Maha Shiva Rathri selection

Wish you all a happy and prosperous Maha Shiva Rathri. May the Lord of eternal joy bless us all and shower his kindness on us. I am very glad to resume blogging on this auspicious day. In last two years, I was introduced to the music of many legends. I had heard their names a lot but didn't know them through their music. Pt Jasraj is one such and is my current favorite.

When I was young I used to watch the DD TV serial Om Namah Shivaya without fail. I still believe this is the best serial on Lord Shiva I know of. For me, the most important part of the serial was the title song with Lord Shiva shaped flame dancing to it. I t never occurred to me that that song could have been sung by any being. Here is link to a youtube video of the song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpixCnebhqw

I later stumbled upon a youtube video of Uma Maheshwara Stotra which took all my attention. Thanks to the uploader who mentioned Pandit Ji's name in the title of the video and to my brain that instantly matched his voice to the title song of Om Namah Shivaya, I passionately started searching for more songs of him. I was mesmerized by his unique voice which was melodious yet had amazing depth, his effortless and impeccable rendering. Link to Uma Maheswara Stotra

In case you are wondering, Uma Maheswara Stotra praises Goddess Parvathi (Uma), mother of the universe and Lord Shiva, Father of the Universe. It's a beautiful stotra that sounds even more beautiful in Pandit Ji's voice.

I was so to learn that there are a whole lot of songs in praise of Lord Shiva sung by Jasraj ji. In fact, there is an album named Shiv Upasana which has 8 songs all sung by himself. I was thrilled after listening to them all. Not only his rendering, all the songs had beautiful music that would surely take one to a trance. A listing of the album can be found here http://www.last.fm/music/Pandit+Jasraj/Shiv+Upasana

The great Ghantasala who is unparallelled for devotional singing did not sing many songs on Lord Shiva (He did sing many but not too many). This gap was partially filled by SPB who sang many songs in praise of the Lord of cosmic dance. However, I believe that Jasraj ji completely filled this gap for me.

Once again wish you all a memorable Maha Shivarathri. Jay Shiva Shankar Bhagavan, Jay Ma Mahadevi.