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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 80 -Part 3.

From the Bhakti List Archives

Narasimhan Krishnamachari • December 11, 2002 


 
     SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 80 - mAnyah.

755.	 mAnyah – The Object of honor.

Om mAnyAya namah.

This nAma again has the same root as the previous two nAma –s:  mAn –
pUjAyAm – to honor, to worship.  mAnayitum yogyo mAnyah pUjanIyah iti
mAnyah – He Who is fit to be worshiped or honored is mAnyah.   

SrI bhaTTar comments that bhagavAn is worthy of respect because of His
special relationship towards His devotees based on His affection
towards them – tadIyatvena sanmantavyo mAnyah.  SrI bhaTTar gives the
example of Lord kRshNaÂ’s concern for arjuna through the following verse
in mahAbhArata:  “na sAratheh sAttvata kauravANAm kruddhasya mucyeta
raNe’dya kaScit”  - “In the battle of kurukshetra today, no sAttvata or
kaurava is going to escape death because the Charioteer of arjuna is
angry”.    SrI v.v. rAmAnujan refers us to nammAzhvAr’s periya
tiruvantAdi 53, where AzhvAr points to this guNa of bhagavAn:  un
aDiyArkku en Seivan enrE irutti nI – You are constantly thinking of the
good that You can do to Your devotees.  
  
SrI SaÂ’nkaraÂ’s vyAkhyAnam is that bhagavAn is worthy of being
worshipped by all because of being the SarveSvaran – sarvaih mAnanIyah
pUjanIyah sarveSvaratvAt iti mAnyah.  SrI satyadevo vAsishTha points
out that rightly He is worthy of being worshipped, because it is
because of Him that everything exists and functions – ISAvAsyam idam
sarvam yat kim ca jagatyAm jagat (ISAvAsya upanishad - mantra 1).   He
is the Lord, Creator and Protector of everything.   

SrI cinmayAnanda refers us to another work of SrI SaÂ’nkara, viveka
cUDAmaNi, where SaÂ’nkara uses the term mAnyah to refer to those blessed
souls who have been able to realize the Supreme Being – dhanyah sa
mAnyo bhuvi.  If the people who have realized the Supreme Being are
mAnyah or worshippable, what words can be used to describe the
worship-worthiness of the Supreme  Being Himself!  

It is noted again that SrI bhaTTarÂ’s anubhavam of the nAma-s are
primarily oriented towards enjoying bhagavAnÂ’s guNa-s as being
subservient to the welfare of His devotees, and SrI SamkaraÂ’s
vyAkhyAnam is primarily oriented towards bringing out  His parattvam
and Supreme Rulership.

SrI SAstri reminds us of the idea conveyed by the three nAma-s, 
a-mAnI, mAna-dah, and mAnyah:  bhagavAn does not show Himself as One
Who deserves to be  supremely respected and honored (a-mAnI), He
ensures that His devotees are respected (mAna-dah), and this is where
all His feeling of respectability lies (mAnyah).  

The dharma cakram writer observes that even though bhagavAn is mAnyah
(To be worshipped), it is only His true devotees who realize this, and
it is to those that He gives the ability to overcome the lower desires,
and realize Him.  

We will use this nAma to bring out an important point about
understanding the reason for the existence of different vyAkhyAna-s for
the same vishNu sahasra nAma stotram.  One of the reasons is of course
the difference in the anubhavam-s of the different vyAkhyAna-kartA-s,
who are all great devotees of the Lord.  Another reason is that the
interpreters try to interpret ancient works such as the Sruti, smRti,
itihAsa-s and purANa-s  so that they can claim authority and
authenticity for their specific school of philosophy through their
interpretation of these scriptures.  We will see this briefly for the
dvaita interpretation for this nAma.  In the dvaita philosophy, the
view on pirATTi is: a) She is a jIva, but a higher jIva than all the
other jIva-s; b) She is vibhu, but less than vishNu in Her parattvam. 
Two of  the interpretations that SrI satya sandha yatirAja, one of the
AcArya-s in the dvaita lineage, gives for this nAma (mAnyah), are based
on looking at the nAma as (mA + anyah):  1. mAyA ramAyA anyA ceshTanIyA
asya iti mAnyah; and 2. mAyA ramA upalakshita jIva rASeh anyo bhinna
iti mAnyah.  Both of these support the elements of their philosophy
that are given above.  It is worth nothing that both SrI SaÂ’nakara and
SrI bhaTTar chose to use only the root mAn as the basis for their
interpretation of the nAma, and gave the meaning to the nAma as “He Who
is  worthy of worship”, while the dvaita interpreter chose to see the
nAma as mA + anyah.   

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

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