[Sri TK Sundaresa Iyer recollects in his book At the Feet of Bhagavan 23]: HOW THE MANTRA CAME The mantra Om namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya fascinated me greatly in my early days; it so delighted me that I had always a vision of Sri Krishna in my mind. I had a premonition that this body would pass away in its fortieth year, and I wanted to have a darshan of the Lord before that time. I fasted and practised devotion to Vasudeva incessantly; I read Sri Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam with great delight. Then when I read in the Gita Jnani tu atmaiva me matam (In my view, the Jnani is my own Self ) I was greatly delighted. This line of thought came to me: While I have at hand Bhagavan Sri Ramana, who is Himself Vasudeva, why should I worship Vasudeva separately? Be it noted that all this was in my early days before settling with Bhagavan at His Ashram. So I wanted one single mantra, a single worship (devata), and a single scripture, so that there might be no conflict of loyalties. Sri Ramana Paramatman became easily the God to worship, His collected works easily became the gospel; as for the mantra, it struck me intuitively that Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya might be an exact parallel to Om namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya. I counted the letters in this new mantra, and was very happy to find it also contained twelve letters; I told this all to Sri Bhagavan, and He gave the mantra His approval. Advanced practisers (sadhaks) and thinkers may laugh at this and say: Why do you need a mantra while the Ocean of Bliss is there to be immersed into directly? I confess that in this I was trying to conform to the traditional method of practice (upasana) which forms one of the main elements in bhakti (devotion). Bhagavan has revealed His true nature as the All-Witness; yet there is the explicit injunction that Advaita must be only in the attitude and never be interpreted in outer action. This is how the mantra first came out.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 01:28:29 +0000
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