Song of the week ending 24, Aug 2007

narayana narayana jai jai govinda hare
narayana narayana jai jai gopala hare

Aapo vai naara prokthaa aapo vai narasoonavah
Ayanaah tasyaa yah sah vai naarayana (vishnu purana)
 Water is called naara and one who sits or sleeps in water is called Narayana.
Prof. Balakrishnan Nair gives a yet another beautiful explanation for the word Narayana. Naara stands for knowledge. One who is established in knowledge or Consciousness is called Narayana. Narayana is therefore the ultimate reality of non-dual Brahman. Bhagavatham mentions that the only duty of human life is to remember Narayana at the end of our life - Krishna says in Gita that in order to remember something at the last moment of our life, we have to remember it throughout our lives. Thus the very goal of human life is to always remember Narayana as the only reality behind the illusory world.

Sankara in his Vishnu Sahasranaama bhashya quotes from padma purana as to the way out of sorrow in the various yugas thus
dhyaayan krithe yajan yajnaischa trethayaam Dvaapare archayan
yadaapnothi tadaapnothi kalau sankeerthya kesavam
 In the kritha or satya yuga, the Lord is attained through meditation; in tretha yuga through various yajnaas; in dvaapara yuga through archanas or offerings; whichever way the Lord is attained in the three yugas, that is attained in Kali yuga through sankeerthana of Kesava.
Kesava denotes the ultimate reality of Brahman (Ka brahma, isha siva, ava vishnu). Thus keerthana or constant singing of the names of the Lord is the way out of sorrow in Kali Yuga.

Singing or listening to this song is doing keerthana of the Lord as the song has no deeper word meanings but just the names of Narayana. The song has been recorded in my voice which can be found here. Please bear the noise, disturbance and awful singing as am not a singer.

AMMA's bhajan song

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