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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 72 - Part 4.

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Narasimhan Krishnamachari • April 20, 2002 


      SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 72 - mahoragah.

679. mahoragah - a) He Who is great, and enters into our heart (uras).
	b) He Who has a great heart (uras), and blesses us.
	c) He Who manifests Himself in the form of the great serpent ananta,
vAsuki, etc.
	d) He Who has the serpent ananta as His bed.
	e) he Who traverses everywhere in the form of the Sun with His broad
chest.

Om mahoragAya namah.

a) SrI BhaTTar derives his interpretation by using the combination mahA
+ urah + gah.  Uras refers to chest, and in this context it refers to
the heart within us.   urah pradarSitam hRdayam, yad-dvArA tAn (adIyAn)
gaccgati iti mahoragah - He is called mahoragah because He reaches us
who are small like a particle of dust compared to Him, through our
hearts.  SrI BhaTTar poses the rhetorical question: "How does He enter
our heart?", and gives the answer that He enters our heart the same way
the material objects of pleasure enter our heart, namely through our
indriya-s.  We see His form through our eyes, we hear His praise
through our ears, etc., and He slowly gets into our heart through our
own indriya-s, and occupies it after displacing our materialistic
desires from our hearts.  

SrI v.v. rAmAnujan gives several references to prabandham in support of
SrI BhaTTar's interpretation:  "vandAi! En manam pugundAi, manni
ninRAi, nandAda kozhum SuDarE! E'ngaL nambi!" - tiruma'ngai AzhvAr,
tirumozhi 1.10.9; "eNNam pugundu tittikkum amudE! imaiyOr adhipatiyE" -
tiruvAimozhi 6.10.3; "muttanAr mukundanAr pugundu tammuL mEvinAr;
ettinAl iDar kaDal kiDatti? Ezhai ne'njamE" - tiruccanda. 115; "vandu
aruLi en ne'nju iDam koNDa vAnavar kozhundu" - tiruvAi. 5.7.7.

b) While SrI BhaTTar interprets uras as referring to our heart, the
term can also refer to His great heart in blessing the lowest of
creatures - mahatA urasA hRdayena gacchati sva-bhaktam mucukundam iti
mahoragah (Sri baladeva vidyA bhUshaN).  SrI vidyA bhUshaN uses the
term "bhakta praNayittvam", or love for the devotee, to describe the
significance of this nAma.  He gives examples of Lord rAma's getting
into guha's heart by His Ali'nganam or embrace, His showing His
magnanimous heart in performing the last rites for jaTAyu, and His
showing His great affection for His devotee by accepting the fruits
offered by SabarI.  

c) uragah means serpent.  The snake or serpent moves around on its
chest (uras), and so it is called uragah - urasA gacchati iti uragah. 
SrI Samkara uses this meaning for urgah, and gives the interpretation
that bhagavAn manifests Himself in the form of the great serpent
vAsuki, and so He is called mahoragah.  He supports his interpretation
with the quote from gItA 10.28 - sarpANAmapi vAsukih.  Lord kRshNa also
declares that He is ananta among the many-hooded serpents  -
anataScAsmi nAgAnAm (10.29), and based on this, SrI cinmayAnanda
interprets the nAma as indicating that He has this nAma because He
manifests Himself in the form of ananta.  

d) SrI kRshNa datta bhAradvAj suggests that the nAma is suggestive of
His having ananta as His bed - mahAn - mahanIyah, uragah - anantah,
SayyA-rUpeNa yasya iti mahoragah.    

e) SrI satyadevo vAsishTha uses the same etymological approach as SrI
BahTTar (mahA + uras+ gah), but comes up with the interpretation that
He is mahoragah because He moves relentlessly with His great (broad?)
vaksha-sthalam (chest), in the form of the Sun.

In passing, I would like to point out that most of SrI satyadevo
vAsishTha's interpretations are based on an assmption of identity
between Lord vishNu and the Sun, even though I have not represented his
interpretations in this view.  The significant value I have derived
from his vyAkhyAnam is the very detailed etymological derivation of
each nAma, which is thorough, with references to the pANini sUtra-s,
and detailed vedic references.  In this aspect, his vyAkhyAnam in
superb.

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan 


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