Learning Lalitha Sahasranamaa

[Guest guest]

Dear Friend

 

While I will leave it to the learned and experienced

members of the Group on initiation, criteria etc ,

listening to it repeatedly from a cassette is of

immense help in learning it by heart. There are quite

a few renditions of these availble in cassette form.

you may want to chose one in which the recitation is

slow. ( I heard Aruna Sairam's rendition is one such

slow one.) Are you in India?

 

It is very useful ( and important, I guess) to read a

good translation ,to know the meaning of the namas.

Also , each section of LS, describes one particular

aspect of Her. Knowing the meanings and the section

you are reciting,helps the "mind" to remember the

slokas. Looks like, in this we need to move from

"mind" to "by Heart". Simply intend and desire deeply

to say these namas on Her. She will help you to get it

by heart.

 

Hope this is of some use.

 

Pray for Her Blessings to the Group.

Gopi

 

 

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[Guest guest]

a) Music provides a structure to text and enables one to memorize and

remember it effortlessly. This is becomes very useful when the text has some

repeating words which could set you into loop. For instance, kaulinii

kulayoginii and kaulinii kevalaa. When different melodies are used at

these two juntures, the musical structure itself will save you from going

into a loop.

 

b) This technique is used in shruti via swara-s. Sri Subhanu Saxena wrote

some articles on Advaita-L on this.

 

c) Second way to avoid the loop and remember is to understand the meaning

and reason out the sequence through knowledge. Here you are saying each name

mindfully and are aware what is before this name and what is after it, and

also why. IMHO this is extremely difficult. But something we should strive

for. Also by sheer understanding first kaulinii occurs very early in the

text and second one comes almost at the end, one can avoid it. That requires

a conscious chanting.

 

d) For lalitaa sahasranaama and trishatii, understanding the meaning of the

names is not essential. Why? Because Sri hayagriiva himself states that

these are not mere naama-s, but mantra-s. This is one of the reasons why a

initiation and guidance from a guru is required.

 

e) I have listened to five different renderings of sahasranaama and all are

available here and there as MP3 files. I found M.S.Sheela to my liking

because it very musical and she pronounces every name clearly and correctly.

The only thing you may catch is her pronunciation of kL^ipta and she does

correctly say vahni as vanhi.

 

 

f) I agree with Aravind that it is very efficient to listen than just chant

or read from book. One can close his eyes and meditate on the names and

grasp greedily as every syllable comes out of the speaker.

 

g) But memorizing has one advantage of not needing any technology. You can

think of it anywhere.

 

 

Ravi