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Monday, March 2, 2015

MAHANYASAM (Stotra,40)






Mahanyasam (Stotra.40)


http://youtu.be/1_UjqNOJxxU



==

Mahanyasam ,meaning the greatest nyasa (purification) is recited to purify body,mind and soul of all the impurities.Normally it is recited before performing Rudrabhisekm of Lord shiva.

"Rudram or Shree Rudraprasannam is an excerpt from Krishna Yajur Veda. It has two parts, the Namakam and Chamakam. Both contains 11 'anuvaka' each. An 'anuvaka' is a partition (made for convinience, as I learned!)

Namakam praises Lord Rudra with 'namah' or 'namo' after many of his epithets and names (about 300 names/epithets are mentioned in Namakam) Namakam also request Lord Rudra to take a pacified form, keep his weapons pacified too and be harmless to the devotees and protect them (we pray to unstring his bow, blunt his arrows and keep them 1000 'yojana's away)

Chamakam gives a detailed list of things needed for performing various yagna (ritual sactrifices) and requests the god to bestow them unto the chanter. The repeated words 'cha me' (meaning 'and this too to me') gives the name to this part.

Now, there are many ways in which Sree Rudram can be chanted.

Ordinarily the entire namakam and chamakam can be chanted just once.

Another way is to repeat it 11 times. The entire 'namakam' is chanted once, annexed with the first anuvakam of 'chamakam'. Then the 'namakam' is chanted again, this time annexed by the second anuvakam of the 'chamakam' so on so untill the entire 'namakam' is chanted 11 times and all the 11 anuvakas of the 'chamakam' is chanted once (one with each repetation of the 'namakam') This makes what is called as a 'Rudraikadhashinee' (Rudra+ekadashinee, 'ekadasi' meaning 11)

Third is to chant the above Rudraikadhashinee itself 11 times (so namakam 121 times and chamakam 11 times) This is known as 'lagu rudram'.

11 such 'lagu rudram' makes a 'maha rudram' and 11 maha rudrams makes an 'athi rudram'.

(I also heard from a scholar that 'maha' and 'athi' Rudrams should be chanted by group of 11 people. that is 11 people chanting 11 lagu rudrams should be a maha rudram and so forth)

Now, 'nyasam' means to purify. There are many versions of it, composed of texts taken from the Veda and other later sources. All these aim at purifying the body and soul of the chanter as well as the environment. So, we first chant these 'nyasams' invoking various 'devatas' (demi-gods) to be at their designated positions and to purify and protect us from all faults and obstacles while we perform the chanting of the mantra."

https://youtu.be/BOAQc0IUzwg






FOR TEXT PLEASE SEE

http://www.hinduheritage.org/Resources/Documents/MAHANYASAM-Sanskrit-RameshNatarajan-GRD%20Iyers.pdf

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