Kirantan (The Divine Symphony of Mahamati Prannath)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Kirantan is the divine symphony of Mahamati Prannath (1618-1694 AD). In this great book of eternal values and blissful experiences; Mahamati has talked of the universally accepted truthful statements; as if he is speaking on behalf of all the saints who preceded him. He speaks, not to the few, but to the total humanity.

Kirantan, the divine melody, as the title suggests, has verses which were sung with various musical instruments in his life time in the praise of the Supreme Lord.

This sacred book dwells extensively on the cultural and religious environment prevalent at that time and speaks of the difficulties faced by the saints and noble souls at the hands of the persecutors. It also refutes various practices which go in the name of religion in various faiths. It announces the arrival of the 'Day of Judgement'-Qiyamat, which means collective awakening of the pure souls. It also talks of the ways of establishing heavenly kingdom on earth.

Mahamati Prannath himself was a minister of Jamnagar and Dharole State in Gujarat (India). He was only twelve when he got Tartam Mantra from the great master Nijanand Swami Shri Devchandra. Inspite of the difficulties of communication and travel, Lord Prannath travelled throughout India to awaken people from sleep of ignorance. He got the chance to travel in a few Arabian countries. He wanted an ideal and peaceful society where the people would be respected not for their wealth, name, fame, caste or creed but for their dedication, love and service to the humanity. He inspired Maharaja Chhatrasal, his disciple, to establish an ideal kingdom where every religious scripture was honoured and respected and where every prophet was revered as a messenger of the Lord, not only in principle but in practice too.

Mahamati Prannath's teachings are contained in 18,758 verses divided in fourteen books. Ras, Prakash, Kalash, Shatritu and Kirantan are based on Vedic philosophy. Sanand, Khulasa, Marfat and Qiamatnama are based on and explain the philosophical predictions from Semitic Scriptures. (Kirantan also contains certain portions from Semitic Scriptures). Khilwat, Parikarma, Sagar and Singar, contain descriptive account of the Supreme Lord, His abode, His divine Lila and the blissful state of the souls. Sindhi Vani in Sindhi Language, speaks of the agony of the souls.

In his life time, Mahamati tried very hard to bring about the inherent unity in various religious' faiths. According to Mahamati Prannath, the Supreme spiritual endeavour of all these faiths is to awaken the soul and know her unequivocal relation with the Lord. This at once gives his teachings a Universal dimension. One can say that Mahamati Prannath laid the foundation of One World Religion. His treatise is, in reality a sum total of the religious knowledge contained in various great scriptures and hence referred to as the Kulzarn Swaroop.

Dr. Raj Kumar Arora deserves all the credit in bringing out, so vividly, this philosophy in English.

Mahamati Prannath (1618-1694) appreared on the Indian scene which can be described as one of the darkest period of the Indian History. The Mughal King; Aurangzeb, was highly intolerant and practised religious bigotry. Atrocities were committed, at a very large scale, in the name of religion. At the same time, Mahamati found that both the Hindus and the Muslims were following practices which were totally different from the spirit of true religion. Mahamati felt that there was a need to integrate religious knowledge as enshrined in various scriptures and present the true form of religion, so that people of various communities live in harmony and peace, with a proper understanding of their respective scriptures.

Mahamati's 'Kulzam Swaroop', is a collection of 14 books in various languages with a common link Devnagari script. It contains 18758 verses and explains the hidden meanings of various scriptures. He brought the Vedic Hindu scriptures and Semitic works on a common platform and tried to create an awareness that all scriptures point to the One and the only Lord and that His message is meant for the entire mankind and not for the followers of a particular sect only. Mahamati proclaimed that instead of fighting in the name of religion, we should sit together and find out as to what can unite the whole mankind.

The 'Kulzam Swaroop' was placed on the seat of Mahamati when he left for his heavenly abode, in 1694 A.D. Since then it was read and worshipped as a sacred book and was not available to those who were not initiated in the sect.

It was first published in 1966 A. D. at the initiative of Prof. Matabadal Jaiswal. Shri Prannath Mission and some other Pranami Associations are since then seriously engaged in the propagating and popularising the philosophy propounded by Mahamati Prannath. The first attempt made in this direction is the Hindi translation of eleven books of the Kulzam Swaroop and Jagni, the yearly journal published under the editorship of Dr. Ranjit Saha and Smt. Vimla Mehta. 'Jagni' contains articles authored by several scholars, throwing light on the different aspects of the teachings of the Mahamati. The cumulative result of all these efforts has been that some persons of learning and researchers have been attracted towards the great work. Several Thesis have been published informing the readers about various aspects of the scripture, like the cultural, devotional, literary, linguistic, religious, metaphysical etc. etc. This clearly shows that the Kulzam Swaroop is not only a source book of these aspects and concepts, but it is also encyclopaedic in its nature.

In order to reach out to the English knowing people, within India and abroad, 'The Daily Prayer' of this sect was translated in English which has been warmly received by all. Encouraged by this effort, the translation of the 'Kirantan' is being released for the benefit of all.

The translator, Dr. R.K. Arora has tried his best to convey the real sense of the verses keeping in view the difficulties involved in this work. Diacritical marks have been avioded so as to make it easily readable. We extend our gratitude to all those, who have put in their sincere effort in presentation of this sacred book.

