Swami on Namasmarana

April 9, 2009

Namasmarana is an instrument to realize the Lord. Thyagaraja started the Namajapa of Sri Rama in his twentieth year; he recited it ninety six crores of times, and took twenty one years and fifteen days for the vow to be finished. As a result, he had the darsana of Sri Rama, "the letters of the Name taken shape", he says. The Name signifies the quality of the Lord, His guna, and so constant contemplation arouses the same guna in the reciter.

For Namasmarana, no expense is involved; no materials are needed; there is no special place and time to be provided. No qualification of scholarship or caste or sex has to be proved. When a bit of iron is rubbed to and fro on a slab of stone, heat is generated: only the rubbing has to be vigorous and continuous. When you do so at intervals and with poorpressure, the iron will not get hot. So too, in order to get sufficient heat to melt the soft heart of the Lord, rub the name Ram Ram Ram vigorously and unintermittently. Then, the Lord will shower His Grace.The Name is more efficacious than the contemplation of the Form. Droupadi did not send a chariot to bring Krishna to her rescue; she uttered the Name in her agony and Krishna responded and saved her from imminent dishonor. In the Threthayuga, when the Ramayana story was gone through, Nala and his monkeys were building a bridge over the sea to Lanka; the boulders on which

they inscribed the sacred Name, Rama, floated on the waters, but, they found that the boulders floated away due to wind and wave. They did not form a continuous bridge, for the army to pass over. Some ingenious person gave a suggestion to write RA on one boulder and MA on another and they found that the two stuck hard together. The Name will serve as a float for you too; it will keep you attached to God and bring on you His Grace.- Swami

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