SrI vishNu sahasranAmam- Slokam 28.

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SrI vishNu sahasranAmam - Slokam 28.

 

Vr*shAhI vr*shabho vishNur_vr*sha-parvA vr*shodarah |

vardhano vardhamAnaSca viviktah Sruti-sAgarah ||

 

Om vr*shAhiNe namah

Om vr*shabhAya namah

Om vishNave namah

Om vr*sha-parvaNe namah

Om vr*shodarAya namah

Om vardhanAya namah

Om vardhamAnAya namah

Om viviktAya namah

Om Sruti-sAgarAya namah

 

257. vr*shAhI - a) One who shines in the form of dharma.

b) One who makes His devotees shine like day because of their

dharma.

c) One who makes the day auspicious when the devotee approaches Him.

d) One who reveals dharma.

e) One who is the devatA for the vr*shAha sacrifice.

f) One who has the brightness of agni etc., or is the cause of the

brightness of all objects

 

Om vr*shAhiNe namah.

 

This nAma is interpreted differently by different vyAkhyAna-kartAs.

The nAma is composed of two words, vr*sha meaning dharma, and aha

meaning day. One interpretation is that He shines bright like day

because of His dharma. Or He makes those who adhere to dharma shine

like day. Both these are given by SrI rAdhAkr*shNa SAstri. SrI

Bhattar's interpretation is that He is vr*shAhI because the day on

which a devotee approaches the Lord, is a day of auspiciousness -

dharma, i.e., He has the day which is made auspicious because of

approaching Him. SrI Sankara's interpretation for this is vr*shah

dharmah tadeva Ahah - One who reveals dharma. An alternate

interpretation he gives is that vr*shAha refers to a ten or twleve-day

sacrifice, and He is vr*shAhI because He is the performer or enjoyer

as the devatA for the sacrifice.

 

SrI satyadevo vAsishTha gives the meaning "fire" or "agni" to the

term vr*sha based on vr*sho agnih samidhyate (r*g veda 3.27.14), and

uses ahah to mean brightness or prakASa, and so gives the meaning that

bhagavAn has the brightness of agni and so is called vr*shAhI. He

then generalizes this and says that vr*shAhI really refers to One who

has the brightness of anything that is bright, such as the Sun etc.,

or in other words, their brightness is because of Him. So is the

brightness resulting from knowledge, brightness of life because of the

jivAtmA, etc., which get their brightness from Him. He is the only

one who has svayam-prakASa.

 

258. vr*shabhah - a) He who showers (His grace).

b) He who shines because of His dharma.

 

 

Om vr*shabhAya namah.

 

varshati esha bhaktebhyah kAmAn iti vr*shabhah. He gives blessing to

His devotees and protects them from the fire of samsAra. He is also

vr*shbha because He showers all that is desired by His devotees, e.g.,

glowing health, burning devotion, etc. vr*shAtmanA bhAti - One who

shines in the form of dharma, is the explanation given by SrI

rAdhAkr*shna SAstri.

 

(dharma cakram): BhagavAn gives whatever is aspired by the beings,

according to their efforts. Of these, the real wish should be to

realize Him. All other wishes, while they will also be fulfilled by

Him for those wish these lesser desires, will only result in sorrow

after the interim pleasure is over. The desire should be "acyutA!

amarar ERE! Ayar tam kozhundE! ennum iccuvai tavira yAn pOy indira

lOkam ALum acuvai perinum vEndEn".

 

259. vishNuh - One who pervades everything.

 

Om vishNave namah.

 

This nAma occurred as nAma 2, and will re-occur as nAma 663. The

root from which this nAma is derived is vish - to pervade. SrI

BhaTTar gives the meaning that this pervasion is in the sense of

association such as between fire and smoke. Wherever there is smoke

there is fire, but when there is fire, smoke is not necessarily

present (e.g., in the case of a red-hot piece of iron). So also,

bhagavAn is there in association with His bhakta-s always, and renders

all kinds of help to His devotees as needed.

 

It was mentioned in the introductory article to this series that the

vyAkhyAna kartA-s give different interpretations to the same nAma

depending on the context. Since we are now dealing with the sequence

of nAma-s which describe the Lord's guNa of helping His devotees in

fulfilling their desired wishes, this new interpretation is given.

 

260. vr*sha-parvA - He who has provided the steps of dharma to reach

Him.

 

Om vr*sha-parvaNe namah.

 

vr*sha is dharma as has been noted before. ParvA refers to steps.

SrI BhaTTar's interpretation is that He is vr*sha-parvA because He

has revealed the steps of

varNASrama dharma as the means to attain Him. Other vyAkhyAna kartA-s

have included various steps such as j~nAna, bhakti, etc. as the steps

that He has established. These include SravaNam, mananam, kIrtanam,

sat-sangham, SraddhA, etc. These are like the steps of a ladder to

reach Him.

 

261. vr*shodarah - One who has dharma as His mid-region or belly.

 

Om vr*shodharAya namah.

