Naam Ramayana 1 – How the transcendental descends as the historical

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna! So today onward we will be discussing the Naam Ramayan. Naam Ramayan is a series of 108 names of Lord Ram which convey the various major pastimes that he performed during his descent to this world. And we will discuss each name and we will consider the significance of that name and some lessons from that particular pastime.
So there will be a slide which will be displaying the names. So let’s begin. Shuddha Brahma Paratpara Rama Kaalatmaka Parameshwara Rama So Shuddha Brahma Paratpara Rama So Shuddha Brahma refers to the absolute truth.
In the Bhagavad Gita it is said that the Lord’s pastimes are best appreciated when they are seen with the eyes of philosophical understanding. janma karma chame divyam evam yo vetti tattvatah tyaktva deham punar janma naitimame tiso arjuna So janma karma chame divyam, that is a divine pastimes. And tattvatah, if we understand them in truth then we become so attracted to them that we never feel attracted to anything in this world and we ultimately return to the Lord.
So the Naam Ramayan is going to describe the names of Ram as connected with his pastimes but it begins first by telling us the philosophical truths. That he is Shuddha Brahma. He is the pure Brahma.
He is the transcendental, the divine Brahma. We are all Brahma but right now we are Brahma that is covered by illusion. Aham Brahmasmi is a valid realization.
He is completely pure, eternally pure. Shuddha Brahma Paratpara Rama Paratpara. So para is transcendental.
Paratpara is that which is transcendental to transcendence. What that means is that the Lord is the supreme transcendence. Transcendental to this world is the Brahman.
Is the non-differentiated all-pervading spiritual effulgence which is called as Brahman or Brahma Jyoti. And the Lord is that but he is not just that. He is that Brahman conveyed by Shuddha Brahma.
Now some people think that from that Brahma when the transcendence descends to this world, the transcendence takes a material form. And when transcendence comes in the mode of goodness that’s the avataras. But the Naam Ramayan refutes that right in the beginning when it says he is still Shuddha Brahma even when he descends.
And not only he is para but he is Paratpara. Paratpara means he is transcendental to transcendence. The difference between the monistic and the devotional understanding is that the monistic understanding holds that Bhagawan, the personality of Godhead emerges from Brahman as a temporary manifestation.
But the bhakti understanding is that actually the Brahman effulgence emanates from the personality of Godhead. Brahmano hi pratishtham. As Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita in 1427 that he is the support of the Brahman.
Brahmano hi pratishtham. So that is the basic idea of the Brahman effulgence. That it comes from the Supreme Lord and that Supreme Lord is in this case described as Ram.
Paratpararama. So he is pure Brahman, not the Brahman who is associated with material nature. Is he an emanation from transcendental Brahmajyoti? No, he is actually the source of that Brahmajyoti and it is the Brahmajyoti that emerges from him.
So the philosophical position is being unequivocally stressed right in the first verse. Shuddha Brahma Paratpararama. And then the next point is Kaalatmaka Parameshwararama.
Kaalatmaka Parameshwaram. So in a sense there are two names over here but they are considered to be one name. Shuddha Brahma and Paratpara can be considered to be two names.
But they are one in the sense that they are conveying one point of the utter transcendence of the Supreme Lord. Now the second name is Kaalatmaka Parameshwararama. So Parameshwar is clear.
He is the Supreme Eshwara. He is the Supreme Lord. There are many Eshwaras, even the Jiva, all of us are also Eshwaras to some extent because we all have the capacity to control.
However, beyond us all there is the Parameshwara and that Parameshwar is the all-powerful controller. So in the hierarchy of controllers there is one Supreme and this is that Supreme person. And Kaalatmaka, Kaalatmaka.
Now there is always this question of what is the nature of time. That is any philosophical circle this is a perplexing question that inevitably comes up. So Kaalatmaka Parameshwara.
So actually Kaala in the Gita’s understanding is that it is a manifestation of the divine. Kaalosmi lokakshayakritpravruddho. So Kaalosmi, time I am.
Kaalatmaka. So in a sense if we consider that Atmaka, the soul, the self, the essence. So the potency of time comes from that Supreme Lord who is Ram.
It’s like the potency of the body comes from the presence of the soul. The soul is the essence of the person. Similarly, time is getting its power because of God.
And that divine is Ram. So the idea is Ram is manifesting as time in this world and when he comes in this world personally it is not that he is created by time. All of us are created in time.
At least our bodies are created in time. At a particular point we are born and the egg and the sperm unite and then we take birth. However, that is not the case with the Supreme.
So Kaalatmaka Parameshwara Rama. So there are various ideas. There is God is not created in time.
God is not created through time. God creates through time. And God manifests in time.
But still he remains transcendental. When he manifests in time means that the divine descent is not just a historical event. It is a transcendental event manifesting through history.
It is something which is eternally happening in the spiritual world. This is the material world and this is the spiritual world. So now material world is the arena of time as we know it.
And when the divine descends into this world, he comes into the world of time. In the world time is considered to be the most powerful thing. And that power of time comes from God.
And when he manifests in this world, he doesn’t come under the power of time. He still remains eternal and transcendental. So it is transcendental manifesting as historical.
