Vishnu Sahasranamam Stanza 42

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Om Namo Narayanaya!!

 

vyavasaayo vyavasthaanah samsthaanah sthaanado-dhruvah

pararddhih paramaspashtah-tushtah pushtah subhekshanah.

 

384. Vyavasaayah - " Resolute. " Being of the nature of Pure Wisdom,

there is no vacillation in Him; all irresolution is at the level of

the doubting mind and the unprepared intellect. The

term `Vyavasaayah' also means " Yoga. " In this sense, the term is

used in the Geeta, " The intellect of one who is practising Yoga is

single-pointed without vacillation. " Again, in the same chapter

criticising those who are running after enjoyment and power, Krishna

says, " those who are revelling in sensuality and consequently

disturbing the poise of their intellect, cannot have a steady mind

and consistent pursuit of Yoga. " To work persistently until the Goal

is reached is resolution. " To steadily apply ourselves in

continuously withdrawing ourselves from our identifications with the

not-Self, until we come to apprehend and experience the Self " , is

Yoga. Hence, commentators interpret `Vyavasaaya' as " Yoga. "

 

385. Vyavasthaanah – " The Basis or the Substratum. " The one who is

the very Substratum for the entire pluralistic world; the One who

orders the laws of the cosmos and administers those laws. SrI

Sankara associates the nAma with bhagavAn being the One who divides

and regulates everyone including the different protectors of the

world, various types of beings, takes care of their survival and

sustenance, etc.

 

386. Samsthaanah – " The Ultimate Authority, State or Goal. " He who

absorbs unto Himself all the multiplicities of names and forms

during the time of deluge. The One Source into which all

perceptions, emotions and thoughts retire and merge at the time of

deep-sleep. In short, it means " the One who integrates the plurality

and absorbs it all unto Himself when the projections are ended at

that time of transcendence.

 

387. Sthaanadah – " One who confers the right abode. " Each living

organism, " according to his actions and thoughts " gathers to himself

vaasanaas and according to the vaasanaas, each individual takes his

birth. Thus, the One who gives (dada) the appropriate abode

(sthaana) to each individual (jeeva) is called Sthaanadah. In short,

the Lord is the distributor of the fruits-of-actions.

 

388. Dhruvah – " The stable; the Firm. " That which remains " the

Changeless in the midst of changes " , " that which is Imperishable in

the midst of all perishing " . The body, the mind and the intellect

and the worlds are all variables and changeable. The Consciousness,

which illumines all of them and makes us aware of them is, indeed,

the " Changeless. "

 

The next 16 nAma-s are interpreted by SrI BhaTTar in the context of

rAmAvatAra.

 

389. Pararddhih – " One who has possesses lordliness (Riddhi) of the

most exalted type " [sri Sankara]. The glory (vibhooti) of the Lord

is expressed in His manifestations and these manifestations are

indeed divine as the Geeta thunders, " the glories of the Self are

indeed divine " .

SrI BhaTTar -He who is full of noble and auspicious qualities.

Rddhih means vibhUti or manifestation. parA Rddhih yasya sa

pararddhih -One who has a super-abundance of auspicious qualities or

kalyANa guNa-s. SrI v.v.rAmAnujan comments that it is not an

exaggeration to say that in no other incarnation do we find the

perfection of auspicious qualities as in the rAma incarnation. SrI

rAdhAkRshNa SAstri refers us to rAmAyaNa where some of these

qualities are described in Sloka-s 1.1.8 to 1.1.18 by sage nArada to

vAlmIki. The last two Sloka-s are given here as examples: " samudra

iva gAmbhIrye dhairyeNa himavAniva | vishNunA sadRSo vIrye somavat

priyadarSanah ||

kAlAgni-sadRSah krodhe kshamayA pRthivI samah | dhanadena samstyAge

satye dharma ivAparah || " rAma has gAmbhIrya like an ocean, dhairya

of himavAn, vIrya of vishNu, the sweet appearance of the moon, anger

comparable to that of pralaya agni, patience of Mother Earth, tyAga

of kubera, and satya of dharmadevatA " .

 

390. Parama-spashtah – " The extremely vivid. " He who is extremely

clear to those who have conquered the agitations and all disturbing

thought-currents of the mind through a successful pursuit of the

practice of meditation. He being the very Self, nothing in fact is

so `clear', meaning, so self-evident, as the Pure Consciousness is

in us. No experience in the outer world or in our subjective bosom

would have been possible had it not been for the Light of the Self.

Even the sense of individuality in us is but an image of this

Awareness, which is the very Self in every living creature. It being

thus the Absolute Subjective essence. It is described as " the most

Vivid. "

Sri Sankara interpretes the nama as " One in whom `para' or supremely

glorious `ma' or Lakshmi dwells " . Or one who is the greatest of all

beings without any other help or one whose nature is parama i.e.

supreme and spasta, of the nature of knowledge.

