The word Sahasra-nāma in Sanskrit means '1000 names'. Sahasra-nāma-stotra stands for a poem or a succession of verses (shlokas,) which contain thousand names of God. The most well-known and often in use are three: Vishnu sahasranama, Shiva sahasranama, both from the Mahabharata and Lalitha sahasranama, occurring in the Brahmānda Purana. Sanskrit ( संस्कृतम्) is a classical language of India and a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. ... Vishnu The Vishnu sahasranāma (literally: thousand names of Vishnu) is a list of 1,000 names for Vishnu, one of the main forms of God in Hinduism and the only Ultimate Reality for Vaishnavites (followers of Vishnu). ... The Shiva sahasranama is the Shaiva sahasranama (list of thousand names of God), contained in the Linga Purana. ... The Mahabharata (Devanagari: महाभारत, phonetically Mahābhārata - see note), sometimes just called Bharata, is one of the two major ancient Sanskrit epics of India, the other being the Ramayana. ... A Sahasranama is a litany of one thousand names of God or Goddess. ...

Four expressions of Bhakti of modern relevance

Among the Nine Expressions of Bhakti, usually elaborated in Hindu tradition, four have contemporary relevance: namely, shravana, i.e., listening to recitals of names and glories of God, nāma-sankīrtana, i.e., reciting the names of God either set to music or not, smarana, i.e., recalling Him and His deeds and archanā, i.e., worshipping Him with ritual repetition of His names. It was Prahlada, a five-year old boy, spiritually oriented even as he was born, who taught his boyhood contemporaries the Nine Expressions of Bhakti – a concept that is most well-known in Hindu religious world. ... A Hindu (also spelt Hindoo) is an adherent of philosophies and scriptures of Hindu religion. ...

Central cord of Hindu religious worship

All the four rest on the glory of the Lord's name and the majesty of His deeds. The prop of God's names to turn the mind inward is used in every religion. In Hinduism, it is the central cord that unmistakably vibrates throughout its vast tradition, literature and culture. It is in this context Hinduism is indebted to Vyasa (pronounced Vyāsa), the author of the Mahabharata (pronounced Mahābhārata) and the whole host of Puranas and Upa-puranas for interpolating in the narrative parts of all his writings innumerable stotras (poems of praise). These have served all through the centuries as texts for recitations and repetitions of God's names and glories. Some of them are Sahasra-nāma-stotras. There are plenty of these, at least one for each deity of the Hindu pantheon. There are also innumerable smaller stotras, called ashtottara-shata-nāma stotras, which have only 108 names. These invariably constitute a daily routine in any formal worship either at home or in the temples. Basic beliefs What can be said to be common to all Hindus is the belief in Dharma (duties and obligations), Samsara (Reincarnation/rebirth), Karma (actions, leading to a cause and effect relationship), and Moksha (salvation) of every soul through a variety of paths, such as Bhakti (devotion), Karma (action) and... Rishi Ved Vyasa Vyasa (Vyāsa in IAST transliteration) an incarnation of supreme - Lord Vishnu, is an important figure in the Hindu religion and its literature. ... The Mahabharata (Devanagari: महाभारत, phonetically Mahābhārata - see note), sometimes just called Bharata, is one of the two major ancient Sanskrit epics of India, the other being the Ramayana. ... The Puranas (Sanskrit पुराण, purāṇá ancient, since they focus on ancient history of the universe) are part of Hindu Smriti; these religious scriptures discuss varied topics like devotion to God in his various aspects, traditional sciences like Ayurveda, Jyotish, cosmology, concepts like dharma, karma, reincarnation and many others. ...

Worship through a Sahasra-nāma-archanā

In many parts of India, particularly the southern, whenever any collective religious worship is planned or intended one practice is to repeat the names from a Sahasra-nāma and do flower offerings to either a temple deity or a specially invoked deity for this purpose. This is the most sanctified way in which the Sahasra-nāmas are used. Each name is taken in the dative case, prefixed by the mystic syllable AUM and suffixed by the word namah: thus, (in the case of the Vishnu-sahasra-nāma): Aum (also Om, ॐ) is the most sacred syllable in Hinduism, first coming to light in the Vedic Tradition. ... Namaste or Namaskar ( in Hindi, from Sanskrit ) is a South Asian greeting originating in India, which is used when both hello and goodbye would be used in English. ...

Aum Vishvasmai namah;

Aum Vishnave namah; ... and so on.

meaning, "Prostration to Vishvam; Prostration to Vishnu; etc."

This way all the names in the sahasra-nāma are repeated to make up 1008 prostrations to the deity. Such a regimen is called a Sahasra-nāma archanā. This method of worship is very popular both at homes and certainly in all Hindu temples.

'Lakshārchanā'

A more intensive version of the Sahasra-nāma-archanā is for several people to sit together, perform the archanā in chorus and fin ish in a prefixed time duration -- usually several days, each day for a certain number of hours --one hundred such Sahasra-nāma-archanās, counting the number of the archanās according to the multiplicity of the people who joined in the chorus. This composite programme is called a Lakshārchanā (laksha), in Sanskrit, means one hundred thousand. Note that the recital of the different participants for the several days adds up to 100,000 repetitions of God's names. We do not count the extra eight in each Sahasra-nāma archanā. There are occasions when a Koti archanā is also performed to the deity by counting up to 100 Lakshārchanās. Koti (crore, in English) is one hundred lakshas; that is, ten million. Such elaborate archanās usually mean a good deal of expense and so they are usually done in temples or public organizations which can canvass the necessary sponsorship. A crore is a unit in a traditional number system, still widely used in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. ...

See also

• Bhakti
• Names of God

Bhakti is a Tamil or Sanskrit term from Hinduism that means intense devotion expressed by action (service). ... Monotheistic faiths believe that there is a supreme being, who is necessarily unique, and the different names given to that being in different languages could in principle be translated as English God. ...

References

• Swami Krishnananda. A Short history of religious and philosophical thought in India. Divine Life Society. Sivanandanagar, 1970.
• C. Ramanujachari. The Spiritual heritage of Thiagaraja. Ramakrishna Students Home, Mylapore, Chennai, 1957.
• V. Krishnamurthy. Essentials of Hinduism. Narosa Publishing House. New Delhi, 1989.