[Advaita-l] An interesting observation by a Vishishtādvaitin

[Kalyan]

I get your point. I was trying to understand why the purohit insisted on the name of nArAyaNa alone, among all names of vishnu, and this story came to my mind. Also see this verse from the bhagavatam in this story - 
https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/2/8


etenaiva hy aghono ’sya kṛtaṁ syād agha-niṣkṛtamyadā nārāyaṇāyeti jagāda catur-akṣaram
Translation: The Viṣṇudūtas continued: Even previously, while eating and at other times, this Ajāmila would call his son, saying, “My dear Nārāyaṇa, please come here.” Although calling the name of his son, he nevertheless uttered the four syllables nā-rā-ya-ṇa. Simply by chanting the name of Nārāyaṇa in this way, he sufficiently atoned for the sinful reactions of millions of lives.
RegardsKalyan 

    On Wednesday, July 12, 2017 11:23 AM, Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com> wrote:
 

 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>