SrI BhaTTar refers us to rAmAyaNa - vyaktameshamahA-yogI paramAtmA

sanAtanah - (yuddha kANDam - 114.4). These are mandodari's words

when she sees rAma after He slays rAvaNa in the battlefield.

Similarly, tArA, vAli's wife, recognizes rAma's divine nature as

soon as she sees Him- tvam aprameyaSca

durAsadaSca... ..manushyadehAbhyudam vihAya divyena dehAbhydayena

yuktah (rAmAyaNa 4.24.31-32). Lord rAma's only goal and firm

determination (mahA-yogi) in this incarnation was protection of the

world, and His greatness can be clearly cognized by means of direct

perception. sumitrA's words are: " sUryasyApi bhavet sUryah " – He

shines even brighter than the Sun, and He is the One who gives

brightness to the Sun. Other references to Lord rAma's explicit

greatness are His being called " pumsAm dRshTi cittApahAriNam " , " rUpa

samhananam lakshmIm tadRSurvismitAkArAh " , etc.The dharma cakram

writer points out that it is this explicit greatness that caused

bharata to throw away the kingdom that was offered to him and

instead be devoted to rAma, lakshmaNa to serve rAma for fourteen

years without food and sleep, and hanumAn to surrender to rAma as

soon as he met him and serve Him for the rest of his life.

 

391. Tushtah – " The ever-Contented, " meaning " the One who is happy at

the minimum offering of a devotee. " SrI cinmayAnanda explains that

He is tushTa - One who becomes happy even with the smallest of

offerings. He refers us to " patram pushpam phalam toyam yo me

bhaktyA prayacchati | tadaham bhaktyupahRtam aSnAmi prayatAtmanah

|| " I accept even if you offer some leaf or flower, or fruit or

spoon of water, happily, if it is offered in love, " in the Geeta.

The Self being beyond body, mind and intellect, it cannot have any

of the sense of imperfections or incompleteness and as such, the All-

full Self must be at all times, complete in Himself. Naturally

therefore He is All-Blissful. Consequently, His Nature must ever be

Supreme contentment.

SrI Sankara interprets the nAma as referring to His being The

Supreme Bliss. Instead of being in SrI viakunTham where only a

chosen few could be with Him, He decided happily to choose

dasaratha, a human, as His father, and be born in this world so that

He was within reach of everyone. When the deva-s appeared before

Him in His rAma incarnation and praised Him as bhagavAn, He told

them that He was happy to consider Himself as a human, the son of

dasaratha - AtmAnam mAnusham manye rAmam daSarathAtmajam.

 

392. Pushtah – " One who is ever-full. " The Supreme Consciousness

being All-pervading, He is infinitely full- nothing can we take out

of It, nor can we add to It. It is Ever- full and, therefore, even

when the manifestations emerge out from It, It is not less for it.

Sri Sankara: one who infills everything. The dharma cakram writer

says- Meditating on the significance of this nAma will lead us to

move towards this state where we overcome likes and dislikes.

 

393. Subh-ekshanah – " All auspicious gaze. " One whose very gaze

brings streams of auspiciousness to the devotee. The Self-being

beyond vaasanaas, one who realises the Self, goes beyond all sins. A

devotee walking the very path and moving towards the spiritual

contents purifies himself from all sins, since he will be living a

life not identifying with his body, mind and intellect.

SrI Sankara elaborates on the power of the beauty of His eyes

thus: " IkshNam darSanam yasya Subham Subhakaram narANAm,

mumukshUNAmmokshdam, bhogArthinAm bhogadam, pApinAm pAvanam, sarva

sandeha vicchedakAraNam, hRdaya-granther vicchedakaram,

sarvakarmANAm kshpaNam, avidyAyAScanivartakam sah SubekshaNah " . " His

mere sight is so auspicious and bestows good on all beings; it

gives moksham to the spiritually minded, enjoyments to those that

desire them, cleanses sinners, removes all doubts, burns up all the

karma-s, and removes all ignorance " . He quotes the Sruti " bhidhyate

hRdaya-granthih chidyante sarva samSayAhkshIyante cAsya karmANi

tasmin dRshTe parAvare " (muNDakppanishad 2.2.8)

SrI BhaTTar refers us to ayodhyA kANDam - " yaSca rAmam na paSyettu

yam ca rAmo na paSyati | ninditah sa vaset loke svAtma'pi enam

vigarhate ||(ayodhyA 17.14) " Whoever has not seen rAma or whomsoever

rAma has not seen, that person stands condemned by all people in

this world, and even his own self-condemns him " .

 

Krishnarpanamastu!!