Sant Soordas

Jai Sri Krishna

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’s temple and decided to spend the rest of his life at the holy feet of the Lord. Sri Vallabhacharya appointed Surdas as the chief singer of the Shrinathji temple.

After that there was no stopping him. Surdas attained a mystical union with Lord Krishna and from then on he could bring before his mind/eyes any episode of the life of Lord Krishna he chose which he then rendered into verse almost as if an eyewitness report. Though Surdas was blind, he used to get the divine darshan of Lord Krishna and Radha Rani, and he could actually tell the attire worn by the Lord.

Once, blind Surdas fell into a well. He called upon Lord Krishna for help. Lord Krishna came immediately to help Surdas. Krishna took hold of his devotees hand and pulled him out of the well. When Surdas came out of the well, Krishna began to leave. As soon as Surdas recognised the divine touch of Krishna, his heart sank and with tears filled his eyes. He said –

        हाथ छुड़ाये जात हो, निर्बल जानि के मोय।

        हृदय से जब जाओ, तो सबल जानूँगा तोय।।

        हाथ छुड़ाये जात हो, निर्बल जानि के मोय।

        हृदय से जब जाओ, तो सबल जानूँगा तोय।।

Radha Rani also came to meet his devotee. Surdas recognised Radha Rani by the ting-a-ling sound of her anklets. Surdas fell onto her lotus feet and took her anklets. When Radha Rani asked him to return her anklets, he refused. At that moment, Lord Krishna gave him the vision in his eyes and asked him to ask for a wish. Surdas returned the anklets and said- “My Lord, you have already given me everything. After receiving your divine darshan (sight) there is nothing more left for me to see in this world. Please make me blind as before". Krishna granted him his wish.

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 his ability to pass on such important compositions. He also had a firm grasp of the life and achievements of Krishna and was able to portray all of this in his exquisitely crafted poetry. Many historians say that no one has ever done it better. The fact that the writer was blind makes it all even more remarkable. He went into incredible details about Krishna’s early life, such as where and when he took his first steps and what were his first utterances. He even described the infant cutting a first tooth! These tiny details were woven into poems and songs and some of them are sung even today by parents who see in their children some elements of Krishna.

Surdas’s reputation as a singer and a devotee spread far and wide. One day in the court of the mogul emperor Akbar the court singer Tansen sang one of Surdas’s songs. Akbar was charmed. Tansen admitted that the tune and the lyrics were of Surdas, the blind devotee of Lord Krishna.

Akbar being a broad-minded Muslim invited Surdas to his court. Surdas declined saying that he only sang in the court of his beloved Krishna. On hearing this Akbar came to Surdas and listened to his prayer songs in the temple.

Surdas is best known for his composition the Sur Sagar. Sursagar in its 16th century form contain descriptions of Krishna and Radha as lovers; the longing of Radha and the gopis for Krishna when he is absent and vice versa. In addition, poems of Sur's own personal bhakti are prominent, and episodes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata also appear. The Sursagar’s modern reputation focuses on descriptions of Krishna as a lovable child, usually drawn from the perspective of one of the cowherding gopis of Braj.

Sur also composed the Sur Saravali and Sahitya Lahari. In contempary writings, it is said to contain one lakh verses, out of which many were lost due to obscurity and uncertainty of the times. It is analogical to the festival of Holi, where the Lord is the Great Player, who, in his playful mood, creates the universe and the Primerial man out of himself, who is blessed with the three gunas, namely Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. He describes 24 incarnations of the Lord interspersed with the legends of Dhruva and Prahlada. He then narrates the story of the incarnation of Krishna. This is followed by a description of the Vasant (Spring) and Holi festivals. Sahitya Lahari consists of 118 verses and emphasises on Bhakti (devotion).

Sur's compositions are also found in the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs. He is referred to as Bhagat Surdasji by the Sikhs.

Surdas' poetry was written in a dialect of Hindi called Braj Bhasha, until then considered to be a very plebeian language, as the prevalent literary languages were either Persian or Sanskrit. His work raised the status of Braj Bhasha from a crude language to that of a literary one.

Due to the training he received from his guru Sri Vallabhacharya, Surdas was a proponent of the Shuddhadvaita school of Vaishnavism (also known as Pushti Marg). This philosophy is based upon the spiritual metaphor of the Radha-Krishna Rasleela. It propagates the path of Grace of God rather than of merging in Him.

This great poet-saint lived most of his life in Braj-bhumi, the holy land whose every inch is filled with memories of Lord Krishna. Surdas left his mortal coil for Golokdham Vrindavan in the year 1583.