VISHNU SAHASRANAAM

458. Sughoshah –“Of auspicious sound.” This is the name of the conch that Krishna blew in the opening of the Mahabharata war. The sound of Vishnu is the essence of all Vedas as all the four Vedas have come from Him, the Supreme. Hence the term “of auspicious sound.”

459. Sukhadah –“One who confers happiness.” It can also mean in Sanskrit one who is the destroyer of joy (Da-to destroy). Here, of course, it means that One who gives joy to His devotees and takes away joy from those who are undivine.

460. Suhrit –“The friend of all living creatures.” A true friend is one who gives all that he possesses without expecting any return.

461. Manoharah -One who is the looter of the mind; or charming. Not only is the Lord Beauty Incarnate, but He compels the attention of the devotee to come away from all other sense objects to dwell upon His enchanting form. Thus Vishnu is one who generates an irresistible joy in the mind of His devotees and compels them to spend their time in constant worship.

462. Jita-krodhah -One who has conquered anger. By the one term here, anger, we should consider all the six inner enemies Kaama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Mada and Maatsarya. These six constitute the types of thoughts in man; the six categories into which all his mental activities fall. One who has conquered all these means one who is beyond the mind-the Self.

463. Veerabaahuh -One having mighty, valiant arms. From time to time He has to incarnate in order to put down the wicked and thereby protect the good.

464. Vidaaranah -One who splits asunder; destroys. In the man-lion form, Narasimha, Lord Vishnu appears to tear open and kill Hiranyakasipu. Again, in order to destroy Hiranyaaksha and to lift the earth from the ocean, Sri Narayana had to take the form of the great boar (Varaaha). Accordingly in the Sanskrit vocabulary, bhoo-daarah is a synonym for boar (Varaaha). Dara means to split or to tear open. Thus the meaning of the divine Boar can be squeezed out from the term Vidaaranah used here.

Stanza 50

svaapanah svavaso vyaapee naikaatmaa naikakarmakrit
vatsaro vatsalo vatsee ratnagarbho dhanesvarah.

465. Svaapanah –One who puts people to sleep; stupefying. Lord Vishnu as Isvara has for Himself the total Vaasanaa (Maayaa) as an equipment for His self-expression as Eesvara (Narayana). He, through His Maayaa, veils each individual and renders them ignorant of their own divine nature. This “veiling-power” (Aavarana Sakti) creates many agitations (Vikshepa), due to which individuals rush out for sense-gratification. Since Isvara, thus, with His Maayaa-power deludes everybody, He gathers to Himself this epithet Svaapanah meaning “the mighty stupefying force.”

466. Svavasah - The One who has everything under His own personal control; the totally independent. Since He is the Supreme Consciousness, all living creatures and phenomenal powers are functioning by His grace, drawing their capacities to exist and act from Him only. If He withdraws His patronage everything in this Universe must stop functioning immediately. He is supremely independent inasmuch as, though the world-of-objects needs Him, He is entirely self-sufficient and needs no world for His Existence. Thus He is totally free. The waves need the ocean, but the ocean is totally independent of the waves’ existence.

467. Vyaapee -All-pervading. Pervasiveness in philosophy indicates subtlety. Thus All-pervading means that which is “subtler than the subtlest.” This concept is again sustained by the physical observations in the world. The cause always pervades all the effects; the gold pervades all ornaments. The entire universe is an effect and He being the Cause, He pervades all and everything at all times. Thus the All-pervading, in its suggestion, indicates that He is the Ultimate-cause and Himself in His pervasiveness is ever-present everywhere and in everything, presiding over all behaviours, actions and work, everywhere in the universe.

468. Naikaatmaa -Many-souled. Lord, the Infinite, though ever the one, expresses Himself as the many, while manifesting Himself, in the form of the universe. It is He, the One Great Consciousness, that expresses Himself as the creator, sustainer and destroyer-in order to maintain the play of the eternal dance, among the phenomenal things and deeds. He who becomes the Trinity is the great Vishnu Tattva.

469. Naika-karma-krit -The one does many actions, as He is the one Lord of all evolution, preservation, and involation of the universe. where he is not presiding over, no activity can ever take place.

470. Vatsarah -The Abode of the Lord. Not only Lord is living in each one of us our inner-Soul (Antaryaamee) but He is at once, the All-prevading Essence in which, the entire universe exists, and as such, He alone is the Abode of the creatures, He is the endless ‘time’ and the infinite ‘space’ at once. for, in the time-space field alone do things exist. the term “Vatsa,” in sanskrit also means “calf.” the world under discussion, therefore, can also mean “one who gives away claves.” this has reference to krishna who returned to Gopas all the calves, when they were taken away by the enemy.

471. Vatsalah -The supremely affectionate. One who loves his devotees extremely. Narayana is one who has got more affection towards his devotees that all the paternal and maternal love in the world put together. Supreme love is the meaning of the world ‘Vatsalah;’ Lord Narayana is Love Incarnate.

472. Vatsee -The Father. One who has infinite number of children; Lord considers the entire living kingdom as His own children; and nurses and nourishes them. It can also be interpreted as one who trains and protects the calves in the herd.

473. Ratnagarbhah -The Jewel-wombed. Like the ocean, One who has rich wealth concealed in Himself.

On the whole, the term Ratna-garbhah only means that the Lord is quick in His bestowing all the desired objects on His devotees.

474. Dhanesvarah -The Lord of wealth. Here the term “Wealth” means all the good things in the universe- all objects of happiness. He is described in the Puranas as the Lord of the Goddess Lakshmi (Lakshmipati) and as such He is ever the Master-of-all-wealth. The greatest of wealth is, of course, the liberation, and Lord Narayana is the Isvara of this great wealth, He blesses the true devotees with the experience of complete liberation from the entanglements and sorrows of the vestures of matter around us.

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