At the Feet of the Guru: Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam is Panacea for all ills By R .Seshadri

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At the Feet of the Guru: Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam

is Panacea for all ills

By R .Seshadri

 

" Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam

is so vast and the import of the thousand names is so great that anyone who

goes through them carefully must be struck by the fact that the powerful

material embedded in it must suffice for the purification of any soul. The

experience of thousands of devotees justifies them in the belief that what is

claimed in the ‘phatasruti’ is true. It

says that a person who recites it will obtain issue if he is issueless, wealth

if he has no wealth, power, fame, glory and success and it adds that the sins

of ages would be washed away. "

-

Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji

 

Radhakrishna Swamiji's life

breath was Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam. He commended its

recitation to all his devotees. Most of the day he would be

seen leading small groups of devotees in recitation. People in the group

might be changing every third or fourth round, but the leader used to be

constant. On some days he had recited over 30 times with different groups each

day. He would gently persuade and cajole some of the devotees to join in one

more round, giving them a piece of sweet or beverage.

 

I have seen Swamiji

instructing some devotee or a visitor at the end of some round to offer some pooja or visit to a temple and thus solve his problem.

Occasionally he used to hold some ‘Udhi’

in his closed right palm and pass the same on to a devotee to make use of

the sanctified 'Udhi' which always had a miraculous

effect. Swamiji has initiated hundreds of devotees in

Sahasranamam recitation, the effect of which we are

seeing and experiencing today, when even children of five and six years old

recite Vishnu Sahasranamam at Sri Sai Spiritual

Centre.

 

We shall see how Sri K.S. Rajagopalan,

a senior lawyer of Rajajinagar, Bangalore (he passed away about six months back), who

had shunned saints and God-men, became Swamiji's

staunch devotee. Sri Rajagopalan's transformation

started dramatically one night. He was woken up from sleep after 2 a.m., by a bearded Swamiji,

who asked him to start Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam

recitation, which would do him immense good. The saintly person initiated him

in the recitation. The next morning, a perplexed Rajagopalan

started making enquiries with some of his friends, narrating his strange dream.

His friend Srinivasan, working then in the Postal Department, brought Sri Rajagopalan to his Guru, Sri Radhakrishna

Swamiji at Thyagaraja Nagar for consultations.

 

Sri Rajagopalan could not

believe his eyes to behold the bearded saintly person in his dream in flesh and

blood. It was Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji.

Thus started the very moment strong Guru-devotee bond,

resulting in his wife and children and their near relatives becoming ardent

devotees of Swamiji, all of them starting Sahasranamam recitation. The family has had very

many spiritual experiences and help. Sheela Srinivas,

Sri Rajagopalan's second daughter, merits special

mention. Even as a child, she started pooja to Baba,

always consulting Swamiji, whom she has been holding

very dear to her heart. Sheela, now a resident of

Chicago (U.S) continues her pooja and prayers at her

apartment, never failing to visit Sri Sai Spiritual Centre whenever she comes

to India.

 

Non-activity is far from God-consciousness. The lazy

man bound to flesh is not free; he is not a Yogi.

The materially active man, if ever fixed in the inward peace is not

a worldly man but one united to God; he is a true Yogi.

- Paramahansa

Yogananda

 

 

HARMONY

For all his traditional ways, Sri Radhakrishna

Swamiji had great respect for rules and rituals. Once

there was a difference of opinion between a devotee and his daughter because

the man kept insisting that the girl conform to the rules of their religion in

the choice of her prospective husband.

 

Swamiji openly sided with the girl. When the devotee

expressed his surprise that the Swamiji would do

this, he simply said: " you must understand that life is just like music

more by feeling and by instinct than by rules. "

 

UNDERSTANDING

A devotee asked Sri Radhakrishna

Swamiji: " How shall I get the grace of never

judging my neighbor " ?

Swamiji replied: " Through Vishnu Sahasranamam. "

The devotee said: " Then why have I not found it

yet? I recite Vishnu Sahasranamam twice a day "

Swamiji: " Because you have not prayed in the

right place. "

Devotee: " Where is that? "

Swamiji: " In the heart of God. "

Devotee: " How do I get there? "

Swamiji: " Understand that anyone who sins does

not know what he is doing and deserves to be forgiven. "

(Source Sri Sai padananda

Jan 1999)