Narayana is the name of Vishnu or Hari. He is the eternal protector and sustainer. The God appearing in both Ramayana and Mahabharata is Narayana or Vishnu in the Avatara of Sri Rama and Sri Krishna.
This prayer to him by Swami Ramanuja in his Gadyatraya is most famous:
त्वमेव माता च पिता त्वमेव
त्वमेव बन्धुश्च सखा त्वमेव ।
त्वमेव विद्या द्रविणं त्वमेव
त्वमेव सर्वं मम देव देव ॥
tvameva mātā ca pitā tvameva
tvameva bandhuśca sakhā tvameva ।
tvameva vidyā draviṇaṃ tvameva
tvameva sarvaṃ mama deva deva ॥
Oh, Lord who are the God of all gods, you alone are my mother, you alone are my father;
You alone are my relative, and you alone are my friend. Indeed, you alone are my learning! You alone are my wealth! You alone are indeed my all in all!
tvam eva you alone (are)
mātā my mother
ca and
pitā my father
tvam you
eva alone
tvam eva you alone (are)
bandhuḥ relative
ca and
sakhā friend
tvam you
eva alone
tvam eva you alone (are)
vidyā learning
draviṇaṃ wealth
tvam you
eva alone
tvam eva you alone (are)
sarvaṃ everything, all in all
mama my
deva deva Oh, Lord, the God of gods!
Here we see the word mātā.
We are all familiar with these words:
mātṛ noun-root for mother. We see this in mātṛdevo bhava. But in sentences, we come across its many forms occuring as separate words!
- mātā mother (Nominative case)
- mātaram to mother (Accusative case)
- mātrā by mother (Instrumental case)
- mātre for mother (Dative case)
- mātuḥ from mother (Ablative case).
- mātuḥ belonging to mother ( Possessive case)
- mātari in mother (Locative case)
- mātaḥ oh! mother! (Vocative case)
These different forms of the same root giving different meanings are called Vibhakti-s. In fact, in every shloka, we encounter different Vibhakti-s, playing a vital role in conveying the meaning, establishing the relationship between different words, and compacting the sentence.
See below! Can we recognise the Vibhakti?
I bow down to mother (here, motherland, Bharat)! I bow down to Sanskrit!
Vande mātaram ! Vande samskṛtam !
