VISHNU SAHASRANAAM

(188) Govidaam Patih -One, who is the Lord of all ‘seers’ and “Men of Wisdom”. We have already indicated that Go means Vedas. Govit- Vedavit-those, who have realized the Theme indicated in the Vedic declaration as the Essential Reality in their Own subjective bosom. They are called the Seers or Sages. To such Men-of-Wisdom the Self-alone is the Lord and the Master.

Stanza 21

mareechir-damano hamsah suparno bhujagottamah
hiranyanaabhah sutapaah padmanaabhah prajaapatih.

(189) Mareechih -The term Mareechih means ‘Effulgence’. Consciousness illumines objects and therefore in terms of worldly knowledge the Upanishads declare that the Supreme is the Light-Infinite. In the Geeta we read Bhagavan, Vaasudeva declaring: “I am the Light in all effulgents” -(Geeta Ch. 10, St. 36).

(190) Damanah -One who restrains and controls every Raakshasic impulse within the bosom. In the forms of the ten incarnations, He had controlled the irresistible tyrannies of the vicious against the good. In the form of pain and agitation, sorrow and death, it is He, who is the Controller, Damanah, of all negative tendencies in everyone’s Heart.

(191) Hamsah -One of the great declarations of the Vedas is: “I am Brahman” (Aham Brahmaasmi). Here the term I, the first person singular used, denotes the supreme. Self functioning through the conditionings.” This individual concept is called jeeva. Thus I, the Jeeva (Aham), once detached from the conditionings, IS essentially nothing other than He, the Lord (Sah). This experience that Aham is Sah is the very God-consciousness and therefore, Vishnu, the Supreme State of Realization is declared as Hamsah.

(192) Suparnah -Parna means wings; Suparna means that which has beautiful wings-bird. “A pair of white- winged birds extremely friendly sit on one and the same tree; one cats the fruits, the other eats not and gazes on”.

Thus traditionally in the Upanishads, the Suparnas suggest the Jeevaatmaa and the Paramaatmaa sitting on the same tree (body): one (Jeeva) eats the fruits (of actions) and the other (the Self) merely gazes on (Saakshee). Vishnu is this All-experiencing Principle of consciousness.

(193) Bhujagottamah -The sacred serpent named in the puranas as Ananta. “ Among the serpents I am Ananta,” says Krishna: -(Geeta Ch. 10, St. 29).

(194) Hiranyanaabhah -He, who supports at His navel, the creator, Hiranyagarba. The meaning for this term as given by some is “the One who has the navel region beautiful in its golden hue” must fail, in the context of the thoughts in the stanza, to appeal to all seekers.

(195) Sutapaah -One who has glorious Tapas. Consistent creative thinking is called tapas. For this, mental concentration is unavoidable. Mind cannot have consistent concentration unless it can have a perfect control over the sense-organs. Even when the mind is withdrawn from the sense-organs, it must have a consistent intellectual ideal to concentrate upon. In the Upanishad, we read: “He thought and through thought, He created all this”.

(196) Padmanaabhah -One who supports at His navel the very seat of all creative-power. We have described this term earlier (48). According to Sankara, here the term may mean one who has a navel region which in its rounded beauty, is as charming as the lotus flower .

(197) Prajaapatih -The Lord of the creatures. Since all creatures have emerged from Him, the living creatures are His children (Prajaa) and He is their Pati. The term Pati has a direct meaning: ‘father’. Thus Vishnu, as the only source from which all creatures have emerged out, is called as Prajaapatih.

Stanza 22

amrityus-sarva-drik simhah san-dhaataa sandhimaan sthirah
ajo durmarshanah saastaa visrutaatmaa suraarihaa.

(198) Amrityuh –One who knows no decay Birth, growth, decay, disease and death, are the five great modifications through which every finite objects must necessarily pass. Everything born must perish. The one who has no birth has no death. The waves die but not the ocean. That which is Changeless in the changing whirls of matter is the Infinite Vishnu. In the Bhagavad Geeta, the Lord is emphatic: “He who sees the Changeless amidst the changing names and forms, He alone sees the meaning and purpose of life.”

(199) Sarvadrik -The seer and knower of everything. The Consciousness that illumines all motives and intentions -and the manifested activities that spring from them -in each individual, at all times, is necessarily the Witness of all, the Seer of everything, Maha Vishnu.

(200) Simhah -One who destroys. The Law be- hind all destruction and change in the Maayaa is the Mighty Lord. On transcending the Vehicles of the body, mind and intellect, at a time when all experiences of perceptions, emotions and thoughts are annihilated from us, the Experience left over is the Supreme. And in the Non-dual Supreme, there cannot be any object other than itself. Therefore, that “State” is called as the Total Destroyer. The State of Waking is the “destroyer” of the dream-world; the State of Sleep is the “destroyer” of the waking and the dream; the State of God Consciousness is the total “ Annihilator” of all the known three planes of Consciousness. He is Simhah -a word that has been formed by the mutual transposition of the letters in Himsaa.

Even taking its obvious superficial meaning Vishnu is a Lion in our bosom, in as much as, He is the king of the forest of Samsaar: at the roar of Narayana all the animal-passions flee from the jungles of the mind. In the Geeta while describing His own Glory, the Lord says, “Among the animals, I am the King of animals, Lion.” -Geeta Ch. 10, St. 30.

(201) Sandhaataa - The Co-relator, the Regulator, the One who co-relates the actions and their fruits. In fact, the fruit of an action is nothing other than the action itself; the action itself presents as its fruit in a different period of time, maturing under its own Law. This Great Law is the Lord, whom the devotee accepts as “The Giver of all fruits of action”.

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