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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 89 - a-cintyah.

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champakam • Sat Apr 26 2003 - 22:14:45 PDT 


    SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 89 - a-cintyah.

836. a-cintyah – a) He Who is incomparable to anything known.
b)	He Whose power cannot be imagined.
c)	He Who cannot be completely comprehended in our minds.

Om a-cintyAya namah.

SrI satyadevo vAsishTha gives the root involved in the nAma as cit – 
samj~nAne – to notice, to understand.  He Who cannot be described as 
such and such, is a-cintyah;  Or, He Who cannot be comprehended 
completely in our mind is a-cintyah.  cintayitum – iyattayA 
paryavasitum Sakyah cintyah; na cityah a-cintyah; manaso'pi 
agocarah.   There are many other ways to enjoy this nAma – He Whose 
leelA-s are incomprehensible, He Whose power cannot be imagined, etc.

a) SrI BhaTTar's interpretation is that the nAma indicates that He is 
beyond comparison with anyone or anything.  vaLLuvar declares that 
bhagavAn is "tanakku uvamai allAdAn".  

The Sruti attempts to describe Him - the chAndogya Upanishad declares 
that bhagavAn is "golden-colored, with golden colored moustache, eyes 
resembling the just-blossomed lotus" - ya eshontarAditye hiraNmayah 
purushah dRSyate, hiraNmayah smaSruh, hiraNya keSa apraNakhAt sarva 
eva suvarNah;  tasya yahtA kapyAsam puNDarIkamevam akshiNI  – He is 
in the middle of the sun, with golden hue, golden mustache, golden 
hair, eyes resembling the just-bloomed lotus, etc.  But the Sruti 
also declares that He is beyond words and beyond mind – yato vAco 
nivartante, aprApaya manasA saha (taitt. upa.).  nammAzhvAr conveys 
the two ideas together in his tiruvAimozhi pASuram 1.3.2:

	kaTTuraikkil tAmarai nin kaN pAdam kai ovvA
	 SuTTuraitta nan pon un tirumEni oLi ovvAdu
	oTTuraittu iv-ulagu unnaip pugazhvellAm perumpAlum  
	paTTuraiyAip puRkenRE kATTumAl param jotI!    (tiruvAi. 1.3.2)

"O Supreme Effulgence!  You are to be merely enjoyed.  Any attempt at 
verbal description of You is futile, especially if one compares You 
with familiar objects that are not even remotely comparable to You in 
any respect.  With beautiful eyes, feet and arms, to all of which 
lotus is but a poor simile, with a dazzling stature to which pure 
unalloyed gold is a poor comparison, You are often being  pictured  
by the world with words that do You no justice.  Any comparison of 
You to the worldly things is just a failed attempt to describe You". 

 It is like some commoner who has never seen a precious stone, 
describing that precious stone as "something resembling a pebble".  
nammAzhvAr proceeds in the very next pASuram to declare that even 
after describing His greatness by the words  "param jyoti – The 
Supreme Effulgence", if one proceeds to describe His auspicious 
qualities – His simplicity, His sauSIlyam and His saulabhyam, there 
is no word that we have that can describe these aspects of bhagavAn.  
AzhvAr exclaims: "param jyoti! govindA! PaNbu uraikka mATTEnE" – "I 
won't even attempt to describe Your auspicious qualities".  So, 
bhagavAn is a-cintyah in every sense of the word., especially when it 
comes to His auspicious qualities.   He is "govindA" – Who can mingle 
with even cows.   nammAzhvAr laments at the unimaginable behavior of 
this emperumAn who is sarva lokeSvaran, who subjects Himself to the 
insult of being called the "butter thief" – ne'njAl ninaippu aridAl 
veNNey UN ennum Enac-collE (tiruviruttam 98).   SrI rAmAnujan refers 
to a tiruvAimozhi pASuram by nammAzhvAr that nicely explains the nAma 
a-cintyah:

	mAyan en ne'njil uLLAn maRRum yavarkkum ahdE
	kAyamum Seevanum tAnE kAlum eriyum avanE
	Seyan aNiyan yavarkkum Sindaiyum gocaram allan
	tUyan tuyakkan mayakkan ennudait tOL iNaiyAnE      (tiruvAi. 
1.9.6)
 
