nAmam

[Ravisankar S. Mayavaram]

> How long is the viShNU japa?  Where will this be?  Anywhere around the
> Eastern Seaboard?  Pardon my ignorance, but from the way you mention this,
> it sounds like a big event.
>
> --Greg


namaste

shrI paramAnanda bhArati is coming to Houston Meenakshi amman Temple. The
event may be be only for few hours. Essentially this is the completion if
nAmajapam which svAmiji initiated sometime back. For a bhakta, any event
related to bhagavan is big. Plus any opportunity to be with saints who
have renounced the world for the sake of God is golden. My intention was
not to make the event sound big or anything like that. I wanted to know
more about the svAmiji. That is all.

The way these japams normally go is, a group of people will start chanting
the Lord's name say 1008 times a every day. Over a period of time (say few
months) the total number of times the name was chanted will become a huge
number. Normally the target will be few millions. The counting is done
little differently. I learnt this from the viShNu sahasranama japam-s my
father does with some of his friends. If 10 persons chant  the
sahasranAmam once, it will be counted as 10 times the sahasranAmam was
chanted. Essentially these events brings devotees together and reinforce
the fact that God's name should be chanted always.



with respects,
Ravi

nAmam means name. Without context it will mean God's name. japam is
repetition of the name. When the mind repeats God's name. Two things will
happen. First the mind will not wander and will become still and the
second the bad segments (corrupted portions or bad tendencies ) will be
over written with God' name and will become good. Once Giri remarked to me
that if nAmajapam is like overwriting the disk with God's name, prANAyAmam
is like completely formatting it and making it clean.