What kind of life did the haridAsas lead?
haridAsas were semi-sanyAsis. They renounced all the pleasures of the world but were house-holders and had a normal family. They were mendicants who accepted alms for sustenance, without storing it for profit. Temples and mutts were their main abode. Since they lived by getting food from house to house, haridAsas followed the Uncha Vrutti. They moved from place to place, singing and dancing with single-minded devotion. A typical sight would be that of a haridAsa walking on foot from one place to another, playing the tambUri and singing kIrtanas, despising comfort and rest, suffering hardship and privation, exhorting people to lives of truth, virtue and devotion to God, conveying their teachings through soul-stirring music. The gentle message of their songs had a direct appeal which no heart susceptible to noble impulses could ever resist.
