Vishnu Sahasranama Stanza 17

May 11, 2006

Om Namo Narayanaya!!

upendro vaamanah praamsur- amoghah suchir-oorjitahateendrah samgrahah sargo dhritaatmaa niyamo yamah.

151. Upendrah -The younger brother of Indra. In His Incarnation as Vaamana, He was born to Aditi, who was the mother of Indra, and hence, the Lord is known as the "Younger brother of Indra". SrI rAdhAkRshNa Sastri gives the following instance in this context. PrahlAda's grandson Bali defeated Indra by doing penances according to SukrAcArya's advice. Indra's mother aditi prayed to God to get Indra's position back. Since Bali had attained Indra's position through penance etc., there was no way of getting back the position easily. So bhagavAn appeared as the younger brother of indra by being born as the son of aditi, and restoring the position of indra by asking for three feet of land from Bali in his yAga Sala. In Sanskrit the prefix upa denotes `Above' in the sense of `superior to'; therefore, Upendra may also mean "One who is superior to Indra", the king of gods. Such an explanation we find in the Harivamsa (76-47) "mam'opari yathendras twam sthapitho gobhir isvarah | Upendra iti krsna tvam gasyanti bhuvi devatah || - The cows have established Thee superior to me as my master. Therefore, o Krishna, the Devas will singabout thee, addressing Thee as Upendra". Sri rAdhAkRshNa Sastri gives the example of Lord KRshNa subduing indra's self-assumed superiority complex in gokulam when indra tried to flood and destroy the place for not offering prayers to him.

Indra, the king of the sense-organs, is the mind and the Consciousness, which is the Self, is the One factor that dynamises the mind. Since life is that which controls even the mind, certainly It is superior to the mind and this Self is the Maha Vishnu.

152. Vaamanah -Of the ten great incarnations, the fifth one is Vaamana; and the very name indicates `One who has a small body'. vAmo valgutvam asya asti iti vAmanah - One who has a very charming short form. vAmo vatutvam asya asti iti vAmanah - One who has a short form of a gurukula student. It was in the form of a child (vatuh =A child student in a gurukula) that Vaamana approached the divinely righteous Emperor Mahaabali to beg of him a little land, of the length of his tiny three steps-and the Lord measured in His three steps all the three worlds and thus conquered Mahaabali. He checked (Vamayati) the rising pride of possession in Bali, hence He, in that incarnation as a Vatu, is called Vaamana. vAmayati tyAjayati madam balim - One who expelled the pride out of Bali.

The term Vaamana also means `worshipful': "madhye vamanam asinam visve deva upasate – the Visve-devas devoutly worship the vamana who is in the middle.", so we read in the Kathopanishad (2.5-3). However, here the emphasis should be upon the meaning "short statured" because of the contrast it makes with the following name.

Another interpretation - sarvANi vAmAni nayati iti vAmanah - One who bestows all the desires of the devotees, or He produces joy in those who see Him, by His effulgence. In chAndogyopanishad we have "esha u eva vAmanIh esha hi sarvANi vAmAni nayati (chAndogyopanishad 4.25).

153. Praamsuh -One whose body is vast is called Praamsuh. Vaamana, when He got the promise from the righteous King, and when He started measuring, the Lord took His Cosmic Form, and with each step measured the earth, the interspace, and the heaven. In Harivamsa (262-263) there is a beautiful description of the little Vaamana growing into His Total Form. The rate of His expansion is described with reference to two fixed factors the Sun and the Moon. When He took the form, the Sun and the Moon were His eyes; as He measured the earth, they came to His bosom; as He was measuring the space, the Sun was at His navel and as He lifted His feet to measure the Heaven, the Sun and the Moon were just below His knees.

Toye tu patite haste Vamano'bhud avamanah | Sarva deva mayam rupam darsayamasa vai prabhuh | bhuh padau dyauh siras c'asya candr'adityau ca caksusi ||

Immediately after Bali poured water in his hands with the resolve [to give the gift asked for], the dwark [vamana] became the opposite of a dwarf [Avamana]. The Lord then revealed His cosmic form, having the earth as His feet and the sun and moon as His eyes.

154. Amoghah -One whose activities are ever a fulfilment of some great purpose. Even insignificant actions, which, ordinarily, people would think are empty and purposeless, are never really so, when they spring from Him. Even when He punishes, it is only for inaugurating a greater evolutionary blessing.

na mogham ceshTitam yasya sah amoghah. When bhagavAn asked for three feet of earth from bali, it helped indra; when Bali could not give the third foot of earth, it helped subdue Bali and make him a great devotee on the spot; subduing Bali led to Bali getting the status equal to indra in a trice, and led to all the gods partaking in the offerings made in the sacrifice. Thus every act of His has a purpose.

