SUnyah in SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam.

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The attached write-up on the nAma "Sunyah" appeared in a sister list sometime

back. Some of you might be interested in the different interpretations for this

nAma.

 

-Krishnamachari

 

749. SUnyah -

 

a) He Who is devoid of defects when He takes births as one of us.

b) He Who is without any attributes (advaita interpretation)

c) He Who goes everywhere, or is present everywhere.

d) He Who cleans out everything at the time of pralaya.

e) He Who is not accessible when we seek Him through our senses.

 

Om SUnyAya namah.

 

The word SUnyam means empty, void, etc. The nAma is interpreted by different

vyAkhyAna kartA-s in terms of His being devoid of defects, His destroying

everything completely at the time of pralaya, His ridding His enemies completely

without trace, etc.

 

a) SrI bhaTTar's interpretation is that He has this nAma because He was without

any trace of any type of defect even though He took human incarnations. SrI v.v.

rAmAnujan refers us to nammAzhvAr's tiruvAimozhi pASuram 3.10.6:

 

tuyar il SuDAroLi tannuDaic cOdi ninRa vaNNam niRkavE

tuyarin maliyum maniSar piRaviyil tOnRik kaN kANa vandu

tuyara'ngaL Seidu tan deiva nilai ulagil puga uykkum ammAn

tuyaram il SIrk kaNNan mAyan pugazh tuRRa yAn Or tunbam ilanE.

 

BhagavAn is without any trace of defect, and this is well accepted. But He takes

birth among the grief-stricken human beings. Even so, He continues to have all

His parattvam intact in His incarnations, and so He is without any defect. He

takes these births so that He is accessible to the people. He continues to

torture His enemies through His weapons etc., and He continues to torture His

devotees because of even the minutest separation from Him. But for nammAzhvAr

there is no tuyaram in this world because he is constantly having the anubhavam

of His thought.

 

svAmi deSikan describes the six rahasya-s of bhagavAn's incarnations, in his

SaraNAgati dIpikA, Slokam 17:

1) nAnA-vidhaih (they are of different types, e.g., matsya, nArasimha, kRshNa,

etc.),

2) a-kapaTaih (they are all His true Forms, not just appearances),

3) ajahat-svabhAvaih (He is full of all His qualities of parattvam during these

incarnations,

4) a-prAkRtaih (His tirumeni during His incarnations are made of suddha-sattva,

and not of the pa'nca bhUtas as in the case of His creations);

5) nija vihAra vaSena siddhaih (These Forms are not a result of pUrva karma, as

is in our case; they are assumed as part of His leelA, by His own Free Will);

6) AtmIya raksha, vipaksha vinASanArthaih (They are assumed for the protection

of His devotees, and for the destruction of their enemies, and not for the

expiation of the karma accumulated in previous countless births as in our case).

It is clear that bhagavAn is a Big Zero when it comes of to any form of defect

even when He is born among us humans!

 

SrI kRshNa datta bhAradvAj gives the interpretation that the nAma signifies that

bhagavAn is completely devoid of anay guNa-s associated with prakRti - prAkRta

guNa virahitatvAt SUnyah, which is item 4 in svAmi deSika's list above.

 

b) SrI Sa'nkara's interpretation is a reflection of his advaita philosophy - He

is called SUnyah because He is devoid of any attributes - sarva viSesha

rahitatvAt SUnyavat SUnyah.

 

c) SrI satyadevo vAsishTha uses the root Sun - gatau - to go, and interprets the

nAma as referring to "One Who goes everywhere, or is everywhere" (Sunati prApto

bhavati sarvatra iti SUnyo vishNuh). He points out that kham - the word for sky,

also means "void" or "a cipher". It is because there is a void that a motion or

movement from another place to this void is possible, and thus void leads to

motion, and motion leads to void. He points out the importance of SUnya by

reminding us how the number "1" undergoes a ten-fold increase in value by the

placement of just a SUnyam next to it in the number system.

 

d) SrI satyasandha yatirAja gives the interpretation that He is SUnyah because

He clears out everything in this universe with nothing left, at the time of

pralaya - pralaya kAle sarva padArtha SUnyatvAt SUnyah.

 

e) The dharma cakram writer gives yet another anubhavam: bhagavAn is called

SUnyah because He is not accessible to our senses, no matter how much we try. We

are used to believing that something exists only if we can relate to it through

our senses. He is not accessible to the senses, and so He is SUnyah.

 

 

 

 

 

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