Vishnu Sahasranama - Ishvara is everything

 

In the previous post we saw that Īśvara is the creator as well as the created. In fact, all that is here is only names which in reality reveal  Īśvara alone. Just like the name pot reveals its truth, its cause, clay. Pot is only a name, its truth, its substance, being clay. When we take a more complex thing like a kurta, we find that kurta is name for the cotton fabric that is its truth. And cotton fabric is a name for the cotton yarn that is its truth. Cotton yarn is also but a name for the fibres of which it is made. Fibres are but a name for molecules, and molecules but a name for atoms and atoms but a name for particles. And particles are considered as concepts. Concepts are not separate from the Consciousness that one is. Concepts or Knowledge a name for  Consciousness and Consciousness that illumines knowledge is the Ultimate Source. Knowledge resting in the Conscious  Being, is what manifests as this universe. 

Total knowledge is the material cause as well as the creator of the Universe. Īśvara is the maker as well as the material of this universe. 

In most human creations the maker and the material are different. Here we are saying that Īśvara is both the maker and the material. To help us assimilate this, our scriptures gives us two examples. The first one is that of the spider and its web. The spider is unique because it both the maker (nimitta kāraṇa )and the material cause ( upādana kāraṇa) of the web.  As the efficient cause or nimitta kāraṇa the spider is the architect  as it were, who designs and directs the creation of the web. And as the upādana kāraṇa it produces the substance of the web from its own body. Thus the universe is not made out of nothing or out of some external matter. The universe is a manifestation of Īśvara’s Being.  

Another example that the scriptures use to help us understand how Īśvara is both the efficient cause as well as the material cause of the universe, is that of our everyday example of dream. In a dream you are the creator of the entire dream world. Your mind literally designs the whole dream. It has the power to create anything it desires in the dream. In the dream you alone,  are manifest as the mountains, rivers, oceans, flora, fauna, people and relationships, the entire plot of the dream. Just as your samskaras effortlessly manifests the dream to its dream existence, Īśvara  is the nimitta kāraṇa, the Conscious intelligence that manifests/ projects this whole universe, effortlessly.  The dream example is even more profound than the spider example. What you understand from the dream example, is that NO EXTERNAL MATTER whatsoever is required– for the dream mountain you don’t go out and buy some clay to build it.  In fact you don’t use any material outside of yourself. The substance that the dream mountain is made of is you own mind. The people in your dream are also made out of your own mind. 

What the dream example shows us is that Īśvara does not use anything ‘external’ to manifest this universe. Īśvara is the very substance, the upādana kāraṇa  of the universe. Every bit of this universe is Īśvara. The universe has no existence independent of Īśvara. Īśvara  is all-knowledge and all power, which is manifest in the form space, air, fire, water, earth, plants, food and this body. The physical body, the organs of knowledge and action, the mind which constitute the individual, as well the rest of the universe, all of these are Īśvara’s manifestations. 

So it is not that Īśvara is everywhere, it is that everything is Īśvara. Space is Īśvara. Time is Īśvara.  Air is Īśvara,  fire is Īśvara,  water is Īśvara,  body is Īśvara,  prāṇa is Īśvara.  All that is here is Īśvara. 

In the next post we will see the meaning of the word 'bhagavān'.

Vishnu Sahasranama - The Maker and Material - 2

 In the last post we saw that īśvara, is the ultimate Giver, of this creation which includes time, space and our body-mind-sense complex.

To make a simple fruit-salad you need not only the raw-material like fruits, nuts etc, you also need the one who makes the fruit salad, who has knowledge of how to make the fruit salad. So too, to create this universe īśvara, needs both knowledge of the Universe, as well as the material to create. Since the creation is yet to manifest, the only substance which can be the material of the universe is īśvara, as īśvara, alone is existent.

Our scriptures the Veda, declares that everything comes from īśvara. In the taittirīya upaniṣad, we see īśvara defined as :-

यतो वा इमानि भूतानि जायन्ते । येन जातानि जीवन्ति ।

यत् प्रयन्त्यभिसंविशन्ति ।

‘That from which all these have come, that by which all these are sustained and unto whom all these go back,’ that is īśvara. The material of which this universe is made is īśvara.

Let’s look at a simple example of a clay pot. To make the clay pot, you need clay and you need the potter who shapes the clay into a pot. When we loot the pot and analyse it, we find that actually it is clay – the substance of the pot is clay. ‘Pot’ is only a name for a form of clay. Suppose you have a clay tumbler, a clay saucer, a few more different sized pots. When we analyse them, we find that as far as the substance is concerned there is only clay there. In fact, pot, tumbler, saucer are but different names for different forms of clay. If the pot is broken, what remains is clay. If the tumbler is broken what remains is clay. If the saucer is broken, what remains is clay.

