Vishnu Sahasranamam Stanza 24

July 5, 2006

Om Namo Narayanaya!!

agraneer-graamaneeh sreemaan nyaayo netaa sameeranahsahasra-moordhaa visvaatmaa sahasraakshas-sahasrapaat.

218. Agraneeh -One who guides us to the end -the peak. Also the One, who leads (Agra) the entire pilgrimage -the Guide. He moves ahead and following His footsteps, keeping Him in our gaze, faithfully following Him, we shall reach the Goal and thus He is called as the leader, Vishnu. Sri Sankara: One who leads all liberation seekers to highest status.

219. Graamaneeh -One who controls, guides and leads the "Collection", the "flock" (Graama). In Sanskrit Graama means "a collection of a number of things".

220. Sreemaan -Sree means Light, Effulgence or glory. Consciousness has all these three, and therefore, Sreemaan means the Self, the Lord. SrI Sankara interprets SrI as kAnti or radiance in this instance, and gives the interpretation that here SrImAn refers to the Lord who is more radiant or resplendent than anything else that exists. SrI CinmayAnanda interprets SrI as Mother lakshmi, who is the total manifested power potential and stands for all powers or all glories. VishNu is SrImAn because He has all these powers in Him or is courted by all glories.

221. Nyaayah -The word in its direct meaning is "Justice". In the spiritual world, it connotes logical arguments (Tarka) and lines of contemplation (Yukti), which help us in arriving at the absolute experience indicated in the Sruti, are together called Nyaaya. SrI Bhattar interprets this nAma as referring to the Lord's guNa of ensuring that He does whatever is appropriate for His devotees, and ensures that nothing faulty or unwelcome happens to them. SrI Sankara gives the interpretation that He is nyAya because He is both the tarka (logical contemplation) and yukti (the lines of contemplation) running through all sources of knowledge (pramANAnugrAhakah). The sense here as expressed by SrI rAdhAkRshNa SAstri is that He is nyAya because He is the only one who can give what is good for His devotees in a rational and consistent form that cannot be refuted through counter-arguments.

222. Netaa -the leader-one who protects, nurtures, nourishes and guides all living creatures in the world. One who is being the Superintendent of the machinery of life -("Jagat-Yantra Nirvaahakah")-Sankara. The dharma cakram writer gives the analogy of objects attached to a rotating wheel. The objects rotate because of the movement of the wheel. We are all moving around because of His Will which is analogous to the rotating wheel. However, we believe that it is we who are responsible for our motion, and forget that it is He who is moving us as He wishes. Those who understand this get out of the false belief that we are the ones who are achieving everything around us. Arjuna the jivAtmA was sitting in the chariot or the body, and Lord kRshNa was driving both the chariot and Arjuna. The chariot did not have any feeling of responsibility for its motion, but Arjuna believed that his actions were caused by his will. The Lord did not take up weapons, but was witness to what was happening. Similarly, in our case bhagavAn is in each of us watching and witnessing our actions. This nAma indicates that He is the Controlling Force behind everything in this Universe.

223. Sameeranah -One who efficiently administers all movements of all living creatures. In the physical body, all physiological activities are controlled by the five `Praanaas' and thus in the form of `Praanaas' He who governs all movements of all living creatures in the universe is Maha Vishnu. SrI Sankara associates the motion or movement with the breath in living beings. He is samIraNa because He controls the functioning of the body through the breath.

SrI Bhattar associates this movement with that part of the matsya incarnation where bhagavAn dove deep into the ocean to retrieve the veda-s from the nether-world from the asura named hayagrIva. SrI rAdhAkRshNa SAstri associates the motion implied by IraNa with the act of bhagavAn leading the boat with the seeds of creation during the pralaya in His matsya incarnation. The following is from SrImad bhAgavatam skandam 8, chapter 24, Slokam 33 -

trilokyAm lIyamAnAyAm samvartAmbasi vai tadA |apsthAsyati nauh kAcit viSAlA tvAm mayA IritA ||

"When all the three worlds disappear under the Ocean, a large boat will be steered by Me towards you"

224. Sahasria-Moordhaa -One who has endless number of heads. All living creatures are His manifestations and He Himself is the One who has become the many. Therefore all heads are His, just as in a factory the proprietor considers all the employees as his own `hands'. Here the term Sahasra means innumerable.

