Soordas (Mystic Saints of India: 8)

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Perhaps the best lyrical poet-saint that Hindi vernacular has ever produced, Soordas had a nusrable life but by dint of his undying devotion to Lord Krishna he became the most 'sung' poet in the heart-land of India. This book weaves his life-story evoked basically from his own creations, in the absence of the authentic details, in a sort of a novelette and gives his selected poems' original text, its Romanised version alongwith Hindi and English translations, for the benefit of those have no knowledge of Hindi and 'Braja-Bhasha'. A prized book for the library of those who wish to glimpse at the very soul of 'devotional India'.

B.K. Chaturvedi, born in a village, Holipura (Agra, UP), on August 3, a reputed family, had his education in Allahabad (M.Sc.) and Bangalore 1945 in a. (Computer programming). Having served for a couple of years in HMT, he is now a freelance author, journalist, poet and translator based in New Delhi for about a couple of decades.

He has many articles/poems and books published in both Hindi and English to his credit. Prominent among them are the metered-verse English translation of the famous epic of modern Hindi, KAMAYANI; original long poem DEHA-DANSHA; English verse translation of Sahir Ludhyanvi's famous Nazm PARCHAAINYAN; the latest being a journalistic appraisal, KARGIL BETRAYAL. He has also rendered 'SRIMADBHAGWAT GITA' into Hindi & English, published a couple of years ago. His translation, both in Hindi and English, of 'SRI RAM CHARITA MANAS' is likely to be published soon. A profic writer he often writes for TV and Radio.

Soordas was not a saint like Kabir was nor can he be compared with Sankaracharya or Ramanujacharya, He cannot either be compared with Tulsidas as well who had a social purpose behind his saintliness. But Soordas is included in the series because his profound arguments though expressed in poetry for Sagun Bhakti (Devotion to the Personol Form) are inccomparable. Morever, his lyrical poetry has no parallel in entire Hindi literature. His simple arguments, choice of words, use of similes have such a divine spark as to make the ace critic of Hindi literature. Pt Ram Chandra Shukla, rate him even higher than Kabirdas. His poems have a direct appeal and his pleas for the Sagun Bhakti form a regular thought in metaphysics. Hence it was thought proper to include him in the present series.

More emphasis has been placed on selecting his representative poems in this work so as to familiarise the non-Hindi readers with his brilliance. His life story has no authentic account and the one given has been created out of the available details and the hints that he gave through some of the poems. The emphasis in the translations section (poems' section) has not been as much on revealing the literal meaning of the text as on conveying the essence to the diserning readership.