Ananadha RaamAyaNam & Si VishNu Sahasra Naamam (1).

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends :

 

It is so delightful to learn about the eulogy of

Sri Ramachandra by Lord Siva in Anandha

RaamAyaNam (AR ) from Srimathi KrishNamAcchAri"s

posting . For a long time , I had the impression that

these were verses from Raama KarNAmrutham ,composed

by one of the peetathipathis of Kaanchi KamakOti Peetam.

He gave up his pontifical status and retired to the banks

of one of the tributaries of Cauveri river and had jeeva

samadhi with the Raama taraka nAmam on his lips

on the river bed of Veerasozhan . Now I am glad to know

that number of the verses similar to that quoted in

the Saara KhAndam of AR inspired this Rama BhakthA

( BhodEndrAL ) of recent times .

 

Sri KrishNamAchAri's comments on the first naamam of

Sri VishNu sahasra Naamam triggered a lot of thoughts .

I am happy to share them with you , while congratulating

Sri KrishNamAchAri on his pious endeavour .

 

First of all , ParAsara Bhattar's intrepretation of the NaamA ,

" Visvam " as FULL in all rspects is extraordinarily symbolic.

The sAnthi Paatam and the first manthram of IsAvAsya

Upanishad immediately springs to my mind . The sAnthi

paatam declares :

 

Om PoorNamadha: poorNamidam

poorNAth poorNamuduchyathE I

poorNasya poorNamAdhAya

poorNamEvAvasishyathe II

 

The profound statement of the Visva VyApi

( VishNu ) is celebrated by this sAnthi paatam :

 

" That is Whole ; This is Whole ; from the Whole ,

the Whole becomes manifest . From the Whole , when

the Whole is negated , what remains is again

the Whole . "

 

The poorNathvam and the SampoorNathvam

of the Visvathomukhan is saluted here echoing the first

nAmam of Sri VishNu Sahasra Naamam .

 

The half of the first manthrA of this Upanishad

goes on to dwell more about the Lord and His

universe and how He pervades them after creating them :

 

Om IsAvAsyam-Idam Sarvam

Yath kimcha JagathyAm Jagath I

 

This portion of the manthram states that " All this ,

whatsoever moves in this Universe , including

the Universe itself , is pervaded or enveloped by

the Omnipresent Lord " . The root " Vis " to enter

informs the meaning of Visvam . His poorNathvam

is celebrated thus thru the first Naamam as indicated

by Sri KrishNamAchAri . The Purusha Sooktham

portion , " sa bhoomim VISVATHO vruthvA " is another

echo from this first nAmam .

 

Many Subsequent nAmAs of VSN will elaborate on

this Visva Murthy: ( 722nd Naamam ) . He is saluted as

VisvaKarmA ( 50th Naamam ) . Visvasrut ( 240th naamam ) ,

Visva rEthA ( 89th naamam ) , Visvabhukvibhu : ( 241st nAmam) ,

Visva YOni : ( 242 & 270th nAmams ) and finally

VisvAthmA ( 227th nAmam ) . The last nAmam is the closest

in spirit to the FIRST nAmam of Visvam . Since Sri KrishNamAchAri

will be covering the meanings of these nAmAs at length

later , I will not elaborate further on them except to hint at

the connectivity in meanings associated with the First nAmam .

 

The other connection of the First nAmam is to the oldest

Vedam , Rg Vedam . We find the profoundly meaningful

word " Visvam " by itself and with suffixes and sandhis

appearing NINETY times in the different Khandams of

Rg Vedam . I will cover illustrative Rks of Rg Vedam

which start with " Visvam " in my next posting .

 

Sri Bhumi Devi SamEtha Oppiliappan

ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam .

 

Oppiliappan Kovil VaradAchAri Sadagopan