Innocence Of Lord.

We commonly hear that ‘ राम ‘ नाम को जपोगे तो राम मिल जाएंगे।’ In our scriptures also, it is given that; you will get what ; you meditate upon.

In childhood; we used to hear the story of a man; who had a constant fear of the ghost- that ghost would come and eat him. He used to think that thought continuously. One day really a ghost came and ate him.
This story is a fiction but our elders would tell it to refrain us from negative thinking.
I see many patients; who come with the fear of certain diseases in their minds. They ask me to test them to rule out those diseases in them. I take the help of this story of the man to counsel and educate them to keep away from negative thoughts. It proves to be really the रामबाण इलाज/cure for them.Thoughts have the tremendous power of getting manifested. That’s why they say-‘ you become what you think about.’ Same mechanism is applicable in chanting the God’s name.
Whenever any negative thought emerges in the mind, just chant God’s name. The negative energy gets nullified with the positive energy of the God’s name for sure.

In our religious texts/puranas, there are so many stories of the ones; who got the moksha by just uttering the name ‘Rama’.
The most prominent example is of the sage Valmiki himself; who could only say the word ‘mara’; before he attained the sagehood. Sage Narada came and tried to teach him ‘Rama-nama’ but he couldn’t utter it. So Narada asked him to utter it in reverse way- ‘mara’. He repeatedly chanted what he knew, ‘mara-mara’. But after many repetitions, the pronunciation is heard as ‘rama-rama’. Thus his very unintentional ‘Rama’ sound in repetition -‘mara-mara-mara…’ was sufficient to elevate him and he became a great devotee of Lord Rama and ultimatley got Realised.

Lord Shiva and Lord Rama are very famous for their compassionate nature. They get pleased very easily with the ones; who just utters their names; even unknowingly.

There are so many stories in our puranas about the people; who used to call their children by the Lord’s names and attained solvation as a result of the repetition of the same at ease.
‘Ajamil’ was a brahmin and he had a very virtuous wife. But still at one occasion, he lost his control over his mind and became lustful by seeing one prostitute whom he then got married; leaving his wife. After that he spent his life in sinful activities. He had 10 children from the second wife. He named his 10th youngest son ‘ Narayana’; whom he loved very much. When he became old and was on his deathbed, he saw three  Yamadutas, who had come to take his soul. Ajamil was very much frightened and began to call out his son- “Narayana ! Narayana !..”. Hearing the name of their Lord, the Vishnudutas, appeared to rescue Ajamil from the clutches of hell. The Vishnudutas and the Yamadutas had an argument. As Ajamil was not righteous and entitled to punishment, Yamadutas took him before Lord Yama for the opinion/ judgement.
But the Vishnudutas opposed them with the explaination –
“The Shastras/ Scriptures state that the mere utterance of the name of Lord Vishnu, may it be to denote another person, even in a friendly joking manner, even inserted anywhere while reciting a song, or even as an apparent hate, or uttered unintentionally and unknowingly, it completely nullifies/annihilates all the sins of those; who utters it.
Ajamila; who witnessed this conversation; fell into remorse. He accepted that he had led a disgraceful and unworthy life. He made his mind to devote and surrender to the feet of Lord Vishnu. Thus, the Brahmana Ajamila, who led a sinful life,  was able to attain Vaikuntha, because of his unknowingly chanting God’s name.

There is a beautiful sanskrit subhashit, explaining the same-  Importance of Lord’s name–

वने चरामो, वसु चाहरामो, नदीस्तरामो न भयं स्मरामः ।

इतीरयन्तो विपिने किराता मुक्तिं गता “राम”-पदानुषङ्गात् ॥

वने चराम: – We move/wander in the forest.
वसु चाहराम: – We bring money/ wealth.
नदीस्तराम: – We cross river.
न भयं स्मराम: – We remember no fear/don’t get fear of anything.
किराता:- Hunters
Each of the sentence in the original verse ends with the word “Rama”. ( चराम:= we move,आहराम:=we bring,तराम:=we cross स्मराम:=we remember)
Hunters used to sing this song cum quatrain; many times in order to convey their daily routine and their type of work. They were not aware of the fact that they were uttering the ‘Rama nama’ while singing these poetic expressions. They were knowing the meaning of the word ‘तराम:’ as ‘to cross’ but didn’t know that it ends with pronunciation ” Rama.”
It is said that these hunters attained liberation by their
unknowingly utterence of the ‘Rama’ nama repeatedly.

This is how the power of chanting of Lord’s nama works. Lord doesn’t pay attention to your grammer mistakes, your knowledge or familiarity, etc but the very utterence of His name is sufficient to get His blessings.

In Vishnusahastranama stotra, there is a verse where;
Goddess Parvati asks Lord Siva to inform her of one name equal to the thousand names of Lord Vishnu.

केनोपायेन लघुना विष्णोर्नाम सहस्रकं?
पठ्यते पण्डितैर्नित्यम् श्रोतुमिच्छाम्यहं प्रभो।।
‘Hey Prabhu! , is there any simple and quick method by which learned people/pandit are able to recite every day the thousand Names of Lord Vishnu? If so, I want to know it.’
Lord Shiva replied-

श्री राम राम रामेति, रमे रामे मनोरमे।
सहस्र नाम तत्तुल्यम राम नाम वरानने।।
‘By always chanting the ‘Rama Rama Rama… ‘. The repetition of the single name ‘ RAMA” is equal to reciting His thousand names!’

Thus Lord’s namasmarana is the greatest yet simple and easy sadhana for our spiritual evolution.
  Hari Om !

Image credit to bhakti photos.