What is the potency of the spiritual practice of Namasmarana or recitation of the divine name? As we prepare to participate in this year’s Akhanda Bhajan, Bhagawan reminds us.

Namasmarana saved Prahlada from the agony of torture. He repeated it and imbibed its nectarous taste. Even when the enraged elephant rushed towards him, he did not cry out, “O Father,” or “O Mother,” to persuade his physical parents to rescue him; he had no consciousness of their existence at all; he called on Narayana and no one else. Narayana is the source of strength for the weak and the strong; He is the supreme power; so, elephants turned back from the boy, fire could not burn even his hair; wind could not lift him; cliffs could not fell him; and poison could not affect him. The Name was his armour, his shield, his breath, his life. Anjaneya too demonstrates the might of the Name. With the Name imprinted on his heart and rolling on his tongue, he leapt across the sea; temptations called on him to halt on the way; terrors pleaded with him to turn back; but the Name urged him on and carried him forward, through space, to distant Lanka, where Sita was. He had no space in his mind for anything other than the Name of his master.