Rama Naamam and Vishnu Sahasranaamam

[KRN]

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Hi

In the Uttara-Pidika of the Vishnu Sahasranaamam as recited in Dakshinatya sampradaya￾ there is a slokam as below

Sreerama raama raameti Rame raame manorame
Sahasranaamatattulyam Raamanaama Varaanane

A sloka closely similar to the above occurs in the Padma Puraana. It occurs as Lord Shiva￾'s response to Parvati Devi.

Some people quote this sloka and say there is no need to recite the whole Sahasranaama. Recital of this one sloka (or as the sloka expresses, the recital of Raama Naama alone) would give the same merits as the recitation of the Vishnu Sahasranaama￾, thus saving much time and effort.

I would most humbly disagree with this line of thinking. In my view￾, recital of the Sahasranaamam means recital of the thousand names￾ with the correct speed and clarity. Raama Naamam is extremely powerful as attested by the father of the Nation and Tyagaraaja and countless other devotees starting with Sage Valmiki but it would serve a different purpose from recital of the Vishnu Sahasranaaamam.

The Vishnu Sahasranaamam was given by Bheeshma to Yudhishtira in reply to a spate of queries ending with "Kim Japam Muchyate Jantuh Janmasamsaara bandhanaath". Hence it is clear that it is prescribed for all "Jantu"s ie all "born"s. It is one more attestation to the fact that Sanatana Dharma does not differentiate between human and nonhuman beings when it comes to Adhikara for spirituality.

 

[KRN]

Hence, to overcome the evils of Janmasamsaarabandhanam￾, which is common to all *Jantu*s￾ Vishnu Sahasranaamam is prescribed.

In the case of the Raama slokam it is suggested by Lord Shiva in reply to Parvati Devi's query "Padyate Pandithair nityam Srotum ichchamyaham prabho".
Devas like Siva and Parvati are not Janana sheelas hence do not belong to the category of Jantus. Hence Parvati Devi's query is natural. Also this query pertains specifically to "Panditaih". There are many definitions to the word Pandita. In the Gita Bhagavan Krishna says *Gathasoon Agathasoonscha Naanusochanthi Pandithaah*. At another place in the Gita he says￾ "Vidyavinayasampanne Braahmane gavi hastini. Suni chaiva svapaake cha panditaah samadarsinah". So a Pandita is detached from raga-dwesha and is endowed with the quality of Samadarsanam or equal mindedness towards all. It is for such Panditas that Lord Siva says they can stop reciting Vishnu Sahasranaama and recite the Raama Naama alone if they prefer a laghu upaaya. Ordinary Jantus like us who have a long way to go before we can consider ourselves Panditaas￾, need to regularly recite the Vishnu Sahasranaama in its entirety if we were to hope to escape from Janma samsaarabandhanam.

 

[Srimadhan]

Yes. Agreed in totality.. If I recite the 1 sloka and get the benefit of whole Vishnusahasranamam why should I go to the extent of reciting the whole Vishnusaharasrnamam.

Probably what is tried here is that "If time is a constraint, atleast recite this 1 sloka"..

 

[sangom]

Hi

In the Uttara-Pidika of the Vishnu Sahasranaamam as recited in Dakshinatya sampradaya￾0È3 there is a slokam as below

Sreerama raama raameti Rame raame manorame
Sahasranaamatattulyam Raamanaama Varaanane

A sloka closely similar to the above occurs in the Padma Puraana. It occurs as Lord Shiva￾0È2s response to Parvati Devi.

Some people quote this sloka and say there is no need to recite the whole Sahasranaama. Recital of this one sloka (or as the sloka expresses￾0È3 recital of Raama Naama alone) would give the same merits as the recitation of the Vishnu Sahasranaama￾0È3 thus saving much time and effort.

I would most humbly disagree with this line of thinking. In my view￾0È3 recital of the Sahasranaamam means recital of the thousand names￾0È3 with the correct speed and clarity. Raama Naamam is extremely powerful as attested by the father of the Nation and Tyagaraaja and countless other devotees starting with Sage Valmiki but it would serve a different purpose from recital of the Vishnu Sahasranaaamam.

The Vishnu Sahasranaamam was given by Bheeshma to Yudhishtira in reply to a spate of queries ending with ¡°Kim Japam Muchyate Jantuh Janmasamsaara bandhanaath¡°. Hence it is clear that it is prescribed for all ¡°Jantu¡°s all ¡°born¡°s. It is one more attestation to the fact that Sanatana Dharma does not differentiate between human and nonhuman beings when it comes to Adhikara for spirituality.

