The story behind Sundara Narayana's music is a story of one of Guruvayoorappan's many miracles.
Sundara Narayana, whose real name is Vadakke Palazhy Narayanankutty Menon, entered the music field by accident. He is an environmental engineer by profession and has been a resident of USA for a major portion of his life, where he lives with his wife, Dr. Sreedevi, daughter, Dr. Lakshmi and son, Jaykumar, a computer engineer.
Sundara Narayana began writing songs in praise of Lord Guruvayoorappan late in his life, some time after his 60 th birthday in 1999, when he had a dream wherein Guruvayoorappan was instructing him to write classical songs about him. Untrained in formal music, he dismissed the dreams at first. But being a devotee of Guruvayoorappan he was compelled to try anyway. Inspired by devotion toward Guruvayoorappan he sat down to write his first song starting with "Hari Om Narayana". To his own wonderment words came out of his mind as if "a tap was open". Since then he has composed over 150 songs and a dance-drama, Manjulacharitham, one of Guruvayoorappan's legendary miracles. All his krithis are in Sanskrit, Malayalam or Manipravalam (Sanskrit- Malayalam) .The work is still continuing.
Though with hesitation in the beginning, the music community of New York and New Jersey, soon started appreciating and accepting these songs. Many prominent musicians started singing them in kacheris. In 2001, world famous Carnatic musician Dr. Omanakutty, herself a devotee of Guruvayoorappan, came to know of Sundara Narayana's story and expressed willingness to help in his mission to promote these songs. In 2002, Dr. Omanakutty, the favorite disciple of the legendary Dr. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Head of Kerala University Department of Music, sang these krithis at Guruvayoorappan temple in Guruvayur and produced a 2 CD album. Dr. Sreevalsan Menon is yet another prominent singer who has chosen to sing these krithis. So far 8 CDs and the dance drama are in the market. More are expected soon.
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