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- Keertan
- Song offerings (hymns) to Sri Krishna and Sri Chaitanya. The former who drove Arjun's charriot in the killing fields of
Kurukshetra is considered the Lord Himself in the Dwapar (hindu mythology divides time into four periods: Satya, Treta,
Dwapar and Koli) period. The latter, considered another reincarnation of the Lord Himself in the Koli period, is a Bengali rebel philosopher and religious prophet
who revoked the Aryan caste system as immoral and planted the concept of universal brotherhood not only in Bengal, but in other neighbouring
states. In the Vaishnav (worshippers of Lord Vishnu) traditions of the hindu religion, Lord Krishna and Lord Chaitanya are held to be the
reincarnations of Lord Vishnu. The keertan branch of Bengali folk songs, very rich in tonal texture and saturated with devotional spirit,
concerns itself with lives and times of Lord Krishna and Sri Chaitanya. In some parts of Bengal keertan sessions assume proportions of a
full length drama describing certain aspects of Lord Krishna's adultrous love affair with Sri Radha which often include the tales of their arduous
separation (or viraha) and eventual coalescence (or milon). In a metaphorical sense, this life on Earth is nothing more or
nothing less than the Viraha so aptly presented in the Keertan episodes. All who love the Lord will, not unlike Radha, one day find Him and be
united as one with Him.
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