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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 74 - Part 4.

From the Bhakti List Archives

Narasimhan Krishnamachari • June 8, 2002 


    SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 74 - vasu-pra-dah. 

698, 699. vasu-pradah - a) The Giver of Treasure (in the form of
Himself).
b)	The Giver of Glory or Dignity.
c)	The Bestower of moksham
d)	He Who provides the place for dwelling for all beings

Om vasu-pradAya namah.

This nAma repeats itself as the next nAma also.   It is also similar to
the nAma 270 in Slokam 29 (vasu-dah).  The difference between nAma 270
and the current nAma is the addition of "pra" in pra-dah.  This stands
for prakarsheNa - in a special way.  In general, the vyAkhyAna kartA-s
have interpreted nAma 270 as referring to His bestowing any wealth in
general;  the current and the next nAma  are interpreted as referring
to His bestowing special wealth such as the wealth similar to that of
kubera, Himself, moksham, ever-lasting fame, etc.  One could think of
nAma 270 as referring to His being the Bestower of any wealth at all
(the transient wealth etc.), and nAma-s 698 and 699 as referring to His
 being the Bestower of ever-lasting wealth and the associated joy.  
The vyAkhyAna-kartA-s give their interpretations such that  redundancy
in the meanings is avoided, thus establishing that there is no fault of
punar-ukti (redundancy or repetition) in the composition of vyAsa just
because the nAma repeats itself - the meaning is different in each of
the occurrences.  

vasu dhanam prakarsheNa dadAti iti vasu-pradah - One Who bestows wealth
in an eminent or superior way is vasu-pradah.

a) SrI BhaTTar's anubhavam for nAma 698 is that He gives the best of
wealth to the true seeker, in the form of Himself - thus He gives the
parama nidhi - the Treasure, to the true devotee.  SrI BhaTTar gives
the example of bhagavAn giving Himself as a son to devaki and
vasu-deva.    

For nAma 699, SrI BhaTTar gives the explanation that in the process of
offering Himself as their son to devaki and vasudeva, the Lord also
gave them the kIrti (vasu) of being His parents, and so He is
vasu-pradah in this sense as well.  He also gave kIrti to daSaratha
when He was born as rAma - ellai il SIr daSarathan tan maganAit tOnRi 
(perumAL. 10.11).  

b) c) For nAma 698, SrI Samkara gives the interpretation that He has
this nAma because He is the true Giver of wealth even to the likes of
kubera.  Even though kubera has the fame that he is the giver of
wealth, he gets  his fame as giver of wealth purely by bhagavAn's
Grace.  For nAma 699, SrI Samkara interprets the term wealth to
specifically refer to the best of wealths, namely moksham, and thus the
interpretation here is that He is this nAma because He is the Bestower
of the greatest of wealths, which He alone can give.  

d) SrI satyadevo vAsishTha uses the meaning "dwelling" for vasu, and
gives the interpretation that He has the nAma vasu-pradah because He
provides Himself as the place for the existence of all beings -
vastatyasmin iti vasuh vAsastam pradadAti iti vasu-pradah.   In the
next occurrence of the nAma, he interprets the nAma as "The Giver of
wealth".

Thus, the nAma vau-pradah has been interpreted variously as a) He Who
gives Himself to His devotees as the best of treasures that they seek;
b) The Bestower of kIrti to His devotees; c) He gives immeasurable
wealth to the likes of kubera; d) He provides the dwelling place for
all beings at the time of pralaya; e) He is the Bestower of moksham.

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

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