“Let us honour and value ( nam o) the inherent goodness in each-other ( bhagav a te), and then our relationships can start to ( ā ya aaya) dwell in the Presence of Deity ( V a sudev).”Īnd I invite you to make your own interpretations of this simple yet effective mantra – The fourth bhaga interprets our mantra thus – “Let us be committed to cultivating ( nam o) our independence from defilements ( bhagav a te), and so start building ( ā ya aaya) the support for Presence ( Vasudeva).” Or we can use the second bhaga, and our mantra can mean – “Let us be committed to cultivating ( nam o) spiritual understanding ( bhagav a te), and so move towards ( ā ya aaya) Presence of Deity as our dwelling place and resting place ( V a sudeva).”

Taking the first bhaga as an example, our mantra can mean.

ā ya (aaya) can mean - “is our Goal,” “move towards”, “start building”.

Soraya sings this as two words - V ā sudev ā ya, where the V ā sudev ā ya (Vaasudevaaya) is the dative form of the noun Vāsudeva, and it means “moving towards Vāsudeva”. Vasudeva can mean Presence that surrounds and envelopes us in the spiritual Qualities, in a protective way.Vasudeva can also mean - the support and resting place for Presence (of Deity), or.The Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata gives further description – Vasudeva can mean - Deity that we “dwell within.”.Vasudeva can mean - the Deity “dwelling within” us, or.Vasudeva is another Name for Vishnu, and the last book of the Vishnu Purana (or stories about Vishnu), chapter 5, describes Vasudeva as Deity that “dwells in all beings, and all beings dwell in Vasudeva.” Thus. The root word vās- means to dwell or abide in. V a sudev a is properly spelled Vāsudeva, and is pronounced Vaasudeva. It can also mean honouring and recognising the good qualities of each-other, and giving them renown in our speech. Nam o bhagav ate can mean devotion and commitment to cultivating … spiritual knowledge, independence from defilements, self mastery, and radiance. This leads to the following interpretation. nam o can mean our devotion, commitment to spiritual practice, and honouring it.But for those of us feel disinclined to worship the Gods of another country, we can use a different interpretation – The mantras of our Kirtan songs come from the Bhakti tradition in India, and God worship is an important feature of this Bhakti tradition.

Nam o = nama h = namas means “bow, obeisance, reverential salutation, adoration” as a word in the dictionary. (adapted from “Understanding Hinduism” by Dr DC Rao)

bhagav ā n can mean being radiant with the spiritual Qualities.

bhagav ā n can mean being valued and supported, and.

bhagav ā n can mean the inherent goodness of people,.

bhagav ā n can mean self mastery, our ability to return to the spiritual Qualities and restore them in our daily life,.

bhagav ā n can mean being unaffected by defilements,.

bhagav ā n can mean spiritual knowledge and themes,.

This suggests the following translations – The tradition has a list of six bhaga – knowledge, detachment, mastery, righteousness, renown and splendour. The word bhaga means a feature or aspect of Deity. However, we need something more concise here, something that the mind can easily grasp, something more manageable. So bhagavān can stand for all the many spiritual Qualities and Qualities of Deity that appear on this website, and many more too.

bhagav ā te can be taken as the dative form of bhagav ān, and therefore means “towards bhagavān”, or “let us move towards bhagavān”.īhagav ā n is a most useful word for Deity, for it can summarise all the myriad other Names and words for Deity used in Hinduism. This is a good mantra, and the quality of Terry and Soraya’s song pays tribute to the quality of the mantra.īhagav ā n is a most common word in the scriptures of India, occurring over 1000 times in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, also called the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the stories about Deity.

Aum namo bhagavate vasudevaya