The sloka in the Phalasruthi (Uttara-Pidika, according to you) is also interpreted by knowledgeable elders to mean that "rāma rāma rāma iti" denotes that rāmanāma should be chanted rāma rāma rāma times. rāma is equivalent to 2 X 5 according to our ancient kaṭapayādi system and so, Lord Shiva was advising Goddess Parvathy to chant rāmanāma 1000 times if anyone found it difficult to memorize the whole viṣṇusahasranāmam. But, because of the play of the words rāma rāma rāma iti (10 x 10 x 10), we mistake it as just chanting rāmanāma two or three times only.

 

[auh]

The sloka in the Phalasruthi (Uttara-Pidika, according to you) is also interpreted by knowledgeable elders to mean that "rāma rāma rāma iti" denotes that rāmanāma should be chanted rāma rāma rāma times. rāma is equivalent to 2 X 5 according to our ancient kaṭapayādi system and so, Lord Shiva was advising Goddess Parvathy to chant rāmanāma 1000 times if anyone found it difficult to memorize the whole viṣṇusahasranāmam. But, because of the play of the words rāma rāma rāma iti (10 x 10 x 10), we mistake it as just chanting rāmanāma two or three times only.

I learnt something new today ! Thanks Sir.

 

[KRN]

The sloka in the Phalasruthi (Uttara-Pidika, according to you) is also interpreted by knowledgeable elders to mean that "rāma rāma rāma iti" denotes that rāmanāma should be chanted rāma rāma rāma times. rāma is equivalent to 2 X 5 according to our ancient kaṭapayādi system and so, Lord Shiva was advising Goddess Parvathy to chant rāmanāma 1000 times if anyone found it difficult to memorize the whole viṣṇusahasranāmam. But, because of the play of the words rāma rāma rāma iti (10 x 10 x 10), we mistake it as just chanting rāmanāma two or three times only.

The Phalasruti of the Vishnu Sahasranamam ends with "Vishweshwaram Ajam Devam..... Na te Yaanti Paraabhavam". This slokam is NOT from the Mahabharatam, hence not part of the Phalasruti either. Hence we don't find this sloka commented upon by Nilakanta, Sankaracharya, Parashara Bhatta etc. However, among the Dakshinaatya reciters it is considered sishtacharam to recite this sloka-dvayam along with the rest. I have already mentioned above about a slokam in Padma Puranam very similar to this one.

The katapayaadi interpretation is interesting. However it does not provide answer to the query asked by Sri Parvathi i.e on two points (1) Laghu Upaaya (2) Pandithaah
Reciting Raama-Naamam 1000 times would still take a considerable amount of time, so it may not be a "laghu upaaya" for reciting the 1000 names of Vishnu.
We cannot say that the Raama Naama as mentioned in the sloka is with regard to those paamaras who find it difficult to learn/memorize the Vishnu Sahasasranama, since Sri Parvati in her query specifically asks for an upaaya applicable to Pandithaas. That interpretation doesn't answer the query asked by Parvati hence not logically tenable, as far as replacing the Japam of Vishnu sahasranamam is concerned. So, efforts must be taken by All to learn and recite Vishnu Sahasranamam only. Reciting Rama Naamam would of course be a good addition.

 

[sarang]

Nice interpretation, sangomji. Repeating rama thousand times is equivalent to saying thousand different names of narayana. No one can dispute that. Thank you very much.

The sloka in the Phalasruthi (Uttara-Pidika, according to you) is also interpreted by knowledgeable elders to mean that "rāma rāma rāma iti" denotes that rāmanāma should be chanted rāma rāma rāma times. rāma is equivalent to 2 X 5 according to our ancient kaṭapayādi system and so, Lord Shiva was advising Goddess Parvathy to chant rāmanāma 1000 times if anyone found it difficult to memorize the whole viṣṇusahasranāmam. But, because of the play of the words rāma rāma rāma iti (10 x 10 x 10), we mistake it as just chanting rāmanāma two or three times only.

 

[Raji Ram]

Very nice use of katapayAdi system! raa = 2; ma = 5; Hence raama = 10.

We use this system to find the number of the mELa rAgam in the mELa chakram.

