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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 79 - Part 7.

From the Bhakti List Archives

Narasimhan Krishnamachari • December 5, 2002 


      SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 79 - a-calah, calah.

751. a-calah – a) He Who is unshakable against His enemies.  
		b) He Who is immutable in His nature, power, wisdom, etc.
c) He Who does not move anywhere, because He is everywhere already.
 
Om a-calAya namah.

The root from which the nAma is derived is cal – kampane – to stir, to
shake.  That which does not move, or He Who is firm in His conviction
and action, are called a-calah.  

a) SrI bhaTTar gives the interpretation:  duryodhanAdhibhih durAtmabhih
a-bhedyah a-calah -  He is called a-calah because He is not stirred by
the evil-minded duryodhana and others.  

b) SrI SaÂ’nkaraÂ’s anubhavam is: na svarUpAt na sAmarthyAt na ca
j~nAnAdikAt guNAt calanam vidyate asya iti a-calah – He is Immutable,
or a-calah, because He undergoes no change in His nature, power, wisdom
or any other attributes. 

The reader is again referred to the article that had been posted
earlier, comparing the approaches of SrI SaÂ’nkara dn SrI BhaTTar to the
vyAkhyAna of SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam.  The difference we see in the
interpretation of the current nAma is another illustration of this
difference.

c) One of the interpretations that SrI cinmayAnanda gives is that
because bhagavAn is everywhere (All-pervading), and there is no place
that He is not, therefore He is a-calah.  He gives the gItA Slokam 2.24
as support:  

	ac-chedyoÂ’yam a-dAhyoÂ’yam a-kledyoÂ’Soshya eva ca    |
	nityah sarva-gatah sthANuh a-caloÂ’yam sanAtanah      ||

“It cannot be cleft; It cannot be burnt;  It cannot be wetted and It
cannot be dried;  It is eternal, all-pervading, stable, immovable, and
primeval”.  

SrI satyadevo vAsishTha observes that bhagavAn Who is a-calah, has also
inculcated in all His creations, the principle of a-calattvam in some
form.  Thus, for instance, the tree or plant that comes out of a given
seed is only of the same type as the seed, and not of a different type.
 This dharma is not violated ever.  When a fire shoots out, it is
always directed in an upward direction, and not in a downward
direction.  Thus, even those that are moving and active, are bound by
His principle of a-calattvam. 

The dharma cakram writer gives a real-world analogy to illustrate the
importance of this nAma.  A small wind is able to move and shake small
plants;  a bigger cyclone is able to uproot even big trees;  however, a
mountain is not moved by any of these.  Similarly, people who are
involved and entangled in worldly joys and sorrows are shaken up and
tossed around emotionally;  even arjuna got totally confused and
disheartened when he entered the battlefield.  It is very rare indeed
to find human beings who are not tossed around, because their indriya-s
control them.  But he who controls his manas and indriya-s is firm in
his resolve, and he is not tossed around or shaken by happenings around
him.  His mind becomes a-cala manas.   The peace that comes out of this
disposition is the true peace that we should aim for.  

752) calah – a) He Who swerves.
	b) He Who moves (in the form of vAyu etc.).
	c) He Who rushed out of SrI vaikunTham at the cry for help from
gajendra.
	d) He Who is full of leelA-s. 

Om calAya namah.

We just saw in the previous nAma that bhagavAn is a-calah.  Now we see
that He is also calah, He Who swerves.  His a-cala guNam or firmness
was towards His enemies;  his cala guNam is reserved for His devotees. 


SrI bhaTTar gives the well-known instance of His carrying arms against
bhIshma after making a promise earlier that He will never take to arms
in the mahA bhArata war.  Thus, He swerved from His word, and so He was
a calah in this case.  A couple of reasons are given for His breaking
His own promise.  One was that He wanted to save His dear devotee,
arjuna, from the wrath of bhIshma, and so decided to go with His cakra
against bhIshma to protect arjuna.  The second reason given is that
bhIshma, who was a great devotee of kRshNa, had taken an oath in front
of kRshNa the previous evening that he will fight so ferociously the
next day as to make kRshNa break His promise and take to arms;  what
was at stake was the word of His devotee bhIshma, and kRshNa had to
protect the word of His devotee even if it meant that He had to break
His own  promise.  Making His devoteeÂ’s word come true was more
important for Him than to keep His own promise.  So He took to arms,
and thus became a calah – One Who swerves for His devotee.  Another
instance was His cheating jayadratha by converting day into night.  The
real truth to be understood in the above instances that He is the One
who establishes what is right and what is wrong, and so by definition,
what He decides is Justice.

b) SrI SaÂ’nkaraÂ’s interpretation is that He is calah, or One Who moves,
in the form of air – vAyu rUpeNa calati iti calah.  

c) SrI ananta kRshNa SAstry has added an interpretation that He is
called acalah because He rushed out of SrI vaikunTham to help the
elephant-king gajendra when he cried out for help.  

d) SrI kRshNa datta bhAradvAj uses the root cal – vilasane – to sport,
to frolic, and gives the interpretation that He has this nAma because
He is full of leelA-s – calati vilasati iti calah vilAsa leelA
sampannah.   

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan  


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