The Kirantan, literally the Kirtan; songs sung in the praise of the Almighty, is a profound contribution to the mystical literature of the world. Its text contains the deep agony of the separation of the soul of the Mahamati from the Lord. This agony is so intense and overwhelming that a parallel of this is difficult to find, in other works. Besides the main theme of the text, other themes discussed are the conflicts between the state and citizen, dualism, non-dualism, hollowness of rituals and external forms of religion, majesty of sufferings, the underlying unity of all religions, love for the motherland and the criticism of cruelties and atrocities, committed in the name of religion.

According to Lord Prannath, different saints and prophets, angels and incarnations like Musa, Mohammad, Christ etc. emanate from the same source. They carry the will and zeal of the Supreme and convey His message in a variety of ways. The Lord does this so as to reveal the truth and guide and direct the suffering humanity, to the path of peace and contentment. But Prannath was well aware that the followers forget the basic unity (Advait) and divide the humanity in various sects for their own petty ends. Their godhood becomes a casualty.

In this garland of spiritual flowers, Kirantan, the thread of love, holds all of them together "Only the vessel of love can contain the divine love of the Lord. For this, one must mould oneself according to His will and the actions of all senses be in tune with His divine law" (35/3 I; 7317-9). Prannath considers this body as the most precious gift of the Lord.

The path of love and the Sadhana of love is totally incomplete without the pangs of separation from the Lord. Mahamati has written much on this, with his agonizing heart. How every pore and part of the individual feels and experiences deep anguish in His absence; this has been very graphically explained in the text. This is the only text of deep and intense love for the Lord (l7/10).

Along with the pangs of separation, the Kirantan asks for sufferings from the Lord in order to be in love with Him. He mentions that people pray for 'Sukh' (happiness) and avoid 'Dukh' (unhappiness) but Mahamati thinks and feels otherwise:' Your love deepens with' Dukh' and the agony of separation (18/16). There is joy in separation which ends in meeting Him (17/ I I). In reality, the happiness hidden in suffering, can be known only by experience" (18/4). Mahamati Prannath believes that the desire for fame and ego, is a great hurdle in the path of spiritual advancement. Ego emanates from the deceitful maya. Actuated by this, the individual forgets his own true self and remains busy with 'the worldly matters• (103/ 3). As the war between the 'Devtas' and the 'Asuras' is very old, according to this scripture, so is the battle between truth and the ego (102/103).

In the Kirantan, Mahamati very forcefully and strongly, condemns the cruelties and atrocities of Aurangzeb. The demolition of temples, the desceration of idols, forcible conversion of Hindus, ridiculing the Hindu beliefs and customs, by the Mughals, made a great impact on his mind and he did not spare them for these crimes (58/ 13-15). He considers that the birth in Hindustan, is the most auspicious and the Hindu Dharm is too sublime (126/90).

While speaking about the truth, Prannath has not spared anybody-the Muslims, Jains, practitioners of yoga, sadhus, saints, acrobats and a variety of other leaders who, in the garb of religion, preached and practised false beliefs. His emphasis on one God, one reality, one path and one community; is too great for words. He laid the fundation of One World Religion and one humanity.

In order to bring the Muslims nearer to his teachings, he used many Islamic terms and concepts in his text. Some of such words, used in the Kirantan are La makan, Vahedat, Mohammad, Koran, Kun, Momin, Arshe azeem, Haq, Noor, Noor Jalal, Noor Jamal, Fajar, Qyamat, Kufar, Kafir etc. etc. The meanings of these words, find parallel references in the Hindu scriptures. Surprisingly, there is hardly any other book in the religious literature, which so frequently used this terminology to explain the subject matter and draw out the basic unity.

Prannath, in the Kirantan, combines in himself, a true patriot and a very forward-looking founder of a World Religion. He never gives a second position to the love of his motherland. His combination of patriotism and profound spirituality, is a rare phenomenon.

According to Mahamati Prannath, the Supreme Lord (Akshrateet) is beyond the Kshar (perishable) and the Akshar (imperishable). He resides in the Paramdham (His Abode) in His eternal youthful blissful form. Divine light and love pervade every where in this limitless Abode. It is the final supreme station, where few venture to reach. The task of creation and dissolution has been assigned to Akshar Brahman, another form of the Lord, In a twinkling of an eye, countless universes are created and destroyed by Him. Except the Abode of the Lord, all other areas are under his sway. The abodes of various gods, angels and noble souls fall in this category and, therefore, are perishable.

There are three categories of Souls i.e. the brahman srishti, ishvari srishti and the jiv srishti. They belong to the Abode of the Lord, the heavens and the world respectively. There is scope for upward mobility of the souls, but the Param Dham is meant only for a chosen few. The pure souls who reach there, never return to this world.

This world is full of sufferings. In order to remove the afflictions, the Lord sends from, time to time, His emissaries as saints and their divine message is contained in different scriptures. Kulzam Swaroop" brings out basic unity, in all these great works. Tartam mantra, the divine knowledge, is meant to awaken the souls from their slumber and make them conscious of their spiritual identity.

This divine message is saturated with the love of the Lord. When the aspirant is filled with the constant flow of this love, he is able to recognize his own being. The worldly fetters are broken and there is peace, joy and bliss. This state is beyond description. The two most important hurdles in gaining this state are ego and attachment which can be destroyed only by the surging flow of this love. Suffering due to His absence, is a boon for the devotee because it makes the soul remember the Lord.

The outward forms of religion practised by the vast majority of Hindus and Muslims is condemned by Prannath in very forceful language. The differences of caste, colour and creed are also severely dealt with. A life of self surrender to the Lord with the subjugation of all cravings is recommended.