Salabega: An Embodiment of Love and Devotion

I was listening to a famous song written by Salabega, the 17^th century Oriya poet. The songs of Salabega are known almost to everybody in Odisha and in some other parts of India. He is a household name in Odisha. I had an idea that he was a 18^th or 19^th century poet, but a search in internet brought that he was born in the 17^th century. Internet hence proves to be a great utility. I disagree with those who argue that internet diverts our mind, and kills our time. I am a fan of information technology. It has made our life tremendously easy. If a person seeks distraction, it can be a good source. But a person who wants to excel in his field or needs useful information, internet can be a great aid.

Salabega’s story is unique. His mother was an Oriya Hindu Brahmin, while his father was a Bengali Musilm. The story goes that his father Lalbeg, a commander in the Nawab of Bengal’s force had taken part in the campaign against Odisha. While on return he saw this beautiful woman on a pond taking bath. He seized this woman and took away along with him as his prize. He married her (I do not know how far we can characterize it as a marriage. History does not provide much information on it: whether he married her and lived with her as a husband. General belief is that he married her and they lived together as husband and wife).

Salabega, after grown up, took part in campaigns as his father. Once he got severely wounded but could not recover from the wounds, to which his Hindu religious mother suggested to pray Hindu God Krishna. The prayer worked miracle and he was cured. This motivated Salabega to be a devotee of Krishna. Krishna is held an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, and also of Lord Jagannath. Salabega turned to be a devotee of Lord Jagannath.

A few words about Lord Jagannath. Jagannath is considered patron God of Odisha. He is also called living God of Odisha. I have seen people when going out for some work chant Jagannath as they step out of home. I have seen people touching national highways in Odisha and chanting Jay Jagannath (hail to Jagannath), believing that the God will save them from accidents on road and the other problems. There is a long story behind Jagannath, which I will narrate some other time. Suffice to say, Jagannath is a part of parcel of Odisha culture, particularly among the Hindus. The Hindus all over India visit the temple of Jagannath situated on the east coast of Odisha, India. The Jagannath temple is considered to be among the four holiest places for Hindu pilgrimage.

Salabega became a devotee of Jagannath, and started writing poems filled with intense devotion and love for the God. The song I was listening today on YouTube meant that ‘O’ God you are for your devotee, everything you have is of your devotees; you do everything for your devotee.’ It is said that many of his songs were lost as they were not preserved. There is a common trend one can find in Salabega’s poems and devotional songs. He seems to chastise himself, his birth in a family, which is neither Hindu nor Muslim. To paraphrase, he says, ‘My father is son of a Mughal, my mother is a Brahmin, O’ my Lord, you gave me a low-birth.’

The angst is clearly visible in his songs. Though a devotee of Jagannath, Salabega was never allowed to enter the temple because his father was a Muslim. That did not deter this great poet and lover of humanity to continue his work, writing devotional songs. There is a story that once when Salabega was coming from a distant place (perhaps Bengal) to watch Car Festival (this takes place every year, in which the wooden statues of Lord Jagannath along with his brother Valbhadra and sister Subhadra are taken out from the temple by the devotees and placed on wooden cars to visit their aunt’s house This ritual has a strong mythical origin). Salabega thought of watching his God from a close, because for him it was not possible to see the God in the temple. But he was getting late, and he had to walk so much. He wrote in one song, ‘I have to walk 750 kosh (Oriya word, perhaps implying mile).’ The legend has it that the car of Lord Jagannath did not move and stopped at one place despite all efforts by the priests to move the car. Salabega reached the place and had communication with his Lord, and only after that the car moved. To mark and cherish this event, every year even now the car stops for few moments on the road.

I would call Salabega a gift of God. He did not have any formal training in literature or rhetoric or music. His writings were profound, so powerful, it would be impossible to write such inspiring poems without God-given creativity. When I think about this, another powerful Oriya poet comes to my mind, whose name is Bhima Bhoi, whose poems are so powerful, so self-effacing, and so meditating, I doubt whether persons having university degrees could match such poems. I think Salabega belonged to the genre of Bhakti movement. Some other great stalwarts of this movement are Sri Chaitanya and Pancha Sakha (five friends – Balaram, Jagannath, Ananta, Yashowant, and Achyuta). Among many strains of Hindu yogic movements, Bhakti is a prime one which emphasizes on devotion to God. It also demands surrender to God. It is characterized by intense passion and love for God. In that sense it has similarities with another strain called Prema Yoga (meditation of love, in which the Yogi completely surrenders himself to God, and considers the God as if his lover. Mirabai of Mewar was perhaps the highest embodiment of this Yoga, another one was Andal of South India).

