NAME 110

110. Amoghaḥ अमोघः

Repetitive nāma at 154.

Amogha means unerring or productive. He does not err, as He is the upholder of virtues. The one, who follows moral excellence in life, never fails. The devotees who worship Him follow only virtuous path and therefore, they do not err from the high principles of life.

This nāma also means, that worshipping Him never goes unnoticed. He rewards His devotees. How does He reward?  According to Chāndogya Upniṣad (VIII.vii.1), He causes the desire to know the Truth (satyakāmaḥ), He causes the commitment to Truth (satyasaṅkalpaḥ).  He makes His true devotees to realise Him and offer them liberation. 

who is ever united, with (Sa) Lakshmi (Maa).

Amoghah  – One who bestows grace on His devotees

Amoghah means One who always gives fruits to those who worship Him.

We have the following from the Ramayana:

“Amogham darshanam Rama na ca moghah tava stavah  |

amoghaaste bhavishyanti bhaktimantashca ye naraah      || (Ramayana Yuddha Kanda 120.31)

“O Rama! A sight of You is never futile.  The praise of You is also never futile.  Those who are endowed with devotion to You, will always be successful in their life”.

Sri Adi Sankara explains this as ‘Poojitah Stutah Samsrutah Vaa Sarvaphalam Dadaati Na Vrithaa Karoti iti Amoghah – Whether worshipped or praised or just remembered with true devotion, He gives desired fruits, does not allow it to go futile hence He is called Amoghah’.

Amoghah can also mean ‘Satya Sankalpah – all his plans will successfully materialise’.

११०. ॐ अमोघाय नमः |

110. OM Amoghāya Namaḥ

Amoghah -Moghah means “useless fellow” (Nishphalah), “a disappointing power”. Amogha is the opposite of it: “Ever Useful”, “Ever the Fulfiller” of all the wishes and demands of His devotees. Chandogya Upanishad (8-1-5) declares: “Truthful is His wish, and Truth is His resolve”.

Moghaḥ na bhavati When worshiped, praised or remembered, dowers one with the fruition of every desire. Does not let such worship etc., go in vain and hence He is Amoghaḥ.

Satyaḥ (saṃkalpaḥ) yasya saḥ His will is always unobstructed in His actions.

Chāndogyopaniṣat – Part VIII, Chapter VII

Ya ātmā’pahatapāpmā vijaro vimr̥tyurviśoko vijighatso’pipāsa ssatya kāma ssatyasaṅkalpa sso’nveṣṭa vyassa vijijñāsitavya ssa sarvāṃśca lokā nā pnoti sarvāṃśca kāmā nya stamātmāna manuvidya vijānātīti ha prajāpati ruvāca. (1)

छांदोग्योपनिषत् – अष्टम प्रपाठकः, सप्तमः खंडः

य आत्माऽपहतपाप्मा विजरो विमृत्युर्विशोको विजिघत्सोऽपिपास स्सत्य काम स्सत्यसङ्कल्प स्सोऽन्वेष्ट व्यस्स विजिज्ञासितव्य स्स सर्वांश्च लोका ना प्नोति सर्वांश्च कामा न्य स्तमात्मान मनुविद्य विजानातीति ह प्रजापति रुवाच ॥ १ ॥

The ātmā or soul which is free from sin, free from old age, free from death, free from grief, free from hunger, free from thirst, whose desires come true and whose thoughts come true – That it is which should be searched out. That it is which one should desire to understand. He who has known this Self from the scriptures and a teacher and understood It, obtains all the worlds and all desires.

ॐ अमोघाय नमः |

OM Amoghāya Namaḥ

INTERPRETATION GUIDED BY SANT VANI (WORDS OF SAINTS)

110. Amoghaḥ (also name 154)

When praised, worshiped, contemplated upon or remembered, he showers his devotees with the ‘fruition’ of every desire. He does not make their efforts go in vain. Hence he is Amoghaḥ. His will is never obstructed. His desire and Saṅkalpa are ever realized.(Śaṅkara) He whose contact is never futile. The true contact of the devotees with Bhagavan is never ever futile and never goes in vain. Those endowed with devotion to ‘him’ will always be successful.(Parāsara Battar).

The one whose worship is never in vain.

Mogha means in vain, useless. Amogha means not in vain or useless. The Lord when worshipped, praised or remembered, gives all the results desired by us. He never lets our prayers go mogha, vyṛthā, in vain. I hear a ‘but’. We may make many sanalpas. But, when they do not work, we think it is a failure. Actually we are set on a particular result, not fully appreciating that the results are never in our hands.

