SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 87 - kundah.

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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 87 - kundah.

 

815. kundah – a) He Who grants the successive stages of higher

knowledge.

b) He Who cleanses the sins of His devotees.

c) He Who is pure and beautiful like the kunda

(jasmine) flower.

d) He Who bestows purity like the kunda flower to His

devotees.

e) He Who has the spear by name kunta (kuntah)

f) One who is sharp like the kunta spear in removing

the sins of His devotees (kuntah).

g) He Who gave an offering of the earth to kaSyapa

Rshi.

h) He Who eliminated the bad kshatriya kings from the

earth.

i) He Who cleanses the earth through the sun, rain,

etc.

 

Om kundAya namah.

 

As explained in the previous nAma, the word ku refers to bhUmi as

well as sin; the word kunda itself refers to the jasmine flower. The

previous nAma, kundarah, and the current nAma, kundah, are somewhat

similar. The part –dah is interpreted as dadAti – gives, dAyati –

cleanses, or dyati – eliminates, thus leading to the different

interpretations.

 

a) We had seen that the meaning "para-tattva-j~nAnam" was given by

SrI BhaTTar to the word kunda. kundah is One Who bestows this

knowledge. kundarah was also assigned the same meaning earlier. SrI

BhaTTar distinguishes the current nAma from the previous one by

referring in the current nAma, to bhagavAn's giving the para-tattva

knowledge to those that have started climbing the steps of knowledge

through self-control etc., in steps of para-bhakti, para-j~nAnam, and

ultimately parama-bhakti.

 

b) SrI BhaTTar also gives an alternate interpretation. We saw in the

previous nAma the assignment of the meaning "sin" to the word ku, and

an interpretation added by the nirukti author for the previous nAma

based on this meaning for the word ku. While we saw the

interpretation "He Who destroys the sins" for the previous nAma, the

interpretation given for the current nAma is "He Who cleanses the

sins", based on the meaning ku = pApam, and the root daip = Sodhane –

to purify; pApam dAyati Sodhayati iti kundah. He first removes the

sins from His devotee (kundarah), and then cleanses the sins so that

they do not get back to the devotee again (kundah) – pApam dArayati

iti kundarah, api ca vidAritam pApam Sodhayati iti kundah.

 

This is also one of the interpretations given by SrI vAsishTha – kum

iti pApArthakam avyayam, tad khaNDayati iti kundah; yad-vA kum =

pApam dAyati + Sodhayati iti kundah (do = avakhaNDane, daip =

Sodhana).

 

c) d) nammAzhvAr uses the nAma kunda in tiruvAimozhi pASuram 2.6.1 –

Sei kundA varum tImaigaL un aDiyArkkut tIrttu aSurarukkut tImaigaL

Sei kundA – He removes the sins of His devotees, and gives them to

the evil-doers as the phalan for their karma-s. Here, the meaning

given by the vyAkhyAna kartA-s for the word kunda is "One Who is pure

like the kunda pushpam – the pure white fragrant jasmine flower". In

tamizh, the word kunda can also be considered as standing for the

word kurundam flower – a pure white flower representing purity. So

the nAma can be understood as "One Who is pure like the kunda

flower", or "One Who bestows purity like that of the kunda flower to

His devotees".

 

SrI Sa'nkara gives several interpretations for the nAma. The first

of these is: "He Who is as pure and beautiful as the kunda flower" –

kundopama sundarA'ngatvAt svacchatayA sphaTika nirmalah kundah.

 

e) f) SrI v.v. rAmAnujan comments that the term can also be taken to

mean "One who has the spear called kunta" – (nin kaiyil vEl pORRi –

tiruppAvai). SrI uttamUr vIrarhAvAcArya svAmi also refers to this as

one possible interpretation for the occurrence of this word in

nammAzhvAr's pASuram. The nAma in this case will be "kuntah" instead

of "kundah". The meaning then could also be "One who is sharp like

the kunta spear in removing the sins of His devotees".

 

g) One of Sri Sa'nkara's alternate interpretations is: "One Who gave

an offering of "ku" or earth to kaSyapa Rshi" as indicated in the

following quote from hari vamSa:

 

sarva pApa viSuddhyartham vAjimedhena ceshTavAn |

tasmin ya~jne mahA dAne dakshiNAm bhRgu-nandanah ||

mArIcAya dadau prItah kaSyapAya vasundharAm ||

(hari vamSam 31.106)

 

"The son of bhRgu, in order to purge all his sins, performed the

horse sacrifice. In that sacrifice that required great gifts to be

given away, He, in His incarnation as the son of bhRgu, made a gift

of the earth to mArIca with great pleasure".

 

h) The third interpretation by SrI Sa'nkara is: "He Who got rid of

the kshatriya-s from the earth" – kum pRthvIm dyati khaNDayati vA

kundah. He gives the support from vishNu dharma for this

interpretation:

 

nih-kshatriyAm yaSca cakAra medinIm anekaSo bAhuvanam

tathA'nchinat |

yah kArtavIryasya sa bhArgavottamo mamAstu mA'ngalya

vivRddhaye harih || (vishNu dharma 43.37)

 

"Let Hari, the best of the bhRgu family, who made the earth free from

wicked kshatriya-s many a time, and who cut off the thousand arms of

kArtavIrya, be with me for the increase of prosperity".

 

i) SrI satya devo vAsishTha gives an additional interpretation using

the meaning "earth" for ku, and dAyati = Sodhayati for dah. He who

cleanses the earth of its impurities through rain etc. – pRthivIm

varshaNena Sodhayati iti kundah.

 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan