Namsthe- Naarayana

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

Continuation of 24 names.

 

" At the time of death try to think of Naarayana "

While doing research, I came across several definitions of the name Narayana. It is very interesting to look at all those and we can choose the ones that are most appropriate for our theme.

1. Naara + a-yana= human + with out ending (a-yana) or eternal= Eternal being

2.Naara+ ayana= water + movement= one who moves in the infinite waters(kaarana jala)

3. Naraa+ ayana= human + direction/goal= direction of a human or the one that leads a human towards his direction- that is moksha

4.Naraa+ ayan= human + mirror= In essence, it is the reflection of the self or soul

5. Naara + Ayana= all living and non-living entities (ALNE) + resting place or abode= One who is the resting place of living and non-living entities.or one whose resting place is all the living and non-living entities. It can be both ways.

6. Naara + ayana= ALNE + upaaya or means= For all beings, He is the only means to reach Him.

7. Naara+ ayana= ALNE + upeya or fruits or phalam or goal = He is the object or goal to be attained by all living and nonliving entities .

Now let us take the best meaning to explain why we have to think of Him as Naarayana at the time of death. To me if we take the sixth and seventh and combine the meaning of both,it explains us about how to make use of our assigned life time for attaining the goal of reaching Him, the final abode (#3)

Narayana is the only means to reach Him. So we have to try to remember Him constantly in our day to day activities and this makes it possible to remember Him at the time of death.

He is the goal of our life and He is the only means to reach Him. He gives us the upayam or means to us by giving the choice or freedom to think or not think of Him. He advises in Bhagavad Geetha to think of Him all the time even in the midst of our mundane daily activities and this will help us to think of Him at the end of our time here. Since one's thoughts during the course of one's life accumulate to influence one's thoughts at the moment of death, it is very important for us to practice surrendering ourselves to Him starting as early as possible. The Lord only wants us to remember him constantly so that at the last moment we remember Him. Then we will definitely reach our resting place (#5) or abode.

It is appropriate to remember Ajamila's story at this time. Ajamila could utter his son Narayana's name when he saw yamadoothaas approaching to take him away. It was possible because he had accumulated a lot of punyam by thinking of Him in the early part of his life and in his previous lives. So Bhagavan says that just to be able to remember Him at the end, we have to keep doing it earlier. He says : " anthakaale Cha maameva smaran " means " remember me at the end also " . That means we have to think of Him all the time and also at the time of death. That carries a lot of weight.

Another person who uttered God's name when he was about to die (with gunshots), was Mahatma Gandhi. He did not yell " ayyo " or " Aha " or make any other sound, but he uttered " He Ram " He could do that because He was remembering his beloved God Rama continuously.

May Lord Narayana bless us to use the stories of His leelaas, stories of His greatness, chanting of his namaas, service of His devotees, satsangs and all other connections with sajjanaas as a MEANS to remember Him and reach our GOAL, His ABODE.

With regards and prayers

Savitri

P.S. Defintions are from different sources including interpretaions of Vishnu shasra namam. I was trying to relate to our theme and please feel free to correct any mistakes or misunderstanding of mine.