What is Sahasranama Archana
Sahasranama Archana is an archana of a thousand names. Sahasra means a thousand and nama means name. In an ordinary archana , the priest chants the Lord's names, most often 108 of them, offering flowers as he chants. In Sahasranama Archana he chants a thousand.
At Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple, Yadagirigutta, Sahasranama Archana is offered to Lord Lakshmi Narasimha. The temple lists it among its morning sevas, separately from the ordinary archana.
What devotees seek
The best-known hymn of a thousand names is the Vishnu Sahasranama, which the Mahabharata places in the mouth of Bhishma. The hymn's own closing verses describe what is traditionally sought from it. One who hymns the names, it says, never meets with fear, and acquires great prowess and energy; one who desires wealth succeeds in earning it; and it is traditionally said to bring knowledge, name and fame.
Like the ordinary archana, it is personal. Devotees have it done on a birthday, on their birth star, before an exam or a new venture, or in a time of worry, when fear is what they most want to lay down.
What happens
In tradition, the archana begins with a short Sanskrit statement of intent (sankalpa), in which the devotee's name, birth star and gotra are spoken before the deity. The priest then chants the thousand names, offering flowers, kumkum or tulsi with each name.
Which thousand names Yadagirigutta chants could not be confirmed: hymns of a thousand names exist for Vishnu and for Lakshmi Narasimha alike. The story of the best known of them is told in The Thousand Names from a Bed of Arrows.
What you receive
When you book through VedaJyoti, you receive a recorded video of the archana.