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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 87 - kundah.

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champakam • March 5, 2003 


     SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 87 - kundah.

815. kundah – a) He Who grants the successive stages of higher 
knowledge.
		b) He Who cleanses the sins of His devotees.
		c) He Who is pure and beautiful like the kunda 
(jasmine) flower.
		d) He Who bestows purity like the kunda flower to His 
devotees.
		e) He Who has the spear by name kunta (kuntah)
		f) One who is sharp like the kunta spear in removing 
the sins of His devotees (kuntah). 
		g) He  Who gave an offering of the earth to kaSyapa 
Rshi.
		h) He Who eliminated the bad kshatriya kings from the 
earth. 
		i) He Who cleanses the earth through the sun, rain, 
etc.

Om kundAya namah.

As explained in the previous nAma, the word ku refers to bhUmi as 
well as sin; the word kunda itself refers to the jasmine flower.  The 
previous nAma, kundarah, and the current nAma, kundah, are somewhat 
similar.   The part –dah is interpreted as dadAti – gives, dAyati – 
cleanses, or dyati – eliminates, thus leading to the different 
interpretations.  

a) We had seen that the meaning "para-tattva-j~nAnam" was given by 
SrI BhaTTar to the word kunda.  kundah is One Who bestows this 
knowledge.  kundarah was also assigned the same meaning earlier.  SrI 
BhaTTar distinguishes the current nAma from the previous one by 
referring in the current nAma, to bhagavAn's giving the para-tattva 
knowledge to those that have started climbing the steps of knowledge 
through self-control etc., in steps of para-bhakti, para-j~nAnam, and 
ultimately parama-bhakti.  

b) SrI BhaTTar also gives an alternate interpretation.  We saw in the 
previous nAma the assignment of the meaning "sin" to the word ku, and 
an interpretation added by the nirukti author for the previous nAma 
based on this meaning for the word ku.  While we saw the 
interpretation "He Who destroys the sins" for the previous nAma, the 
interpretation given for the current nAma is "He Who cleanses the 
sins", based on the meaning ku = pApam, and the root daip = Sodhane – 
to purify; pApam dAyati Sodhayati iti kundah.   He first removes the 
sins from His devotee (kundarah), and then cleanses the sins so that 
they do not get back to the devotee again (kundah) – pApam dArayati 
iti kundarah, api ca vidAritam pApam Sodhayati iti kundah. 

This is also one of the interpretations given by SrI vAsishTha – kum 
iti pApArthakam avyayam, tad khaNDayati iti kundah;  yad-vA kum = 
pApam dAyati + Sodhayati iti kundah (do = avakhaNDane, daip = 
Sodhana).  

c) d) nammAzhvAr uses the nAma kunda in tiruvAimozhi pASuram 2.6.1 – 
Sei kundA varum tImaigaL un aDiyArkkut tIrttu aSurarukkut tImaigaL 
Sei kundA – He removes the sins of His devotees, and gives them to 
the evil-doers as the phalan for their karma-s.  Here, the meaning 
given by the vyAkhyAna kartA-s for the word kunda is "One Who is pure 
like the kunda pushpam – the pure white fragrant jasmine flower".  In 
tamizh, the word kunda can also be considered as standing for the 
word kurundam flower – a pure white flower representing purity.    So 
the nAma can be understood as "One Who is pure like the kunda 
flower", or "One Who bestows purity like that of the kunda flower to 
His devotees".  

SrI Sa'nkara gives several interpretations for the nAma.  The first 
of these is: "He Who is as pure and beautiful as the kunda flower" – 
kundopama sundarA'ngatvAt svacchatayA sphaTika nirmalah kundah.  

e) f) SrI v.v. rAmAnujan comments that the term can also be taken to 
mean "One who has the spear called kunta" – (nin kaiyil vEl pORRi – 
tiruppAvai).  SrI uttamUr vIrarhAvAcArya svAmi also refers to this as 
one possible interpretation for the occurrence of this word in 
nammAzhvAr's pASuram.  The nAma in this case will be "kuntah" instead 
of "kundah".   The meaning then could also be "One who is sharp like 
the kunta spear in removing the sins of His devotees".  

g) One of Sri Sa'nkara's alternate interpretations is:  "One Who gave 
an offering of "ku" or earth to kaSyapa Rshi" as indicated in the 
following quote from hari vamSa:

		sarva pApa viSuddhyartham vAjimedhena ceshTavAn   |
		tasmin ya~jne mahA dAne dakshiNAm bhRgu-nandanah   ||
		mArIcAya dadau prItah kaSyapAya vasundharAm   ||  
(hari vamSam 31.106)

"The son of bhRgu, in order to purge all his sins, performed the 
horse sacrifice.  In that sacrifice that required great gifts to be 
given away, He, in His incarnation as the son of bhRgu, made a gift 
of the earth to mArIca with great pleasure". 

h) The third interpretation by SrI Sa'nkara is:  "He Who got rid of 
the kshatriya-s from the earth" – kum pRthvIm dyati khaNDayati vA 
kundah.  He gives the support from vishNu dharma for this 
interpretation:

		nih-kshatriyAm yaSca cakAra medinIm anekaSo bAhuvanam 
tathA'nchinat    |
		yah kArtavIryasya sa bhArgavottamo mamAstu mA'ngalya 
vivRddhaye harih   ||  (vishNu dharma 43.37)

"Let Hari, the best of the bhRgu family, who made the earth free from 
wicked kshatriya-s many a time, and who cut off the thousand arms of 
kArtavIrya, be with me for the increase of prosperity".  

i) SrI satya devo vAsishTha gives an additional interpretation using 
the meaning "earth" for ku, and dAyati = Sodhayati for dah.  He who 
cleanses the earth of its impurities through rain etc. – pRthivIm 
varshaNena Sodhayati iti kundah.  

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan




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