How am I to know, if you are Shiva or Madhava: Thyagaraja Story

Thyagaraja said, “O lord, how can I decide who you are?! How am I to know if you are Shiva or Madhava? ‘Ra’ is the primal letter in the eight lettered Madhava mantra ‘Om Namo Narayanaya’ ” Without the ‘ra’ syllable the mantra becomes ‘nayanaya’ which means ‘chopping’ and so the mantra loses its significance. Tyagaraja further says, “In the mantra ‘Om namah Shivaya’, ‘ma’ is the primal and life letter” And its absence makes the mantra ‘om nah shivaya’ which means inauspicious. “I pay my respects to the one who knows these details. How am I to know if you are Shiva or Madhava?” In Shiva mantra ‘ma’ is the life letter and in Madhava mantra ‘ra’ is the life letter. These two letters make the word ‘RAMA’ and so Thyagaraja says that he salutes the word Rama. So there is none in this world who does not chant the Lord’s name. One thinks of God in one form or the other.