 

Different interpretations are given for this nAma. One is that He is

the receiver of all the offerings through yag~na etc., and so He is

the one with the udara that receives all offerings of dharma. The

other is that creations of those who observe dharma such as Brahma

originate from His belly. The third is that this is where He keeps

all the beings at the time of pralaya, and this is where everything

originates at the time of re-creation. In this context, the meaning

"shower" is used for the word vr*sha.

 

SrI satyadevo vAsishTha continues to interpret all the previous

nAma-s and the current one using the meaning "agni" for the word

"vr*sha". Thus, He is the One who has agni in His stomach. This is

known even for humans that we have the "agni" (the acid) that digests

our food, there is agni in the centre of the earth, in the centre of

the sun, the Oceans, etc. These are reflections of the principle of

bhagavAn as vr*shodara.

 

262. vardhanah - He who nourishes.

 

Om vardhanAya namah.

 

vardhayati iti vardhanah. One who augments, increases, or nourishes.

Following up on the interpretation of the previous nAma, SrI Bhattar

interprets this nAma as One who keep the beings in His womb like a

mother and nourishes them. SrI P. B. aNNa~ngarAcArya svAmi gives the

meaning that he is vardhana because he 'grows' those who have resorted

to Him more and more (towards the spiritual path?). SrI rAdhAkr*shNa

SAstri gives the example of the offer of one handful of 'aval' - a

form of compacted rice, by His friend kucela, which was augmented so

much in return that kucela became richer than kubera. So is the

offer of patram, phalam, pushpam, toyam, etc. that we make to Him.

Thus He is vardhana because an offer of the size of an atom to Him

with devotion results in a mountain of return and protects His

devotees like a mother. The dharma cakram writer points out that

while everyone takes all the efforts to grow his body and his wealth,

the real effort should be in growing the j~nAna and bhakti, and He

helps those who are devoted to Him in this area, and so He is

vardhana.

 

263. vardhamAnah - He who grows.

 

Om vardhamAnAya namah.

 

In the previous nAma we saw that He makes things grow. In this nAma,

it is indicated that He Himself grows as a result or simultaneously.

SrI BhaTTar interprets vardhamAnah as one who grows happy as He sees

His devotees grow. Or He keeps growing in spite of His bestowing all

that anyone asks for. SrI cinmayAnanda points out that this name is

indicative of the vAmana incarnation in which He continued to grow to

cover the three worlds. SrI Sankara's interpretation is "prapa~nca

rUpeNa vadhate iti vardhamAnah - One who grows or multiplies Himself

in the form of the Universe". SrI rAdhAkr*shNa SAstri indicates that

the 'ca' at the end of vardhamAnah is because He grows at the same

fast rate at which the Universe is growing.

 

264. viviktah - He who is unique.

 

Om viviktAya namah.

 

SrI satyadevo vAsishTha gives the root vij - pr*thakbhAve to separate

or to distinguish as the etymological basis for this nAma. He gives a

simple example of a machinist who makes machines but is separate from

it. So also bhagavAn creates all the beings and keeps them in shape

and in action, but is unique and separate from them. He gives the

example of two birds in a tree, one enjoying the fruits and the other

watching and observing, which we have referred to before (dvA suparNA

sayujA sakhAyA etc. - r*g veda 1.164.20). This author (SrI

vAsishTha) has composed one Slokam of his own as the explanation for

each Slokam of sahasranAma, and I am just sharing one example here:

 

"sr*TvA jagat sarva-vidham vidhAtA svayam vivikto hyajaro'marah sah

|

sahasra-SIrshA sa sahasra-dr*shTih sa sarva-bandhuh sa pr*thak ca

dr*SyAt||

 

bhagavAn is unique in many ways. He is untouched by the effects of

action unlike His creations (nirlipta). He is unique because His

activities are extra-ordinary and superior to those of others in the

world (SrI BhaTTar). Or it may mean that He remains unique and

distinct even though He pervades the Universe as described in

previous nAma-s (SrI Sankara). He is also unique because He is

beyond our ability to be recognized by our intellect and logical

analysis alone (SrI rAdhAkr*shNa SAstri; also recall the ISAvAsya

upanishad Slokam 4 - anejadekam manaso javIyo ....).

 

The dharam cakram writer points out that this quality of being outside

of, and unaffected by, our surroundings, is the true basis of

accomplishing our mission in life viz. realizing the paramAtmA. If we

do not get swayed by the pa~nca indriya-s, then in spite of living in

the midst of all the noise and pleasures around us, we will be able to

have control of our mind and divert it to the service of mahA vishNu.

This is the significance and lesson to take from this nAma.

 

265. Sruti-sAgarah - He who is the sea where all veda-s take us.

 

Om Sruti-sAgarAya namah.

 

Srutayah sAgara iva atra nidhIyante iti SrutisAgarah. Just as the

ocean is the final destination for all the rivers, so also all the

veda-s lead us to Him, and He is thus Ocean for the Sruti-s

(Sruti-sAgarah). SrI BhaTTar refers us to SrImad bhAgavatam (2.5.15)

- nArAyaNa parA vedAh - The veda-s only speak of nArAyaNa, and to the

gItA 15.15 - vedaiSca sarvaih ahameva vedyah - "I am the only one that

is to be realized through all the veda-s".

 

-dAsan kr*shNamAcAryan