Vishnu Sahasranamam Stanza 50

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Om Namo Narayanaya!!

 

svaapanah svavaso vyaapee naikaatmaa naikakarmakrit

vatsaro vatsalo vatsee ratnagarbho dhanesvarah.

 

465. Svaapanah –One who puts people to sleep; stupefying. Lord

Vishnu as Isvara has for Himself the total Vaasanaa (Maayaa) as an

equipment for His self-expression as Eesvara (Narayana). He, through

His Maayaa, veils each individual and renders them ignorant of their

own divine nature. This " veiling-power " (Aavarana Sakti) creates

many agitations (Vikshepa), due to which individuals rush out for

sense-gratification. Since Isvara, thus, with His Maayaa-power

deludes everybody, He gathers to Himself this epithet Svaapanah

meaning " the mighty stupefying force. " SrI rAdhAkRshNa Sastri refers

to gItA 7.25 - " nAham prakASah sarvasyayoga-mAyA-samAvRtah,

mUDho'yam nAbhijAnAti " - His paratva has been concealed to the non-

devotee in bhagavAn's incarnations because He appears like all of us

in His body, appearance, and talk etc., and so they don't recognize

Him as paramAtmA. He who does not see what is in front of Him is as

good as a person who is sleeping. The dharma cakram writer gives the

analogy of the animal life vs. the human life. Humans are " awake " in

the world of intelligent reasoning, in which the animals

are " asleep " , i.e., they are not capable of operating in this domain

as well as humans can do. Similarly the ordinary human is asleep to

the world of the j~nAni.

 

466. Svavasah - The One who has everything under His own personal

control; the totally independent. Since He is the Supreme

Consciousness, all living creatures and phenomenal powers are

functioning by His grace, drawing their capacities to exist and act

from Him only. If He withdraws His patronage, everything in this

Universe must stop functioning immediately. He is supremely

independent inasmuch as, though the world-of-objects needs Him, He

is entirely self-sufficient and needs no world for His Existence.

Thus He is totally free. The waves need the ocean, but the ocean is

totally independent of the waves' existence. SrI Sankara bhAshyam is

that bhagavAn is Independent, being the cause of creation,

preservation and withdrawal of the Universe - svatantrah. The dharma

cakram writer points out that, it is only when one does not have any

need that one can be totally independent. When we are under the

control of our mind, we lose our independence, and do whatever our

mind dictates. Then we become dependent on others. This nAma teaches

us that we should learn to control our mind and get it under our

control instead of being controlled by our mind. Meditating on this

nAma of bhagavAn will give us this discipline. The more we are able

to devote ourselves to bhagavAn, the more our mind will get under

our control.

 

467. Vyaapee - The Pervader. One who interpenetrates everything like

Akasa. " Akasavat sarvagatas ca nityah- He pervades everywhere and is

eternal " [sri Sankara]. SrI BhaTTar-s vyAkhyAnam is that bhagavAn

pervades everyone with His own Power and gives energy to them. At

the time of churning the Mik-Ocean, He pervaded the deva-s, the

asura-s, the MandAra Mountain, vAsuki and others, and gave them the

energy to churn the ocean. SrI cinmayAnanda points out that in

philosophy pervasiveness indicates subtlety. BhagavAn is all-

pervasive and so is subtler than the subtlest. Since the cause

pervades the effect (e.g., gold pervades all gold ornaments), so

also bhagavAn who pervades everything is thus the Cause of

everything. The dharma cakram writer observes that All-pervasiveness

also implies limitlessness, since whatever there is and wherever it

is, BhagavAn pervades it, and so there is no limit to Him. This

limitless Lord just projects Himself such that we see whatever

little we see based on our limitations. Meditating on this nAma of

bhagavAn will broaden our ability to see this Limitless vyApI.

