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SrI vishNu sahasranAmam - Slokam 66 - Part 2.

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Narasimhan Krishnamachari • March 1, 2001 


		SrI vishNu sahasranAmam - Slokam 66 - Part 2.

	
626. vijitAtmA - a) He whose mind has been conquered (by His devotees).
		b) He who has conquered His Mind.		

Om vijitAtmane namah.

SrI BhaTTar has thus far interpreted the previous nAma-s 608 up to 625
in terms of His association with pirATTi.  Now he proceeds to interpret
the next few nAma-s in terms of His extreme sauSIlyam (the quality of
amiability).

SrI BhaTTar's vyAkhyAnam for the nAma "vijitAtmA" is that bhagavAn
revels in being conquered by His devotee; this is His real nature. 
When a devotee goes and bows before Him with devotion and sincerity,
bhagavAn is easily conquered by the devotee.  Recall that kRshNa makes
the promise at the start of the mahAbhArata war, that He won't take to
weapons during the war.  Then, in the course of the war, bhIshma, the
great devotee of kRshNa, takes a vow in front of kRshNa that he will
make kRshNa take to weapons the next day during the fighting.  Everyone
including bhIshma knew kRshNa's earlier vow not to take to arms.  And
yet, since His great devotee declared that he will make kRshNa take to
arms, kRshNa made that word of His devotee come true, and did exactly
as his devotee wished the next day.  Such is His compassion to His
devotee, that He will even break His own promise in order to make His
devotee's words come true.    

SrI v.v. rAmAnujan refers us to nammAzhvAr's tiruvAimozhi 1.3.1 -
pattuDai aDiyavarkku eLiyavan Â… ettiRam.  nammAzhvAr who could sing
bhagavAn's parattvam in a clear state of mind, could not bear to
describe His soulabhyam and the troubles He went through to remain
bound to the ural (mortar), get beaten up by yaSodA, etc.  AzhvAr
passed out and lost His conscience of the external world for six months
since He could not bear to think of  perumAL going through all this
suffering, just to please His devotees.   

b) SrI Samkara bhAshyam is - vijita AtmA mano yena sah vijitAtmA - He
by whom His mind has been subdued or controlled, is vijitAtmA.   SrI
rAdhAkRshNa SAstri adds that bhagavAn possesses everything there is to
possess, and so He has nothing to desire, and thus He is of a mind that
is absolutely controlled.  The dharma cakram writer indicates that that
meditation on this nAma of bhagavAn will lead one to better mind
control, and ultimate God-realization. 

Note that this is one of the nAma-s that was discussed in the posting
comparing the bhAshya-s of SrI Samkara and SrI BhaTTar, where the point
was made that SrI Samkara tends to emphasize the parattvam, aiSvaryam,
etc., of Brahman, and SrI BhaTTar emphasizes the soulabhyam of perumAL
repeatedly.   SrI P. B. aNNa'ngarAcArya selects all the four nAma-s
starting with the current one for his comparison of the bhAshya-s of
SrI Samkara and SrI BhaTTar to establish his point.

627. vidheyAtmA - a) He who is of a submissive nature (to His
devotees).
		b) He who has the jIva-s as subservient to Him.
		c) If a-vidheyAtmA, then He who is subservient to no one.

Om vidheyAtmane namah. 

vidheya means subservient.  As mentioned in the previous nAma, SrI
BhaTTar interprets the nAma in terms of bhagavAn's being subservient to
the devotee and His enjoying His subservience.  Sri BhaTTar's
vyAkhyAnam is that it is bhagavAn's essential nature to be at the
disposal of His devotees to such an extent that they can easily command
Him to do whatever they want.  He gives examples of "Come here, stand
here, sit here, eat this", etc.   (SrI v.v. rAmAnujan refers to
periAzhvAr calling Him - pUc cUDa vA, nIrADa vA, ammam uNNAi, etc.). 
SrI PBA gives the example of Sonna vaNNam Seyda perumAL.  When
tirumazhiSai AzhvAr asked Him to pack up His snake bed and leave town,
He obeyed as He was told, and later when AzhvAr commanded Him to go
back when the king repented, perumAL obeyed AzhvAr's command as well. 
SrI PBA also gives the example of Lord kRshNa obeying the command of
arjuna when the latter ordered Him to take the chariot and position it
in between the two armies at the start of the mahAbhArata war -
"Senayorubhayor madhye ratham sthApaya me acyuta!".  SrI v.v. rAmAnujan
gives the example from peria tirumozhi 11.5.5. -  vaNNak karum kuzhal
AycciyAl mottuNDu kaNNik kuRum kayiRRAl kaTTuNDAn.  

