SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 84 - tantu-vardhanah.

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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 84 - tantu-vardhanah.

 

791. tantu-vardhanah – a) He Who increases the meshes.

b) He Who augments the expansion of Himself into this

world, by protecting it.

c) He Who withdraws this world into Himself after

creating it.

d) He Who expanded the vasudva family through

pradyumna and others.

 

The word vardhanah is derived from the root vRdh – vRddhau – to

grow. So this nAma can be viewed as an extension of the previous

nAma – One who increases the meshes in the net, or One Who continues

to maintain or sustain the growth or vistAra of this universe.

 

a) SrI BhaTTar gives the vyAkhyAnam – evam papa rUcibhih amsubhiriva

samsAra-tantum santanoti iti tantu-vardhanah – "Thus, by aggravating

the taste for sin in these people (who deserve to be punished), He

strengthens the snare of samsAra as if by strong fibers." SrI

BhaTTar quotes from the following sources in support:

 

tAn aham dvishatah krUrAn samsAreshu narAdhamAn |

kshipAmyajastram aSubhAn AsurIshveva yonishu || (gItA

16.19)

 

"Those haters, cruel, the vilest and the most inauspicious of

mankind, I hurl forever into the cycles of births and deaths, into

the wombs of demons".

 

trayI-mArga samutsargam mAyAmohena te'surAh |

kAritAs-tanmayA hyAsan tathA'nye tat-pracoditAh ||

tairapyanye'pare taiSca tairapyanye pare ca te | (VP

3.18.32)

 

"The foes of God being thus induced to apostatize from the religion

of the veda-s by the enchanting power of vishNu, became in their turn

teachers of the same heresies, and perverted others; and these,

again, communicating their principles to others, by whom they were

still further disseminated, the veda-s were in a short time deserted

by the daitya race".

 

This is how bhagavAn "increased the meshes" – tantu-vardhanah.

 

b) SrI Sa'nkara's interpretation is that the nAma signifies that He

augments the web of this world, by protecting the world that He

expanded from Himself - tameva tantum vardhayati iti.

 

c) Alternatively, SrI Sa'nkara gives another interpretation – He Who

withdraws the world (at the time of pralaya) – vardhayati –

chedayati – cuts down. SrI Sa'nkara vyAkhyAnam is chedayati iti vA

tantu-vardhanah.

 

d) SrI ananta kRshNa SAstry continues on his idea d) in the

previous nAma, and interprets the nAma tantu-vardhanah as referring

to His extending the progeny of the vasudeva family through pradyumna

and others.

 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan