SrI vishNu sahasranAmam - Slokam 66 - Part 2.

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SrI vishNu sahasranAmam - Slokam 66 - Part 2.

 

 

626. vijitAtmA - a) He whose mind has been conquered (by His devotees).

b) He who has conquered His Mind.

 

Om vijitAtmane namah.

 

SrI BhaTTar has thus far interpreted the previous nAma-s 608 up to 625

in terms of His association with pirATTi. Now he proceeds to interpret

the next few nAma-s in terms of His extreme sauSIlyam (the quality of

amiability).

 

SrI BhaTTar's vyAkhyAnam for the nAma "vijitAtmA" is that bhagavAn

revels in being conquered by His devotee; this is His real nature.

When a devotee goes and bows before Him with devotion and sincerity,

bhagavAn is easily conquered by the devotee. Recall that kRshNa makes

the promise at the start of the mahAbhArata war, that He won't take to

weapons during the war. Then, in the course of the war, bhIshma, the

great devotee of kRshNa, takes a vow in front of kRshNa that he will

make kRshNa take to weapons the next day during the fighting. Everyone

including bhIshma knew kRshNa's earlier vow not to take to arms. And

yet, since His great devotee declared that he will make kRshNa take to

arms, kRshNa made that word of His devotee come true, and did exactly

as his devotee wished the next day. Such is His compassion to His

devotee, that He will even break His own promise in order to make His

devotee's words come true.

 

SrI v.v. rAmAnujan refers us to nammAzhvAr's tiruvAimozhi 1.3.1 -

pattuDai aDiyavarkku eLiyavan … ettiRam. nammAzhvAr who could sing

bhagavAn's parattvam in a clear state of mind, could not bear to

describe His soulabhyam and the troubles He went through to remain

bound to the ural (mortar), get beaten up by yaSodA, etc. AzhvAr

passed out and lost His conscience of the external world for six months

since He could not bear to think of perumAL going through all this

suffering, just to please His devotees.

 

b) SrI Samkara bhAshyam is - vijita AtmA mano yena sah vijitAtmA - He

by whom His mind has been subdued or controlled, is vijitAtmA. SrI

rAdhAkRshNa SAstri adds that bhagavAn possesses everything there is to

possess, and so He has nothing to desire, and thus He is of a mind that

is absolutely controlled. The dharma cakram writer indicates that that

meditation on this nAma of bhagavAn will lead one to better mind

control, and ultimate God-realization.

 

Note that this is one of the nAma-s that was discussed in the posting

comparing the bhAshya-s of SrI Samkara and SrI BhaTTar, where the point

was made that SrI Samkara tends to emphasize the parattvam, aiSvaryam,

etc., of Brahman, and SrI BhaTTar emphasizes the soulabhyam of perumAL

repeatedly. SrI P. B. aNNa'ngarAcArya selects all the four nAma-s

starting with the current one for his comparison of the bhAshya-s of

SrI Samkara and SrI BhaTTar to establish his point.

 

627. vidheyAtmA - a) He who is of a submissive nature (to His

devotees).

b) He who has the jIva-s as subservient to Him.

c) If a-vidheyAtmA, then He who is subservient to no one.

 

Om vidheyAtmane namah.

 

vidheya means subservient. As mentioned in the previous nAma, SrI

BhaTTar interprets the nAma in terms of bhagavAn's being subservient to

the devotee and His enjoying His subservience. Sri BhaTTar's

vyAkhyAnam is that it is bhagavAn's essential nature to be at the

disposal of His devotees to such an extent that they can easily command

Him to do whatever they want. He gives examples of "Come here, stand

here, sit here, eat this", etc. (SrI v.v. rAmAnujan refers to

periAzhvAr calling Him - pUc cUDa vA, nIrADa vA, ammam uNNAi, etc.).

SrI PBA gives the example of Sonna vaNNam Seyda perumAL. When

tirumazhiSai AzhvAr asked Him to pack up His snake bed and leave town,

He obeyed as He was told, and later when AzhvAr commanded Him to go

back when the king repented, perumAL obeyed AzhvAr's command as well.

SrI PBA also gives the example of Lord kRshNa obeying the command of

arjuna when the latter ordered Him to take the chariot and position it

in between the two armies at the start of the mahAbhArata war -

"Senayorubhayor madhye ratham sthApaya me acyuta!". SrI v.v. rAmAnujan

gives the example from peria tirumozhi 11.5.5. - vaNNak karum kuzhal

AycciyAl mottuNDu kaNNik kuRum kayiRRAl kaTTuNDAn.

 

Similar to SrI v.v. rAmAnujan's examples of "pUc cUDa vA", SrI

satyadevo vAsishTha gives the examples from the Sruti-s: "udbhudyasva,

pratijAgRhi, ishTApUrtam samsRja", etc. (udbudhyasvAgne pratijAgRhi

tavam ishTApUrte samsRjeyAmayam ca" - yajur. 15.54), ("deva savitah

prasuva, yaj'nam prasuva, yaj'na patim bhagAya" - yajur. 32.15).

 

b) SrI kRshNa datta bhAradvAj gives the interpretation - vidheyAh

-sevakA AtmAno - jIvA yasya iti vidheyAtmA - He who has the jIva-s who

are subservient to Him.

