"वने चरामो वसु चाहराम:
नदीस्तरामो न भयं स्मरामः ।"
इत्थं वदन्तोऽपि वने किराता:
मुक्तिं गता रामपदानुषङ्गात् ॥
"vanē carāmō vasu cāharāma:
nadīstarāmō na bhayaṁ smarāmaḥ |"
itthaṁ vadantō’pi vanē kirātā:
muktiṁ gatā rāmapadānuṣaṅgāt ||
A group of forest folks were wandering in their habitat once looking for items for gathering and for prey for hunting. Out of boredom, one of them called out — vanē carāmō = We are wandering in the forest! As we know, rhythmic slogans, when repeated, do relieve the monotony of activities such as walking or pushing a cart or rowing a boat.
Suddenly, a second forest man shouted out — vasu cāharāma: = we are gathering things of value! Lo, and behold, a line of verse in the meter Upajāti was born when we combine the two sentences!
Then the wanderers reached a forest stream and as they were crossing it, a third member of the forest folks then joined the sloganeering — nadīstarāmō = we are crossing the stream! Immediately the fourth KirAta chimed in — na bhayaṁ smarāmaḥ = we are not feeling any fear!
Now, the narrator, viz., the poet who created this charming verse, joins in to explain what was going on — itthaṁ vadantō’pi vanē kirātā: = in the forest some folks (the kirātā: ) were saying all this.
What happened next was: all of a sudden, Vishnu pARshada-s appeared in front of the kirātas to take them to VishNulOkam.
How come ? Our poet explains — muktiṁ gatā rāmapadānuṣaṅgāt = the forest folks attained spiritual liberation on account of their अनुषङ्गः = anushangah = close association (through chanting) with the name of Lord Rama.
We now notice that each of the sentences or slogans uttered by the forest folks ended in the holy name of Lord Rama -- rāmō or rāma:. And the ancient Indian belief in the power of chanting a mantRam, here the holy name of a Deity, to liberate humans from the cycles of birth and death is reiterated through a story centered around an enjoyable Sanskrit verse:
"वने चरामो वसु चाहराम:
नदीस्तरामो न भयं स्मरामः ।"
इत्थं वदन्तोऽपि वने किराता:
मुक्तिं गता रामपदानुषङ्गात् ॥
"vanē carāmō vasu cāharāma:
nadīstarāmō na bhayaṁ smarāmaḥ |"
itthaṁ vadantō’pi vanē kirātā:
muktiṁ gatā rāmapadānuṣaṅgāt ||
Let us take note of the very suggestive use of the word अपि in the third line: It means "yet." And the suggestion is: the chanters of the divine name were not knowledgeable in any spiritual discipline. They were kirātā: — not sagely spiritual aspirants. They were not even aware of the presence of the two syllables of the holy name in their sentences because those syllables were part of other words such as carāmō = we are wandering, smarāmaḥ = we are remembering, etc. Still the sounds raa and ma were present and that was enough for them to qualify for the supreme achievement of liberation, that is Mukti. They had done Japam, unawares.
Let us fold our palms to honor the suggestiveness = ध्वनन शक्ति = dhvanana śakti of the little word अपि = api = yet!
Notes :