Mahashivratri 2008

[Nuno Matos]

Namaste Sarabhanga,

Can you please tell me the meaning of the sanskrit words below?

" ॐ नमः शिवाय
ॐ नमो नारायण "

[sarabhanga]

Can you please tell me the meaning of the sanskrit words below?

ॐ नमः शिवाय
ॐ नमो नारायण

Namaste Nuno,

Well, the full meaning would take many pages to explain, but the transliteration is as follows:

AUM namaH shivAya
AUM namo nArAyaNa

[Nuno Matos]

Namaste Nuno,

Well, the full meaning would take many pages to explain, but the transliteration is as follows:

AUM namaH shivAya
AUM namo nArAyaNa

Namaste Sarabhanga,

Fell free to do so. Never the less it was what you wore doing before you went Jesus crazy.
Thank you for providing the transliteration. Maybe you could tell if there is any relation betwen the mantras and the photos.

[sarabhanga]

Namaste Nuno,

I have already given very much explanation of “AUM namaH shivAya” ~ see: http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=6 ~ and I have been waiting for a vaiSNava explanation of “AUM namo nArAyaNa” or “AUM namo nArAyaNAya”, but most vaiSNava comment on this forum has only been disparaging shaiva and shiva rather than explaining anything about their own dharma.

Personally, I don’t use “namo nArAyaNa” for meditation, but only in worship, when an image of nArAyaNa appears before me. So a deep understanding of the mantra’s implications is not my forte. But I have made many posts on the nature of nArAyaNa, especially regarding relationship of nArAyaNa and nara.

Every nAga makes himself an image of shiva (i.e. nara), and as such, in the eyes of others, he becomes an image of nArAyaNa. Every dashanAmi sannyAsin meditates on the pañcAkshara mantra, and greets every other dashanAmi sannyAsin with “namo nArAyaNa”. And a dashanAmi nAga (such as dhuna giri jI) thus becomes a veritable twin of nara and nArAyaNa.

This mysterious twin has been the subject of very many posts, and all of the two line equations that I have presented are reflected in this same mantrau (mantra twin).

And the “two birds” scenario depicts nAra and nArAyaNa and nara in various combinations.

And the post was inspired by the conclusion of the shivarAtri vrata.