Similar to SrI v.v. rAmAnujan's examples of "pUc cUDa vA", SrI
satyadevo vAsishTha gives the examples from the Sruti-s:  "udbhudyasva,
pratijAgRhi, ishTApUrtam samsRja", etc.  (udbudhyasvAgne pratijAgRhi
tavam ishTApUrte samsRjeyAmayam ca" - yajur. 15.54), ("deva savitah
prasuva, yaj'nam prasuva, yaj'na patim bhagAya" - yajur. 32.15).  

b) SrI kRshNa datta bhAradvAj gives the interpretation - vidheyAh
-sevakA AtmAno - jIvA yasya iti vidheyAtmA - He who has the jIva-s who
are subservient to Him.

c) SrI Samkara in this case uses the pATham a-videhyAtmA instead of
vidheyAtmA, and gives the meaning "One who is not subservient to any
one".   Using this pATham, the dharma cakram writer notes that the
requirement for one to be not subservient to anyone else, is to win
over his/her own self.  When one has controlled his/her own indriya-s
and manas, then there is nothing that this person needs or wants, and
so there is no need to be subservient to anyone else.  He gives a story
to illustrate the point that want is what makes people subservient to
others.  Traditionally, the priests of a particular temple were
brahmacAri-s, and were devoting themselves wholeheartedly to the
worship of God.  The local king tried to get them to come to His palace
and do some things according to his wish, and they refused to leave
their service to Lord.  He consulted with his ministers, and the
ministers advised the king that if the king can get the priests
married, the problem of the king will go away.  The king accordingly
made efforts tog et the priests married, and succeeded in this effort. 
Once they got children, their materialistic needs increased, and they
voluntarily took temple prasAdam and started visiting the king, in
expectation of some material gift from him.  So they automatically
became subservient to the king without his effort.   So the lesson to
take from this nAma is that the key to being not subservient to another
human being is to win over oneself first -  get control of one's own
indriya-s and mind.   

SrI PBA addresses the difference between the pATha-s used by SrI
Samkara and SrI BhaTTar, and observes that the version used by SrI
BhaTTar is more appealing to a devotee since it brings out the aspect
of saulabhyam in perumAL which is in favor of His devotees. 

628. sat-kIrtih - He of true renown.

Om sat-kIrtaye namah.

SrI BhaTTar associates bhagavAn's kIrti as resulting from His sauSIlya
- sauSIlya sattvena asya ati-mahatI kIrtih iti sat-kIrtih.   SrI
BhaTTar points out that no matter how well we praise His kIrti, it is
still only an under-statement.  In addition, His kIrti is all truth and
no exaggeration.  SrI v.v. rAmAnujan refers to nammAzhvAr:  "nigar il
pugazhAy" - He whose kIrti has no comparison.  

SrI Samkara emphasizes the "sat" in sat-kIrtih as referring to the true
nature of His kIrti - satI- avitathA kIrtih asya iti sat-kIrtih.   SrI
cinmayAnanda associates the kIrti with His being the Consort of
lakshmi.

The dharma cakram writer describes two kinds of fame - the fame that
comes from material wealth, official status, etc., and the fame that
comes because one follows the path of dharma.  The former type of kIrti
is temporary and transient - one loses it as soon as the wealth or the
position that brought the fame are gone, and they go one day or the
other anyway.  But the followers of the path of dharma - such as
dharmaputra or hariScandra - do not ever lose their kIrti; the world
praises them forever.  It is the kIrti that comes out of following the
path of dharma and the worship of bhagavAn that one should follow in
order to realize sat-kIrtih, the mantra contained in this nAma.

SrI satyadevo vAsishTha explains that He is sat-kIrti also because it
is only by constantly worshipping Him and singing His praise that one
can attain true kIrti;  all the other kIrti-s attained through any
other means will be not true kIrti.  Readers may recall that SrI
satyadevo vAsishTha, in addition to giving detailed explanations of the
derivation of the nAma-s and their interpretations, has composed one
Slokam for each nAma that contains his interpretation.  His Slokam for
the current nAma is:

	vishNuh sadA sarvaguNAbhirAmah samkIrtyate svAtma tamah pramRshTyai   
|
	mantrair-vrataih satya-japais tapobhir nAnyas-tatah kIrtim upaiti
satyAm   ||

629. chinna-samSayah - The Dispeller of all doubts.

Om chinna-samSayAya namah.

chinnAh samSayA bhaktAnAm yena iti chinna-samSayah (SrI kRshNa datta
bhAradvAj) - He by whom all doubts of His devotees are dispelled is
called chinna-samSayah.   SrI BhaTTar comments that because of His
reputation of being endowed with extreme sauSilyam and saulabhyam, all
doubts that anyone may have about Him - such as:  "Can He be easily
known or is it difficult to realize Him?", "Can He be easily pleased or
is it difficult to please Him?", "Can He be easily approached or is it
difficult to approach Him", etc. - stand easily dispelled.   SrI v.v.
rAmAnujan quotes arjuna's words to kRshNa from the gItA: "None but You
(kRshNa) can possibly dispel my doubt":

	etat me samSayam kRshNa chhettumarhasi aSeshatah    |
	tvat ananyah samSayasya asya chhettA na hyupapadyate   ||  (gItA 6.39)

SrI cinmayAnanda points out that after Lord kRshNa gave the upadeSam to
arjuna, the later declares that all his doubts are now cleared:

	sthito'smi gata-sandeahah karishye vacanam tava (gIta 18.73)

SrI Samkara gives the interpretation that bhagavAn is called
chinna-samSayah because He has no doubts of any kind Himself - He
realizes everything directly like a fruit in the palm - karatala
amalakavat sarvam sAkshAtkRtavatah kvApi samsAyo nAsti iti
chinna-samSayah.   SrI satyadevo vAsishTha observes that the lack of
any doubt  in bhagavAn  is revealed in the flawless way He executes His
acts of creation all the way up to pralaya.

Note that SrI BhaTTar links his interpretation to bhagavAn's sauSIlyam,
as was pointed out in a recent comparison of the two vyAkhyAna-s.   

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan


                 

 


   





 


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