विष्णुसहस्रनामावलिः शाङ्करभाष्यसमेता /8

IX
 
their side, which is afterwards distributed among the

village people. Sometimes some wealthy householder, in

celebrating the thread or initiation ceremony of his son,

feeds one thousand virtuous Brahmins repeating each

nama before a Brahmin. According to Niīlakantha, the

author of the glossary, if one wants to perform Puras-

charana in order to attain perfection, one should repeat it

a lakh of times within a fixed period during his lifetime.

and perform Homa in fire with ghee or payasa (milk-rice).
 

 
PRAĀNAĀYAĀMA
 

 
The utility and importance of this fundamental Yoga

practice have not been fully realised by us. Vyasa says in
āsa says in
a hymn "The Lord Vishnu himself is Yoga and the leader

of all the Yogins (SŚlo. 16), the Yogi and the Lord of the

Yogins (SŚlo. 104)". The ancients have perfected it to a

science, but it is lost to us to a considerable extent through

our own folly. It is the sacred duty of every true Aryan

to revive it. The desire for material advancement has

supplanted the yearning for spiritual progress. At present,

the yearning for Swaraj has well nigh become universal; but

the people have not yet realised that unless and until they

are healthy-physically, mentally and morally-they can

never hope to become a Nation and attain Swaraj. In

ancient times the Aryans were a very strong and powerful

race, imbued with the highest of virtues, so that the word

Arya came to connote strength, and Anarya, weakness.

(Vide Bhagavad-Gita, II, 2.) The Aryans attained and

retained unto death their bodily and mental perfection by

the simple but effective method of Pranayaānāyāma. To them

death had no horrors. Just as one throws off one's worn out

garments, even so they cast off their body by their own free

will by the power of Yoga. I have written about the
B