 

468. Naikaatmaa -Many-souled. One who manifests in different forms

as subsidiary agencies causing the various cosmic processes. Lord,

the Infinite, though ever the One, expresses Himself as the many,

while manifesting Himself, in the form of the universe. It is He,

the One Great Consciousness that expresses Himself as the creator,

sustainer and destroyer-in order to maintain the play of the eternal

dance, among the phenomenal things and deeds. He who becomes the

Trinity is the great Vishnu Tattva. The dharma cakram writer points

out that the different forms of gods that the followers of different

religions worship are all an expression of bhagavAn, and it is

because of their ignorance of bhagavAn being a naikAtmA that they

think they are worshipping different deities and fighting within

themselves.

 

469. Naika-karma-krit - One who engages in innumerable activities in

the process of creation, sustentation [sri Sankara]. The one does

many actions, as He is the one Lord of all evolution, preservation,

and involution of the universe. Where he is not presiding over, no

activity can ever take place. Sri Bhattar: He who performs diverse

acts. SrI BhaTTar explains the nAma by giving the example of His

churning the ocean, supporting the mountain, overcoming the enemies,

distributing the nectar, etc. SrI rAdhAkRshNa Sastri points to His

actions in the form of candra, sUrya, agni, etc. and helping to

serve us. The dharma cakram writer gives a view which summarizes all

the above by pointing out that everything that ever takes place is

His action and nothing else. Examples of this abound. We are

instruments in His creation, but we are not creators. From one mango

tree, only another mango tree can come, and we can't create

something else from a mango seed. We are the instruments and He is

the kartA. If we have this realization, the benefits (karma phalam)

of none of the actions for which we are the instruments will accrue

to us.

 

470. Vatsarah – " One in whom everything dwells " . Not only Lord is

living in each one of us our inner-Soul (Antaryaamee) but He is at

once, the All-prevading Essence in which, the entire universe

exists, and as such, He alone is the Abode of the creatures, He is

the endless `time' and the infinite `space' at once. The

term " Vatsa, " in sanskrit also means " calf. " The world under

discussion, therefore, can also mean " one who gives away claves. "

this has reference to krishna who returned to Gopas all the calves,

when they were taken away by the enemy.

 

471. Vatsalah -The supremely affectionate. One who loves his

devotees extremely. Narayana is one who has got more affection

towards his devotees that all the paternal and maternal love in the

world put together. Supreme love is the meaning of the

world `Vatsalah;' Lord Narayana is Love Incarnate.

 

472. Vatsee -The Father. One who has infinite number of children;

Lord considers the entire living kingdom as His own children; and

nurses and nourishes them. It can also be interpreted as one who

trains and protects the calves in the herd.

 

473. Ratnagarbhah -The Jewel-wombed. SrI Sankara's vyAkhyAnam is

based on the ratna-s or gems being treasured in the depth of the

oceans, and since bhagavAn is Himself in the form of the Oceans, He

is called ratna-garbhah.

SrI BhaTTar: a) He who is in possession of abundant wealth. b) He

who is the source of everything that can give happiness. Among

BhagavAn's devotees there are those who are after wealth, and He has

immense wealth to take care of their needs. SrI cinmayAnanda refers

us to gItA 10.24- sarasAm asmi sAgarah, and observes that bhagavAn

is ratna-garbhah like the Ocean and has all the treasures within His

control, and can bestow any wealth quickly to any devotee as He

desires. SrI rAdhAkRshNa Sastri extends this to the presence of

ratna in the hood of the serpent and in the knots of the bamboo

shoots, which are caused by none other than bhagavAn. The name also

suggests that bhagavAn protects His devotees like gems, and assists

them towards the path of realization of the Self. Meditating on

bhagavAn constantly instead of succumbing to the rAjasic and tAmasic

aspects dormant in us will elevate us so that we can realize Him.

 

474. Dhanesvarah -The Lord of wealth. Here the term " Wealth " means

all the good things in the universe- all objects of happiness. He is

described in the Puranas as the Lord of the Goddess Lakshmi

(Lakshmipati) and as such He is ever the Master-of-all-wealth. The

greatest of wealth is, of course, the liberation, and Lord Narayana

is the Isvara of this great wealth, He blesses the true devotees

with the experience of complete liberation from the entanglements

and sorrows of the vestures of matter around us.

 

Krishnarpanamastu!