Narayana Suktam, A Translation Attempt

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Dear Bhakti Group Members,

 

This is part 2 of an effort to make translations of the pancha suktams

available on the web.

I would like to thank all of you or your encouragement and help in this

effort. Please send

me any corrections or comments you may have about this translation.

 

I would also ask your indulgence in what may be an irregularly paced

translation..

depending on of course, occasionally maddening personal schedules.

 

****

 

By way of a brief introduction :

 

The Narayana Suktam unfortunately is not as well documented or as well

criticalkly

translated as the Purusha Suktam, so I have not been able to consult as

many sources on

this to check my translations and in some cases, interpretations. I have

come across Raymundo Panikkar's translation of some verses, and these are

attributed to the Mahanarayana Upanishad. So this is definitely not a Vedic

hymn, but a later Upanishadic composition. Contrastingly some Vishnu Suktam

ymns are found in Sama, Atharva and Yajus (Vajasaneyi) samhitas, and other

parts of the Vishnu Suktam in the Tattiriya Samhita of the Yajur Veda

alone. The Purusha Suktam of course, is

undeniably early vedic, being found in the Rg Veda itself.

 

The Narayana Suktam is not cosmogonic on a grand scale like the Purusha

Suktam. The

Narayana of this suktam does not "atyatishtad dashaangulam".. instead, he

is the most

personal God, minutest of the minute ( a grand celebration of aNimaa -

atomicity )..

 

Beginnning with the invocation of Sriman Narayana as "Vishvam" in the

first verse, the

Narayana Suktam proceeds to "shrink" him, until he is minutest of the

minute. " Like a

lotus bud, the heart is suspended from sinews, and there is a smallest

cavity in it. In the

middle of that is the world-illuminating great flame, that goes in all

directions. That flame-

god, first eater, who gives all the world its food, is eternal,

omniscient.... In the middle of

that flame is HE, who is Brahma, Shiva, Hari, Indra, Greatest and Endless"

 

The Narayana Suktam is not a cosmogonical riddle like the Purusha Suktam

is, not a

celebration of "by sacrifice the Gods sacrificed to sacrifice"... It is a

worshipful chant of

adoration, and in citing comparisons in the hope of reinforcing its

message, I have chosen

similar sources.. what little I know of the sweet thamizh of the Alwars,

and sources from

Mahomahopadhyaya M. V. Ramanujacharyar's translation of the Mahabharata (the

Kumbakonam edition.) From the Mahabharatha, two sections are very relevant

here, the

Bhagavad Gita and the Vishnu Sahasranama. The latter especially has been cited

extensively both in its crystalline and scholarly Shankara Bhashyam and the

more mystic

and therefore indirect Bhattar Bhashyam. I would welcome more citations

from the readers,

depending on how this hymn speaks to you.

 

I have followed the same format as I followed for the Purusha Suktam here,

breaking

down the verses into words and following the translation with comments and

last, a

rendering ( I dare not call THAT a translation ) into free verse.

 

With my respects,

 

V Sundar