155. Suchih -One who is spotlessly `clean', and therefore, Ever-Pure. Impurities in a substance are things other than itself; when dust is on the cloth, the cloth is impure, unclean. Since the Self, the Aatman, is the Non- Dual Reality, having nothing other than Itself in It, Ever-pure alone must It always be. And Suchih is One who gives this purity to those who contemplate upon Him constantly. Sri Sankara: One who purifies those who adore and praise Him. "asya sparsas ca mahan sucih – His very contact is very purifying".

According to Sri Bhattar, Sucyata iti Sucih - One who purifies is Sucih. BhagavAn is Pure because He is the ParamAtmA who is uncontaminated by actions and their effects. He is Sucih because One who contemplates on Him becomes pure, and thus association with Him makes one pure. Whatever He does is uncontaminated by anything other than dharma, and so His purity never diminishes. When He helped indra by subduing Bali, one could say He was biased towards the deva-s; not so, since He made Himself the door-keeper of Bali and thus Bali benefited several-fold more than indra did in the process. He is pavitrANAm pavitram, or purer than the purest. The several references from sruti attest to His purity - Suddham apApa viddham - ISAvasya - 8); asparSaSca mahAn Sucih etc.

156. Oorjitah -One who has infinite strength and vitality. Wherever, in the organism, we meet with any strength and vitality they are all the strength and vitality of the Self. The Infinite Vishnu is the One All-Pervading Self, and therefore, He is the very springhead for all strength.

157. Ateendrah -One who is beyond Indra in knowledge, glory and strength. Since Indra represents the `mind-intellect' equipment, Aatman, the Self is denoted here as that which transcends the mind.

158. Samgrahah -One who holds the entire world of beings-and-things together in an indissoluble embrace unto Himself. Just as the hub of a wheel holds the rim unto itself by its endless spokes, so too the Aatman, the Self within, lends Its vitality to every cell in the body and to every thought in the inner-equipments.

In none can anything happen which is not a glory borrowed from Him. And, the Self, being the same everywhere, in all existence, in both the movables and immovables, gross and subtle -in the manifest as well as in the unmanifest - He certainly is the One who holds the world of phenomena unto Himself in a vast embrace of Love and Oneness.

159. Sargah -One who has created out of Him- self the whole world. It therefore must also connote One, who has the whole created world as His own form, since the creation is His own manifestation as the Subtle and the Gross.

a) SrI Sankara gives the interpretation "sarveshAm samhRtau pratisamhArAt samgrahah" - One who withdraws everything into Him during pralaya.

b) SrI Bhattar gives the interpretation "atha bhaktaih ayatnena samgRhayata iti samgrahah" - One who is reached by His devotees without any effort (other than pure devotion).

c) SrI chinmayAnanda gives the interpretation that bhagavAn is samgraha because he holds the entire world of beings and things together.

160. Dhritaatmaa -One who supports Himself by Himself. In the previous epithet Samgrahah, He was shown as the Cohesion of Love in the world of matter and energy, and in Sargah, He, as the One material and efficient cause of creation, was shown as also the very supporter of the manifested world. But who supports Him? He is Dhritaatmaa - He is established in Himself. Sri Sankara: One who is ever in His inherent form or nature, without the transformation involved in birth or death.

161. Niyamah -The Appointing Authority: It is He, who orders all the mighty forces of nature and prescribes for each the Laws of their conduct, the ways of their behaviour and the methods of their functions. The Sun, Moon, Air, Waters, Dik-Paalakas, Death etc. are all appointed and ordered by the Lord. niyamayati iti niyamah

162. Yamah - yacchati iti yamah or yamayati iti yamah - One who rules. One who is the mighty Power that administers all the forces of Nature under His Law. Everything in nature strictly obeys ever all His Laws. He rules all our selves from within. He also rules all the beings of the earth from within the sphere of the Sun. We have the passage from bRhadAraNya upanishad - yah sarvANi bhUtAni antaro yamayati (3.7.15).

Other passages from the sruti-s are "yah pRthivIm antaro yamayati - He who rules the earth from within" - BRhadAraNya 3.7.3, yah AtmAnam antaro yamayati - He who rules the self from within", etc.

Krishnarpanamastu!!