Kṛshṇa-smaraṇa
Kṛshṇa-smaraṇa · kṛshṇa-smaraṇa, “the remembrance of Kṛshṇa”
Grammar: neuter noun; a compound of kṛshṇa (Śrī Kṛshṇa) and smaraṇa (remembering), from the root smṛ (to remember): “the remembrance of Kṛshṇa”. The same teaching speaks of the remembrance of Nārāyaṇa, of Vāsudeva and of Vishṇu (Nārāyaṇa-smaraṇa).
Meaning: keeping Bhagavān Vishṇu, as Kṛshṇa, Hari, Nārāyaṇa or Vāsudeva, in the mind; the Brahma Purāṇa teaches it as the prāyaścitta (the rite that removes a fault) above every other.
In the scriptures: Lomaharshaṇa, the Sūta, teaches it to the munis after describing the narakas, Raurava and the rest.
One who does pāpa and does not perform prāyaścitta goes to naraka. The great ṛshis, remembering, laid down in the smṛtis a prāyaścitta for each pāpa, great for a great pāpa and small for a small one, and Svāyambhuva Manu and others composed that section on prāyaścitta. But for all pāpas the prāyaścitta is Kṛshṇa-smaraṇa; there is nothing beyond it. Prāyaścitta means tapas: if one who has done pāpa feels remorse and remembers Hari, there is no greater means of puṇya than that, and that being reaches Nārāyaṇa.
By remembering Nārāyaṇa at dawn, through the day and night and at the sandhyā times, a man has his pāpas destroyed and reaches Nārāyaṇa. One whose mind is fixed on Vāsudeva in japa, homa and arcana attains mukti; if his mind sometimes wavers from Vishṇu and does not stay, he gains the position of Devendra and the like. “Where is going to svarga, which is marked by return? And where is the remembrance of the name of Vāsudeva, the seed of mukti?” So a person should remember Vishṇu day and night; his pāpas destroyed and purified, he never sees naraka. Svarga is what delights the mind and naraka its opposite; naraka and svarga are other names for pāpa and puṇya. One whose mind is on Vāsudeva alone is fit for sāyujya-mukti, from which there is no return (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 22).
Related terms: Smaraṇa · Prāyaścitta · Nāma · Mukti · Sāyujya · Naraka
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 22