In terms of our understanding of reality then, the pot is not as real as the clay, because pot is only a form of clay and when pot is broken, the pot disappears, but the clay persists. Pot is a dependent reality, whereas clay is independent of the pot. Clay is the satya, the truth, the persisting reality of the pot, which is not destroyed when the pot is destroyed. And the pot being an existent reality (till it is broken) is nevertheless a dependent reality, dependent on clay. In samskr̥t, we have a terminology for that which is a temporary, dependent reality and that is mithyā.

Coming back to our discussion on īśvara, since īśvara is the material cause of the is universe, like clay is the material cause of the pot, īśvara is satya, the independent truth of the Universe, and the universe is but name and form ( nāma rūpa ) of īśvara. The universe has a dependent, temporary existence – in terms of reality it is mithyā.

The whole universe is but nāma rūpa (names and forms) of īśvara. That is why īśvara has so many different names as we see in the Viśṇu ṣahasranāma.

More on īśvara’s nature in the next post.

Vishnu Sahasranama - Who is the Lord - 1

 

Continuing the posts on the meanings of the names of Lord Viśṇu

Viśṇu ṣahasranāma means the thousand names of the Lord. Why should we chant the thousand names of the Lord? Is it possible that Lord can have a thousand names? These kinds of questions are answered when we understand who is the Lord.

The Lord is the Giver – the giver of our body-mind-sense complex, the world around us, the universe. The Lord is Ishvara is the one who protects, sustains and who is ever the source of all blessings.

Let us understand, why we call Ishvara as the Giver. We are individuals, placed in this universe, which is in time and space and which is the total. This universe consists of sentient and insentient beings, the forces of nature, the man-made forces, all causes and their effects which includes actions and their results. – Everything here, in this universe is interconnected.

Our body-mind-sense complex is an assembly of many different types of cells and organs which are inter-connected, intelligently put together. Similarly, the world external to the body is also an assembly of different parts, interconnected, intelligently put together.

Look at a simple seed and you can understand the intelligence that blessed it with enough nourishment to bring forth a huge redwood tree. Look at the working of the different organs in your body, and see how they intricately interact with each other to serve the needs of the body as a whole.

Anything can be intelligently put together only when there is knowledge of how to do so. For example, the eye is the organ of sight, that is composed of photo receptor cells, retinal nerve cells, support and structural cells and focusing and colour cells. These have all been intelligently put-together to create the eye.

Knowledge precedes their being put-together. And knowledge must rest in a conscious being.

Whatever is intelligently put-together is what is this universe and there must be a conscious being behind it, who has the necessary knowledge to put it together.

Naturally this knowledge must be all-knowledge, or total knowledge because we are looking at the whole universe.

Thus, this whole universe is GIVEN and it includes our individual body-mind-complex. The various laws of cause and effect that governs this universe is also GIVEN. Individually and totally all that is here is intelligently put-together. And the one who has the prior (prior to the universe’s manifestation) knowledge of this universe is called īśvara, the GIVER of all that is here. Naturally īśvara has total skill to create.

People think that īśvara is sitting somewhere in heaven. But the question is where was īśvara before heaven was created? Heaven is also in time and space, being created. Creation includes time and space and everything that is there in it. īśvara, the creator of this entire universe, which includes time and space, cannot sit in the universe and create.

So somebody replies, ok , then īśvara must be outside the universe and from there He created this universe? However, the concept ‘outside’ is also within space! So īśvara cannot be ‘outside’ space, nor can īśvara be ‘inside’ space and time. Then we can only say that this universe which includes space and time is īśvara.

More on the nature of īśvara, the GIVER, in the next post

Vishnu Sahasranama - Verse traditionally chanted before chanting the Sahasranama

 

These verses are traditionally chanted before chanting the Viṣṇu Sahasranāma. As we go along, I will try to fill in few details of the great sages mentioned in these verses.

व्यासं वसिष्ठनप्तारं शक्तेः पौत्रमकल्मषम् ।

पराशरात्मजं वन्दे शुकतातं तपोनिधिम् ॥

I salute Sage Vyāsa, the great grandson of Sage Vasiṣṭha and the grandson of Sage Śakti, the son of Parāśara and the father of Sage Śuka, and who is by himself an abode of austerity and who is free of all blemishes.

Sage Vyāsa refers to Sage Veda Vyāsa, who is the legendary complier of the four Vedās, the author of the Purānās and the Māhābhārata. The festival of Guru Pūrṇima which is also known as Vyāsa Pūrṇima is dedicated to him.

Sage Vasiṣṭha the great-grandfather of Sage Vyāsa, is highly revered in Sanatana Dharma. He was one of the sons (mānas-putra) of Lord Brahma.

