SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 74 - Part 4.

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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 74 - vasu-pra-dah.

 

698, 699. vasu-pradah - a) The Giver of Treasure (in the form of

Himself).

b) The Giver of Glory or Dignity.

c) The Bestower of moksham

d) He Who provides the place for dwelling for all beings

 

Om vasu-pradAya namah.

 

This nAma repeats itself as the next nAma also. It is also similar to

the nAma 270 in Slokam 29 (vasu-dah). The difference between nAma 270

and the current nAma is the addition of "pra" in pra-dah. This stands

for prakarsheNa - in a special way. In general, the vyAkhyAna kartA-s

have interpreted nAma 270 as referring to His bestowing any wealth in

general; the current and the next nAma are interpreted as referring

to His bestowing special wealth such as the wealth similar to that of

kubera, Himself, moksham, ever-lasting fame, etc. One could think of

nAma 270 as referring to His being the Bestower of any wealth at all

(the transient wealth etc.), and nAma-s 698 and 699 as referring to His

being the Bestower of ever-lasting wealth and the associated joy.

The vyAkhyAna-kartA-s give their interpretations such that redundancy

in the meanings is avoided, thus establishing that there is no fault of

punar-ukti (redundancy or repetition) in the composition of vyAsa just

because the nAma repeats itself - the meaning is different in each of

the occurrences.

 

vasu dhanam prakarsheNa dadAti iti vasu-pradah - One Who bestows wealth

in an eminent or superior way is vasu-pradah.

 

a) SrI BhaTTar's anubhavam for nAma 698 is that He gives the best of

wealth to the true seeker, in the form of Himself - thus He gives the

parama nidhi - the Treasure, to the true devotee. SrI BhaTTar gives

the example of bhagavAn giving Himself as a son to devaki and

vasu-deva.

 

For nAma 699, SrI BhaTTar gives the explanation that in the process of

offering Himself as their son to devaki and vasudeva, the Lord also

gave them the kIrti (vasu) of being His parents, and so He is

vasu-pradah in this sense as well. He also gave kIrti to daSaratha

when He was born as rAma - ellai il SIr daSarathan tan maganAit tOnRi

(perumAL. 10.11).

 

b) c) For nAma 698, SrI Samkara gives the interpretation that He has

this nAma because He is the true Giver of wealth even to the likes of

kubera. Even though kubera has the fame that he is the giver of

wealth, he gets his fame as giver of wealth purely by bhagavAn's

Grace. For nAma 699, SrI Samkara interprets the term wealth to

specifically refer to the best of wealths, namely moksham, and thus the

interpretation here is that He is this nAma because He is the Bestower

of the greatest of wealths, which He alone can give.

 

d) SrI satyadevo vAsishTha uses the meaning "dwelling" for vasu, and

gives the interpretation that He has the nAma vasu-pradah because He

provides Himself as the place for the existence of all beings -

vastatyasmin iti vasuh vAsastam pradadAti iti vasu-pradah. In the

next occurrence of the nAma, he interprets the nAma as "The Giver of

wealth".

 

Thus, the nAma vau-pradah has been interpreted variously as a) He Who

gives Himself to His devotees as the best of treasures that they seek;

b) The Bestower of kIrti to His devotees; c) He gives immeasurable

wealth to the likes of kubera; d) He provides the dwelling place for

all beings at the time of pralaya; e) He is the Bestower of moksham.

 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

 

 

 

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