'Tirtha Yatra' by Tyler Childers – Lyrics & Meaning

There is much to be learned about Tyler Childers throughout his new album, Snipe Hunter – how he thinks and feels about the world around him, what he envisions is on the other side of it all and the spiritual tools that guide him along the way.

He explores the latter concept in the album's 'Tirtha Yatra', a spiritual number that traverses the artist's study of and relationship with Eastern religion as it pertains to Hinduism.

Throughout the song, Childers gives listeners insight into his beliefs, taking us along with him on a blessed pilgrimage to connect with the divine.

Just as there is a lot to unpack in the lyrics of 'Tirtha Yatra', there is plenty to dissect from the composition itself, the song layered with straight-forward country strings, a reverberating bass and humming Wurlitzer, as well as the rumbling of mridangams and the clear resonance of kartals.

It's a striking blend of country and kirtan, a song of praise and worship, as well as a genre-altering masterwork in alt-Americana.

"I wanna go to India
Put faces to paper
Put visuals to words that I’ve read"

In 'Tirtha Yatra', Childers dreams of taking a journey to the place from which his religious studies sprang. The very name of the song is in reference to the pilgrimage one takes across India to the sites sacred to Hinduism.

Childers fantasizes about committing to memory the beings and places he's only ever read about in texts like the Bhagavad Gita. He desires to "Get a better understandin’ of the culture that’s surroundin’ / All the scriptures I’ve been poundin’ watchin’ play out inside my head."

"I’d go to Kuru Sectura
You know I couldn’t even tell if I am or not pronouncin’ it right
But comin’ from a cousin lovin’ clubfoot somethin’ somethin’
Backwood searcher I would hope that you’d admire the try"

He quickly makes reference to his own background, self-deprecatingly referring to himself as "backwoods" and "cousin-lovin'," a jeer many Southerners have heard more than a time or two. It's likely to illustrate how far he's come from his traditional Baptist upbringing to exploring his personal spirituality and his eagerness to learn and seek the truth.

He sings of the Bhagavad Gita and its teachings, lilting about how it changed him on a metaphysical level and showed him his path. "It taught me all about Dharma," he sings, mentioning the cosmic order that guides humanity towards spiritual and moral well-being. "The thing I ought to do / Til the big man dances and starts it all anew."

On this pilgrimage, Childers sings that he'd bring his loved one along with him and they'd "roll like the pandavas," or the five characters central to the Hindu epic, Mahabharata.

"It wouldn’t be all different," he assures, "To how we’re actually livin’ / ‘cept we’d leave behind all our merch / But we’d bring along our fiddles, basses and rental guitars and mandolins / Cause that’s the way that Dharma works"

On this journey, they'll continue to do what they do best, playing bluegrass standards and singing songs to God, along the way.

"We’d play Louisville Breakdown
We’d play Shelvin Rock
We’d sing Hare Krishna
We’d play a song by God"

I wanna go to India
Put faces to paper
Put visuals to words that I’ve read

Get a better understandin’ of the culture that’s surroundin’
All the scriptures I’ve been poundin’ watchin’ play out inside my head

I’d go to Kuru Sectura
You know I couldn’t even tell if I am or not pronouncin’ it right
But comin’ from a cousin lovin’ clubfoot somethin’ somethin’
Backwood searcher I would hope that you’d admire the try

I’d go to all the places
Where Narada stood
I’d read the Bhagavad Gita
I’d read the song by God

You know the Bhagavad Gita
You know the Gita’s just a chapter in an epic ‘bout a footbridge wide
I’d love to tell ya ‘bout it though I’m ‘fraid it’d take forever
I’m ‘fraid it’d take forever and I’d hate to take up all your time

But anyways I read it
I read it to the credits and Vyasa wrote it masterfully
It took a little under two years for me to make it through
But now I’m here and tellin’ you it changed me metaphysically

It taught me all about Dharma
The thing I ought to do
Til the big man dances and starts it all anew

It taught me all about Dharma
The thing I ought to do
Until the big man dances and starts it all anew

I wanna Tirtha Yatra
Roll like the pandavas with my brothers and my mom and wife
All the boys could bring their ladies cause the one that Indra gave me
Is the momma to my babies and I ain’t about to split my nights

It wouldn’t be all different
To how we’re actually livin’ ‘cept we’d leave behind all our merch
But we’d bring along our fiddles, basses and rental guitars and mandolins
Cause that’s the way that Dharma works

We’d play Louisville Breakdown
We’d play Shelvin Rock
We’d sing Hare Krishna
We’d play a song by God

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