Skip to content 
Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatham
The sonorous verses of ‘Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatham‘ ring in our ears, reminding us of the Lord and his glory, and of the wonderful state of nature at the time of dawn when all beings seem to revere the all-pervading Lord. The verse of this wonderful Suprabhatam is from Srimad Ramayanam of Adi Kavi Valmiki from the 23rd sarga.
Kausalyaa suprajaaraama poorvaa
sandhyaa pravartate
uttishtha naraSaardoola
kartavyam daivamaahnikam
“O Rama, glorious son of Kausalya! The dawn is commencing in the east. Arise O Tiger among men to perform your divine duties of the day.”
This clarion call made by Brahmarshi Viswamitra to Sri Rama in the Bala Kanda of Srimad Ramayanam has great significance as it is also a daily call to action to all humanity.
It reminds us to wake up in the morning before the sun rises, to experience the glory of the breaking dawn, and to start every day with the divine karma of Sandhyaavandanam or “Reverence of the sandhyaa”.
Suprabhatham is the first and foremost pre-down ritual performed to Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala. Priests recite the verses beginning with ‘Kausalya Supraja Ramaa Poorvaa Sandhyaa pravarthathe’.
Essential for Sanatana Dharma
This sandhyaa vandanam is a practice that has come to us from time immemorial and is an essential element of Sanatana Dharma. We certainly see this in the Ramayana as Brahmarshi Viswamitra wakes up Sri Rama and Lakshmana with great joy with those immortal words “Poorvaa sandhyaa pravartate”.
Sri Rama and Lakshmana had left the palace in Ayodhya the previous day and walked with Viswamitra along the southern banks of the river Sarayu, followed all the instructions of the great sage, and slept on the river bank during the night. Now, the great Viswamitra has the joy and privilege of waking up the two princes of Ayodhya’s dawn is about to break.
The twenty third sarga of the Bala Kanda starts with the verse –
Prabhaataayaamtu Sarvaryaam
visvaamitro mahaamunih
Abhyabhaashata kaakutsthou
Sayaanoupar na samstare ||
“At the beginning of the morning twilight, the great muni Viswamitra addressed the two princes of the Kakutstha race who were asleep on beds of leaves.” Then comes the celebrated awakening shloka of Viswamitra, “kausalyaa suprajaa raama poorvaa sandhyaa pravartate”.
Following this, Valmiki says from 23rd sarga
tasyaRsheH
paramodaaram vachaH
Srutvaanarottamou
snaatvaakRtodakouveeroujepatuH
paramamjapam
“Hearing the words of the supremely generous Rishi, the two valiant princes bathed, offered water (to the sun/dawn), and performed the supreme japam.” In other words, the princes performed ‘Sandhyaa vandanam’.
Sandhyaa vandanam
Why is Sandhyaa Vandanam given so much importance in Sanatana Dharma? We see Sandhyaa Vandanam prescribed as a must-do and see many examples of its performance in the Puranas, Mahabharata, and Ramayana. Although many people are forgetting it today, it has come down to us through practice by our ancestors over many centuries. Why is this such a timeless tradition? Is it still relevant today?
Sandhyaa vandanam as a highly practical package for physical, psychological, and spiritual growth that is certainly relevant today. It brings Sanatana Dharma’s broad and all-encompassing understanding of the universe and the goal of human life and translates it into everyday action and a way of living.
“EeSaavaasya midam sarvam” is the first Upanishadic declaration about this universe. That this universe – from millions and millions of galaxies (akhilaanDakOti brahmaanDa) to subatomic particles (aNoraNeeyaam), infinite space and time, everything moving and unmoving that exists – is imbued with an all-pervading divinity.
Our Sanatana Dharma teaches not only of the creation of the universe in the big bang but also of cycles of expansion and contraction of the universe, each cycle lasting several billion years. The Lord teaches in the Gita –
At the start of the day of Brahma (which lasts a thousand mahaayugaas or 4.32 billion years) this whole manifested universe is projected from the unmanifested and at the start of the night of Brahma (which lasts another thousand mahayugas) the manifested universe dissolves again into the unmanifested.
Sri Bhagavan goes on to tell us in the Gita –
“But beyond even that unmanifested is the ancient one who transcends both the manifested and the unmanifested and remains undestroyed even in the destruction of all the universe.”
avyakto’ksharaityuktastamaahuH paramaamgatim
yam praapya nanivartante tad dhaama paramam mama
“That One who is referred to as Avyakta and Akshara is the supreme goal. Attaining which one never returns to the cycles of creation and destruction, that is My supreme abode.”
This Divinity is said to be behind and beyond space, time, and causation – everything comes from it but is beyond all of it and cannot be captured in space and time. Today as we go into the subatomic world of quantum physics we are seeing very similar language saying we don’t know if matter is a particle or if it is a wave – we cannot say, as it depends on who is looking at it and how they are looking at it, and it can be both.
We cannot say it exists in this place or that, we cannot even say exactly where it is. We see this blurring of the subject and the object, the blurring of space and time, and that what we thought of as very concrete reality and a physical world is something so subtle.
Similarly, the Gita sings about the Divine as –
“That Divinity shines through all the sense organs and yet is devoid of all senses, sustains everything and is completely unattached, has no gunas (qualities of material nature), and is yet the enjoyer of the gunas. That Divinity is both inside and outside all beings. It is both moving and non-moving. It is not known because It is so subtle. It is very far and yet very near.
Although that Divinity is indivisible it appears to be divided into many in all the various beings. That Divinity is to be known as that which sustains all beings, destroys them, as well as creates them. That Divinity is the Light which illumines all lights and is said to be beyond all darkness. It is knowledge, it is that which is to be known, it is the goal of all knowledge, and it is present in the heart of everyone.”
Ignorance to Enlightenment
And this is the ultimate message – that the Divine is present in everyone, and realizing this Divinity is the greatest goal of human life. So, we see the human as a being with the tremendous potential to realize and experience this Divinity. And yet most of us are engrossed in our daily life of activities, thoughts, desires, and frustrations and in a state of avidya or ignorance and go through the process of life remaining in ignorance.
Sanatana Dharma teaches us that we are all capable of realizing and experiencing the Divine and reflecting the Divine in our every thought and action. It teaches us the real purpose of life is to go from ignorance to enlightenment and illumination, and that this is the true potential of human beings. And that we truly live when we tread this path that takes us from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality.
It is in this context that we appreciate sandhyaa vandanam as a first and essential step towards enlightened living. It is a wonderful practice that brings the greatest philosophy and the highest pursuit into everyday living. Daily, at the time of dawn, as the sun is about to rise, when all nature is conducive to calmness and meditation, we step back from our mundane thoughts and activities and connect with the divine wonder of this universe. We revere the dawn and the rising sun, which is one of the most inspiring manifestations of divinity.
We make a Sankalpa or a firm resolution to live this new day as yoga and a yagna. We do pranayama and go deep into ourselves to connect for a few moments with the very foundation of our being. Chanting Om, we meditate on the Divine Lord within us. We revere all the directions, the five mahabhootas (elements), the natural environment around us, all the great rishis, our Gurus, our parents, and our ancestors, and express gratitude to all.
Chanting the glorious names of the Lord, we offer all our actions and fruits to the Divine. Thus, we perform sandhyaa vandanam as “kartavyam daivamaahnikam”.
