Suprabhatam - The Dawn Prayer

This morning I listened to Suprabhatam - the Dawn Prayer - as sung in the Tirumala temple in Andhra Pradesh.

Every morning in the Tirumala temple, the temple idol is woken up with the sound of the Dawn Prayer. The idol is dressed and anointed, and the temple doors are then thrown open to the waiting devotees, who gather eagerly for the Suprabhata Darshanam, the dawn sighting of the Lord.

Growing up, we didn't go to temples often. But to me, there's always been something mesmerising and calming about the Dawn Prayer. Perhaps the sound of Sanskrit appeals to me; or perhaps it is the cadence of the chant. Or perhaps it is the knowledge that I am listening to something very old.

On an impulse today, I looked up the Tirumala website for a translation of the Dawn Prayer - and found myself captivated by the beauty of the lyrics.

Wake up, Lord, the song says, wake up! See the beauty of the Dawn! The breeze carries the scent of half-opened blue lotuses; it blows gently through coconut and arecanut trees. Green parrots in beautiful cages open their eyes; they eat bananas and sweet payasam, and sing gracefully. The black bees hum loudly, declaring themselves more beautiful than the flowers! Wake up, Lord, and with your waking, render the three worlds auspicious!

Lord Vishnu sleeping on the snake Anantasesha

For me, the imagery these words conjure up is magical. In my mind, I can see a green prosperous fertile country, with rice fields and coconut groves, where the morning brings with it gentle breezes and calm beauty. Dark-skinned beautiful women walk by the fields, their sarees brilliant with colour, jasmine in their hair. Temple spires – tall, colorful gopurams - rise above the trees. White oxen are being yoked to the plough. Everything is green and beautiful…and somehow blessed. (It is just me or does anyone else see these things? I don’t know!)

Other than a description of natural beauty, the Dawn Prayer also contains poetic descriptions of Vishnu, the blue-skinned God.

Darling child of Kausalya! Lord with the Eagle Banner! Lord of the Seshachala Hills! Padmanabha, he of the Lotus Navel! Purushottama, ideal among Men! Madhava! Janardana! Chakrapani, Holder of the Divine Discus! Lord of the ten incarnations! He whose body is marked by the sacred Srivatsa sign!

The names go on, each rich with legend and meaning, bringing to my mind more and more beautiful visuals, until the whole Dawn Prayer is infused with a divine grace where God and Nature intertwine, where lines blur, where all I can see is the glory of the Universal Truth manifested in everything around me.

Is it not fitting, then, that the dawn sighting of the Lord in the Tirumala temple is called not just Suprabhata Darshanam, but also Viswarupa Sarva Darshanam? (For those who do not know, the Viswarupa is the Cosmic Form of the Lord, said to contain the entire Universe in itself).

I am not religious, but I tell you, the Dawn Prayer as I understood it this morning gave me goosebumps. My only regret is that my knowledge of Sanskrit is still half-baked, that three years of learning it is nowhere near enough to appreciate its depth and grace. Truly, when you do not know the languages of your ancestors, you have lost half the world.