Vishnu Sahasranama Stanza 51

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Om Namo Narayanaya!!

dharmagub dharmakrit dharmee sadasatksharamaksharam

avijnaataa sahasraamsur vidhaataa kritalakshanah.

 

475. Dharmagup -One who protects the Dharma. In the Bhagavad Geeta

the Lord says: " In every cycle I shall manifest for re-establishing

Dharma. " SrI Sankara gives reference to gItA 4.8- dharma

sampsthAnaparthAya sambhavAmi yuge yuge. The dharma cakram writer

elaborates on this nAma by pointing out that bhagavAn maintains

dharma by rewarding those who observe dharma (with wealth, health

etc.), and punishing those who violate dharma (through disease,

suffering, etc.) so that they can be returned to the path of dharma.

Peace in the society, rain, good crops, and general prosperity

result when the society as a whole follows the path of dharma;

disease, earthquakes, war, looting, famine, etc. result when the

society fails to follow the path of dharma. Thus, this nAma should

remind us that our adherence to the path of righteousness in

everything we do (our relations with our wives/husbands, our

treatment of our parents, the behavior of the people who are

involved in public projects on how they treat their public

responsibility, how a person who has renounced the worldly life

treats the wealth that he may be able to collect, etc.), all reflect

in bhagavAn's administration of His dharma as the dharma-gup.

 

476. Dharma-krit - Though He, as the Absolute Consciousness that

illuminates everything, is beyond all Dharma and Adharma, Sri

Narayana exemplifies what is the righteousness by His own conduct.

He is, therefore, called as Dharma-Pravartaka. In the various

incarnations, the Lord has exemplified how the generation should

live under the ever-changing kaleidoscopic pattern of circumstances

that play around us at all times.

SrI BhaTTar: a) He who induces His devotees to follow dharma. b) He

who practices dharma. a) Those who follow dharma do so because of

His anugraha. SrI BhaTTar quotes - dharmam sAmAnyam amalam

anAdinidhanam vibhum | durlabham yatprabuddhAnAm tat-prasAdayitA

vinA || - Ordinary flawless dharma, which is without beginning or

end and all-pervasive, cannot be attained without His Grace even by

those who have great knowledge. BhagavAn induces people towards the

path of dharma for their own benefit, and without any benefit for

Him, out of His sheer Mercy. SrI rAdhAkRshNa Sastri points out the

importance of dharma in our lives. The jIvAtmA is caged into this

body as a result of the previous karmA-s. BhagavAn has shown us the

path of dharma in order for the jIva to get release from this cage.

BhagavAn does not have any such need to observe dharma etc. because

karma does not touch Him. Even so, He observes all the dharma-s

consistent with His avatAra. Lord kRshNa's words in the gItA ch.3.22-

24 refer to this.

na me pArtha asti kartavyam trishu lokeshu ki~ncana |

na anvAptam avAptavyam varta eva ca karmaNi ||

yadi hyayam na varteyam jAtu karmaNyatandritah |

mama vartma anuvartante manushyAh pArtha sarvaSah ||

utsIdeyur_ime lokA na kuryAm karma cedaham |

s~ankarasya ca kartA syAm upahanyAm imAh prajAh ||

 

477. Dharmee -The Supporter of Dharma; meaning the very Seat of all

Dharma. Just as the waves exist in the ocean; just as the cotton

supports the cloth; just as all the ornaments exist in gold-so Sri

Narayana, the Infinite Truth is the very essence and support of the

entire universe. Narayana is the Throne at which all righteousness

take their refuge. Without direct reference to Him and His Glory,

righteousness has no meaning; just as law books of a country are

empty pages when the Government falls. This nAma of mahAvishNu

should constantly remind us that bhagavAn is there always striving

to show us the path of dharma in every way (dharma cakram).

 

The next four words are sat, aksharam, asat and ksharam, which are

combined in different sequence by SrI BhaTTar and by SrI Sankara.

