Vishnu Sahasranama Stanza 33

September 23, 2006

Om Namo Narayanaya!

yugaadi-krit yugaavarto naikamaayo mahaasanahadrisyo vyaktaroopascha sahasrajit anantajit.

300. Yugaadi-krit -One who is the creator of the divisions of aeons, described in our Puranas, as Yugas. These Yugas are four in number. Kritam, Tretaa, Dvaapara and Kali. In short, He is the Lord of Time. SrI Sankara gives the derivation: yugAdeh kAla-bhedasya kartRtvAtyugAdi-kRt -He is called yugAdi-kRt because He is the cause of periods of time such as yuga. According to SrI cinmayAnanda, Adi here refers to other divisions of time such as centuries, years, months, days, etc. He is not only the Lord of the Yugas, but He is the Light of Consciousness that illumines the duration of each experience and the very interval between every pair of subjective experiences.

Starting from this nAma SrI BhaTTar has interpretred the namas as referring to the vata-patra-SAyI avatAra or the incarnation as a Child on the banyan leaf. The SrI BhaTTar gives the interpretation "yugasya ante'pi Adim karoti" - Even at the dissolution of the Universe, He saves it from the distress of Deluge by beginning the Universe again. He is the Creator at the beginning of a yuga.

301. Yugaavartah -In the previous term the Lord is indicated as the Creator of the Yugas, and here we are told that He is also the Power behind the wheel of time that goes on changing and repeating itself, i.e. not only He is the Lord of Time, but He is the Mighty Administrator of the performances of Time, the very Law behind the constant flow of the flood of time. Sri Sankara: One who as time causes the repetition of the four Yugas beginning with Satya Yuga.

302. Naikamaayah -One whose delusory forms are endless and variegated. According to Puranas, for the sake of sustaining the world and maintaining its order and rhythm, the Lord had taken different forms, each of His manifestations well-suited for the times of His arrival. Thus, we have ten incarnations. Also, in those mighty manifestations of the Lord, as Krishna and others, we find descriptions of how one and the same entity generated different attitudes and emotions in different types of people. In short, one who has realised the Self, can thereafter freely play through all his existing Vaasanaas and none of them can ever entangle him, because he has grown to be the master of his own Vaasanaas. Maayaa, otherwise called as Avidyaa, is constituted of the Vaasanaas in us, forming our Causal Body. One who has transcended this is the One who has realised the Infinite. Lord is therefore, one who is without Maayaa in Him. An individual entity, like us, is one who is under the tyrannies of Maayaa. The Lord is one who can wield Maayaa for His purpose without Himself becoming involved in it. SrI BhaTTar points out that mAyA here refers to knowledge or wonderful truths, and should not be interpreted as illusion. He is naika-mAya because of His innumerable and wonderful exploits. He gives an example to point out the use of the word not as illusion but as truth, knowledge, etc. "mAyAm tu prakRtim vidyAt" - Know that mAyA is prakRti or Primordial Matter.

303. Mahaasanah -This word can be dissolved as He who eats up everything. One who swallows up all perceptions, emotions and thoughts, created by the Vaasanaas, at the various levels of personality, due to our own individual Vaasanaas. At the time of Samaadhi when the limited ego is ended and the Supreme is experienced all the expressions of Vaasanaas are, as it were, swallowed by that Infinite Experience, and therefore, this Great Vishnu is called as the "Consumer of Everything."

304. Adrisyah -Through the sense-organs, the mind and intellect at this moment, we are aware of the outer objects and our subjective emotions and thoughts. The ultimate Reality is neither the objects perceived by us, nor the instruments of our perception. He is the Subjective Core, the Eternal Essence, wherein, the perceived and the instruments of perceptions are all totally absent. This Subjective Reality must necessarily be, by Its very nature, not an object-of- perception, and hence, It is called as the Imperceptible meaning, He is the very Perceiver in all perceptions.

Sri Bhattar says BhagavAn's acts are inscrutable. In mahAbhAratam, we have katham nu ayam SiSuh Sete loke nASam upAgate | tapasA cintayanScApi tam SiSum nopalakshaye || (vana parva -191-94)

"When the entire world has met with destruction, how come this child is alive and lying down (on a leaf)? Even though I try to understand this through the power of my austerities, I am unable to understand the true nature of this child".

305. Vyakta-roopah -He who has a form- clearly perceptible to the meditator in his meditation. The contradiction is so smotheringly apparent because of the very placing of the term. It is only just-now, in the above term, that we are told that the Lord is imperceptible (Adrisyah) and the very following term declares that He is perceptible. Here it means that though He is not perceptible with the physical instruments of perceptions, yet on transcending the equipments, the Yogi intimately comes to experience the entire Divine Glory of the Self. Though, ordinarily it is not easy to see Him, in the devotee's heart, the Lord comes to play vividly and drives the devotee mad in his ecstasy.

Sri Bhattar: His celestial form is easily visualized by the sages such as mArkaNDeya. atasI-pushpa samkASah SrI-vatsa kRta lakshNah | sAkshAt lakshmyA iva AvAsah sadA pratibhAti me || (bhArata - vana188.96)

"He, who is like the blue lily flower in color, and who is adorned by the SrIvatsa mole, appears to me always as the abode of Lakshmi".

306. Sahasra-jit -One who vanquishes thousands. In all the Puranas everywhere, it is found that the Incarnations manifest to destroy the diabolically fallen (Raakshas) who approach the good in endless hoards to annihilate them. One who conquers over these diabolical forces is the Lord Vishnu.

Subjectively the hosts of passions and lusts, greed and jealousy which invade the inner bosom, and loot away the seeker's tranquillity and peace, are all ultimately vanquished by this Higher Consciousness and therefore, the Self is indicated as the one who is ever victorious over all the hoards of our lower impulses.

307. Ananta-jit -Ever-victorious. The victory of the Lord is endless; in every Incarnation, He alone wins in the end. The victory over negative forces becomes complete when once the Higher Consciousness is experienced, and hence, the Self is indicated here as Ananta-jit.

Krishnarpanamastu!