Jul 27, 2018 — CANADA (SUN) —
A Sun reader from Berlin recently wrote to point out an error in our captioning of the image used with the first in a serial presentation of Shri Krishna-karnamrita. The caption read: "Suradasa (Bilvamangala Thakur)".
He wrote:
"…it seems to be usual to confuse Leelashuka with Surdas. But mostly a picture of Surdas is used when spoken of Leelashuka. In your article
about Krsna Karnamrta you went one step further and claimed them to be the same. That is wrong. Leelashuka or Bilvamangala Thakur, the author of Krsna Karnamrta, lived mid-14th century. Surdas was a contemporary of Sri Caitanya in the late 15th, early 16th century.
The picture used is correctly labelled "Krsna Listens to Surdas" but the note in brackets (Bilvamangala Thakur) is wrong. And then this article
is about Krsna Karnamrta so using a picture of Surdas is the usual mistake.
Since you just started with the first 10 of the 300+ verses of the Krsna Karnamrta there are plenty of chances to do it right in future."
We appreciated receiving this comment, and we should fill-in the blanks. This is a caption that has appeared in the Sun before, but in a context that explained its meaning. The story behind it is mentioned in a book by Steven Rosen, in this chapter:
Blind Visionaries: The Twin Lives of Bilvamangala Thakur and Surfas
"For years now I had assumed that the popular Indian poster of baby Krishna, sitting playfully with an old sadhu with a long, white tuft of hair on the back of his head (shikha), smiling devilishly, depicts Bilvamangala Thakur, the blind Thirteenth-century poet-saint who wrote the Krishna-karnamrita, a classic text on love for Krishna.
But I recently found out that it is someone else in the picture. I happened to be in an Indian grocery store with a friend of mine who is now considered one of the world's leading authorities on Surdas, the blind Sixteenth-century bard whose life in many ways parallels that of Bilvamangala. "No," he said. "This is a blind Krishna poet, alright. But it's not Bilvamangala." He claimed it was the poet who is now his field of expertise.
Not really satisfied (who likes to be mistaken for so many years?), I quickly visited an old friend, an early disciple of Srila Prabhupada. He will know for certain, I thought.
As I brought the picture before my Godbrother, he laughed. "Yes, I asked Prabhupada about that print," he said.
"What did he say?" I asked, hardly able to contain myself.
"He said that it was a picture of Surdas and Krishna, but when I pressed him, mentioning Bilvamangala Thakura, he said, 'Why not? Blind poet. It can be either one. Their pastimes are like twins.'"
Pastimes are like twins? I decided I had to look into their lives to see what Prabhupada was referring to."
The author goes on to tell the stories of Bilvamangala Thakura and Surdas in some detail, and the reader will find excerpts here.
