Exploring the Sanskrit Happy Birthday Song

Recently, for the first time, I heard the Sanskrit version of the Happy Birthday song sung by my friends.

Janma dinam idam,

Ae priya sakhe,

Shantanotute,

Sarva damudam.

Janma dinam idam,

Ae priya sakhe,

Shantanotute,

Sarva damudam.

Prathaya mahe,

Bhaushathayushi,

Vishwarasadha,

Dvaksharam shathu.

And it was so beautiful,

and it just seems so much deeper than just saying,

Happy birthday to you,

happy birthday like four different times.

It was composed by Swami Tejomayananda.

So such a beautiful song composed so recently,

and it has become very popular.

So in terms of meanings,

yes, happy birthday to you is wishing you a happy day on that day, right?

But janma dinam idam,

if you understand the meaning,

it is wishing you a very meaningful life.

So it is saying,

may you live to be a hundred years.

Then there is,

may Ishwara bless you,

may Bhagawan bless you.

And then there is,

may you gain fame by being virtuous.

May your virtuous deeds bring you fame,

and may your life be meaningful,

and purposeful,

and fulfilling.

So that's such a deep,

profound wish for somebody on his or her birthday.

Absolutely.

And you got a chance to meet Swami Tejomayananda recently, right?

Yes.

So when I visited him in his ashram in Kerala,

Karnakulam,

then I told him,

I said,

I just love your birthday song.

Ever since I discovered it,

I can't go back to singing happy birthday.

Yeah.

And he said that when he composed it,

it was meant for young people wishing each other,

happy birthday.

He said some people got back to him saying,

can we sing the same song for an elderly person?

Who's beyond hundred.

Even an elderly person,

because it says,

I, Priya Sakhe,

so oh friend,

wish you.

So when it's an elderly person,

or in the seventies or eighties,

it already feels like you're taking too many liberties.

So he changed the word slightly to reflect an older person.

But so somebody was above hundred,

or just turned hundred.

Now,

if you sing this song,

may you live to be a hundred,

but this guy's hundred.

So he had to change the lyrics for that as well.

There's probably so many variations of the song

when you think of it that way.

The tune is so good.

The tune is beautiful.

It's melodious.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's why,

like when I heard it,

I was just like,

why do we even sing happy birthday the English way?

Everyone should be singing it like this.

And there should be many other ways also,

not just this in their own languages,

but somehow happy birthday has become the norm to wish somebody.

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