Above all, Sankaradeva propagated Nama-Dharma as practical method to Bhakti. Nama Dharma consists in chanting The Name of The Supreme Self with undeviating devotion, being pure in heart, thought and action.
The advantage of
reciting The Name of Hari is that everybody can do it, irrespective of age, caste, stage of life, time or place.
reciting The Name of Hari is that everybody can do it, irrespective of age, caste, stage of life, time or place.
In Bhaktiratnakara, Sankaradeva says: "Bhagavan Shree Hari never shuns the Company of His Name. It is absolutely certain that Nama is Hari Himself."
Sankaradeva explains the merits of the chanting The Name of Bhagavan Shree Hari in Ajamilopakhyana (story of Ajamila).
This story taking from the Bhagavata narrates the story of a brahmana who lived in open sin with a sudra harlot and broke all laws sacred to his caste in maintaining his mistress and the ten children begotten on this woman.
At the time of his death the sinful Ajamila called his youngest son Narayana to him and because he happened to utter the name of Narayana (which is also a name of God) at the time of death, the soul of the brahmana was taken to the Abode of Shree Vishnu (Shree Vaikuntha-Loka) and not the the city of Yama.
This it clearly shows that even an unconscious recital of The Name of God brings salvation to hard sinners just as abdominal desease is cured by even unconscious swallowing of a powerful medicine.
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