SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 89 - a-cintyah.

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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 89 - a-cintyah.

 

836. a-cintyah – a) He Who is incomparable to anything known.

b) He Whose power cannot be imagined.

c) He Who cannot be completely comprehended in our minds.

 

Om a-cintyAya namah.

 

SrI satyadevo vAsishTha gives the root involved in the nAma as cit –

samj~nAne – to notice, to understand. He Who cannot be described as

such and such, is a-cintyah; Or, He Who cannot be comprehended

completely in our mind is a-cintyah. cintayitum – iyattayA

paryavasitum Sakyah cintyah; na cityah a-cintyah; manaso'pi

agocarah. There are many other ways to enjoy this nAma – He Whose

leelA-s are incomprehensible, He Whose power cannot be imagined, etc.

 

a) SrI BhaTTar's interpretation is that the nAma indicates that He is

beyond comparison with anyone or anything. vaLLuvar declares that

bhagavAn is "tanakku uvamai allAdAn".

 

The Sruti attempts to describe Him - the chAndogya Upanishad declares

that bhagavAn is "golden-colored, with golden colored moustache, eyes

resembling the just-blossomed lotus" - ya eshontarAditye hiraNmayah

purushah dRSyate, hiraNmayah smaSruh, hiraNya keSa apraNakhAt sarva

eva suvarNah; tasya yahtA kapyAsam puNDarIkamevam akshiNI – He is

in the middle of the sun, with golden hue, golden mustache, golden

hair, eyes resembling the just-bloomed lotus, etc. But the Sruti

also declares that He is beyond words and beyond mind – yato vAco

nivartante, aprApaya manasA saha (taitt. upa.). nammAzhvAr conveys

the two ideas together in his tiruvAimozhi pASuram 1.3.2:

 

kaTTuraikkil tAmarai nin kaN pAdam kai ovvA

SuTTuraitta nan pon un tirumEni oLi ovvAdu

oTTuraittu iv-ulagu unnaip pugazhvellAm perumpAlum

paTTuraiyAip puRkenRE kATTumAl param jotI! (tiruvAi. 1.3.2)

 

"O Supreme Effulgence! You are to be merely enjoyed. Any attempt at

verbal description of You is futile, especially if one compares You

with familiar objects that are not even remotely comparable to You in

any respect. With beautiful eyes, feet and arms, to all of which

lotus is but a poor simile, with a dazzling stature to which pure

unalloyed gold is a poor comparison, You are often being pictured

by the world with words that do You no justice. Any comparison of

You to the worldly things is just a failed attempt to describe You".

 

It is like some commoner who has never seen a precious stone,

describing that precious stone as "something resembling a pebble".

nammAzhvAr proceeds in the very next pASuram to declare that even

after describing His greatness by the words "param jyoti – The

Supreme Effulgence", if one proceeds to describe His auspicious

qualities – His simplicity, His sauSIlyam and His saulabhyam, there

is no word that we have that can describe these aspects of bhagavAn.

AzhvAr exclaims: "param jyoti! govindA! PaNbu uraikka mATTEnE" – "I

won't even attempt to describe Your auspicious qualities". So,

bhagavAn is a-cintyah in every sense of the word., especially when it

comes to His auspicious qualities. He is "govindA" – Who can mingle

with even cows. nammAzhvAr laments at the unimaginable behavior of

this emperumAn who is sarva lokeSvaran, who subjects Himself to the

insult of being called the "butter thief" – ne'njAl ninaippu aridAl

veNNey UN ennum Enac-collE (tiruviruttam 98). SrI rAmAnujan refers

to a tiruvAimozhi pASuram by nammAzhvAr that nicely explains the nAma

a-cintyah:

 

mAyan en ne'njil uLLAn maRRum yavarkkum ahdE

kAyamum Seevanum tAnE kAlum eriyum avanE

Seyan aNiyan yavarkkum Sindaiyum gocaram allan

tUyan tuyakkan mayakkan ennudait tOL iNaiyAnE (tiruvAi.

1.9.6)

 

The following explanation of the above pASuram is partly drawn from

SrImad tirukkuDanthai ANDavan's bhagavad vishaya sAram, and is my

poor attempt at capturing my great AcArya's thoughts:

 

"He is our body, and He is also the soul of our body; He is the soul

of the pa'nca mahA bhUta-s (air, water, etc.)., He is aNiyan – very

easily accessible to His devotees; He is also SEyan – inaccessible

to those who do not surrender to Him; yAvarkkum Sindaikkum gocaran

allan – a-cintyan – He is beyond the reach of the mental capabilities

of even the greatest of j~nAni-s; tUyan – Even so, He decided to

bless me by residing in my heart; tUyan - He Who considered that

being with me is the only thing that He longed for in all His life;

tuyakkan – By revealing His guNa-s, He draws us towards Him;

mayakkan – He draws us to Him through the sheer joy of thinking about

Him; ennuDait tOL iNaiyAn – Such a Great One has now decided to take

possession of me by sitting on my shoulders (treating me like

garuDa)". He is mAyan – Ascarya bhUtan – personification of

wonders".

 

Sri Sa'nkara's vyAkhyAnam is: pramAtrAdi sAkshitvena sarva pramANa

agocaratvAt a-cintyah - The simplest way to explain this is that

just as the eye cannot see the eye itself since it is the means of

seeing all other things except itself, so also bhagavAn is the means

of perceiving everything else, and so He cannot be perceived by any

means of perception.

 

SrI Sa'nkara gives the alternate interpretation: ayam IdRSa iti

viSva prap'nca vilakshaNatvena cintayitum aSakyatvAd-vA a-cintyah –

He Who is different from this expanded Universe. All that is in the

domain of our perception in this universe is but a tiny fraction of

His manifestation, and the full extent of His vibhUti-s is beyond

comprehension. Lord kRshNa declares this in the gItA:

 

nanto'sti mama divyAnAm vibUtinAm parantapa |

esha tUddeSatah prokto vibhUter-vistaro mayA || (gItA

10.40)

 

yad-yad-vibhUtimat-sattvam SrImad-Urjitameava vA |

tat-tadevAvagaccha tvam mama tejo'mSa sambhavam || (gItA

10.41)

 

"There is no limit to My divine manifestations. Here the extent of

such manifestations has been explained in brief by Me.

 

"Whatever being is possessed of power, or of splendor, or of energy,

know that as coming from a fragment of My power".

 

b) In his gItA bhAshyam, for the next Slokam, bhagavad rAmAnuja

explains that this Universe consisting of sentient and non-sentient

entities, whether in effect or causal condition, whether gross or

subtle, is supported by bhagavAn with an infinitesimal fraction of

His power, in such a manner that it does not violate His will in

preserving its proper form, existence or various activities. He

quotes bhagavAn parASara from vishNu purANam: yasyAyutAyutAmSAmSe

viSva Saktir-iyam stithA (V.P. 1.9.53) - On an infinitesimal fraction

of His energy, this universe rests. In other words, His full power

is beyond our comprehension – He is acintyah.

 

c) SrI cinmayAnanda gives the reference from the gItA, where bhagavAn

is described as a-cintya-rUpan – sarvasya dhAtAram acintya rUpam –

gItA 8.9 – The Creator of all, and One Who cannot be comprehended

mentally.

 

SrI baladeva vidyA bhUshaN points out that He is called acintyah

because He cannot be understood through tarka or discussion and

analysis, but is revealed only through the Sruti vAkya-s – tarka

agovarah Srutyeka gamyah.

 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan