They have helped me in 2001

These are contents of a mail I wrote to myself on 9/11/01. That is, just a few months after one of the most crisis ridden periods of my life. I had already noted earlier, how VSN helped me then. Hope the wonder works this time too!

1) Aapadam - is a good booster of spirits. I recite it first, to reaffirm the allpowerful nature of the Soul. One who believes in It will be no more affected by accidents, even the mere thought of Its infinite, eternal, allpowerful nature would deliver a person from all rogas whatsoever(mental and physical). The prayer is a good method to start the aatma-sadhana.

2) the VSN has a multitude of underlying concepts..as one continues with the prayer daily, one will get to know the deeper meanings residing in the stotra. Many of the underlying concepts have been expanded in later hinduism, so there's a certain amount of historical content in it as well. As one recites in the beginning, this stotra is seen by rishi Vyasa, of the guru parampara of Vasishta, Sakthih and Parashara. The stotra begins by advising us to see God in the Guru - meditate on Vyasa as the swaroopa of Vishnu(brahman itself, and on Vishnu as the swaroopa of Vyasa himself. In this glorious note, the meditation of 'yasya smarana matrena janmasamsarabandhanaat vimuchyate' is to be commenced. And how is It to be understood?

It is the 'samastabhuutanam aadibhuutaya bhuubhrteh, who is present before us as anekaruuparuupaya'. It is equally present in all beings, and the originator and controller of all.

So the stotra is the means to see the infinite self present in all our hearts, as eternal and unquenchable, which has manifested in such forms as are mentioned in the thousand names mentioned later. To borrow a few lines from Swami Vivekananda, the self is everything, ready to do everything, the self can do everything and the self does everything. Thus let us pray to the Infinite Self present in all of us.

3) Now we come to the holy Gayatri mantra. we recite it, with our spirits uplifted with faith in the Self, faith affirmed by the japam of aapadam and VSN. In the Gayatri, we pray to the eternal self to uplift our minds - to realise more of his infinite glory in this material world.