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The Divine name religion

CHENNAI: The scriptures expound the glory of the Divine name to highlight that chanting the Lord’s names is the easiest means to liberation. The Ramayana is hailed as the foremost epic poem that was composed by Sage Valmiki celebrating Rama’s incarnation and His inimitable qualities. When the Lord manifested at the behest of the celestials as Rama in this world, the Vedas, which depict His glory, was condensed in 24,000 verses by Valmiki as the Ramayana.

In his Harikatha, Kalyanapuram Sri R.Aravamudachariar said the Divine name, Rama, was capable of conferring all that a human being needed including liberation from rebirths. Following Valmiki, Kamban composed the Ramayana in Tamil, and saints like the Azhwars, Vedanta Desika, Purandara Dasa and Thyagaraja in their profuse compositions assert that Rama nama is the panacea for all human sorrows.

Even the utterance of the Divine name enables a devotee to overcome fear. Tondaradippodi Azhwar in his hymn, Tirumalai, states, “The inmates of hell overheard the words exchanged by Yama and Mudgala, and immediately hell became heaven—such is the power of Your name.” Mudgala according to Puranic tradition was a sinner who had unintentionally uttered the Divine name. After his death when he was taken to Yama’s abode, Yama received him with honour instead of punishing him for his sins. Mudgala himself was surprised when Yama enlightened him that he deserved to be in heaven for he had uttered the Divine name.

The Azhwar notes that when the inmates in hell heard this conversation all their sins vanished, so much so, hell became transformed into heaven. This is just to reiterate that there is hope for redemption for even the vilest sinner if he chants the Divine name.

The manner in which the Ramayana was composed proves that Providence was responsible for Valmiki composing the epic. When Narada visited Valmiki it occurred to him to ask the celestial sage who was the most virtuous among men. Narada then related Rama’s life in brief to him and the events that followed led to the composition of the epic by Valmiki at the instance of the creator, Brahma.

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