Maha Periyava on who recorded Vishnu Sahasranamam

Once  way back in 1940s or 50s someone was interviewing Maha Periyavaar.

That gentleman recorded the interview using a tape recorder.

Periyavaa then posed a question.

“Does anyone know which is the oldest known tape recorder?”

Nobody was able to answer. Then Maha Periyavaa asked another question.

“How did Vishnu Sahasranamam come to us?”

Someone said Bheeshma gave it to us.

All agreed. Then Maha Periyavaa posed another query .

“When all were listening to Bheeshma on the battlefield, who took notes at Kurukshetra?”

Again silence.

Maha Periyavaar explained…

When Bheeshma was glorifying Krishna with Sahasranamam Everyone was looking at him including Krishna and Vyasa. After he finished the 1000 Namas all opened their eyes. The first to react was Yudhistirar. He said, ‘Pithamaha has chanted 1000 glorious names of Vasudeva. All of us listened but none of us have noted it down. The sequence is lost’. Then all turned to Krishna and asked for His help. As usual He said, ‘I also was listening like the rest of you. What can we do?’

Then all beseeched Krishna to help them recover the precious rendition. Then Krishna said, ‘It can only be done by Sahadeva and Vyasa will write it down.’

Everyone wanted to know how Sahadeva could do it. Krishna replied, ‘Sahadeva is the only one amongst us wearing SUTHA SPATIKAM. If he prays to Shiva and does dhyanam he can convert the SPATIKA into waves of sound and Vyasa can write it down. Then, both Sahadeva and Vyasa, sat in the same place, under Bheeshma, where he had recited the Sahasranamam. Sahadeva started the dhyanam to recover the sound waves from the Spatika.

The nature of Spatika is that it will capture sounds in a calm environment which can be got back with proper dhyanam of Maheswara who is Swethambara and SPATIKA. So, the world’s earliest tape recorder is this SPATIKA which gave us the wonderful Vishnu Sahasranama.  when Maha Periyavaar explained this all were stunned… From the Spatika recording, the grantha came to us through Vyasa.

Source- DEVOTEE EXPERIENCES

Sage of Kanchi