Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam {1}

[Guest guest]

Sri Raghuram Mudumbai has just started a series of postings on the

significance of Sri Vishnu Sahasrana:mam, the 1000 sacred names of our

Supreme Lord, Sriman Narayana, as was taught to him by HH Sri Tridandi

Chinna SrimanNarayana Ramanuja Jeeyar Swamy.

 

I am taking the liberty of forwarding the first posting in this series

to the members of the Society, with the request that Sri Raghu include

the Society in the distribution of these postings. This request is for

the benefit of the newcomers and Westerners of our forum, who may not

yet be members of other Vaishnava discussion groups.

 

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan

Mohan

 

--------->

Sri Lakshmi Hayavadana Parabrahmane Namaha!

Srimathe Satagopaya Namaha!

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha!

 

Sri Vishnu Sahasranama Sthotram is a long 'ma:la:

mantram' consisting of one thousand na:ma:s. Sri Sri Sri

Tridandi Srimannarayana Ramanuja Chinna Jeeyar Swami

revealed the importance of Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam

several times at innumerable places over the past

twenty (20) years.

 

 

Sri Sri Sri Jeeyar Swami conducts mass chanting of

Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam, which is attended by a

number of bhakthas throughout the world. Sri Sri Sri

Jeeyar Swami has explained about each mantra, with

cross-references from Vedas, Sri Ramayana, Srimad

Bhagavadgita, Sri Vishnu Purana, Upanishads, Rushi

Va:kyams, Pura:na:s, Sri Bhagavatham, Vya:karana, Sri

Sankara Bha:shyam, Sri Para:sara Bhattar’s Bha:syam,

Divya Prabandhams, Poorvacharya references and many

more scriptures. His High Holiness has explained some

of the na:ma:s for four to five hours each, and a

few of them for days.

 

 

This series will start with a brief introduction

about SVSN as revealed to us by His High Holiness

(an English discourse presented to us by His High

Holiness). This will be followed by a series

consisting of a very brief explanation of na:ma:s

that occur more than once in SVSN.

 

Sri Sri Sri Jeeyar Thiruvadigale Saranam!

 

Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam (SVSN) is panacea of all

the good. It enriches inner divine qualities,

elevates them to higher altitudes and makes man

more perfect in all the endeavours. It removes

inner problems like strain, stress ego etc and

paves the way to blossom from within. This is

‘hridaya vikasa ka:rini’. Universal and divine

love springs up with prayer. It cultivates

universal brotherhood and bridges the gap between

man and man.

 

 

Prayer brings harmony and unison. Sri Vishnu

Sahasranamam is a miraculous universal prayer.

It is the quintessence of all the sa:stras,

the cream of Vedic knowledge. The great

sages of the lore experienced the cosmic power

during their meditation and observed the divine

traits of the Lord of this universe and meditated

on those traits. As a result of their rich inner

experience a few sounds were spontaneously

released from their vocal cords. They could not

resist their inner experience. The overwhelming

joy flowed out in the form of a few sounds. The

perfect combination of those sounds became

powerful names of the Lord for the later disciples

thus revealing the omniscience of the Lord. Each

name is unique in itself focussing that particular

quality of that Lord and became a mantra.

 

 

Bheesmacharya, the great grandfather of

Kauravas and Pandavas as well, had experienced

these wonderful mantras out of his penance. He used

to practise them regularly, which made him

unconquerable by anyone. Even Yama, the god of

death, was at his beck and call. Such an authentic

and more authoritative Bheesmacharya, like a bee

that gathers honey from all the flowers, gathered

all his mantras and revealed the mantras to

Yudhishtira, the elder of Pandavas.

 

 

Lord Krishna instructed Bheeshmacharya to reveal this

secret to Pa:ndava:s while Bheeshma was on the bed of

arrows. Chanting and/or listening and/or understanding

the meaning enriches our lives by imbibing good

qualities into us.

 

There is no repetition of namas in Sri Vishnu

Sahasranamam. There are same na:ma:s mentioned

twice, some thrice in SVSN. For example ‘vishnu’

appears thrice in SVSN. But this is not repetition.

Each nama delineates different activities, various

aspects of kalya:na guna:s (attributes) of Lord

SrimanNarayana.

 

 

To be continued…

 

Jai Srimananrayana!

Raghuram Mudumbai

Ramanuja Dasaha