• Home
    • Buying the Music.
  • Music Meditation
  • Reading the Menu
  • Translated mantras C
    • om tare tutare ture soha
    • purnam-adah-purnam-idam
    • Rādhe Rādhe Rādhe Shyām
    • sarvesham svastir bhavatu
    • Shambho Shangkara namah Shivaya >
      • Shambhu Shankara Namah Shivaya Krishna Das meaning
      • Om Namah Shivaya Krishna Das. Lyrics, meaning, discussion.
    • shri sache maha prabhu
    • Shiva Shiva Shambho Shangkara
    • Sīta Ram Hanuman.
    • twam eva.
    • tri-ambakam yajamahe >
      • Maha Mrityeonjaya Hein Braat meaning
  • Translated mantras B
    • mangalam bhagavan Vishnu
    • namah Shivaya hare Hari om
    • om bhakta jai
    • Bhakti Heenam
    • om jaya Shiva Shambo
    • om asat oma sad gamaya
    • om mani padme hum
    • om namo bhagavate Vasudevaya
    • om namō narāyanāya
    • om namah Shivaya
    • om param eshvaraya vidmahe
    • om tat purushaya vidmahi
  • Mantras Translated A
    • amma amma taye
    • chid-ananda-rupah shivo-ham
    • The Essence of All
    • gate gate para gate
    • Gayatri om bhur bhuvah svaha
    • Govinda, Gopala Radha. >
      • Radhe Govinda Krishna Das meaning
      • sands of pleasure lyrics translation
    • hare Krishna hare Rama (a) >
      • hare Krishna hare Rama (b)
      • The Hare Krishna Sect.
    • jai Radha Madhava - Meaning.
    • je ma je Kali ma
    • Moola Mantra
  • Spiritual Practice
    • A : Introduction to Practice
    • B : Buddha's Enlightenment
    • C Meditation for Enlightenment.
    • D Self Realisation
    • E : The Ego
    • F : Discharge of DIstress
    • G : Relationships
    • I : Desire >
      • dhammacakkappavattana sutta word by word
    • J : Karma
    • K : Dissatisfaction and Anger
    • References. >
      • New Page 2
      • New Page 3
  • pronouncing the Sanskrit
    • Sanskrit Cases
  • Scriptures
    • Bhagavad Gita
    • Mandukya Upanishad word by word
    • Isha Upanishad word by word
    • Free Enquiry
    • Dhammapada
    • Satipatthana Sutta >
      • Satipatthana Sutta selections
    • Heart Sutra
    • broken buddhism
    • Good and Evil
    • Hindu Themes >
      • Principles
      • Practice
      • The Sacred
      • Practicalities
      • Purusha
  • Protecting Mother Nature.
  • Deity and Kirtan
    • God in Hinduism
    • Interpreting Deity
    • More About Shiva
  • Course in Meditation
    • Instructions During Meditation.
    • 1. All attention on sensation.
    • 2. Return and Stay With
    • 3 Letting Go.
    • 4 Cultivating and Developing.
    • 5 Making Effort
    • 6 Beauty
    • 7 Beauty of Spiritual Qualities
    • 8. Suffering
    • Traditional Terminology
  • About Mike
  • om namah Shivaya
  • Home
    • Buying the Music.
  • Music Meditation
  • Reading the Menu
  • Translated mantras C
    • om tare tutare ture soha
    • purnam-adah-purnam-idam
    • Rādhe Rādhe Rādhe Shyām
    • sarvesham svastir bhavatu
    • Shambho Shangkara namah Shivaya >
      • Shambhu Shankara Namah Shivaya Krishna Das meaning
      • Om Namah Shivaya Krishna Das. Lyrics, meaning, discussion.
    • shri sache maha prabhu
    • Shiva Shiva Shambho Shangkara
    • Sīta Ram Hanuman.
    • twam eva.
    • tri-ambakam yajamahe >
      • Maha Mrityeonjaya Hein Braat meaning
  • Translated mantras B
    • mangalam bhagavan Vishnu
    • namah Shivaya hare Hari om
    • om bhakta jai
    • Bhakti Heenam
    • om jaya Shiva Shambo
    • om asat oma sad gamaya
    • om mani padme hum
    • om namo bhagavate Vasudevaya
    • om namō narāyanāya
    • om namah Shivaya
    • om param eshvaraya vidmahe
    • om tat purushaya vidmahi
  • Mantras Translated A
    • amma amma taye
    • chid-ananda-rupah shivo-ham
    • The Essence of All
    • gate gate para gate
    • Gayatri om bhur bhuvah svaha
    • Govinda, Gopala Radha. >
      • Radhe Govinda Krishna Das meaning
      • sands of pleasure lyrics translation
    • hare Krishna hare Rama (a) >
      • hare Krishna hare Rama (b)
      • The Hare Krishna Sect.
    • jai Radha Madhava - Meaning.
