Welcome to Divyashree – Our Newest Editor

Happy Rama Navami to one and all..

On the auspicious occasion of Sri Rama Navami, I am delighted to welcome a dear friend of mine, Divyashree to Kalpavriksha Kamadhenu as our newest editor!

Her interest towards Hindu culture/traditions, Indian classical music, dwaita philosophy, and the nectar of Haridasa literature will enable us to creatively share n learn and exchange experiences to inspire and mutually benefit everyone on the path of sadhane.

I’m excited to collaborate with Divyashree to create even more valuable, inspiring, and engaging content for our lovely community of Kalpavriksha Kamadhenu, who are now my extended family.

With our new editor on board, here’s to a bright future for our blog! Please join me in welcoming Divyashree as she joins me in multiplying forces to inspire, scale and create a fulfilling impact that matters the most to this community. Happy to have you!

Let’s take a moment to know a little bit about our new editor before I release her first post.

Q1: Welcome to our blog! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?

Divyashree: First of all, I am so blessed to be the chosen one to get associated with you and Kamadhenu Kalpavrusha. Thank you ! Reminds me of the Ugabhoga tande nee tande naa bande..
By his grace, I am looking forward to our divine partnership. I am a 3rd-generation military kid, born in a conservative family; I hail from the royal city of Mysore and was brought up in a culturally rich-n-diverse background.
Currently, I am pursuing Carnatic music vocal lessons and research work in HariDasa sahitya. I devote a majority of my time to support and drive global efforts and causes that celebrate and cherish Indian traditions and ancient values. This continues to give me utmost happiness and fulfillment and is something beyond measure.

Q2: What drew you to this blog and made you want to join our team?

Divyashree: tell me one person who has never visited your blog… no ‘our’ blog (humbly). I call this blog as a digital madhwapedia and I mean it. 🙏🏻. Even though you say this blog is 16+ years old, the emotions, memories, rituals, and experience that you have brought out is worth several generations and is easily 100+ years of collective wealth of knowledge. I am one of the mere drops in the ocean. Your invitation was so compelling that I couldn’t resist like Karshati iti KrishNah.

Q3: How did you first become interested in Haridasa compositions? What inspired you?

Divyashree: I personally draw inspiration from Sri Prahaladarajaru. When he can be engaged in constant and purest devotion towards SriHari despite hostile environment and life threatening moments, then why can’t we? He inspired me to believe and have trust in Srihari at all times and then gradually, I started paying attention to what I was listening or singing. And as I started spending time to genuinely understand why do we do what do we do-it could be a ritual, it could be lyrics in the song or pravachana, I started developing interest. This was a game changer and helped me transform in a big way. I am truly astonished as to how our stalwarts were able to use local language like Kannada to communicate such complex philosophical concepts with such ease and clarity so many moons ago.

Q5: How do you think modern technology and the internet have affected the spread and accessibility of Haridasa music?

Divyashree: In ancient times, our haridasa stalwarts and saints/saint-poets used to visit every door to personally spread the teachings – spiritual, social, and human reforms. The community, especially women and the kids used to follow or join hands to drive this to broader outreach. Now let’s see what we are trying to do these days, we are using digital mediums to preserve the literature, we are using online methods to record and spread the word ( messaging/teachings) and we have switched from door to door to mobile to mobile 😄. Bottom line is the attempt to preserve, spread, and transform is still being done. The downside is, being able to maintain quality and authenticity especially in the pace in which we are growing. What we are doing is modern way of spreading the word/ essence using digital platforms and capabilities.

Q6: How do you think Haridasa compositions can be made more accessible to younger generations who may not be as familiar with this form of music?

Divyashree: Yes, absolutely. But before that, first thing we need is, to build awareness and spark interest. As simple as food, one prefers to taste a sample or a bite before determining whether he or she likes it or not. And this treasure or divine nectar is beyond measure and unless you make people ( current and next gen) aware of something like this exists and build awareness, the interest levels will not be developed and even if they do, that might not last long. And we should use our digital platforms to first build awareness, show them the value, and then get them to acquire taste and get glued to it forever to pass on the legacy.

Q7: What are some of your goals for this blog in the coming months?

Divyashree: Well, you have such a great setup already. By Sri Harivayu gurugalu and Rayaru’s grace, I wish to collaborate with you to strive for the following:

a. Aspire to Inspire all generations to value what we all inherited in form of dwaita and haridasa sahitya through this blog and other avenues

b. Put it to practice: we all are in our journey of sadhane, let’s start small and realize/believe that HE will get it done. I am 1000% sure, he will guide and navigate us through this celestial journey. All we need to do is to keep the first step and trust him for lives to come.

c.Amplify the Impact: Use this medium to share experiences that describe why we do what we do- so we transform ourselves as committed ambassadors to carry this divine legacy forward to the next generations to come.

Life is too short to be selfish especially when it comes to bhagavad Bhakti and sandhane. Through this effort, if each one of us can be generous enough to contribute to the cause, it would go a long way.

Hare Srinivasa🙏🏻