Baba's Storytime - Two Syllables Remained

 

There is a story in the Classics to illustrate the worth of the name Râma. 

Sage Prachetas once composed a text with verses numbering hundred crores! The three worlds competed among themselves to take the entire text. The struggle assumed calamitous proportions and so God brought them together and persuaded them to accept a third each, that is to say, each world (Heaven, Earth and the Underworld) received thirty-three crores, thirty-three lakhs, thirty-three-thousand and three-hundred-thirty-three verses each. 

One verse remained undivided. It had thirty-two syllables in all. So, when it too was allotted among three co-sharers, at the rate of ten syllables each, two syllables were left over. How could two be divided among three? So, God decided that they be adored and received by all three worlds equally -- the syllables were 'Ra' and 'Ma', making up the priceless key to salvation: Râma!

Râma is the bee that sucks the honey of devotion from the lotus of the heart. The bee loosens the petals of the flower it sits upon; but Râma adds to its beauty and fragrance. He is like the Sun, which draws the water to itself by its rays and accumulating it as cloud, sends it back as rain to quench the thirst of earth. Râma, the mystic potent sound, is born in the navel and it rises up to the tongue and dances gladly thereon.

The Vedic declaration 'thath-thvam-asi' (That-thou-art) is enshrined in the word Râma, which consists of three sounds: 'Raa' - 'aa' and 'ma'. Of these 'Ra' is the symbol of 'Thath' (That; Brahman, God); 'Ma' is the symbol of 'Thvam' (Thou; jîvî, individual) and 'aa' that connects the two is the symbol of the identity of the two.

(From the Divine Discourses of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba)