Re: Analysis of the name 'nArAyanA' for Sri Vishnu
Namaste,
There was some recent interest again regarding nArAyaNa, sUrya nArAyaNa, rAm nArAyaNa, and even satya nArAyaNa. I see this thread best fit for expressing my view in addition to the post#3 here.
If we try to go deeper into the famed "nara, nArAyaNa, hari, krishNa" found in the purANa-s, by comparing with the mahAmantra "hare krishNa hare krishNa.." we find that hari and krishNa are common to both listing.
nara is nothing but the divine human inflated within us. So we are left with the word nArAyaNa being same as the name rAma of the mahAmantra.
Sri rAma - the superhero of rAmAyaNa, when exhausted in the war against rAvaNa, was advised to worship Sri sUrya (in Aditya stotram) in order to regain strength by tapping into His very own source (sUrya).
But do I mean then that Sri rAma was an incarnation of sUrya deva, and not vishNu?
No. karNa in the mahAbhArata was a manifestation of sUrya. But when we talk about avatAra, we say: "shri rAma was vishNu's avatAra in the mode of sUrya." We can, otherwise, find many similarities between karNa and shri rAma. But karNa wasn't an avatAra. People in the anga-pradesha even to this day remember the rule of karNa as fondly as the rest of Hindus remember the rAma-rAjya.
Now someone talked about satya-nArAyaNa pUjA. Well, this pUjA or this deity isn't attested in any traditional text or sampradAya. There has already been some research that confirms that satya-nArAyaNa is actually satya-pIra (pIra as in fakeer, sai, sUfI etc) and is a corrupt practice originating in Bengal-Orissa under Mugal influence. One can google "satya pira", or check this link. However, I am no one to pass a judgement here.
Things to remember:
1. Life = yajña
2. Depth of Āstika knowledge is directly proportional
to the richness of Sanskrit it is written in
3. Āstika = Bhārata ("east") / Ārya ("west")
4. Varṇa = tripartite division of Vedic polity
5. r = c. x²
where,
r = realisation
constant c = intelligence
variable x = bhakti
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