sreedattavaibhavam.org ======================= DON’T SKIP TO READ….SECRET INFORMATION ON “SMARTHRUGAAMI” ========================================================== MEANING OF DATTA STAVA- A POWERFUL STOTRA OF LORD DATTATREYA BY SRI VASUDEVANANDA SARASWATHY SWAMY ========================================================== Lord Dattatreya’s grace is very easy to obtain. Wherever the Lord may be in His travels, when He hears a devotee chanting the prayer of Datta stava, He at once comes to him and grants more boons than what the devotee prayed for! By the repeated chanting of this prayer many have obtained peace of mind, relief from chronic ailments, solutions to problems, and an end to difficulties. Memory power has increased in students. Businesses have flourished. Many other benefits have been derived. If the chanting is done with an understanding of the meaning, results will be obtained speedily. Wishes will be fulfilled. Who is better qualified to explain to us the inner meaning of this mantra than Lord Dattatreya Himself! Datta Stavam is like a maha mantra. Any mantra, including Datta Stavam can be utilized to pray for three purposes: 1. For the removal of worldly sorrow and to gain worldly happiness2. To increase devotion, discipline in virtue, and the practice of yoga3. To merge with the deity of the mantra, with no desires. Sri Vasudevananda Saraswati Swami has incorporated these three benefits into this prayer in order to give a totality to the life of the devotee. Every aspect of life would then become fully enriched, pure, and blissful. let us first observe the refrain, “smartrugaamee sanovatu”. This is a prayer addressed to Lord Dattatreya. Yet, His name is not mentioned here. “Smartrugaamee” means ‘one who appears in front of you the moment he is thought of’. Why is this description given instead of the name of the Lord? The reason is that the Lord has no name. One acquires a name when the parents give a name to the child. There is a procedure for it, a ritual. It is called ‘Namakaranam”, a naming ceremony. For our Dattatreya Swami, His father did not perform any rituals because both the parents knew that the child that was born to them was none other than the supreme Paramatman Himself, who is beyond all ritual and ceremony. That is why they did not perform any religious ceremonies for him. Then you might ask how he got the name Datta. Datta is not a name. “Datta” means a gift. When Atri and Anasuya performed their penance on the banks of the river Nirvindhya, on the mountain called Rikshadri, for the purpose of having progeny, none of the deities had a clue what boon to award them for their severe penance. They got Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshwara together, and prayed to them that the three gods together should award a boon to Atri and Anasuya. This was a decision taken by the three gods in consensus with the 330,000,000 (33 crore) celestials. As per this resolve, Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshwara approached Sage Atri and announced, “We have given ourselves to you”. We learnt that Datta means ‘a present’. That is the first meaning. These words have three meanings. If you split the English word ‘present’, it becomes ‘pre’ and ‘sent’, which means ‘sent before’. This is the second meaning, because all the celestials arrived at the decision and sent the gods to appear before the Sage. The third meaning of the word ‘present’ is ‘right now’. ‘Right now’ or ‘at present’ is the only time that counts; this is what has been given to us by God. Past is dead and gone. Future is yet to come. Neither has a definite existence. What truly exists is only the present. That is why it is said that great souls always live only in the present. All these three meanings apply to the word “Datta”. The Trimurtis, the three gods used this word first, and then they approached Atri and Anasuya in the form of a little boy with three heads. Because the Trimurtis first announced, “We are Datta”, and then took the form of the child, all the people around began calling the child, “Datta”, “Datta”. An individual is given a name only after birth, and not before. But in this case the father never gave a name to this child. So with the word Datta several questions arose, “who gave the present?’ “To whom was the present given?” and so on. To clear this confusion, the sages in the hermitage began calling the child Dattatreya, meaning that this gift belongs to Sage Atri. How can such a word be called a name? A name created for convenience cannot be considered authentic. The rightful person, the father, who should have given a name, did not do it. The child, even when he grew up, did not care about giving himself a name. Hence, this Swami remained without a name. If there is no name, how does one call him? It is hence easier to think of him than to call him. It is enough if one thinks of a principle that is nameless, of a being that is without a name, that Swami will at once appear. Where? Inside the heart of the one that thought of him! When? That very instant! That is why the most appropriate term to describe such a one is, “smartrugaamee”. It is with this understanding that Swami Vasudevananda Saraswati decided upon this refrain. ‘Sanovatu’ means ‘may he protect us’! Who is ‘us’? Myself and my family. I and all living beings is the right meaning. A good devotee prays not just for himself. He gradually increases his field to include not only his family, but his town, his state, his country, his earth, and in fact the entire creation. His prayer is justified only then. If one alone is comfortable while everyone else around is miserable, it does not make anyone happy. If one’s family alone is well while all others in the town have drowned, it does not make one happy. If one’s town flourishes while all other towns in the state go bankrupt, it does not bode one good. Up to this point even a common man agrees. But one needs to apply this principle to all the planets as well. If one wishes that all other planets should perish but the earth alone should remain safe, it is not possible. For the earth to remain safe, all other planets need to be safe also. Looked at the other way, this means that for you to be well, not only your town, your country, and your planet, but all the living beings in the entire universe have to be well. Only then can you be well. That is why whenever you pray you have to pray for the wellbeing of everyone in all the worlds. With this in view Swami Vasudevananda Saraswati has phrased the refrain “Smartrugaamee sanovatu” in such a way that the lord who instantaneously responds to the one who thinks of him, is prayed to, for the protection of all living beings. Now that we have properly understood the meaning of the refrain. AVADHOOTHA CHINTHANA SHREE GURUDEVADATTA... TEAM SREEDATTAVAIBHAVAM
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 19:41:12 +0000
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