Let‘s say, we are expecting a job promotion. I prayed for it. It did not happen. See, Lord does not answer my prayers. A job promotion depends on so many factors – my annual performance which includes my relationships with the bosses and peers, performance of the company, current policies and guidelines for promotion, comparative performance of my peers, current economy position etc. Answer to the prayers does not always come in the way we want, when we want and how we want. There may be a change in timing, decrease/intensity in result, new variables entering the picture or even my desire for the promotion no longer as intense as before. We do not know what is good for our higher good but Bhagwan knows. Even in his not granting what we may be asking for lies His Grace and the minute our prayers are polluted by mindy asking with turn gratitude into a trade or business.

Every sankalpa of Īśvara, is a satya-sankalpa; it is converted into a reality. This entire jagat is the sankalpa of Īśvara. But, for Īśvara there is no sankalpa, which becomes a failure. Whatever is Īśvara’s sankalpa, that becomes a reality. This is often extended to wise people in our tradition. We believe that what is uttered by them comes true.

Any kind of karma done to invoke the grace of Īśvara, will definitely produce a karma-phala. If you remember Īśvara and recognize his glories, for that recognition, there is a dṛṣṭa-phala, visible result and also an adṛṣṭa-phala. When you see a flower, there is a thought of a flower. At the same time there is another thought that recognizes that the flower is nothing but the glory of Īśvara. This is Īśvara-smaraṇa. You are immediately connected to Īśvara, and this is the dṛṣṭa-phala.

When you are appreciative of Īśvara, that thought of Īśvara, connects you to Him and not to sansāra. This connection is permanent, because it is the devotee who is the basic person. It is the devotee who plays the different roles. So, it is a connection between the Lord and the devotee. It is the devotee who plays the various roles as father, son, brother, businessman, and so on, then there will be no problem. As the devotee, the responsibilities carried forward in the respective roles becomes an offering to Īśvara. And if it is to be an offering, there is no half heartedness or ‘chalta hai’ attitude.  Everything is done as an offering to the Lord without any likes or dislikes in absolute equanimity.

In a forest, the individual tree is a part of the forest. It is connected to the forest and is

interrelated with other trees in the forest. Basically, you are a devotee, who is connected to Īśvara. Your father, mother, uncle and so on, are also related to Īśvara in the same way. If the awareness of the basic person in retained, then role-playing becomes very easy, because there is space between the person and the role that he assumes. And, where there is space, there is also leisure. This space is not a physical space, but it is a space born of awareness. In a play, when a person plays the role of a suffering hero, there is space between the suffering hero and the actor. This is not a physical space.

So, the basic person is a devotee and until the awareness of the basic person is there, one will have to think of Īśvara every now and then. You see a flower and then, with another thought, you voluntarily invoke the thought of Īśvara. Even for the thought of Īśvara, there is a dṛṣṭa-phala. You are basically connected with Īśvara, never unconnected. If that connection goes, because of your non-recognition, then you are alienated from the total. Thereby you become an isolated individual.

“Imagine you were never conditioned by your parents, your teachers, by others, in school, in shrines, what would be your concept of God? Do you think you will feel attached to your present notion of God the same way? If not, would you pray the same way? How would you perceive his presence, his grace? The formless God is an important Vedic concept, this school of thought encourages a sense of oneness, of non-duality, that, everything, everyone is God, for, what has emerged from God cannot be anything short of divine either. Yogis relate their experience of samadhi, exalted state, to union with the formless.” – Om Swami

Thus, for every thought of Īśvara, there will always be a dṛṣṭa-phala, a feeling of connectedness and security. There is also an adṛṣṭa-phala. Therefore, na vṛthā karoti, na mogham karoti–He never makes our prayer or remembering Him ever go waste. That is why the Chāndogyopaniṣad speaks of Him as ‘satyakāma’ and ‘satya-sakalpa’(8.7.1).

Here, both Ācāryas see and interpret the name in similar fashion. Śaṅkara notes a specific section from the verse, 8.7.1 of the Chāndogyopaniṣad:

“सत्यकामः सत्यसंकल्पः (satyakāmaḥ satyasaṃkalpaḥ)”

The cause of desire for Truth, and seeking the Truth and always rooted in Truth and therefore Truth itself. This name dovetails perfectly with the names in this string and specifically with the name Satyaḥ – the one Truth who is Samātma (who sees every being alike and is equally disposed to all) and therefore he is Amoghaḥ.

In the Rāmayana, Rāma is extolled and praised as he whose very Darśana delivers the greatest wealth on people and particularly his devotees. The story of Shabari is an example of this.

Shabari served Rishi Matanga in his ashram near Rishyamuka Parvat. When his time to shed the mortal coils came, Shabari too wanted to join him but he instructed her to wait for the arrival of Rāma whose Darśana would give her the greatest wealth possible and she would attain to the highest state. Shabari continued her tasks at the ashram, keeping it ready for Sri Rama’s arrival. She woke up everyday, wondering if this would be the day Sri Rama would arrive. She would remove the thorns on the path so that it would not hurt his lotus feet, she would go out supporting herself on a stick and collect berries – she would taste them, keeping the sweet ones and discarding the bitter ones – so innocent was she that she did not even know that she did not even think that she should not be tasting it first. She would then spend the entire day contemplating on him and his form – she spent several years thus.

