VISHNU SAHASRANAMAM

Question 4.  Kam archantah praapnuyuh
                   Maanavaah subham?
                   By worshipping whom can a man reach 
                   auspiciousness (peace and prosperity)?

Answer 4.   Tameva cha archayan nityam
                  Bhaktyaa purusham avyayam
                  Stuvan naama-sahasrena
                  Purushah satatthitah.
                  By meditating upon, by worshipping and by
                prostrating at the same Purusha, man can reach true
                  Auspiciousness.

Question 5.  Ko dharmah sarva-dharmaanaam
                   Bhavatah paramo matah?
                   What is, in thy opinion, the Greatest Dharma?

Question 6.  Kim japan muchyate jantuh
                  Janma-samsaara-bandhaaat?
                  By doing japa of what can “creatures” (jantu) go 
                  beyond the bonds of samsara?

Answers 5&6. A naadi-nidhanam vishnum
                  Sarvaloka-maheshvaram
                  Lokaadhyaksham stuvan nityam
                  Sarva-duhkha-atigo bhavet.

Both questions are answered here: - the greatest Dharma is the one Vishnu, who has neither a beginning (Aadi) nor an end (Nidhanam), the supreme Lord of the world. All creatures can go beyond the bonds of samsar, “and he goes beyond all sorrows” who daily chants the sahasranaamas and within glorifies “the knower of the world” (Lokaadhyaksha).

The supreme is described as that from which the whole world of names and forms had risen in the beginning of the creation, that in which the world continues to exit, that into which alone the world can merge back during the ‘Dissolution’ (Pralaya); this supreme is VISHNU.

After thus answering all questions, “His thousand Name”, said Bheeshma, “I shall now advise you. Please listen to them with all attention”. This is how the Sacred Hymn, called as “The thousand names of Lord Vishnu”, is introduced in the Mahaabhaarata.

The Supreme cannot be defined and since He is the very substratum of all qualities, He cannot be denominated by any name, or indicated by any term, or defined in any language, or ever expressed, even vaguely, in any literary form. He is beyond both the “Known” and the “Unknown”. He is the very illumining Principle of Consciousness that illuminates all experiences.

And yet He has many manifestations and, therefore, He can have infinite names in terms of His manifestations. Definitions should directly describe the thing defined, and here we have a thousand indirect definitions with which the Real, the Infinite is being indicated in terms of the unreal and the finite. These “Thousand names of the Lord” have been coined and given out by the Rishis. They were collected and strung together into a joyous Hymn to Vishnu, a garland of devotion and reverence, by the poet-seer Vyaasa.

Since each of them is thus an indicative definition of the unknown in terms of the known, each term here can rocket-us up into the realms of the divine experience, only when we have lifted our minds towards it through contemplation. Thus the Vishnu Sahasranaama is employed not only by the devotees, in the sweet attitude of ‘sporting with the Lord’, but these are also employed by the contemplative students of philosophy, as gliders to roam in the realms of inspired Higher Consciousness.

In the Kali-Santarana Upanishad, which is one of the minor Upanishads, we find the great devotee Naarada approaching Brahmaaji to enquire what is the way out for man to evolve in these hard days of extrovertedness, which is quite natural and unavoidable in the Iron-age (Kaliyuga).”Repetition of the names of Naaraayana is sufficient enough”, was the reply given.

It is to be carefully noted here that in the sixth question the enquiry was how can ‘creatures’ realise the Highest. Jantu means ‘that which is born’ (Janana-dharman). So all living creatures are fit for this easy path. ‘Creatures’ could even include the animal kingdom as it is described in the Puraanas in their own poetic language. In the Trikutaachala lake, the elephant that was caught by the crocodile is described as having been saved by the Lord (Gajendra Moksha). The story of Jadabharata is yet another example.

Sankara in his commentary describes here Japa as comprehensive of all the three types. (A) That which can be heard by others; (B) That which is heard by ourselves; (C) That which is mental.

Vishnu Sahasranaama can be employed in performing Japa of all these three kinds.

In the following “Thousand Names”, we meet with, though rarely, some repetitions. Exactly 90 names have been repeated in this Great Hymn; and of them, 74 are repeated twice, 14 are repeated thrice, and again 2 of them are found to have been repeated four times. Sometimes, the terms are repeated as such Vishnu- Vishnu, Siva-Siva etc. and sometimes different words with the same meaning are also employed (Sreepati- Maadhava; Pushkaraaksha- Kamalaaksha). These need not be considered as a defect, since this Hymn is a chant of His Glory .In a chant of glory (stuti) repetitions are acceptable-it is but a style of the emotional heart to repeat its declarations of love.

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