SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 73 - Part 3.

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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 73 - stotram, stutah.

 

686. stotram - The Eulogy Incarnate.

 

Om stotrAya namah.

 

The word stotram is derived from the root stu - to praise, through the

addition of the affix shTran, which gives the sense of instrument (i.e,

means of praise), according to pANini sUtra 3.2.182. The nAma means

that bhagavAn is stotram incarnate.

 

SrI BhaTTar's interpretation is that bhagavAn is the cause or the

instrument of the stotram or praise, because it is only by His

anugraham that the devotee praises Him. SrI BhaTTar gives the example

of child dhruva who was spell-bound when bhagavAn appeared before Him,

and could not utter even a word. Then bhagavAn gently touched dhruva's

cheek with His conch, and immediately words of praise of bhagavAn

started pouring out form dhruva's mouth. Thus, bhagavAn was the true

instrument for His praise in this case. SrI rAdhAkRshNa SAstri refers

to the following words of dhruva:

 

yo antah praviSya mam vAcam imam prasuptAm sa'njIvayatyakhila Sakti

dharah sva dhAmnA |

anyAmSca hasta caraNa SravaNa tvagAdIn prANAn namo bhagavate purushAya

tubhyam ||

 

"I worship that Lord who entered into me, gave life to my words which

were more or less dead, and with His unique Sakti, rejuvenated my

hands, legs, ears, skins, etc., and gave movement to them".

 

SrI v.v. rAmAnujan gives reference to tiruvAimozhi 10.7.5, where

nammAzhvAr echoes this same sentiment: paNNAr pADal in kavigaL yAnAit

tannait tAn pADi…, where nammAzhvAr says that bhagavAn sang His own

praise by Himself through tiruvAimozhi using nammAzhvAr as the vehicle

or means.

 

SrI Samkara's interpretation is that bhagavAn is Himself the Hymn. SrI

cinmayAnanda explains this by pointing out that when a glorious hymn,

praising His Divine Nature, is sung with full devotion and ardent

aspiration to realize Him, this praise lifts the devotee into the

experience of the Nature of Truth. Thus, the nAma (praise here) and

the nAmee are one and the same in experience. SrI rAdhAkRshNa SAstri

observes that words that praise Him are by their very nature good

words, and so they are His manifestation (Note that Lord kRshNa

declares in the gItA that all that are best in this world are but His

manifestations).

 

The dharma cakram writer explains that the great Rshi-s to whom

bhagavAn has revealed Himself, have a mind which is pure and where He

resides. When these sages reveal their experience of Him through words

to others, this becomes the mantra or the word of praise or stotram.

Thus the stotram or the mantra becomes the representation of Him. This

is what AzhvAr declares when he says "nalam tarum Sollai nAn kaNDu

koNDEn nArAyaNA ennum nAmam". One is reminded of the incident of

draupadi being saved by invoking the nAma of kRshNa which saved her

even before kRshNa could personally come and save her. In this sense,

the nAma or the stotram is even more powerful than Him.

 

SrI satyadevo vAsishTha interprets stotram in the current context to

refer to veda - stUyate anena iti stotram vedah - that by which

bhagavAn is praised, is veda. Since bhagavAn is the object of praise

of the veda-s, He is stotram Himself (vedasya pradhAna vishayatvA

brahmApi stotram).

 

687. stutah - He Who is praised.

 

Om stutAya namah.

 

SrI BhaTTar's vyAkhyAnam is that bhagavAn is called stutah because He

is praised by everyone including the nitya sUri-s for the attainment of

their respective desires. This includes the thousand-hooded AdiSesha,

garuDa who is the embodiment of the three-fold veda-s, brahma and other

gods, and also by humans being like ourselves (sahasra-phaNa

trayI-mayAdibhih anantaih brahmAdibhih, asmadAdibhiSca

tat-tad-abhilAsha siddhaye stuta iti). SrI BhaTTar gives reference to

the Sruti "dhAtA purastAt yamudAjahAra Sakrah pravidvAn

pradiSaS-catasrah" - purusha sUktam - "At first, brahma, the creator,

praised Him, then indra of great knowledge extolled Him, and then the

four directions". The reference to the four directions indicates that

He is the Object of praise by all beings like ourselves. SrI v.v.

rAmAnujan gives reference to nammAzhvAr's tiruvAimozhi 3.3.5, which

conveys this idea - "SodiyAgi ellA ulagum tozhum Adi mUrti enRAl

aLavAgumO?".

 

SrI Samkara pATham for this nAma is stuthih - the act of praise. SrI

rAdhAkRshNa SAstri observes that with SrI Samkara's version, the

previous nAma refers to the words of praise, and the current nAma will

refer to the act of praise. With SrI BhaTTar's version (stutah), the

previous nAma says that He is the instrument for His praise (including

the words and the acts), and the current nAma indicates that He is the

object of these words and acts of praise. The dharma cakram writer

notes that it is only when we have a mind that is clean, and is

occupied by Him, that meaningful and proper stuti comes out through our

words. It is then that the greatness of bhagavAn takes shape in the

form of words and comes out as stuti. Thus, it is He who causes the

stuti to occur, and hence He is called stutih.

 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

 

 

 

 

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