At the Feet of the Guru: Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam is Panacea for all ills By R .Seshadri

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At the Feet of the Guru: Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam is Panacea for all ills

By R .Seshadri

 

" Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam is so vast and the import of the thousand names

is so great that anyone who goes through them carefully must be struck

by the fact that the powerful material embedded in it must suffice for

the purification of any soul. The experience of thousands of devotees

justifies them in the belief that what is claimed in the 'phatasruti' is

true. It says that a person who recites it will obtain issue if he is

issueless, wealth if he has no wealth, power, fame, glory and success

and it adds that the sins of ages would be washed away. "

- Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji

 

Radhakrishna Swamiji's life breath was Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam. He

commended its recitation to all his devotees. Most of the day he would

be seen leading small groups of devotees in recitation. People in the

group might be changing every third or fourth round, but the leader used

to be constant. On some days he had recited over 30 times with different

groups each day. He would gently persuade and cajole some of the

devotees to join in one more round, giving them a piece of sweet or

beverage.

 

I have seen Swamiji instructing some devotee or a visitor at the end of

some round to offer some pooja or visit to a temple and thus solve his

problem. Occasionally he used to hold some 'Udhi' in his closed right

palm and pass the same on to a devotee to make use of the sanctified

'Udhi' which always had a miraculous effect. Swamiji has initiated

hundreds of devotees in Sahasranamam recitation, the effect of which we

are seeing and experiencing today, when even children of five and six

years old recite Vishnu Sahasranamam at Sri Sai Spiritual Centre.

 

We shall see how Sri K.S. Rajagopalan, a senior lawyer of Rajajinagar,

Bangalore (he passed away about six months back), who had shunned saints

and God-men, became Swamiji's staunch devotee. Sri Rajagopalan's

transformation started dramatically one night. He was woken up from

sleep after 2 a.m., by a bearded Swamiji, who asked him to start Sri

Vishnu Sahasranamam recitation, which would do him immense good. The

saintly person initiated him in the recitation. The next morning, a

perplexed Rajagopalan started making enquiries with some of his friends,

narrating his strange dream. His friend Srinivasan, working then in the

Postal Department, brought Sri Rajagopalan to his Guru, Sri Radhakrishna

Swamiji at Thyagaraja Nagar for consultations.

 

Sri Rajagopalan could not believe his eyes to behold the bearded saintly

person in his dream in flesh and blood. It was Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji.

Thus started the very moment strong Guru-devotee bond, resulting in his

wife and children and their near relatives becoming ardent devotees of

Swamiji, all of them starting Sahasranamam recitation. The family has

had very many spiritual experiences and help. Sheela Srinivas, Sri

Rajagopalan's second daughter, merits special mention. Even as a child,

she started pooja to Baba, always consulting Swamiji, whom she has been

holding very dear to her heart. Sheela, now a resident of Chicago (U.S)

continues her pooja and prayers at her apartment, never failing to visit

Sri Sai Spiritual Centre whenever she comes to India.

 

Non-activity is far from God-consciousness. The lazy man bound to flesh

is not free; he is not a Yogi. The materially active man, if ever fixed

in the inward peace is not a worldly man but one united to God; he is a

true Yogi.

- Paramahansa Yogananda

 

 

HARMONY

For all his traditional ways, Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji had great respect

for rules and rituals. Once there was a difference of opinion between a

devotee and his daughter because the man kept insisting that the girl

conform to the rules of their religion in the choice of her prospective

husband.

 

Swamiji openly sided with the girl. When the devotee expressed his

surprise that the Swamiji would do this, he simply said: " you must

understand that life is just like music more by feeling and by instinct

than by rules. "

 

UNDERSTANDING

A devotee asked Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji: " How shall I get the grace of

never judging my neighbor " ?

Swamiji replied: " Through Vishnu Sahasranamam. "

The devotee said: " Then why have I not found it yet? I recite Vishnu

Sahasranamam twice a day "

Swamiji: " Because you have not prayed in the right place. "

Devotee: " Where is that? "

Swamiji: " In the heart of God. "

Devotee: " How do I get there? "

Swamiji: " Understand that anyone who sins does not know what he is doing

and deserves to be forgiven. "

(Source Sri Sai padananda Jan 1999)