SrI BhaTTar uses the sequence " sad-aksharam asad-ksharam " , and SrI

Sankara uses the sequence " sat asat ksharam aksharam " . The nAma-s

they derive out of this sequence are similar, except that SrI

BhatTTar treats the word aksharam as an adjective for sat, and the

word ksharam as the adjective for asat. Thus the nAma-s according to

his vyAkhyAna are sat, sad-aksharam, asat, andasad-ksharam. The nAma-

s per SrI Sankara are sat, asat, ksharam, andaksharam. The nAma-s

sat and a-sat can be treated as a pair of opposites, and then Ama-s

sad-aksharam and asad-ksharam can similarly be treated as a pair.

 

478. Sat -The Existence in all things and beings is the same ever,

and it is All-pervading. The sun exists; the space between the sun

and the earth exists; the ocean and the creatures therein exist; the

physiological organs and their functions, mind and its activities,

the intellect and its agitations -all exist. This Ever-present

Principle of Existence is Sri Narayana. That which remains the same

without any change in and through all changes, unaffected ever, same

in the past, present and the future is called in Vedanta as `Satya.'

One who has all these natures is called Sat-Purusha. In the

Upanishads, the Supreme Brahman is indicated as `Satya' – " This, O

Child, indeed was Sat. " In the Geeta while describing the Changeless

Factor behind the eternally changing matter, Bhagavan says: " That

which is the All-pervading in this world, that alone is

indestructible and no one can destroy it. " In advaitic

interpretation, the meaning for this word is given as " Truth " . SrI

rAdhAkRshNa Sastri points out that in truth, there are two kinds –

one is pAramArthika sat - that which is true in all three time

frames (past, present, and future). The other is vyAvahArika sat -

like this world, which originates in the pAramArthika sat and merges

back into the pAramArthika sat at the time of pralaya. BhagavAn is

the pAramArthika sat or nitya sat. SrI BhaTTar points out that

bhagavAn is sat because He is unconditionally auspicious and

commendable, and He is also eternal in existence.(nirupAdhikAt sad-

bhAvAt, sAd-guNyacca).

 

479. A-Sat -The Conditioned; Limited; the One who appears at this

moment as the limited, conditioned, and therefore confined only to

the world of plurality. That which actually is not, but apparently

seems to be there, is called a delusion and this is indicated by the

word " A-Sat. " " vaca rambhanam vikaro namadheyam –the manifold

exists only in the name as mere play of worlds " Cha Up. 6.1.4. In

the Vedantic terminology, higher-Self (Param) is ever Immutable and

Eternal, while the lower-Self (A-param) constituted of all the

universe of manifested things and beings, is mutable and ephemeral.

Sri Narayana Himself is, in His Apara nature, expressing as the

world of the many that we today recognise around us. Bhagavan Sri

Krishna confesses to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Geeta: " amRtam caiva

mRtyuSca sat asat ca ahamarjuna - " Arjuna, I am at once immortality

and mortality. I am both existence and non-existence. " Thus bhagavAn

is a-sat (non-being) in the sense of sat meaning existence as we saw

in the gItA Slokam 17.26, and a-sat being the things that don't

exist now, but existed in the past and will exist in the future (SrI

BhaTTar).

 

480. Ksharam -The Perishing. One who is the very Immutable Self in

all things that appears to suffer from constant mutation: The

changeless-core in the midst of all the changes. All the changeable

and variable things and beings of the Universe play in Him who is

the only Substratum and, therefore, the Immutable Eternal Reality is

called here as the Mutable; the changing and the dying waves are all

ever nothing but the changeless ocean indeed. SrI cinmayAnanda gives

an example of the concept of bhagavAn being ksharam and a-ksharam at

the same time - the waves of the ocean rise and decay, but they are

nothing but the ocean that is non-decaying. So they are both part of

the same thing. SrI BhaTTar: He who moves away from the bad. ksharam

refers to something perishable or impermanent. ksharam also means

something which flows away (kshar sa~ncalane to flow, to distil).

