VISHNU SAHASRANAAM

488. Simhah –The Lion Due to His great exploits in fighting the negative forces during His various incarnations, He is indicated as the Lion among beings in the universe Also in Sanskrit “any part of a name can indicate the full name” Thus Bheema means ‘Bheema Sena’ or ‘Bhaamaa’ means ‘Satya-Bhaamaa’ Similarly, ‘Simha’ here might mean a part of the Lord’s name as ‘Narasimha’; Narayana had taken the form of the Man-Lion in order to end the tyranny of Hiranyakasipu, and bless his God-devoted son Prahlaada

489. Bhoota-Mahevarah -The Great Lord of Beings One who is the Lord who orders, commands, regulates and presides over all activities of all living creatures, and hence is ever the Ruler of All creature.

490. Aadidevah -The first Deity. Or it can also mean as one who is First (Aadi) and one who is resplendent (Deva); further we can also take it to mean that He is the First Deva, meaning, He is the God of all gods. The term ‘Aadi’ also means “one who eats;” the term’ Deva’ can mean ‘one who evolves’: thus the term can mean “one who evolves in eating up,” by consuming the names and forms. This implies that to the extent one withdraws himself from his false occupations with the perceived names and forms, he moves deeper and deeper into the experiences of the divine Lord in himself; with this idea in mind, Lord is described by this term, “One who evolves in consuming the names and forms.”

491. Mahaadevah -The Great Deity, He is the Source of all Consciousness, and from Him have risen all further deities and beings, therefore, it is right to consider Him as the Supreme Lord.

492. Devesah -The Lord of all Devas. He is the very Consciousness in the gods themselves; therefore, in His unquestionable prominence, He is addressed here as “God of all gods.”

493. Deva-bhrid-guruh –“One who is the king of gods”-Indra -(Deva Bhrit) and one who is the teacher (Guruh). In short, He is the protector and advisor of the very Indra, who is the king of gods.

Stanza 53

uttaro gopatirgoptaa jnaanagamyah puraatanah
sareera bhootabhritbhoktaa kapeendro bhooridakshinah.

494. Uttarah -One who helps to lift us from (Uttarah) the ocean of Samsar. It also conveys the most excellent meaning of “One who is greater and nobler than all other deities.” Rigveda declares: “He is the most excellent of all.”

495. Gopatih -The shepherd-As one who played the part of a cowherd in His Krishna-incarnation. The term ‘Go’ in Sanskrit has got four meanings: the cattle, the earth, the speech and the vedas. In all these meanings He is the Lord (Pati): Lord of the cattle; Lord of Earth; Lord of speech; the Lord about whom all the Vedas speak of as the very Goal.

496. Goptaa -The protector He is the Protector of all living creatures in as much as, if He were not there, the creatures could not exist He is the very Existence in the living Kingdom.

497. Jnaanagamyah -The One who is to be attained only through the subtle perception of Jnaana He is not attained either by actions, or by progeny or by wealth Only through a (“JnaanaPrasaadena”) pure ‘knowledge’ alone He is experienced Here the word knowledge does not mean the ordinary knowledge-of-thing. The experience of Truth is gained only on transcending the intellect. Thus crossing the barriers of the non-apprehension (Avidyaa) the meditator comes to apprehend the Reality; this subjective first-hand apprehension is called True Knowledge (Jnaana); by this one process alone can one attain the Infinite; hence this term.

498. Puraatanah -He who was even before Time. That from which even the concept-of- Time itself rose up is the Infinite Truth and. therefore. Truth cannot be measured in terms of Time. Therefore, he is called the Ancient, for, he transcends Time.

499. Sareera-bhoota-bhrit -One who nurses and nourishes the very element from which the bodies are constituted. The Lord is the controller of the very five elements.

500. Bhoktaa -The Enjoyer or the Protector. The term “ Bhoktaa” can be dissolved in two ways. In (a) it would mean the ‘Protector’ and in (b) it would mean as the ‘Enjoyer’. According to Vedanta, Lord in His transcendental glory, as the Atman, is neither the ‘Doer’ nor the ‘Enjoyer’ and yet, here, the Lord is taken as the ‘Enjoyer’ only in the sense that the experiencer ‘ego,’ the Jeeva, is also nothing other than the Supreme in Its final Essence.

501. Kapeendrah -One who is the Lord of the Monkeys-Sri Ramachandraji. ‘ Kapih’ also can mean the Boar-incarnation (Varaaha).

502. Bhoori-dakshinah -He who gives away large gifts (Dakshinaa), as presents distributed at the end of the Sacrifices. When the body, mind and the intellect of man make sacrifices, man does Karmas. Lord Narayana is the One who gives the results for all actions: (Karma Phala Daataa); hence this term to indicate the Lord.

Stanza 54

somapo-amritapah somah purujit purusattamah
vinayo jayah satyasandho daasaarhah saatvataam patih.

503. Somapah -One who drinks the Soma-juice in the Yajnas, in the form of the deity that has been invoked by the householder. In short, Narayana is the Lord that receives all the offerings, in all rituals, which we may offer, because He is the One invoked, who plays as the various hierarchy of deties.

504. Amritapah -One who drinks the nectar. As the Infinite Truth He at all times enjoys the blissful immortality (Amritatvam). Also, it may have the echo of the puranic story of the churning of the Ocean-of-milk (Ksheeraabdhi) until they got the Nectar, which was confiscated by the Asuras, and when they ran away, it was Sri Narayana, who, in the form of the irresistible Mohinee, a beautiful enchanting damsel, recovered the Nectar from them and distributed it to the gods. He had partaken the Nectar along with the gods.

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