Unknown Pilgrims

SR No.: 007014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 820
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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The Unknown Pilgrims
the utterance of the Names of the five categories of parameșthins, this Namaskara-mantra, recited with faith and reverence, is so powerful that it obliterates sins and for this reason is considered the greatest mantra of all.13 The siddhas, perfected, liberated beings, have no link with mankind, nor do they accord them any favours. The same applies to the other parameşthins. The power of the mantra depends on the faith of the one who pronounces it. It is his or her desire to imitate the parameșthins which has such a profoundly salutary effect.
The Namaskāra-mantra is always associated with kāyotsarga, the temporary abandonment of all bodily activity, during which time the silent recitation of it undergirds dhyāna, mental concentration, that is, the highest degree of that interior ascesis which contributes to the purifying of the ātman from karmic matter. 14 The efficacy of the mantra depends, at one and the same time, on the fervour with which the all-holy Names are uttered and on the intensity of the effort towards concentration applied to the utterance.15 On occasions other than during kāyotsarga the ascetics and the faithful repeat the mantra very frequently. They may find a mālā (rosary) helpful, pronouncing slowly each syllable or alternatively reciting one by one the hundred and eight qualities of the parameşthins.16
13 In the opening verse of the KS, in the Āvaśyaka-niryukti. The same verse is very often recited immediately after the Namaskara-mantra:
eso pasca ņamokkāro savva-păvappaņāsaņo
mamgalāņam ca savvesim padhamaṁ havai mamgalam. Cf. also Adh IX, 25-26.
14 Cf. DravSam 47-57; Y Sas VIII, 32-42.
15 Among the many studies on this subject, cf. N. Jain, 1964; Sadhvi Rājimati, 1977.
16 For this reason the rosary contains 108 beads; cf. P 478 ff.