The numbers for the alphabets (From Wiki):

[TABLE="class: wikitable, align: center"]
[TR]
[TH]1[/TH]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2"]2[/TH]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2"]3[/TH]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2"]4[/TH]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2"]5[/TH]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2"]6[/TH]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2"]7[/TH]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2"]8[/TH]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2"]9[/TH]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2"]0[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]ka क క ക[/TD]
[TD]kha ख ఖ ഖ[/TD]
[TD]ga ग గ ഗ[/TD]
[TD]gha घ ఘ ഘ[/TD]
[TD]nga ङ జ్ఞ ങ[/TD]
[TD]ca च చ ച[/TD]
[TD]cha छ ఛ ഛ[/TD]
[TD]ja ज జ ജ[/TD]
[TD]jha झ ఝ ഝ[/TD]
[TD]nya ञ ఞ ഞ[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]ṭa ट ట ട[/TD]
[TD]ṭha ठ ఠ ഠ[/TD]
[TD]ḍa ड డ ഡ[/TD]
[TD]ḍha ढ ఢ ഢ[/TD]
[TD]ṇa ण ణ ണ[/TD]
[TD]ta त త ത[/TD]
[TD]tha थ థ[/TD]
[TD]da द ద ദ[/TD]
[TD]dha ध ధ ധ[/TD]
[TD]na न న ന
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]pa प ప പ[/TD]
[TD]pha फ ఫ ഫ[/TD]
[TD]ba ब బ ബ[/TD]
[TD]bha भ భ ഭ[/TD]
[TD]ma म మ മ[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]ya य య യ[/TD]
[TD]ra र ర ര[/TD]
[TD]la ल ల ല[/TD]
[TD]va व వ വ[/TD]
[TD]śha श శ ശ[/TD]
[TD]sha ष ష ഷ[/TD]
[TD]sa स స സ[/TD]
[TD]ha ह హ ഹ[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[KRN]

The above post is not to imply that Rama Namam is insignificant - as it is the Taaraka mantram. The post is only for the attention of those who￾0È3 despite getting the opportunity of learning/reciting Vishnu Sahasranamam￾0È3 ignore it and cite this slokam in support of the same.

 

[sangom]

The Phalasruti of the Vishnu Sahasranamam ends with "Vishweshwaram Ajam Devam..... Na te Yaanti Paraabhavam". This slokam is NOT from the Mahabharatam, hence not part of the Phalasruti either. Hence we don't find this sloka commented upon by Nilakanta, Sankaracharya, Parashara Bhatta etc. However, among the Dakshinaatya reciters it is considered sishtacharam to recite this sloka-dvayam along with the rest. I have already mentioned above about a slokam in Padma Puranam very similar to this one.

The katapayaadi interpretation is interesting. However it does not provide answer to the query asked by Sri Parvathi i.e on two points (1) Laghu Upaaya (2) Pandithaah
Reciting Raama-Naamam 1000 times would still take a considerable amount of time, so it may not be a "laghu upaaya" for reciting the 1000 names of Vishnu.
We cannot say that the Raama Naama as mentioned in the sloka is with regard to those paamaras who find it difficult to learn/memorize the Vishnu Sahasasranama, since Sri Parvati in her query specifically asks for an upaaya applicable to Pandithaas. That interpretation doesn't answer the query asked by Parvati hence not logically tenable, as far as replacing the Japam of Vishnu sahasranamam is concerned. So, efforts must be taken by All to learn and recite Vishnu Sahasranamam only. Reciting Rama Naamam would of course be a good addition.

Friends !
Excuse me for not being a regular visitor to the forum; my health does not permit that, nowadays.

Shri KRN,
Regarding your points, I will say that it was not a laghu upāya which was being requested, but "kena upāyena laghunā" which will translate as "by what (which) simple means"; again, "paṭhyate paṇḍitaiḥ nityaṃ" will mean "by which the paṇḍitas recite daily (constantly)". So, it is not as if the paṇḍitas did not know the viṣṇusahasranāmam but what was the "trick" (if I may use that word) by which those paṇḍitas managed to recite always (daily) the whole of the sahasranāmam despite obstacles, if any, arising in day to day life. And rāmanāmam is the answer to that. Lord śiva further adds that "sahasranāma tattulyaṃ rāmanāma...". Hence, even if one is unable to chant the sahasranāmam, due to reasons of aśuddham etc., reciting rāmanāmam one thousand times may be done.
The above is what I have heard from my elders.

 

[talwan]

I humbly want to mention that I have been regularly submitting to Rama Mama Bank in westmambalam, Chennai.I also arrange Vishnu sahasranama parayanam in our house where Our Sevas members recite the same. So for me both Rama Nama,and Sahasra nama are equally important.
Alwan