The following explanation of the above pASuram is partly drawn from 
SrImad tirukkuDanthai ANDavan's bhagavad vishaya sAram, and is my 
poor attempt at capturing my great AcArya's thoughts:

"He is our body, and He is also the soul of our body;  He is the soul 
of the pa'nca mahA bhUta-s (air, water, etc.)., He is aNiyan – very 
easily accessible to His devotees;  He is also SEyan –  inaccessible 
to those who do not surrender to Him; yAvarkkum Sindaikkum gocaran 
allan – a-cintyan – He is beyond the reach of the mental capabilities 
of even the greatest of j~nAni-s;  tUyan – Even so, He decided to 
bless me by residing in my heart;  tUyan - He Who considered that 
being with me is the only thing that He longed for in all His life; 
tuyakkan – By revealing His guNa-s, He draws us towards Him;  
mayakkan – He draws us to Him through the sheer joy of thinking about 
Him;  ennuDait tOL iNaiyAn – Such a Great One has now decided to take 
possession of me by sitting on my shoulders (treating me like 
garuDa)".  He is mAyan – Ascarya bhUtan – personification of 
wonders".   

Sri Sa'nkara's vyAkhyAnam is:  pramAtrAdi sAkshitvena sarva pramANa 
agocaratvAt a-cintyah -  The simplest way to explain this is that 
just as the eye cannot see the eye itself since it is the means of 
seeing all other things except itself, so also bhagavAn is the means 
of perceiving everything else, and so He cannot be perceived by any 
means of perception.  

SrI Sa'nkara gives the alternate interpretation:  ayam IdRSa iti 
viSva prap'nca vilakshaNatvena cintayitum aSakyatvAd-vA a-cintyah – 
He Who is different from this expanded Universe.  All that is in the 
domain of our perception in this universe is but a tiny fraction of 
His manifestation, and the full extent of His vibhUti-s is beyond 
comprehension.  Lord kRshNa declares this in the gItA:  

	nanto'sti mama divyAnAm vibUtinAm parantapa   |
	esha tUddeSatah prokto vibhUter-vistaro mayA   ||    (gItA 
10.40)

	yad-yad-vibhUtimat-sattvam SrImad-Urjitameava vA   |
	tat-tadevAvagaccha tvam mama tejo'mSa sambhavam   ||   (gItA 
10.41)

"There is no limit to My divine manifestations.  Here the extent of 
such manifestations has been explained in brief by Me.

"Whatever being is possessed of power, or of splendor, or of energy, 
know that as coming from a fragment of My power".

b) In his gItA bhAshyam, for the next Slokam, bhagavad rAmAnuja 
explains that this Universe consisting of sentient and non-sentient 
entities, whether in effect or causal condition, whether gross or 
subtle, is supported by bhagavAn with an infinitesimal fraction of 
His power, in such a manner that it does not violate His will in 
preserving its proper form, existence or various activities.  He 
quotes bhagavAn parASara from vishNu purANam:  yasyAyutAyutAmSAmSe 
viSva Saktir-iyam stithA (V.P. 1.9.53) - On an infinitesimal fraction 
of His energy, this universe rests.  In other words, His full power 
is beyond our comprehension – He is acintyah.

c) SrI cinmayAnanda gives the reference from the gItA, where bhagavAn 
is described as a-cintya-rUpan – sarvasya dhAtAram acintya rUpam – 
gItA 8.9 – The Creator of all, and One Who cannot be comprehended 
mentally.

SrI baladeva vidyA bhUshaN points out that He is called acintyah 
because He cannot be understood through tarka or discussion and 
analysis, but is revealed only through the Sruti vAkya-s – tarka 
agovarah Srutyeka gamyah.  

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan





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