The name of the Holy Lord

All the world looks for one idea, all the religions point to one direction, the aim of all civilizations is sole, single, the attainment of salvation, as viewed in the Sanatana Dharma (what we know as Hinduism today), is Moksha. What is this Moksha? Why is it so valued? It takes us to the question of what the objective of life is. The question is a very involved one, so are the thoughts, but the answer is the one word of salvation. Moksha in very simple words is attainment of the feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in complicated terms is the divine union of the Jivatma, with the Paramatma. But why Moksha? Life is a game God plays. Here, he started with a single atma, played around and created many more of them. The absolute purpose of the life cycle is unknown, to even the greatest of seers who existed, it is just the manifestation of the supreme power, but one thing we do know is, the purpose of life is to get freed from the life cycle. I would elaborate on this in a later post. But the idea of the present post is something else. The power of the chant, of the name of the holy Lord.

There are three ways to salvation, the Karma Yoga, performance of duty, the Bhakthi Yoga, the performance of devotion, and the Gnana Yoga, the attainment and transformation of knowledge. If Gnana Yoga was the only way to salvation, none more than Gnanaeshwara, Gnanadeva, a few seers, including Vashishta and the Saptarishis and a few other truly blessed virtuous souls would attain Moksha. But the world is full of counter examples. To start off in the recent past, we had examples aplenty.

PurandaraDasa, the great Kannada saint, was once the greatest miser that once existed. TulasiDasa, the author of the RamaCharithaManas, was so attached to his wife, and his eyes were closed by the maya called kama, that he wouldn't mind almost drowning, almost being bit by a snake, or floating on a dead body just to meet his wife at dead night. Valmiki was a hunter and a tribal who killed for pleasure. Ajamila lived all his life moving away from the clean life of an ascetic, falling for a fisherwomen, living all his life by her side, giving birth to 12 kids.

But, then we all know these people as ones who ended up on the divine feet of the lord, don't we? Why is that? It's simply because God does want us to understand that people do make mistakes, are not perfect, but can always make a turn for the good. PurandaraDasa ended up being the doyen of Carnatic Music in India, and one of the foremost disciples of Lord Panduranga. We all know the story of TulasiDas, and so do we of Valmiki. The mere chanting of a crude form of the lord's name "maRamaRamaRa" granted him great wisdom, a place among seers, and one of the greatest priviliges of all time, writing the original Ramayana. Ajamila, whose life was worse than third rate, called out to his youngest son Narayana when he saw the Yamadhuthas coming to capture him, and take his life away. The mere utterance of the name Narayana had him going to Vaikuntha, as it is said that people call out generally to their loved ones at the time of death, and not the name of the lord, and this guy had been mindful to use the Lord's name then. The ever flowing ocean of mercy, the KarunaMoorthy Narayana, sent his messengers to send the Yamadhuthas away and had him brought to Vaikuntha. As it is said in the famous Marathi Abhang,
"Nama Parathe Sadhana Nahi, Vittala Pai Kandhe Mitti", which says it is impossible to call out the Nama, at the time of death, I might not remember to do the same, but I still want a small place in the mud of Vittal's feet, and hence I call out to your name now itself, keep the name calling in instalments for later purposes.
"Vittala Vittala Jai Jai Vittala"

So, that is the power of the Nama. The Nama is a huge medicine. I have seen people who have been cured from deadly situations by merely calling out the name of Sathya Sai Baba into the ear multiple times. I have also seen the amount of Thejas people acquire when they keep doing Vittal Nama or Om Nama Shivaya japa through out the day. We also know the great Taraka mantra, or for that matter the huge Narayana Mantra which was initiated to Sri Ramanujar was nothing but the Nama of the Lord. The chant of his name reverberating around would make it inevitable for any sort of bad influence enter your thoughts.

Yes, you might be chanting and still suffering, but that's because you are cutting down on the sins you committed in your previous janmas, but once all that goes to a null, once your redundant suffering has been experienced, you move in a direction, in a manner, which is commanding, leading, in the way of the Lord, the way the world ought to move.

P.S: This blog has been started to pen my ideas of Hinduism every now and then. People are free to comment. If you would like me to blog about something specific also I would be glad to oblige.