    • je ma je Kali ma
    • Moola Mantra
  • Spiritual Practice
    • A : Introduction to Practice
    • B : Buddha's Enlightenment
    • C Meditation for Enlightenment.
    • D Self Realisation
    • E : The Ego
    • F : Discharge of DIstress
    • G : Relationships
    • I : Desire >
      • dhammacakkappavattana sutta word by word
    • J : Karma
    • K : Dissatisfaction and Anger
    • References. >
      • New Page 2
      • New Page 3
  • pronouncing the Sanskrit
    • Sanskrit Cases
  • Scriptures
    • Bhagavad Gita
    • Mandukya Upanishad word by word
    • Isha Upanishad word by word
    • Free Enquiry
    • Dhammapada
    • Satipatthana Sutta >
      • Satipatthana Sutta selections
    • Heart Sutra
    • broken buddhism
    • Good and Evil
    • Hindu Themes >
      • Principles
      • Practice
      • The Sacred
      • Practicalities
      • Purusha
  • Protecting Mother Nature.
  • Deity and Kirtan
    • God in Hinduism
    • Interpreting Deity
    • More About Shiva
  • Course in Meditation
    • Instructions During Meditation.
    • 1. All attention on sensation.
    • 2. Return and Stay With
    • 3 Letting Go.
    • 4 Cultivating and Developing.
    • 5 Making Effort
    • 6 Beauty
    • 7 Beauty of Spiritual Qualities
    • 8. Suffering
    • Traditional Terminology
  • About Mike
  • om namah Shivaya
  Pathway
  • Home
    • Buying the Music.
  • Music Meditation
  • Reading the Menu
  • Translated mantras C
    • om tare tutare ture soha
    • purnam-adah-purnam-idam
    • Rādhe Rādhe Rādhe Shyām
    • sarvesham svastir bhavatu
    • Shambho Shangkara namah Shivaya >
      • Shambhu Shankara Namah Shivaya Krishna Das meaning
      • Om Namah Shivaya Krishna Das. Lyrics, meaning, discussion.
    • shri sache maha prabhu
    • Shiva Shiva Shambho Shangkara
    • Sīta Ram Hanuman.
    • twam eva.
    • tri-ambakam yajamahe >
      • Maha Mrityeonjaya Hein Braat meaning
  • Translated mantras B
    • mangalam bhagavan Vishnu
    • namah Shivaya hare Hari om
    • om bhakta jai
    • Bhakti Heenam
    • om jaya Shiva Shambo
    • om asat oma sad gamaya
    • om mani padme hum
    • om namo bhagavate Vasudevaya
    • om namō narāyanāya
    • om namah Shivaya
    • om param eshvaraya vidmahe
    • om tat purushaya vidmahi
  • Mantras Translated A
    • amma amma taye
    • chid-ananda-rupah shivo-ham
    • The Essence of All
    • gate gate para gate
    • Gayatri om bhur bhuvah svaha
    • Govinda, Gopala Radha. >
      • Radhe Govinda Krishna Das meaning
      • sands of pleasure lyrics translation
    • hare Krishna hare Rama (a) >
      • hare Krishna hare Rama (b)
      • The Hare Krishna Sect.
    • jai Radha Madhava - Meaning.
    • je ma je Kali ma
    • Moola Mantra
  • Spiritual Practice
    • A : Introduction to Practice
    • B : Buddha's Enlightenment
    • C Meditation for Enlightenment.
    • D Self Realisation
    • E : The Ego
    • F : Discharge of DIstress
    • G : Relationships
    • I : Desire >
      • dhammacakkappavattana sutta word by word
    • J : Karma
    • K : Dissatisfaction and Anger
    • References. >
      • New Page 2
      • New Page 3
  • pronouncing the Sanskrit
    • Sanskrit Cases
  • Scriptures
    • Bhagavad Gita
    • Mandukya Upanishad word by word
    • Isha Upanishad word by word
    • Free Enquiry
    • Dhammapada
    • Satipatthana Sutta >
      • Satipatthana Sutta selections
    • Heart Sutra
    • broken buddhism
    • Good and Evil
    • Hindu Themes >
      • Principles
      • Practice
      • The Sacred
      • Practicalities
      • Purusha
  • Protecting Mother Nature.
  • Deity and Kirtan
    • God in Hinduism
    • Interpreting Deity
    • More About Shiva
  • Course in Meditation
    • Instructions During Meditation.
    • 1. All attention on sensation.
    • 2. Return and Stay With
    • 3 Letting Go.
    • 4 Cultivating and Developing.
    • 5 Making Effort
    • 6 Beauty
    • 7 Beauty of Spiritual Qualities
    • 8. Suffering
    • Traditional Terminology
  • About Mike
  • om namah Shivaya

