Thus Spake the Divine - Unique Words of Two Children

Thus Spake the Divine

Unique Words of Two Children

Poojyasri Maha Periyava has a question to himself, “Why are the names of Hara and Govinda more significant when there are hundreds of names for Shiva and Vishnu?” He derives the answer from two Avataras. Here is what Periyava says about these two names.

There are several hundreds of names for Parameshvara (Shiva) and for Maha Vishnu. Still, at the end of any religious discourse or ceremony, the Head Priest conducting the discourse or ceremony will loudly say, “Nama: Parvati Pathaye”, all the people will jointly and loudly respond saying, “Hara Hara Mahadeva”. Or, when someone says, “Govinda Naama Sankirtanam” or “Gopika Jeevasmaranam”, the people, in turn, respond saying, “Govinda Govinda”.

I was wondering when there are several names for Parameshvara that include Shiva, Rudra and Nataraja, why people use only the prefix “Hara”. Similarly, for Maha Vishnu, who has several names Narayana, Tirumal, and Srinivasa, why do His devotees prefer to address Him only as “Govinda”? Do both these names have some special connotations?

Children’s words always possess some exclusive powers. The expression of an innocent child is equivalent to that of a learned Sage! If words of all children are deemed precious, won’t they become more precious when they are delivered by two Divine Children, Avataras of God? The two names “Hara” and “Govinda” have emanated from these Divine Children. They have ordered the world that these names should flourish as part of ‘collective recitals’ by the entire society.

Who are these two Divine Children? One is Tirujnyana Sambandhar, who was fed the Divine Milk of Parvati and is worshipped as the incarnation of Muruga. We have seen in depth the eminence of Sambandar in an earlier chapter. When He won the Anal Vadham and Punal Vadham, He praises the King and says, “In this kingdom, let the name of Hara permeate”. Sambandhar has thus directed people to collectively recite “Hara Hara”. Here are the last two lines of the verse written by Sambandhar, which highlight the name of Shiva as “Hara Hara”. “Aazhga theeyadelam / aran namame soozhga / vaiyagamum thuyar theergave’ (let evil go down; name of ‘Hara’ surround and the world be rid of sorrows).

That is why, till today, we say “Hara Hara Mahadeva” in response to “Nama: Parvati Pathaye”. We all jointly say Aro Hara to Annamalai or Dandayudapani too.

Who is the Divine Child who chanted Govinda’s name? That is none other than our Bhagavadpada. When Bhagavadpada took Sanyasam from His Guru Govinda Bhagavadpada, He developed a strong passion for the name Govinda. May be because it was His Guru’s name, which was identical with that of the Jagad Guru. Also, when Bhagavadpada was travelling in Varanasi (Kashi), he came across an old Brahman who was memorising grammar instead of searching for God. He told the Brahman that Grammar would not protect him at the time of his death and only the name of Govinda will liberate him from the worldly sorrows. Keeping that Brahman as his audience, Bhagavadpada composed Bhaja Govindam. In this, he tells the entire world to say Bhaja Govindam, which means “Say Govinda”.

As per the directive of that Divine Child, we are still reciting the name of Govinda. Though we benefit by reciting many other names of God in our personal worship, to alleviate sorrows from the world, we must as groups conjointly chant these two names viz. Hara Hara Mahadeva and Govinda, as ordained by both these Divine Children.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.