'Satyanarayana' - The Truth

"Once there lived a Brahmin in Mathura, so poor that he had to live by begging. One day, he could not get even a grain of rice as alms; as he sat under a tree lamenting his misfortune, sage Satyanarayana appeared in the guise of a Fakir...."
- a song heard in the Bengali movie: 'Meghe Dhaka Tara'.

Intro Note: Narayana is one of the many names of the God Vishnu.

Satyanarayana (='Satya' + 'Narayana') could mean "True Narayana" or perhaps "Truth personified as Narayana".

Among my early childhood memories from Kerala is a certain 'Satyanarayana Puja', occasionally performed at our ancestral home by immigrant priests from Karnataka. An unusual sweet dish called 'Sapatam' (a common dish in Maharashtra where it is known as 'Sheera') used to be prepared and served as 'Prasadam' and we all had to sit around and hear a story about how performing this particular Puja brings great material and spiritual benefits (and also how neglecting it could bring BIG trouble). There also used to be a picture at home of a standing Vishnu (four armed but with 'human complexion' not the usual blue skin) being worshipped by a wealthy looking couple and priests - with a caption 'Satyanarayana Puja'.

Later in life, I came to know that this Puja is very popular in Andhra and Karnataka and also that 'Satyanarayana' is a very common name in those states (it is rare in Kerala) and to some extent even in Tamil Nadu ('Satyanarayanan'). The Puja setup is pretty much the same - the same kind of sweet, the same story, the narration of which is mandatory and so on... Still later, I got to meet a few gentlemen from Northern India and even Bengal named Satyanarayan ('Satyanarain').

The other day, I came to read in 'Banglapedia' about 'Satya Pir' a Sufi deity of Bengal; interestingly, Satya Pir was apparently also known as Satyanarayana among his Hindu devotees. The manner of his worship, as described there, is again, what I had observed in Kerala! I was quite amazed by the syncretism and synthesis featured in this Bengali cult - Islam, Sufism, Animism and Brahminical Hinduism all mixing into a rich 'sheera'. Here and here are some details.

It is also remarkable that over a period of a few hundred years this cult spread all over India (the Sufi flavor having worn off in transit) and also metamorphosed so as to conform to more orthodox Hindu standards of worship (of course, the associated story features a devout-enough Hindu undertaking a commercial voyage by ship, which was something well, unorthodox!). But one doubts if in the South of India, many devotees of Satyanarayana know His Sufi connection.

The above link between Vaishnavism and Sufism was not probably an isolated one. There has been some identification between 'Khwaja Khidr', yet another Sufi deity, and Krishna; I remember hearing a mystic bhajan 'O Qalandar Keshava' addressed to Krishna, visualized as a Qalandar, a Sufi mystic. Let me stop on that note.

Note 1: Even the name 'Narayana' is interesting in its own right. A possible derivation for that name would be 'the one related to Nara' (or even 'son of Nara'). Nara means 'man', so 'The Son of Man' could be a very real literal meaning for 'Narayana'. 'Son Of Man', of course, is also a very esoteric Semitic epithet of God (and often used to refer to Jesus) so there could be deep connections here between .... well I dunno!

Note 2: Here in Pune, there is a 'Sachapir (Satya-pir) Street'. Wonder how the name came about!

Note 3: The name of the prasada dessert 'sapata(m)' very likely derives from 'sabato' ('sabbath') = Saturday; this Puja is said to be best performed on Saturdays ("mandavasare...").