[Advaita-l] An interesting observation by a Vishishtādvaitin

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Tue, 11 Jul 2017, Kalyan via Advaita-l wrote:

> There is a story of Ajamila in the Bhagavam on the speciality of 
> chanting the name nArAyaNa at the time of death -

Ajamila was not chanting Narayana (meaning the name of Bhagavan) at all 
but calling for his son who had the same name.  The moral is that the 
names of Bhagavan (all of them not just  Narayana) have power even when 
spoken unconsciously.  (The implication being how much more powerful must 
they be if used deliberately.)


Instead I would trace the custom to the Vedic concept of Vishnu/Narayana 
as a traveller.  In two steps he spanned the worlds and with the third he 
reached the "highest place." (viShNoh parama padam) so He would be the 
perfect guide to bring the departed jiva higher.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>