. The verses are full of love and bhakti for the lord, depicted with abhinaya and natya. Krishna wears a garland of lotuses (urvanmalam) and his enchanting eyes are big. To the demons, they look scary. but to the bhaktas they look like lotuses, on which the eyes of the bhaktas are like bees. ‘Shir mukut sudesham kunchit kesham…’: the morpankh on his headgear, his curly locks that gently caress his face. With the pitambar tied around his waist and dressed like a natwar, he roams Vrindavan. Geetaji walked the madmast gait of Krishna. In a broad plie, she stretched one leg to show the peacock offering his feather to Krishna to wear on his head. Krishna, thus dressed, carries the lakuti on his shoulders to roam in Vrindavan. ‘Gunjakriti haram, vipinviharam…’: the flowers and the vines (lata pata) are picked and woven into a beautiful garland for him. He takes his calves to graze, he caresses them and plays with their bells. In the sanchari, she showed the gopis going for their bath in the Yamuna. Krishna steals their clothes and makes them beg for them. It is a treat to see Geeta ji enacting the cheerharan leela in a gatnikas. In her abhinaya, she showed the gopis bathing, playing in the water, caressing their hair, and then Krishna clambers up the tree and steals their clothes. The gopis come back from their bath to find their clothes missing or hanging on the highest branches. Krishna feigns ignorance, as if the clothes slid up on their own while he was playing on his flute. The shy gopis cover themselves up as they beg and Krishna insists on them raising both their hands and begging for them. Geeta ji expressed the reticent gopis who are trying to cover themselves any which way and are then left with no choice but to go into dhyan and raise their hands. Consequently, they get their clothes and ornaments back and dress up. Cheerharan it was and chittharan it came out to be. 

‘Kaliyashir gamanam, kritphaninamam, ghatityavanam, mridultaram’: the next verses to be enacted. Geeta ji showed the kaliyadaman leela. The sakhas and Shri Krishna are playing on the shores of the Yamuna and Krishna sees the flowers wilting. The fish and animals are also dying. He hands his bansuri to his friend and jumps into the water. He vanquishes the snake demon after a fight. The demon strikes with all his rage, trying to wrap itself around Krishna. Krishna untangles himself and rubs his foot on the hood. The lord holds the tail of the demon in one hand and dances on his hood. 

After an interlude with the mridangist playing rhythmic jatis, Geeta ji resumed the varnam with the next verses ‘mukhmandit renu, charit dhenu, vaadhit venu madhursuram’. There are particles of dust on his face as he takes his calves out to graze. The calves too look at his face and keep looking at him, eyes glued to his beauty. Geeta ji’s expressions of the calves looking lovingly up at Krishna were very moving. Krishna roams in Vrindavan as a cowherd, carrying his staff on his shoulders. Shri Radha puts her hand on his shoulders and looks at him with lovelorn eyes as he plays on his flute. Geeta ji exited the stage as they both walk holding hands. Showing the two walking away together holding hands was totally an act of manodharma by Geeta ji as she was seeing them in her mind’s eye. In the varnam, Geeta ji exhibited her technique. Her jatis were expansive, covering all directions: left, right, diagonally back and forth. Her footwork was precise and at times even forceful. Her hands moved in chiselled, perfect moves. The nattuvangam provided very exact support. She covered the stage in vigorous circles and it was not merely a coincidence that a ghunghroo her anklet came off from. 

The next was a padam that was taught to her by guru, Jamuna Krishnan. The padam delves into the emotions of a khandita nayika. She is waiting for krishna, all decked up. She ties toran in her house, sprinkles flowers on the bed. But when he turns up displaying telltale signs of a dalliance with another, she is very annoyed. She moves away and slaps his hand away from her shoulder. Go to the one whose hand you held and pulled her into an embrace, she says, when you helped her lift her pot and whispered sweet nothings into her ear. She tells him to go away to the other and shuts the door behind him. She bolts her door, but not without repenting. She picks a flower left behind from his vanamala and holds it to her heart. It was a very effectively emoted padam.

The next was the Meera bhajan ‘Kahan gayo viraha lagye’. The gatita or the river sees an inward journey, flowing into the tributaries of the heart, which experiences the pangs of separation or viraha.  The composition expresses the viraha that Meerabai experiences when she does not find Krishna near her. She dreams of him coming from behind her and embracing her, only to realize that he is not actually there. He has lit the fire of viraha within her. He set the boat of love afloat and left it to sail into the ocean of despair. Please come soon as I cannot stay without you, she says. I hurt like the fish without water. When she sees him come, she offers flowers and embraces him. The entire poem was depicted by Geeta ji very emotively, bringing out all the bhavas of a bhakta who feels the pangs of separation from the lord.

The gatita or the river that gushes towards the ocean that is Govind knows no hurdles. It flows down rapidly to reach its destination, jumping over all the obstacles in its path. The sankeertan at the culmination of this dance of devotion was in fact the attaining of Lord Govind by the stream of bhakti flowing within the dancer. Banamali Radharamana, Gopala Govinda was the chant she culminated her performance with.

Guru Geeta Chandran emoted each piece with her soul. As a soloist, she can take the audience with her on a journey with her nritya and nritta. Each of her performances are an experience of all that dance embodies. 

The music and vocals for the production were by Sudha Raghuraman with G. Raghuraman on flute, Manohar Balatchandirane and Varun Rajasekharan on percussion and G. Raghavendra Prasath on violin. Light design was by Milind Shrivastava.