SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokma 105 - 984. annAdaH.

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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokma 105 - 984. annAdaH.

 

984. annAdaH – The Enjoyer of those who enjoy Him.

 

om annAdAya namaH.

 

The word annam can be derived from the roots ad – bhaksahNe, or ana –

prANane, as indicated in the previous nAma, and one of the meanings

is food. To this word, the stem –Ada is added, to get the word

annAdaH. This stem itself (Ada) is again derived from the same root

ad – bhakshaNe – to eat, literally giving the meaning " The eater of

food " . In the current context, the meaning is that BhagavAn is the

Enjoyer of those who enjoy Him. The previous nAma indicated that He

is One who is enjoyed by His devotees as annam, and the current nAma

indicates that He in turn enjoys the devotees who enjoy Him – annam

atti iti annAdaH.

 

SrI BhaTTar's words in interpretation are: tAnSca tathA bhu'nkte iti

annAdaH – He is annAdaH since He also enjoys them in the same way as

they enjoy Him.

 

He proceeds to explain the significance of the next two words in the

Slokam – eva and ca, which are not nAma-s of bhagavAn per se. He

explains that the significance of the word eva is that there is no

one else like Him – ko anya IdRSaH? iti eva-kAraH. The significance

of the word ca is that all that has been described thus far are

present perfectly in this one Deity, namely Lord vishNu – `ca' SabdaH

sarvamuktam ekatra asmin samuccinoti |.

 

SrI baladeva vidyA bhUshaN echoes the same interpretation for the

words eva and ca –

na hyetAdRk anyo'sti iti bodhayitum eva-kAraH | nikhila bhhogya

samuccAya ca-kAraH

 

This mutual love of the devotees to BhagavAn (He being annam), and

for bhagavAn to His devotees (He being annAdaH), is nicely described

by nammAzhvAr in his tiruvAimozhi pASuram 9.7.9, almost like a mutual

competition of who enjoys whom most, and is referenced by both SrI

v.v. rAmAnujan and by SrI vELukkuDi kRshNan:

 

vArik koNDu unnai vizhu'nguvan kANil enRu

ArvuRRa ennai ozhiya ennil munnam

pArittu, tAn ennai muRRap paruginAn

kAr okkum kATkarai appan kaDiyanE. (tiruvAi. 9.7.9)

 

AzhvAr says that he had been just waiting to see bhagavAn, and as

soon as He would see Him, his plan was to just swallow Him completely

with nothing left for anybody else. But even before that could

happen, bhagavAn planned more skillfully, and displayed His extreme

sauSIlyam to AzhvAr. This made AzhvAr melt down completely, and

bhagavAn just drank him totally in this `dravya' form. AzhvAr

exclaims that this tirukkATkaraiappan is an extremely hard nut to

crack, and One with whom no one can compete in this kind of game, or

in anything else for that matter. AzhvAr wanted to make Him annam,

but bhagavAn instead became the annAdan in this case.

 

SrI Sa'nkara gives the meaning – annam atti iti annAdaH - " The Eater

of food " to the nAma, and explains that the nAma signifies that

bhagavAn is the eater of the whole world as food. SrI Sa'nkara

proceeds to explain the next two words eva and ca as follows:

 

- sarvam jagat annAdi rUpeNa bhoktR-bhogyAtmakam eva iti

darSayitum eva-kAraH- " The particle eva is used to show that the

entire universe of becoming enjoyer and enjoyed, is traceable to the

Lord.

- ca SabdaH sarva nAmnAm ekasmin parasmin pumsi samuccitya

vRttim darSayitum – The adjunct ca is used to indicate that all names

ultimately indicate a single Superior person. Another translation

found for Sri Sa'nkara's words is: The word ca is used to show that

all the names given in the text can be applied to the one

ParamAtman.

 

SrI rAdhAkRshNa SAstri comments that everything in this world can be

classified in two categories: food, and the eater of food. Through

the nAmas annam and annAdaH for bhagavAn almost near the conclusion

of the stotra, SrI bhIshma indicates to dharmaputra that vAsudeva who

is seated in front of them is the One that has been described all

along through all the nAma-s starting with viSvam, all the way up to

the current nAma. In the next Sloka, he states explicitly that

Lord vishNu who has been praised in all the previous Sloka-s, is none

other devakI-nandana kRshNa Who is seated in front of them.

 

The concluding section of bhRgu valli in the taittirIya upanishad

summarizes that bhagavAn pervades food as well as the eater of food,

and so He is both of the form of annam and annAdaH – aham annam

annamadantamAdmi.

 

SrI kRshNa datta bhAradvAj explains the nAma as – annam –

svajanopahRtam modakAni atti iti annAdaH – BhagavAn is called annAdaH

because He gladly accepts the offerings from His devotees.

 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

 

(To be continued)