BhagavAn does not associate with the bad, and so He is ksharam with

respect to the asat [asat-ksharAya].

 

481. A-ksharam -Imperishable. In order to recognize the change,

there must be a changeless entity knowing it. If one ornament is to

become another, there must be indeed the changeless consistent gold

permanently supporting it all the time. In the same way, there must

be a Changeless Factor which must be the essential core that holds

together the pattern of the constant changes, which together

constitute the play of the universe. This Changeless Factor is

called Narayana. Krishna says in Bhagavat Geeta: " Ksara sarvani

bhutani kutastho ksara ucyate – all beings are Ksara, the Kutasha is

Akshara [sri Sankara]. All creatures together constitute the Kshara-

purusha and the Changeless in an creatures is the A-kshara-purusha. "

SrI BhaTTar points out that aksharam is an adjective for sat (the

earlier nAma), and thus gives the current nAma as sad-aksharam or

aksharam-sat. ksharam is that which decays or diminishes, or

something that does not stay associated with something else, and

aksharam is that which is never diminished or decays. His sat or

Existence does not undergo any decrease or diminution. This is also

true of His svarUpa and His kalyANa guNa-s. So the meaning of this

nAma is - He who is ever existent without decrease or destruction.

SrI BhaTTar gives reference to vishNu purANam and to

ChAndogyaupanishad -apakshaya vinASAbhyAm pariNAmardhi-janmabhih |

varjitah Sakyate vaktum yah sadAstIti kevalam || VP1.2.11 " He is

free from decrease, destruction, modification, growth and birth. He

can only be spoken of as That which always is " . In ChAndogya

upanishad 6.2.1 we have - sadeva somya! idamagra AsIt - " Existence

alone, My dear child, this was in the beginning, one only without a

second. "

 

482. Avijnaataa -The Non-knower. Here we must carefully understand

the term `knower.' The " knower " of the emotions and thoughts is the

Self, imprisoned in the body, mind and the intellect, and,

therefore, functioning as the perceiver, feeler, thinker-called in

the Vedanta Sastra as the " Jeeva " . This individualised personality

is the `doer' and the `enjoyer', in the calamitous world of

activities. Sri Narayana is the Pure-Self, who has not been

contaminated by the matter- vestures and their agitated-nature, and

the consequent sorrows. Therefore, `Vishnu,' the Pure-Self, is

indicated here as Non- Knower (A-vijnaataa), meaning the " Jeeva. "

SrI BhaTTar's vyAkhyAnam is that He is non-cognizant of the faults

of His devotees. He observes that it is a great commendable quality

of bhagavAn that He is willing to forget and forgive the sins of

those who have surrendered to Him unconditionally. It is said of

Lord rAma that He never even responds back to those who speak harsh

words towards Him - ucyamAno'piparusham nottaram pratipadyate

(ayodhyA 1.10).

 

483. Sahasra-amsuh - SrI Sankara interprets the nAma as referring to

Him being the Sun with countless rays. yena sUryas-tapati

tejaseddhah - (tai.brA. 3.12.9) -Lighted by His effulgence, the sun

shines. SrI Sankara also gives reference to the gItA to support his

interpretation - yad-Aditya gatam tejah... yac-candramasi yac-cAgnau

tat-tejo viddhi mAmakam - 15.12 - O arjuna! know that the tejas of

the sun, the moon, agni, etc. is mine viz. I am the One who bestowed

this tejas on them. As the Pure Consciousness, He is effulgent, and

in the Upanishads we read that even the sun, moon and stars gain

their effulgence from Him alone. In fact the Upanishads conclude

that all living creatures are resplendent after His effulgence

alone. Or, we can say that it means Sri Narayana, in the form of the

Sun, illumines and nourishes the world of living creatures; because

the name of the Sun in Sanskrit is `Sahasraamsuh.' In praising the

Lord Sun it is usual to sing of him as `Sooryanaaraayana.' SrI

BhaTTar interprets amSu as referring to radiating knowledge, and

thus sahasrAmSuh refers to One who is possessed of infinite

knowledge. BhagavAn is pure and unalloyed radiating knowledge, who

revealed the veda-s to us, and who is revealed to us by the veda-s.