Let the pinnacle of our achievements encourage and inspire us. 
Let us remember what brought us there.


om namo bhagavate Vasudevaya 

​meaning, discussion.
​
​

om      namo                         bhagavāte       Vāsudev-              āya
om      namo                         bhagavaate     Vaasudev-            aaya
            devotion to               (see below)      Deity that              is our Goal, or
            spiritual practice                               dwells within      (bestowed on us)



The Song.​

​Terry Oldfield and his wife Soraya Saraswati offer an excellent recording of this mantra on their album “Temple Moon,”  2017.  Soraya’s singing is clear,  and emphatic, and Terry uses a flute with high, clear and penetrating sound to start the song.   This draws attention to the (hidden) meaning of this mantra in a clear and definite way. 
 
You can listen to and buy this song as a single as a download on –

https://terryoldfield.bandcamp.com/track/om-namo-bhagavate


Deva Premal offers a quite different melody and song for this mantra.  Available at –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMxlPS9aK7o


​
​
The Mantra Discussed.

​This is a good mantra,  and the quality of Terry and Soraya’s song pays tribute to the quality of the mantra.
 

bhagavān  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.  bhagavāte  can be taken as the dative form of  bhagavān,  and therefore means “towards bhagavān”,  or “let us move towards bhagavān”. 
 
bhagavān  is a most useful word for Deity, for it can summarise all the myriad other Names and words for Deity used in Hinduism.  So bhagavān  can stand for all the many spiritual Qualities and Qualities of Deity that appear on this website, and many more too.  However,  we need something more concise here,  something that the mind can easily grasp,  something more manageable. 
 
The word bhaga  means a feature or aspect of Deity.  The tradition has a list of six bhaga –  knowledge, detachment, mastery, righteousness, renown and splendour.   This suggests the following translations –
  1. bhagavān  can mean spiritual knowledge and themes,
  2. bhagavān  can mean  being unaffected by defilements,
  3. bhagavān  can mean  self mastery,  our ability to return to the spiritual Qualities and restore them in our daily life,
  4. bhagavān  can mean  the inherent goodness of people,
  5. bhagavān  can mean  being valued and supported,  and
  6. bhagavān  can mean  being radiant with the spiritual Qualities..  

(adapted from “Understanding Hinduism” by Dr DC Rao)
 

namo = namah = namas  means “bow, obeisance, reverential salutation, adoration”   as a word in the dictionary.  The mantras of our Kirtan songs come from the Bhakti tradition in India,  and God worship is an important feature of this Bhakti tradition.  But for those of us feel disinclined to worship the Gods of another country, we can use a different interpretation –
 
  • namo  can mean our devotion, commitment to spiritual practice, and honouring it.  This leads to the following interpretation -
 
namo bhagavate  can mean  devotion and commitment to cultivating  … spiritual knowledge,  independence from defilements,  self mastery,   and radiance.  It can also mean honouring and recognising the good qualities of each-other, and  giving them renown in our speech. 
 