So these are the first two names which very clearly delineate philosophically the position of the Supreme Lord. So Shuddha Brahma Paratpara Rama, Kaalatmaka Parameshwara Rama, Shesha Talpa Sukha Nidrita Rama, Brahmadyamara Prarthita Rama. So then it is described Shesha Talpa Sukha Nidrita Rama.
So when the Lord descends in this world, why does he descend? So there is, there are transcendental eternal truths and from those eternal truths there are some specific truths that are manifested in this world. So that means, how does the transcendental become historical? So there is a sequence in that sequence is described. Shesha Talpa Sukha Nidrita Rama.
So this is, so there is the spiritual world where the Lord is eternally present and then he comes to the material world and the law, the manifestation of the Lord who is in charge of the material world is Vishnu. Vishnu is the name of a person but Vishnu is also a philosophical significant term. That is one who is present in every Anu of the Vishwa.
In the Vishwa, Vishwa is the universe, Anu is the atom. One who is present in every atom in the universe, one who is all pervading that is Vishnu. So that Lord Vishnu who is transcendental manifests in this world.
And when he manifests thus, what happens? When he manifests thus, wonders happen. So Shesha Talpa Sukha Nidrita Rama. There is this, so now there is a spiritual world.
Now conventionally it is thought that there is Vishnu is the source and there are Dashavataras. And that is one way of looking at it. So from the world there is praying, whenever prayers are to be offered, they are offered to Vishnu.
And Vishnu is sleeping, Sukha Nidrita, Vishnu is sleeping peacefully on the snake bed. Shesha, Shesha is Ananta Shesha. Shesha Talpa Sukha Nidrita Rama, on a bed of Shesha Sukha Nidrita, happily asleep.
So the Lord rests peacefully but when there is a disturbance he is awakened. So the idea of the Lord resting is that the Lord has arranged this world to be managed by its own systems. The world does not feature miracles in terms of the suspension of the laws of nature happening constantly.
This world is managed on its own and that is actually the expertise of management. The expertise of management is seen in how well something can be managed even without the presence of the manager. So nobody seems to be managing and everything is managed.
That is expert management. So that is how Sukha Talpa Nidrita, that means although Lord Vishnu is in charge of maintenance, it is not that constantly he has to sit in front of in a control room, taking in all signals from everywhere. Hey, fix this, fix this, fix this, fix this.
No, he has set the system and things work accordingly. However, there are times when things go wrong and when things go wrong, when especially demoniac forces become very disruptive, then he is called. So it is described that that Lord who was lying peacefully asleep on the bed of Vishnu, he was petitioned.
So while he was lying like this, he was petitioned, there is trouble in this world. And who petitioned him? Brahmaadyamara Prarthita Rama. Brahmaadya Amara.
So Amara refers to those who are immortal beings, Prarthita, that they prayed. So who are these immortal beings who prayed? As described over here, Brahmaadyamara Prarthita Rama. All these immortal beings, they prayed.
And the various devatas prayed because they could not manage the issues. The things which have to be escalated according to the level of the problem. It’s like if there is something that is not working in Apple computer.
Now it’s not that immediately the complaint goes to Steve Jobs or whoever is in charge. When Apple was looking after it. So there is a hierarchy.
And normally whenever there are disruptions, people pray to the devatas and the devatas try to deal with them. But when they can’t deal with the problems, then they have to pray to someone higher. They often consult Brahma and Brahma feels I cannot also fix it.
Then they all go to the Supreme Lord. So when the Supreme Lord is petitioned, that means the crisis is so great that it just can’t be addressed. That it is something which is beyond capacity to manage.
And that’s why they do this. They all beg to the Lord to appear. They all beg to the Lord.
So Brahmaadyamara Prarthita Rama. So when Ravana’s disruptive activities became unbearable, at that time what happened? It is that Rama was asked to appear. So the devatas all went to the place where they could all appeal to Vishnu.
And Vishnu was sleeping. He woke up. That means he decided to personally intervene because the crisis was so great that it could not be dealt with by others.
So the devatas, there is a multilevel hierarchy in the universe. We have the terrestrial, the earthly level. Then there is the celestial, the heavenly level.
And there is the transcendental or the spiritual level. So terrestrial, celestial, transcendental. So we who live in this world are called as martya.
We are mortal beings. We all die. And the devatas, as compared to us, they live much much longer and they are called as amara.
Immortal beings. So martya, amara. And beyond that, at a much higher level, there is a spiritual level of reality which is nitya.
The Supreme Lord exists at the nitya level. He exists above the devatas. And that’s why the devatas pray to him.
But when he descends, he descends to the mortal world where he acts as if, it appears as if and sometimes he acts as if he is one of the mortals. But he is not just immortal in the sense of being among, one among the gods. He is eternal being above the gods.
So in this cosmic hierarchy, the transcendental Lord was petitioned to descend to this world and he descended. So the first four verses of the Naam Ramayan, we describe the four names. They set the philosophical and historical background for describing the pastimes of Ram.
So first they say that he is eternal and then that eternal supreme transcendental being was petitioned to appear in this world and that’s how he appeared. So he appeared to fulfil the prayers of those to whom ordinary people often pray. So he is that powerful that he can fulfil the prayers of even those who normally fulfil prayers.
Such is the Supreme Lord Ram who will descend to the world.