Chapter Six: The Rasika Lineage of Rama Worship

Rāja-mārgam imaṃ viddhi Rāmoktaṃ Jānakī-kṛtam—“Know this to be the royal road: the Rama mantra spoken by Rama and made known by Janaki.”

There is further evidence. The Nirukta says, “The seers are those who see the mantras”: a seer reflects upon and propagates a mantra’s meaning. Janaki is named as the seer of the Rama mantra. The Hārīta-smṛti likewise states: Oṃ asya Śrī-Rāma-ṣaḍakṣara-mantra-rājasya Śrī Jānakī ṛṣiḥ—“For this six-syllable king of mantras of Sri Rama, Sri Janaki is the seer.” The same appears in all the ritual manuals. This too indicates that Janaki, Rama’s supreme transcendent power, received the mantra-king from Rama.

The lineage next says that Janaki instructed Hanuman. In the Śrī-Rāma-vijaya-sudhākara, the earlier teacher Sri Mathuracharya writes, Sītā-śiṣyaṃ guror gurum—“Sita’s disciple, the guru’s guru.” Hanuman is thus explicitly Janaki’s disciple.

Hanuman then taught the Rama mantra to Brahma. The Sadāśiva Saṃhitā says:

Hanuman, wholly devoted to Rama and established in that great divine manifestation, imparted there to Brahma the six-syllable king of mantras.

The Rāma-tāpanī of the Atharvaveda adds:

Those who receive the six syllables from you or from Brahma become perfected in the mantra while living; liberated, they attain me.

Rama tells Shiva: “Shankara, before our eternal manifestation, both you and Brahma received our mantra. Therefore two lineages of the Rama mantra—yours and Brahma’s—have spread upon the earth. Whoever is initiated into either lineage and practises the mantra will attain perfection while living and cross the ocean of the world.”

The mantra-king then spread on earth successively through Brahma, Vasishtha, Parashara, Vyasa, and Shukadeva. The Agastya Saṃhitā states:

Brahma gave the mantra to his son Vasishtha; Vasishtha then gave the supreme mantra to his grandson Parashara. Parashara bestowed Rama’s mantra, giver of enjoyment and liberation, upon the sage Vedavyasa: such is the succession of gurus. Through Vedavyasa’s mouth the mantra was revealed on earth, and radiant Vedavyasa taught it fully to his disciples.