 

c) SrI Samkara in this case uses the pATham a-videhyAtmA instead of

vidheyAtmA, and gives the meaning "One who is not subservient to any

one". Using this pATham, the dharma cakram writer notes that the

requirement for one to be not subservient to anyone else, is to win

over his/her own self. When one has controlled his/her own indriya-s

and manas, then there is nothing that this person needs or wants, and

so there is no need to be subservient to anyone else. He gives a story

to illustrate the point that want is what makes people subservient to

others. Traditionally, the priests of a particular temple were

brahmacAri-s, and were devoting themselves wholeheartedly to the

worship of God. The local king tried to get them to come to His palace

and do some things according to his wish, and they refused to leave

their service to Lord. He consulted with his ministers, and the

ministers advised the king that if the king can get the priests

married, the problem of the king will go away. The king accordingly

made efforts tog et the priests married, and succeeded in this effort.

Once they got children, their materialistic needs increased, and they

voluntarily took temple prasAdam and started visiting the king, in

expectation of some material gift from him. So they automatically

became subservient to the king without his effort. So the lesson to

take from this nAma is that the key to being not subservient to another

human being is to win over oneself first - get control of one's own

indriya-s and mind.

 

SrI PBA addresses the difference between the pATha-s used by SrI

Samkara and SrI BhaTTar, and observes that the version used by SrI

BhaTTar is more appealing to a devotee since it brings out the aspect

of saulabhyam in perumAL which is in favor of His devotees.

 

628. sat-kIrtih - He of true renown.

 

Om sat-kIrtaye namah.

 

SrI BhaTTar associates bhagavAn's kIrti as resulting from His sauSIlya

- sauSIlya sattvena asya ati-mahatI kIrtih iti sat-kIrtih. SrI

BhaTTar points out that no matter how well we praise His kIrti, it is

still only an under-statement. In addition, His kIrti is all truth and

no exaggeration. SrI v.v. rAmAnujan refers to nammAzhvAr: "nigar il

pugazhAy" - He whose kIrti has no comparison.

 

SrI Samkara emphasizes the "sat" in sat-kIrtih as referring to the true

nature of His kIrti - satI- avitathA kIrtih asya iti sat-kIrtih. SrI

cinmayAnanda associates the kIrti with His being the Consort of

lakshmi.

 

The dharma cakram writer describes two kinds of fame - the fame that

comes from material wealth, official status, etc., and the fame that

comes because one follows the path of dharma. The former type of kIrti

is temporary and transient - one loses it as soon as the wealth or the

position that brought the fame are gone, and they go one day or the

other anyway. But the followers of the path of dharma - such as

dharmaputra or hariScandra - do not ever lose their kIrti; the world

praises them forever. It is the kIrti that comes out of following the

path of dharma and the worship of bhagavAn that one should follow in

order to realize sat-kIrtih, the mantra contained in this nAma.

 

SrI satyadevo vAsishTha explains that He is sat-kIrti also because it

is only by constantly worshipping Him and singing His praise that one

can attain true kIrti; all the other kIrti-s attained through any

other means will be not true kIrti. Readers may recall that SrI

satyadevo vAsishTha, in addition to giving detailed explanations of the

derivation of the nAma-s and their interpretations, has composed one

Slokam for each nAma that contains his interpretation. His Slokam for

the current nAma is:

 

vishNuh sadA sarvaguNAbhirAmah samkIrtyate svAtma tamah pramRshTyai

|

mantrair-vrataih satya-japais tapobhir nAnyas-tatah kIrtim upaiti

satyAm ||

 

629. chinna-samSayah - The Dispeller of all doubts.

 

Om chinna-samSayAya namah.

 

chinnAh samSayA bhaktAnAm yena iti chinna-samSayah (SrI kRshNa datta

bhAradvAj) - He by whom all doubts of His devotees are dispelled is

called chinna-samSayah. SrI BhaTTar comments that because of His

reputation of being endowed with extreme sauSilyam and saulabhyam, all

doubts that anyone may have about Him - such as: "Can He be easily

known or is it difficult to realize Him?", "Can He be easily pleased or

is it difficult to please Him?", "Can He be easily approached or is it

difficult to approach Him", etc. - stand easily dispelled. SrI v.v.

rAmAnujan quotes arjuna's words to kRshNa from the gItA: "None but You

(kRshNa) can possibly dispel my doubt":

 

etat me samSayam kRshNa chhettumarhasi aSeshatah |

tvat ananyah samSayasya asya chhettA na hyupapadyate || (gItA 6.39)

 

SrI cinmayAnanda points out that after Lord kRshNa gave the upadeSam to

arjuna, the later declares that all his doubts are now cleared:

 

sthito'smi gata-sandeahah karishye vacanam tava (gIta 18.73)

 

SrI Samkara gives the interpretation that bhagavAn is called

chinna-samSayah because He has no doubts of any kind Himself - He

realizes everything directly like a fruit in the palm - karatala

amalakavat sarvam sAkshAtkRtavatah kvApi samsAyo nAsti iti

chinna-samSayah. SrI satyadevo vAsishTha observes that the lack of

any doubt in bhagavAn is revealed in the flawless way He executes His

acts of creation all the way up to pralaya.

 

Note that SrI BhaTTar links his interpretation to bhagavAn's sauSIlyam,

as was pointed out in a recent comparison of the two vyAkhyAna-s.

 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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