225. Visvaatmaa -The very Soul of the universe; the very inner Essence in all living creatures. viSvasya AtmA viSvAtmA.

He is viSvAtmA because He pervades the entire Universe by His knowledge and strength. In gItA, Lord KRshNa says: "ahamAtmA gudAkeSa! Sarva bhuta.... - Arjuna! I am the AtmA that resides in the heart of all beings" (gItA 10.20).

The writer in dharma cakram points out that the true significance in this nAma lies in our realizing the unity among all the living beings, rather than seeing the difference in our outer appearance or the difference in our thoughts etc. By seeing the difference in our external appearance or in our thoughts, only kAma, krodha, lobha, moha, matha, and mAtsarya grow and develop in us. Only when we learn to see the unity behind our inner selves, we will qualify to receive His dayA. This is what sage yAg~nyavalkya taught to maitreyi viz. that when one loves one's wife, it is not her shape that should be loved, but it is the AtmA in her that should be loved, etc. (na vA are jAyAyai kAmAya jAyA priyA bhavati, Atmanastu kAmAya jAyA priyA bhavati etc.). That is the true meaning of love.

226. Sahasraakshah - Sri Sankara: One who has thousand or innumerable eyes. In describing the macro- cosmic form of the Lord we have an endorsement of this declaration in the Bhagavad Geeta.

227. Sahasrapaat -In the Purushasookta of the Rig-Veda, the same terms are used in describing the Infinite Form of the Mighty Truth: ("The Purusha is thousand-headed, thousand-eyed, and thousand-footed.")

The "many heads" (224), "many eyes" (226), "many legs" (227), together indicate that, through all these equipments of thinking (head), of action (leg) and of perception (eyes), the Thinker, the Doer and the Seer, the One Infinite Consciousness expresses everywhere, in all forms, at all times, and He is Lord Vishnu.

SrI Bhattar interprets the three names together, and points out that the reference to head, eyes, and feet really includes all organs of knowledge and action, and the reference to a thousand signifies 'innumerable'. What is referred to here is that bhagavAn is endowed with infinite capacity to know and act, which are the functions of these organs. Reference is made to the following sruti-s:

sahasra SIrshA purushah sahasrAkshah sahasra-pAt -(purusha sUktam) sarvatah pANi pAdam tat sarvato'kshi Siro-mukham (gItA 13.13) viSvataScakshuruta viSvatomukho viSvato bAhuruta viSvatspAt (taittirIya AraNyaka 10.1) aneka vaktra nayanam anekAdbhuta darSanam (gItA 11-10) rupam mahat-te bahu-vaktra-netram........bahu-bAhUru pAdam (gItA 11-23)

SrI rAdhAkRshNa SAstri points out that reference is made to the head first in the above sequence of nAma-s because head is the first one that forms when a child is formed in the mother's womb, and head is the part of the child that appears first when the child is born. Also, reference is made to head, eyes, and feet because of their importance in exercising the j~nAna and kriyA Sakti-s.

These three nAma-s also remind us that He is everywhere, in everything, all-powerful, always observing everything in every one of us, etc. Many heads can also refer to His unlimited intellect (SrI satyadevo vAsishTha). We are all part of His body, and thus all our heads are His heads, and so also He is sahasramurdhA. By the fact that He is the antaryAmi in all of us, and is always observing all that we do and think from within each of us, He is sahasrAkshah. SrI satyadevo vAsishTha adds that "One who is of many legs" also suggests that He has made his creations such that they can get around by many means e.g., as two legged humans, as four-legged animals, as the hundred-legged centipedes, as multi-legged millipedes, as no-legged serpents, as birds getting around by flying, as fish by swimming, etc. In this sense, sahasrapAt really reveals that He is ananta j~nAnavAn, or of Infinite Intellect, in having created and supported this kind of immeasurable diversity. Note the similarity in the vedic chanting "sahasra SIrshA purushah sahasrAkshah sahasrapAt", including the sequence which is the same as in SrI vishNu sahasra nAma.

Sri cinmayAnanda points out that the "many heads", "many eyes", and "many legs" together indicate that the One Infinite Consciousness expresses everywhere in all forms and at all times through all these equipments of thinking (head), perception (eyes), and action (legs).

Krishnarpanamastu!!