When I think deeply about these great devotees who touched the apogee of spiritual realization, I wonder whether the education in the formal institutions can train in these qualities. Most of these people, I mentioned earlier, did not go to any school. Bhim Bhoi was blind, and was a shepherd. Salabega was not educated in the sense we call ourselves educated. But, they left highest imprints in our minds and heart. Their lives were messages.

The life of Salabega raises larger questions before me. Does the education in formal institutions make us really educated? I am not a detractor of modern education system, but I think how far they impart moral and spiritual education to individuals. As I listen regularly the song written by 14^th century Gujarati philosopher, Narsinh Mehta, Vaishanva Jana Jo Tene Kahiye, Jo Pid Parai Janere (the person is divine, who feels and cures the pain of others. One of the favorite songs of Mahatma Gandhi), I realize that true wisdom transcends the limits of formal education as it is not in the pages of book we find it, but rather in a sincere cultivation of our heart and mind. Salabega taught me this.

Dialogue with God

I want to write on something called ‘Dialogue with God.’ Is it possible to have a dialogue with God? I think it is possible. We can have conversation with God, as we have dialogues with our friends, fellow human beings, our surroundings, as well as our inner selves. The most important thing that we need in this context is that we need to have faith, a firm faith, that there is God, and He is close to us, and we can have conversations with him. In this context, I remember the famous Saint of Kolkata (then Calcutta), Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, whose 175th birth anniversary is celebrated this year. Ramakrishna was famous for his dialogue, his conversation with Goddess Kali. And when his yet to be disciple Narendranath Dutt, later famous as Swami Vivekananda, did not believe the popular saying that the saint in Kali temple has seen and conversed with God, Ramakrishna made him realize God there. On another occasion when penury succumbed to the family of young Narendra, he went to Ramakrishna to seek wealth, and Ramakrishna sent him to Goddess Kali to ask whatever he wants.

My point here is that the once atheist Narendra became a strong believer in God, and a famous preacher of Hindu religion, starting from his famous Chicago address in 1893. Hence, the first requisite to have dialogue with God is to have the firm belief that there is God, who is all ears to us, kind and compassionate, and our friend , philosopher and guide. The second most important prerequisite is our sincerity that if I ask something God in earnest then he will reply. That seeking must be there. If I believe in God’s existence, but does not believe in God’s kindness, his eagerness to help us, his all attention to us, then there is no possibility that one can have dialogue with God. It needs the devotion and love of a Mirabai, or the kind of faith of Aranyaka or Upamnyu, that can lift one to the level, or to the sphere when one can have dialogue with God. And third most important prerequisite is that the seeker must not have any narrow mind, or narrow thinking that seeks God’s blessing for personal benefit. It is like asking for a penny, when the king is ready to offer his kingdom. Unless the seeker rises above petty thinking, above the circle of petty desire, and all its attachments, then it will be difficult to have dialogue with God. It will be like marching fast on the road towards the goal, but the feet are hanging on the air, which is an impossible proposition.

There is the famous case of Mahatma Gandhi, when he says that he received Adesh (order) from God to stop non-cooperation movement, or civil disobedience movement during the Indian freedom struggle. He used to say that he always listened to the inner voice, not to bland arguments of reason or logic. Similarly, the well known freedom fighter, and later yogi and philosopher, Sri Aurobindo, who left Kolkata for Chandan nagar (then a French colony) in 1910, he was saying that he suddenly left the place because there was the divine command, not any personal calculation was involved there. We have seen the results in both the cases.

Hence, there can be a dialogue with God. As there was a dialogue of Nachiketa with Yama, the God of death, similarly there can be a dialogue with God. Again this is not something which can be measured by means of reason and logic. When the Greek philosopher told the great Alexander not to come in front of sunlight to his request for bestowing everything, it is not something which can be explained very rationally.  Hence, I believe, it is absolutely possible to have dialogue with God, as we have dialogues with ourselves, with our inner selves and surroundings.

No doubt, it will be a very beautiful phenomenon, experience to have dialogue with God. It is the dialogue between ignorant and omniscient, between weak and oppressed (not by lack of wealth, but by many other evils) and the omnipotent, and between the brittle beings and transient beings with omnipresent. That will be a wonderful experience, perhaps the most wonderful, even than the great wonders of the world. Even if we think that way, and guide our actions and words in that way, as if there is a God who is looking us and our actions, who is more powerful than us, and always eager to protect us, then perhaps most of anxieties and sufferings that have grappled human beings will vanish. When the greedy will think that God is more wealthy, and it is not material wealth, but wealth of peace, wealth of happiness, that can give the true comfort to mind and body, then the greedy will not be greedy, but rather a servant of mankind as a servant of god, because he will rise himself above individualistic thinking, and guided by universal thinking. It is not foolishness or madness; rather it is the larger freedom, larger and wider than the freedoms offered by capitalism or socialism, which can make human beings wiser, healthier, and happier.