Vasudeva  is properly spelled Vāsudeva,  and is pronounced Vaasudeva.    It is the Name for Deity in our mantra.  The root word vās-  means to dwell or abide in.  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 -
 
  • Vasudeva  can mean -  the Deity “dwelling within” us,  or
  • Vasudeva  can mean  -  Deity that we “dwell within.”
 
The Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata gives further description –
 
  • Vasudeva  can also mean -   the support and resting place for Presence (of Deity),  or
  • Vasudeva  can mean  Presence that surrounds and envelopes us in the spiritual Qualities,  in a protective way. 
 
Vāsudevāya  (Vaasudevaaya)  is the dative form of the noun Vāsudeva,  and it means “moving towards Vāsudeva”.  Soraya sings this as two words - Vāsudev  āya,  where the  
 
  • āya (aaya) can mean  -  “is our Goal,”  “move towards”,  “start building”
 
Taking the first bhaga as an example,  our mantra can mean -   
 
“Let us be committed to cultivating (namo) spiritual understanding  (bhagavate), and so move towards (āya aaya) Presence of Deity as our dwelling place and resting place (Vasudeva).”
 
Or we can use the second bhaga,  and our mantra can mean –
 
“Let us be committed to cultivating (namo) our independence from defilements (bhagavate),  and so start building (āya aaya) the support for Presence (Vasudeva).”
 
The fourth bhaga interprets our mantra thus –
 
“Let us honour and value (namo)  the inherent goodness in each-other (bhagavate),  and then our relationships can start to (āya aaya) dwell in the Presence of Deity  (Vasudev).”
 
And I invite you to make your own interpretations of this simple yet effective mantra –
 
om  namo  bhagavāte      Vāsudevāya
om  namo  bhagavaate    Vaasudevaaya
 
Traditional Stories.
The religious stories are an important part of the tradition of any peoples.  In these,  the father of the historical Krishna was called Vasudeva.  Even Krishna is referred to as Vasudeva,  and Krishna is one of the two prominent Names for Deity in the home country.  Thus -
 
  • Vasudeva  can also mean “the ancestry of Deity.”


​The Dative Case Discussed.

​namo bhagavāte
​namo  Vāsudev-āya.  
 
Vāsudevāya  is the dative form of the noun  Vāsudeva.  namo Vāsudevāya  can be translated as “devotion to  Vāsudeva  (the God)”  =  “devotion directed towards  Vāsudeva”.  This suggests “moving towards  Vāsudeva” as a Goal in our spiritual practice.
 
However,  the dative case in Sanskrit has additional meaning.  The dative case also shows what we hope to gain from namo.  The dative case indicates the purpose of our namo.  So Vāsudev-āya can also mean to access the in-dwelling spirit of Vāsudeva,   or reconnect with Vāsudeva.    The dative case also indicates bestowal = sampradāna  = Divine Gift.   So Vāsudev-āya also means that Vāsudeva will be bestowed upon us,  if we persist with our namo. 
This leads to further interpretation –
 
  • namo Vāsudev-āya means devotion to spiritual practice,  so we can move towards Vāsudeva,  and access Vāsudeva,  or reconnect with Vāsudeva,  or
  • namo Vāsudev-āya  means devotion to spiritual practice,  so  Vāsudeva can be bestowed upon us.
 
bhagavāte  can be taken as the dative form of bhagavān.  So these interpretations can apply also to the expression  “namo bhagavāte” 

Accessing these beautiful and liberating Qualities of Deity,  and staying with them long enough to receive them,  is easier said than done.  What might help us in this important task? 
 
This is quite challenging.   So I prepared extensive treatises on spiritual practice, Deity in Kirtan,  and meditation training, to help us all find useful guidance to our practice and training.  With new translations of the most prominent scriptures,  revealing how the Sanskrit can provide useful material for our endeavours.   Published on this website.   
​
 
For more translated Sanskrit mantras  :
 click onto the  +  at the top of this webpage,  then click again onto the +


My introductory webpages “Mantras Translated A - C”
discuss how to gain the full benefit of these mantra writeups.   




©Copyright by Mike Browning, 2021.  You are permitted and encouraged to copy text from this webpage and use as you see fit,  provided it is not harmful to mantra-translate. 

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