Vishnu Sahasranamam Stanza 56

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Om Namo Narayanaya!!

 

ajo mahaarhah svaabhaavyo jitaamitrah pramodanah

aanando nandano nandah satyadharmaa trivikramah.

 

 

521. Ajah -Unborn. As the changeless and deathless Reality, He has

neither birth nor any decay, `Unborn' in philosophy means undying;

therefore, Eternal, Changeless. A means Visnu. So Ajah means " Born to

Lord Vishnu " and according to this interpretation, the term can

suggest " Pradyumna, " son of Vishnu, who is considered to be in our

Purana as an Incarnation of the Lord of Love. SrI Sankara gives the

interpretation that bhagavAn is the Mover in the heart of the devotee

- ajati gacchati kshipati vAajah. This nAma is interpreted by Bhattar

as " akAra vAcyatayA jAtah " - He who is signified by the sound a or the

letter a.

 

522. Mahaarhah – " One who deserves the highest worship. " Arhaa means

`poojaa': `worship' [sri Sankara].

maham - pUjanam arhati iti mahArhah. SrI BhaTTar refers us to

taittirIya nArAyanIyam21 -

brahmaNe tvA mahasa om iti AtmAnam yu'njIta

etad-vai mahopanishadam devAnAm guhyam ||

" The great secret which the gods are keeping, and which is revealed to

us by the great upanishad, is that the jIva is to be offered to

bhagavAn, the Supreme Brahman, by means of the praNava, the first

letter of which, 'a', signifies the paramAtmA, and the last letter,

'm' signifies the jIvAtmA. " To Thee, the Brahman of great effulgence,

I offer myself through the mantra 'Om' " .

 

523. Svaabhaavyah -Ever-rooted in the nature of His own Self. One who

is the Uncaused Cause, the God. SrI Sankara's vyAkhyAnam is

" svabhAvenaabhAvyah " - He who is naturally without a beginning,

because He is eternally perfect. SrI BhaTTar's vyAkhyAnam is

" svabhUtaih (Atmabhih) bhAvanIyatvAt svAbhAvyah " - He who is fit to be

meditated upon by the individual souls who are His property.

 

524. Jitaamitrah -One who has conquered all his enemies both within

and without. Within, He has conquered all enemies such as desires,

hope, etc., and externally, has conquered enemies like Ravana,

Hiranyakasipu and others.

 

525. Pramodanah –`Ever-blissful'. One who is constantly enjoying His

own Eternal, Blissful nature. The term indicates `Vishnu' because Sri

Narayana is the One that causes bliss in the heart of those who

meditate upon Him. SrI BhaTTar connects the interpretation of this

nAma to the previous one by indicating that when the devotees realize

that bhagavAn has removed the foes such as anger, desire, etc., they

feel delighted, and He is pramodanah in this sense.

 

526. Aanandah -A mass of Pure Bliss. Bliss is His pure nature. The

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: " Etasy'aiv'anandasy'anyani bhutani

matram upajivanti - Of this happiness, all other beings enjoy only a

part. " He is called Anandah because He is endowed with a Bliss that is

beyond description or imagination (vA'ng manasa dur-graho mahA Anandah

asya astiiti Anandah).

 

527. Nandanah – " One who makes others blissful. " Since the Lord is the

very source of the happiness of the devotees who reach the divine

plane of Pure Consciousness, it is in Him they get themselves

intoxicated with the endless drunkenness of thus unceasing Bliss.

BhagavAn gives brahmAnandam to the liberated souls (mukta-s) when He

confers moksham to them, and as a result He Himself rejoices. The

previous nAma signified that He is the embodiment of Bliss, and the

current nAma indicates that He gives this happiness to the mukta-s.

This happiness is in no way different from the happiness that He

Himself enjoys.

 

528. Nandah -One who is freed from all limited worldly pleasures.

Worldly pleasures come through contact with the objects of the

sense-organs. The term means One who has no joys out of contact with

the world of senses, as He dwells in transcendence of all the

equipments of pleasure-the body, mind and intellect. Chandogya

Upanishad says, " Yo vai bhuma tat sukham, nalpe sulkam asti -That

which is immensity is felicity; there is no felicity in littleness. "

Sri Bhattar: He Who is full of things that are Blissful. He has with

Himself, in full, the enjoyable materials, the instruments for

enjoyment, the modes of enjoyment, the people who enjoy, etc., at all

times.

 

529. Satyadharmaa –One whose knowledge and other attributes are true

[sri Sankara]. One who has in Him- self all the true Dharmas.

Kindness, non-injury, charity etc. are considered as the noble

Dharmas. Sri Narayana is One in whom we find all these Dharmas to the

maximum. In short, He is the embodiment of Yoga (Yogesvara). It also

means that One who is rich in the experience of the Supreme Self; for,

the Upanishad says: " This alone is the Supreme Dharma which is to

experience the Self through yoga " [Chinmayananda]. SrI BhaTTar gives

the interpretation that BhagavAn is called satya-dharmA because He is

noted for His uprightness towards His devotees right from the time

they begin to approach Him up to the time of their attainment of Him

 

530. Trivikramah – " One who has taken the three steps " . One who has, in

three steps, conquered the three worlds in his Vamana-incarnation.

Sankara refers to Sruti: Trini pada vicakrame- by His feet, He covered

three measures'. Harivamsa says:

Trir'ity'eva trayo lokah kirtita munisattamaih

Kramate tams tridha sarvams trivikrama iti srutah

-By the sound tri the sages mean the three worlds. The Lord crossed

them three times. So He is famous as Trivikrama.

The spiritual seeker has only to take three steps to reach the Centre

of the Self in him- self. Once he has stepped across the

fields-of-experiences in the waking, dream and deep-sleep conditions,

he has reached the Infinite Consciousness, the Atman. The very term

`Tri' in Sanskrit means `the three-worlds.' " The greatest men of

reflection have declared the three fields-of-experiences (Loka) by the

simple term `Tri, " -(Harivamsa) [Chinmayananda]. SrI BhaTTar interprets

" tri " here as referring to the three veda-s (Rk, sAma, and yajur

veda-s). The terms trayI and tri are used for the three veda-s, and

tri-vikramah has been interpreted as referring to His pervading the

three veda-s, viz. He is the object of the three veda-s. SrI BhaTTar

gives reference to the following:

trirityevam trayo vedAh kIrtitAhmuni-sattamaih |

kramate tAn tathA sarvAn tri-vikrama iti smRtah ||

SrI BhaTTar uses the meaning " veda " for the word " loka " in this

reference, whereas SrI Sankara uses the meaning " world " for this same

word in his interpretation.

 

Krishnarpanamastu!