Monday 8 September 2014

Kurai Ondrum Illai by Haricharan



A lovely song, Kurai Ondrum Illai that has touched many souls including mine. While searching through the net for information on this song, I came across some interesting facts from Wikipedia. 
Kurai Onrum Illai (Tamil: குறை ஒன்றும் இல்லை, meaning No grievances have I) is a Tamil devotional song written by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, popularly known as Rajaji, Indian politician, freedom-fighter and Governor-General of India. The song was written in praise of the Hindu god Krishna and set in Carnatic music. This song is unique due to the fact that it does not assume the tone of devoted prayer as most Hindu devotional songs but one of thankfulness to God. The date of the composition is not clearly known. The song became popular for the first time in 1969 when Indian singer M. S. Subbulakshmi sang the composition at the United Nations. "Kurai Onrum Illai" is his sole Carnatic composition that has gained widespread recognition. The song depicts his intense devotion to God.
At http://www.shivkumar.org/music/kurai-onrum-illai.pdf more information is shed as follows,
The song describes the contented state of mind of the composer. The composer does not want anything. He is just content with seeing and worshiping the Lord. 
He expresses only a common concept that the Lord, though present in the stone form, is taking care of the needs of the devotees. However, the concept comes out so crystal-clear when one hears the song. The words used are so commonplace. 
Another distinctive feature of this song is that this was sung by MS Subbulakshmi at her United Nations concert in 1969 arranged by the then UN Undersecretary-general C V Narasimhan. The song was set to music by Kadayanallur Venkataraman who has worked with MS for decades. 
As Rajaji lay dying in the General Hospital in Madras in December of 1972, the last words spoken by him from his death bed was "I am happy" in reply to a question on how he felt. If only we could see the world through Rajaji's perspective, we shall attain peace and be at rest with ourselves.

Lyrics of this song, and its meaning can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurai_Onrum_Illai

More versions of this song can be watched at http://wn.com/kurai_ondrum_illai