Kanchi Acharya Mahaperiyava Chandrashekhar Saraswati

Once during the 1940s or 50s, someone interviewed Kanchi Acharya Mahaperiyava Chandrashekhar Saraswati. They used a tape recorder for the interview. Observing this, the great thinker Maha Periyava asked: “Does anyone know about the world’s oldest tape recorder?” Periyava then asked another intriguing question: “How did the Vishnu Sahasranama reach us?” Someone replied, “It was through Bhishma Pitamaha.” Everyone agreed. Periyava followed up: “When Bhishma recited the Vishnu Sahasranama on the battlefield, who recorded it?” Silence fell. Maha Periyava explained, “When Bhishma praised Krishna by reciting the Vishnu Sahasranama, everyone, including Krishna and Vyasa, was mesmerised. They simply listened, astonished.” When Bhishma finished reciting, Yudhishthira was the first to react. He exclaimed, “Pitamaha has recited the most beautiful names of Vasudeva, but none of us wrote them down. Now we’ve even lost the sequence!” Everyone turned to Krishna for help. Krishna said, “I enjoyed listening as much as you did, but what can we do now?” The group pleaded with Krishna to retrieve the invaluable composition. Krishna revealed, “Only Sahadeva can recover it, and Vyasa will transcribe it.” Surprised, they asked, “How can Sahadeva do this?” Krishna explained, “Among us, Sahadeva alone wears a quartz crystal. If he meditates on Lord Shiva, he can retrieve the sound waves through the crystal.” Sahadeva and Vyasa sat at the spot where Bhishma had recited the Sahasranama. Sahadeva began meditating on Shiva, praying to recover the sound waves through his quartz crystal. Quartz crystals naturally capture sound waves in serene environments. By meditating on Shiva, Sahadeva transformed the crystal to retrieve the Sahasranama. Vyasa transcribed it. This is how the Vishnu Sahasranama, preserved through the world’s first “quartz tape recorder,” reached us. When Maha Periyava narrated this, everyone was stunned. Interestingly, modern hard drives and memory cards also rely on quartz or silicon (SiO₂), drawing an uncanny parallel to this ancient story. ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय नमः🙏 *How Vishnu Sahasranamam reached us*