After several years when Rāma reached Rishyamukha, he walked straight to Shabari’s hut. There were several saints and sages waiting for his Darshan but the first hut he went to was Shabari’s – such is the nature of that Amoghaḥ. Shabari on seeing the divine form of that Rāma went into ecstasy and she said:

“There were so many exalted yogis waiting for your darshan, but you came to this unworthy devotee’s place first. This shows that all that matters to you is true Bhakti and nothing else – you ask for nothing and expect nothing. I do not have anything to offer other than my heart, but here are some berries. May it please you, my Lord.”

Rāma accepted the berries offered by that great saint and ate it with great pleasure because he knew what exalted a state that old woman had reached in her pure Bhakti. Shabari felt that she had reached her destination and immediately discarded her mortal coils and sublimating her self in that Universal Self – Rāma.

Shabari’s story is a metaphor for the truth that on the path to the divine, the wait is long but if one is dedicated and pure, then he will always come to shower his devotees with the ‘fruition’ of every desire. Those endowed with devotion to ‘him’ will always be successful.

The story of A Great Saint Gora Kumbhar:

Goroba (Gora Kumbhar) is said to be the contemporary of Saint Dnyandeo and Saint Namdeo. He was known to be a pious and religious minded man. He no doubt attended to his business of manufacturing earthen pots from mud; but even while attending to his work physically his mind would all the time be meditating on his favourite god Vithoba or Pandurang. He would also be chanting the name of God when his hands would be busy in work.

Goroba was a devotee of Vithoba from the bottom of his heart. He did not advise his wives outwardly. He really meant what he spoke. He was passing his days in that condition in perfect contentment. After a few days came Ashadhi Ekadashi. This is a unique day for all the devotees of Pandurang belonging to the Warkari sect.

Hence like a true Warkari, Goroba started for Pandharpur and reached that place on the Ekadashi day. He took with him both his wives. No sooner they reached Pandharpur, they took a bath in the sacred Chandrabhaga river and according to the custom paid a visit to the Pundaleek’s temple. Thereafter they came to Vithoba’s temple and bowed down to him from the main gate thereof.

While they were thus busy in paying obesiance to Pandurang they heard a song and at once recognised the voice of Saint Namdeo. Yes. It was the voice of Namdeo. He was doing Keertan at the place known as ‘Garudpar’ near the temple. When an illustrious saint like Namdeo was doing the Keertan, the audience too was of an equally high rank. Most of the saints of that time inclusive of Dnyanadeo Nivrittinath and others were listening to the Keertan attentively.

At certain stage of the Keertan, it is a practise of the Haridas (i. e. the person doing the Keertan) to request the audience to perform bhajan and keep the rhythm by clapping.

Similarly while the Keertan was in progress Namdeo requested his audience to sing Bhajan and clap. Goroba, like a true devotee, forgot that his hands were chopped off and moved the stumps of his hands emotionally because of the usual habit and lo! what a surprise ? Both his hands grew as before and he was able to sing the bhajan with the rhythm of clapping his hands. When this miracle was seen by the gathering, they were all overwhelmed with joy and they all gave a loud applause. They all were convinced of the true devotion of Goroba on God Pandurang.

🙏🏻 Hari Vitthala 🙏🏻

“Grace is his way of showing He is, it is his style of connecting with you, answering your questions, protecting you, being by your side, watching out for you. Such grace in the form of wisdom may help you to walk the noble path, in the form of blessings, it may assist you in staying course with your efforts and so on.

What does it mean when God doesn’t answer your prayer?

Grace is not always getting what you desire, it rarely is that in fact, it is being exposed to what is right for you, it is helping you overcome the hurdles, to sail through the lows and remain even through the highs. Believing in the concept of grace can instill humility in you; during massive storms, a humble blade of grass remains protected, it does not get uprooted.

Grace does not mean he can directly absolve you off your karmic duties and karmic debt. Why would he? Because you have pleased him with your fervent prayers? Can a bank manager write your loan off just because you enchant him with eulogies, with flowery words? He can give you options perhaps, he may advise you to capitalize on any possible exceptions, but not much beyond that. God is not going to stop the rain for you, he will happily give you an umbrella.

Trading and praying do not go together.

Gratitude is a form of prayer, so is compassion, being kind is praying too as is serving his creation.

Begging God is not praying to Him. A prayer in the right spirit can transform you, if your faith is firm, your prayers can yield results. That said, praying is not a substitute for the right karma, virtuous living, righteous conduct, it is not an escape route.

The easiest way to experience His grace is to be childlike, to live in the moment; watch a toddler who has just graduated out of infancy to know what I mean.” – Om Swami

https://os.me/does-prayers-change-things-how-does-god-answer