Chapter Seven: Literature of the Rasika Tradition
—influence upon sweet worship in the Ramavat tradition. Explaining the glory of the six-syllable mantra, the seer says that it carries a person across every great fear of worldly existence—gestation, birth, old age, death, and the rest—and is therefore called the liberating tāraka mantra.1
In the first section, Yajnavalkya answers Brihaspati’s questions by teaching the liberating Brahman. The second explains its form and the unity of praṇava with the tāraka. The third explains its meaning, the unity of word and referent, and the nature of worship. At the end, pleased with Shiva, Rama gives him the six-syllable mantra-king, through which Shiva perpetually distributes liberation in Kashi.
2. Śrī Viśvambhara Upaniṣad
Universally honoured among the foundational works of sweet Rama worship, this text is also considered part of the Atharvaveda. It has been published in Ayodhya with the Śrī Rāma-tattva-prakāśikā commentary.
Shandilya, a principal teacher of devotion, asks Mahashambhu:
- Who is supreme among all gods, beyond quality and absence of quality, beyond speech, mind, and intellect, and sovereign even over Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva?
- By which mantra is a living being freed from worldly existence and united with Bhagavan?
Mahashambhu replies that Rama alone transcends both Brahman with and without qualities, and that in Ayodhya he performs only the rāsa-līlā.2 Rama has innumerable mantras, but three are especially supreme:
- Rāṃ Rāmāya namaḥ.
- Śrīmad-Rāmacandra-caraṇau śaraṇaṃ prapadye; Śrīmate Rāmacandrāya namaḥ.
- Oṃ namaḥ Sītā-Rāmābhyām.
Rama is the cause of all. He has two forms: limited and unlimited. In his limited form, he dwells in Saketa amid communities of women and performs only the rāsa-līlā. His unlimited form causes the universe to arise.
From his right side appears the eight-armed Bhuma Purusha who dwells in the ocean of milk; from his left, Rama who dwells in Vaikuntha; from his heart, Para-Narayana; and from his feet, Nara-Narayana of Badarivana. From his amorous beauty arises Nandanandana Krishna. Every avatāra—