 

484. Vidhaataa -All-supporter. As the final sub-stratum for

everything, the Lord supports the entire universe of living

creatures, and nobody supports Him, He alone is His own support. The

Lord is at once the material, instrumental and the efficient causes

for the universe of forms. SrI BhaTTar interprets the nAma in terms

bhagavAn being " The Supreme Controller " and the " Ordainer of the

laws of conduct for all " - (vidhAnam – arranging, disposing; a rule,

precept, ordinance, sacred rule or precept, sacred injunction. Also

see vAsishTha - vidhAtA – vidhAnasya kartA). He explains the nAma in

the context of the meaning of avij~nAtA that he gave earlier -

bhagavAn ignores the faults of His devotees. Then one can ask the

question " what happens if someone else, like yama for instance, who

is impartial in his treatment of everyone for their sins as well as

good deeds, punishes the devotees of vishNu for their sins? " . This

nAma says that bhagavAn controls yama and all other gods, and so

they won't punish a vishNu-bhakta, and they will inform their

servants not to punish a vishNu-bhakta in any way. Thus, SrI BhaTTar

picks an example of bhagavAn's guNa of ordaining or laying down the

rules that brings out bhagavAn's eternal mercy towards those who are

devoted to Him. Even though yama is authorized by bhagavAn to be

impartial in punishing the jIva-s for their karma-s, at the same

time, using His powers as the Ordainer, bhagavAn has ordained yama

to be lenient and gentle when it comes to punishing His devotees.

Since yama is under the total control of bhagavAn, he follows the

orders of bhagavAn, and instructs his servants to keep away from

vishNu bhakta-s at the time of their death.

 

485. Krita-lakshanah -One who is famous because of six qualities,

such as glory, righteousness, fame, wealth, knowledge and

detachment. Again following the Puranic literature, Sri Narayana is

the one who made on His own bosom the great mark of the feet of

Maharshi Bhrigu. In fact from the standpoint of pure Vedanta, the

term indicates the Ever-existing Pure Consciousness which is the

very goal (Lakshana) to be ultimately achieved for liberation.

Lakshana also means the scriptural textbooks and, therefore, the

term also can mean He who is the author (Krita) of the Scriptures

(Lakshana). SrI Sankara gives different alternative interpretations:

a) He created (kRt) the veda-s (lakshaNah). " vedah sastrani vijnanam

etat sarvam janardana – all the vedas and the scriptural texts have

originated from Janardhana, who is of the nature of pure

conciousness. b) He has also distinguished Himself with the SrIvatsa

mark on His vaksha-sthalam. c) He has created the different species

with distinguishing marks that identify the species uniquely through

external as well as internal distinguishing marks. He is kRta-

lakshNahfrom all these aspects. SrI BhaTTar had interpreted nAma

482 - avij~nAtA, as indicative of bhagavAn overlooking the defects

of His devotees. Here it is indicated that bhagavAn does not ignore

everyone's faults, but only the faults of those who have certain

distinguishing characteristics, which He Himself has laid out -

kRtalakshaNah. SrI BhaTTar gives the following references where

bhagavAn has identified these attributes:- mitrabhAvena samprAptam -

yuddha kANDa 18.3 - " He who has come to Me as a friend " ; - samyag

vyavasito hi sah - gItA 9.30 - " He who has rightly resolved in his

mind that bhagavAn is everything " , and does not look for any other

benefit - ananya bhAk (same Slokam in gItA); - cakrA~nkitAh

praveshTavyAh (harivamSa 21.24) - " They who bear the mark of the

discus on their bodies " .

 

Krishnarpanamastu!