Sri Rama Raksha Stotram is a kavaca — an "armour" hymn. Its central passage (verses 4 to 9) names Rama by one deed after another from the Ramayana and asks each deed to guard one part of the body: the breaker of Shiva's bow guards the arms, the builder of the bridge guards the knees, the one who gave Vibhishana his fortune guards the feet. Verse 15 tells the story of the hymn itself — Hara (Shiva) taught it to the sage Budha Kaushika in a dream, and he wrote it down the next morning on waking. The closing verses include several that are widely recited on their own: the eight-case verse that runs the name Rāma through every Sanskrit case (37), the prayer to Hanuman beginning manojavaṃ mārutatulyavegaṃ (33), and the verse Shiva speaks to Parvati saying that one name of Rama equals the thousand names of Vishnu (38).
The full recitation, in the order it is chanted. Pick a section to begin.
41 passages in all