Kagda bandide meaning

Purandara dasa’s transformation from a miser to ascetic was prompted by the manifestation of Vitthala to his wife.So the manifestation of god itself was a message or a letter from him for Purandara dasa to rethink and introspect in his life.He says spend time dwelling on your letter Kalava kaliyiro you need to take time to reflect on the way you are pursuing your life objectives because reflection needs that quality time  spent. He says spend time dwelling on your letter which will prompt you to find deeper meaning and purpose of life..

        In hinduism there are four purusharthas. Dharma, Artha,Kama,Moksha. Purusharthas are nothing but objects of human pursuits. So what is the object of human pursuit  The purpose of human endeavour is finding the purpose. Each person has to seek his own purpose in life and sometimes the purpose can be manifested destiny. In the case of Purandara dasa the destiny manifested itself thru the manifestation of the lord to his wife and he got the message that if he pursues artha and Kama relentlessly then he will miss out on the ultimate 

Purusharthas which is moksha. When Vitthala manifested himself only to his wife and Purandara dasa didn’t get an opportunity to get the Sakshat  Darshana because he failed to recognise the face in front of him to be the face of Vitthala he realised that he had missed the ultimate purpose of life

Because the balance between purusharthas had gone haywire in his life because of his unfettered pursuit of artha and Kama.

Another way the Hindu texts deal with this conflict between the purusharthas is to do NishkamKarma  even though we engaged in actions of artha and Kama if we do nishkam-karma we will be able to fulfill life’s purpose.

        Then Purandaradasa talks about giving up lust ,anger,and desires. He asks us to give up lust for land,woman and gold in the pursuit of god. One way to do nishkam karma is to give up on these emotions. We should either act with renunciation or completely renounce it.. In order to achieve the path of moksha we have to keep seeking and introspect on how we find our path,how we find our purushartha of our life and how we are able to balance out especially by giving up on negative emotions that well up in pursuit of artha,Kama. But in Purandara dasa’s life it was as a consequence of his life experiences where there was no balance,where there was his unfettered pursuit of artha finally Karma was catching up with him thru and he needed to renounce it all and go in the path of moksha and that was conveyed to him by the god himself.That’s why he talks about letter coming and the letter in turn made him to reflect on his life which turned him into an ascetic.

   Then he talks about people who are ignorant who have not been able to achieve the balance of purusharthas or those who have forgotten the ultimate purushartha so he asks not to associate with them.

   

Purandara dasa then asks to be austere and determined and disciplined because pursuit of dharma artha,moksha requires determination,naim Nishtha hidiyiro indicates that you need to have a hold on your determination and discipline yourself and need to do Nishkam-karma.

        In the last section he talks about how we should tie the anklets and chant the name of god and dance in ecstasy. Here we see the importance of the performing arts in the path of Bhakti.All the Bhakti saints were themselves artists but their art was in devotion because performing art is a good way to express that devotion and emotion to god. Devotion is ultimate in Bhakti traditions so ;  that Bhakti is expressed thru artistry and that’s how Purandaradasa became the father of Carnatic classical music and that’s the reason he wore the anklets and  chants the name of god and dances in ecstasy ,So Dance as devotion; as Song as Chanting  in Devotion.