The Dashavatara refers to the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu. Vishnu is said to descend in the form of an avatar to restore cosmic order.
Recently, I had come across this chanting and fell in love with it immediately. Below is an attempt to translate the stanzas based on my understanding of each avatar.
I am neither a Sanskrit scholar nor an English expert, so hope you understand the limitations.
Here is a link to the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNCXO2SyheQ [recommend you listen to this for phonetics]
Some background before we jump right into it ..
The Dashavatara refers to the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu. Vishnu is said to descend in the form of an avatar to restore cosmic order. The word Dashavatara is made up of daśa, meaning ‘ten’, and avatar (avatāra), means ‘incarnation’.
The order of the ancient concept of Dashavataras has been interpreted to be reflective of modern Darwinian evolution – it is the theory of evolution told as a story, written between 12,000 and 14,000 years ago. It describes the cycle of human evolution beginning in water as Matsya the fish, on to the amphibious phase (half land and water) as Koorma, the tortoise, on to begin firmly established on land as the wild boar Varaha, then Narsimha (half man–half animal), followed by Vamana, the Dwarf man, on to Parashurama, the emotionally volatile man, on to Rama, king of Ayodhya, then Krishna, a loving man, followed by Buddha, the meditative man, who is said to be succeeded by the final incarnation of Vishnu till now, and the last stage of evolution as Kalki, the Destroyer of Adharma (Kali). This is thus also a description of the evolution of consciousness. [source: wikipedia]
This stotram consists of 10 stanzas and this one repeats with each avatara.
!! ramasmarana danyopayam nahipasyamo bhavatarane, Rama Hare, Krishna Hare , thava nama vadami sada nruhare !!
Hare Rama ! Hare Krishna! Lord of universe! The chanting of your name alone other than anything in this world, gives me a sense of fulfilment ,helps me cross the sea of rebirth towards salvation . I would chant your names always.
for each Avatara :