Take God's Name and Absolve Your Self

May 6, 2004, 12.00am IST
Devakottai S Srinivasan.

In the fifth Skanda of the Bhagavat Purana, Hiranyakashipu asks his son Prahalad, “What is the best thing you have learnt?” Prahalad replies: ‘‘Sravanam Kirtanam vishnum smaranam pada seva-nam archanam vandanam dasyam, sakyam atma samarpanam iti Navalakshana.” — Prahalad describes nine ways to attain salvation: 1. Listening to God’s name and stories about Him. 2. Singing God’s praise and reciting His name 3. Always thinking about God 4. Archana or offering flowers to God 5. To do service at God’s feet 6. To do Namaskars or paying obeisance to God 7. To do service to God 8. To be friendly with God 9. To surrender everything at God’s feet including one’s Self.


It is not impossible to do what Prahalad spells out as we have examples of people like Parikshit, Sukha Brahm Maha-rishi, Prahalad, Goddess Mahalakshmi, Hanuman, Arjun and Mahabali who had followed these norms. Ru-kmini, while sending a message to Krishna inviting him to accept her, follows the path shown by Prahalad and starts her message with sravanam and ends with atma samarpanam.


Other means to salvation as described in the Narada Bhaktiyoga, Karma Yoga and other texts in our epics and puranas are difficult to follow, more so in today’s fast-paced way of life. The easiest among these is the Nama Sangirthanam or singing God’s praise, to recite God’s name as and when possible to attain salvation.

The Dhanur Month is observed in South India as a month for worshipping God and bhajans are recited in the mornings throughout the month. As the month precedes Uttarayana, it is considered to be ‘‘early morning’’ for Dev Log. Andal, one of the 12 alwars, has rendered several poems in praise of God to be recited during the Dhanur month as a means of salvation.

The tradition of naming children after the name of God was followed so that when a person calls out to his children, he is reciting some of the Sahasranama of God.

Ajamila, the son of a rishi, was following all the practices prescribed for a rishi. One day, as he was travelling through a dense forest, he met a hunter’s daughter who was very pretty. They fell in love and Ajamila spent his entire life with her.

He forgot his duty and practices totally and did all that a rishi was not expected to do. He was very attached to his last son, whom he named “Narayana”. When he was about to die he could see Yama’s messengers, and out of sheer fear loudly called out to his last son “Narayana” and died immediately thereafter. Before Yama’s messengers could take him, Lord Vishnu’s messengers came and took him to Vaikuntha, saying that any man who utters God’s name during his last moments, would only go to Vaikuntha, the abode of Lord Vishnu.

This story might have inspired Perialwar, one of the 12 alwars of the south, to render 4,000 exquisite hymns praising the Lord. In one hymn he says “Narayanan annai Nara-gam Pugal”, that the mother of Narayana will never go to hell.


Nama Sangirthana is the easiest way to attain salvation. We should conti-nue the practice of naming our children after God so that when we call out to our children, we recite at least some of the Sahasranama of the Lord, which washes away our sins and leads us to salvation.