SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 80 -Part 3.

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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 80 - mAnyah.

 

755. mAnyah – The Object of honor.

 

Om mAnyAya namah.

 

This nAma again has the same root as the previous two nAma –s: mAn –

pUjAyAm – to honor, to worship. mAnayitum yogyo mAnyah pUjanIyah iti

mAnyah – He Who is fit to be worshiped or honored is mAnyah.

 

SrI bhaTTar comments that bhagavAn is worthy of respect because of His

special relationship towards His devotees based on His affection

towards them – tadIyatvena sanmantavyo mAnyah. SrI bhaTTar gives the

example of Lord kRshNa’s concern for arjuna through the following verse

in mahAbhArata: “na sAratheh sAttvata kauravANAm kruddhasya mucyeta

raNe’dya kaScit” - “In the battle of kurukshetra today, no sAttvata or

kaurava is going to escape death because the Charioteer of arjuna is

angry”. SrI v.v. rAmAnujan refers us to nammAzhvAr’s periya

tiruvantAdi 53, where AzhvAr points to this guNa of bhagavAn: un

aDiyArkku en Seivan enrE irutti nI – You are constantly thinking of the

good that You can do to Your devotees.

 

SrI Sa’nkara’s vyAkhyAnam is that bhagavAn is worthy of being

worshipped by all because of being the SarveSvaran – sarvaih mAnanIyah

pUjanIyah sarveSvaratvAt iti mAnyah. SrI satyadevo vAsishTha points

out that rightly He is worthy of being worshipped, because it is

because of Him that everything exists and functions – ISAvAsyam idam

sarvam yat kim ca jagatyAm jagat (ISAvAsya upanishad - mantra 1). He

is the Lord, Creator and Protector of everything.

 

SrI cinmayAnanda refers us to another work of SrI Sa’nkara, viveka

cUDAmaNi, where Sa’nkara uses the term mAnyah to refer to those blessed

souls who have been able to realize the Supreme Being – dhanyah sa

mAnyo bhuvi. If the people who have realized the Supreme Being are

mAnyah or worshippable, what words can be used to describe the

worship-worthiness of the Supreme Being Himself!

 

It is noted again that SrI bhaTTar’s anubhavam of the nAma-s are

primarily oriented towards enjoying bhagavAn’s guNa-s as being

subservient to the welfare of His devotees, and SrI Samkara’s

vyAkhyAnam is primarily oriented towards bringing out His parattvam

and Supreme Rulership.

 

SrI SAstri reminds us of the idea conveyed by the three nAma-s,

a-mAnI, mAna-dah, and mAnyah: bhagavAn does not show Himself as One

Who deserves to be supremely respected and honored (a-mAnI), He

ensures that His devotees are respected (mAna-dah), and this is where

all His feeling of respectability lies (mAnyah).

 

The dharma cakram writer observes that even though bhagavAn is mAnyah

(To be worshipped), it is only His true devotees who realize this, and

it is to those that He gives the ability to overcome the lower desires,

and realize Him.

 

We will use this nAma to bring out an important point about

understanding the reason for the existence of different vyAkhyAna-s for

the same vishNu sahasra nAma stotram. One of the reasons is of course

the difference in the anubhavam-s of the different vyAkhyAna-kartA-s,

who are all great devotees of the Lord. Another reason is that the

interpreters try to interpret ancient works such as the Sruti, smRti,

itihAsa-s and purANa-s so that they can claim authority and

authenticity for their specific school of philosophy through their

interpretation of these scriptures. We will see this briefly for the

dvaita interpretation for this nAma. In the dvaita philosophy, the

view on pirATTi is: a) She is a jIva, but a higher jIva than all the

other jIva-s; b) She is vibhu, but less than vishNu in Her parattvam.

Two of the interpretations that SrI satya sandha yatirAja, one of the

AcArya-s in the dvaita lineage, gives for this nAma (mAnyah), are based

on looking at the nAma as (mA + anyah): 1. mAyA ramAyA anyA ceshTanIyA

asya iti mAnyah; and 2. mAyA ramA upalakshita jIva rASeh anyo bhinna

iti mAnyah. Both of these support the elements of their philosophy

that are given above. It is worth nothing that both SrI Sa’nakara and

SrI bhaTTar chose to use only the root mAn as the basis for their

interpretation of the nAma, and gave the meaning to the nAma as “He Who

is worthy of worship”, while the dvaita interpreter chose to see the

nAma as mA + anyah.

 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

 

 

 

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