Sage Śakti was a revered Vedic rishi, the eldest son of Sage Vasiśṭha and Arundhati, and the father of Sage Parāśara. Known for his profound knowledge, he was a key figure in the lineage of sages mentioned in the Mahābhārata and Purāṇas.

Sage Parāśara is a revered Vedic sage, recognized as the author of the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, the foundational Brhat Parāshara Hora Śāstra (Vedic astrology), and a Smr̥ti text. He is the grandson of Sage Vasiśṭha, son of Sage Śaktii, and the father of Sage Vyāsa. 

व्यासाय विष्णुरूपाय व्यासरूपाय विष्णवे ।

नमो वै ब्रह्मनिधये वासिष्ठाय नमो नमः ॥ ४॥

Salutations to Vyāsa who is in the form of Viṣṇu and salutations to Viṣṇu who is in the form of Vyāsa. Salutations again and again to him, who is an abode of the Vedas and who is of the lineage of Vasiṣṭha.

अविकाराय शुद्धाय नित्याय परमात्मने ।

सदैकरूपरूपाय विष्णवे सर्वजिष्णवे ॥ ५॥

(Prostrations) to Lord Viṣṇu, who is the Supreme Lord, changeless, pure, timeless, always of the same nature and ever victorious. 

यस्य स्मरणमात्रेण जन्मसंसारबन्धनात् ।

विमुच्यते नमस्तस्मै विष्णवे प्रभविष्णवे ॥ ६॥

Salutations to Lord Viṣṇu, who is almighty and by remembering whom, one is freed from the cycle of birth and death.

Vishnu Sahasranama - Praise of Vishnu in form of Krishna and Vyasa

 

सच्चिदानन्दरूपाय कृष्णायाक्लिष्टकारिणे| नमो वेदान्तवेद्याय गुरवे बुद्धिसाक्षिणे|| Om. Adoration to Krishna whose nature is sat, cit, ananda, who effortlessly acts, who is known through Vedanta, who is the Guru, and who is the witness of all cognitions.

आदिस्त्वं सर्वभूतानां मध्यमन्तस्तथा भगवान्।

त्वत्तः सर्वमभूद् विश्वं त्वयि सर्वं प्रलीयते।।

You Krishna are the source of all beings; so also are you the middle and end thereof. The whole world has issued out of you; in you all attain dissolution.

कृष्णद्वैपायनं व्यासं सर्वलोकाहितैषिणाम्।

वेदाब्जभास्करं वन्दे शमादिनिलयं मुनिम्।।

I adore the sage Krishnadvaipayana  Vyasa, devoted to the welfare of all beings, who is the sun to the lotus of the Vedas and who is the abode of self-control etc.

Vishnu Sahasranama Meanings - 1

 

As I embark on writing the meanings of Vishnu Sahasranama, for my own study, I invoke Lord's Grace with the the following verse:-

शुक्लाम्बरधरं विष्णुं शशिवर्णं चतुर्भुजम् ।

प्रसन्नवदनं ध्यायेत् सर्वविघ्नोपशान्तये ॥ १॥

For the cessation of obstacles, one should meditate on Him who wears a white dress, who is all pervasive, of the colour of the Moon, who has four arms and a tranquil face.

Before undertaking any work, this verse is generally chanted as a prayer, to invoke the grace of Lord Ganesh.

Lord Ganesh is invoked as Vighnaraja - the Lord of obstacles, as well a Vighnahara -the one who removes obstacles. As Vighnaraja, He is the one as giver of fruit of our adharmic actions, who can throw obstacles our way. Obstacles are but our own adharmic actions bearing fruit. We invoke the Lord Grace as Vighnahara, requesting Him to remove all our obstacles.

We have no way of knowing, what actions we may have performed in this life or previous lives, which are now fructifying as obstacles. Not do we know what is waiting to fructify as obstacles. So we pray to the Lord for removal of obstacles.

All our obstacles can fall into three categories:-

1. ādhyātimika - obstacles which are centered on oneself like lack of memory, lack of concentration and discipline, difficult emotions, illnesses etc

2. ādhibhautika- obstacles caused in the environment like the loud wedding music till early morning, irritating people ,dogs barking, mosquito bites and so on

3. ādhidaivika - obstacles caused by forces of nature like cyclones, earthquakes, storms etc. We have no control over these and they can become obstacles.

So Lord Ganesha is invoked as Vighnaharta whose Grace can remove these obstacles.

He is śuklā-ambara-dhara, the one who wears white clothes. He is viṣṇu, the one who is all-pervasive and śaśi-varṇa, who has the pleasant colour of the moon. As on meditates on Him all the heat of one's anxieties fade away. He has four hands, chaturbhuja and a smiling tranquil face, prasanna-vadana. His smile indicates His fullness.

This verse can also refer to Lord Vishnu.