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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokm 87 - anilah.

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champakam • March 10, 2003 


    SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokm 87 - anilah.

818.	anilah – a) He Who need not be goaded by anyone in His 
blessing the devotees (an-ilah).
b) He Who has no enforcer above Him.
c) He Who is easily accessible to His devotees (a-nilah).
d) He Who is the Giver of life-breath to everything else.
e) He Who is ever awakened.
f) One Who needs no support 
g) One Who does not have a fixed residence, One Who is in the form of 
the wind, etc.
h) He Who has no end.
i) One Who has no binding to pApa, puNya, etc.
j) He Who gave the kingdom (to ugrasena after killing kamsa).
k) He Who spent sleepless nights (planning how to save rukmiNi). 

om anilAya namah.

We looked into this nAma in Slokam 25 (nAma 236).  The root word from 
which the nAma can be derived is ila – preraNe – to urge.  Apte's 
dictionary also gives the meanings: to sleep, to go, to move, to 
throw, etc., for the word ila (ila –svapna kshpaNayoh – to sleep, to 
throw).  SrI BhaTTar also derives the nAma from the root ana – 
prANane - to live, to breathe.  ilA also means the earth.  These 
different meaning and combinations are used in arriving at the 
different anubhavam-s below.

a) For the current instance of the nAma, SrI BhaTTar derives the 
interpretation based on the root ila – preraNe – to urge.  ila refers 
to that person who urges another to do an act.   Since bhagavAn does 
not have to be urged by anyone to bless those who worship Him, He is 
called a-nilah.   His gives the following in support: 
tadapyaprArthitam dhyAto dadAti madhusUdanah - When meditated upon, 
bhagavAn madhusudana bestows His blessings on His devotee even when 
the devotee does not pray for them - vishNu dharma 74.42.

b) One of SrI Sa'nkara's interpretations is that bhagavAn has this 
nAma because He has no enforcer above Him:  ilati preraNam karoti iti 
ilah, tad-rahitatvAt an-ilah.

c) SrI Sa'nkara also gives another interpretation that is related to 
bhagavAn's ease of approach to His devotees.  This is based on the 
root nil – gahane – to become thick, deep, hard to be understood.  
Using the noun form nilah meaning "difficult to understand", SrI 
Sa'nkara interprets the nAma a-nilah as "One Who is not difficult to 
understand for the devotee"- a-gahanah – a-nilah - bhaktebhyah 
sulabhah – Easily accessible to bhakta-s.  

d) For the instance of this nAma in Slokam 25 (nAma 236), Sri BhaTTar 
derives the meaning based on the root an – prANane - to live, to 
breathe, and the application of the uNAdi sUtra 1.54 – sali-kal-ani-
mahi-bhaDi-bhaNDi-SaNDi-piNDi-tuNDi-kuki-bhUbhya-ilach – which states 
that the affix ilach comes after the verbs sal – to go down (salilam –
 water), kal – to count (kalilam – covered with, mixed), an – to live 
(anilah – wind), etc.   Thus, the meaning given for nAma 236 was – 
ananAt – ujjIvanAt anilah – Because He sustains the life of 
everything through life-breath, He is anilah.   nammAzhvAr's 
tiruvAimozhi 5.6.2 declares: kANginRa ik-kARRellAm yAnE – all this 
air and wind around us is but a tiny fraction of Me -  The well-known 
wind is but a tiny fraction of this anila that is bhagavAn.   

He gives support from the following:

ko hyevAnyAt kah prANyAt - Whoever can breathe and whoever can live 
if the AkASa (i.e., paramAtmA) were not there? - (taittirIya nArAyaNa 
7);
prAnAt vAyur_ajAyata - The wind was born out of His breath (purusha 
sUktam 14).
Note that in this interpretation, anilah is not equated with air or 
wind, but as His breath – prANa, that supports the wind and all other 
life.

e) SrI Sa'nkara gives several alternate interpretations for the nAma 
in addition to b) above.  One of these is based on the 
meaning "sleep" for the word ila – ilati svapiti iti a~jna ilah; tad-
viparIto nitya-prabuddha-svarUpatvAt iti vA anilah – ilati means 
sleeps, that is, ignorant; a condition opposed to ignorance is that 
of ever wakeful state;  therefore, One Who is ever awakened is an-
ilah.

f) For the instance of the nAma in Slokam 25, SrI rAdhAkRshNa SAstri 
looks at the nAma as an + ilah, where ilA refers to bhUmi, used in 
the sense of support here – avidyamAnA ilA AsrayatayA an-ilah.  Since 
He needs no support of the earth, air, etc., He is anilah.  

g) Or, one can use the amara koSa vyAklhyAnam – na vidyate nilah 
nilayam sthAnam yasya iti anilah – He Who does not have a fixed place 
is anilah.   

h) Another interpretation given by SrI Sa'nkara is: anAditvAt anilah –
 One Who has no beginning or end;.  SrI rAdhAkRshNa SAstri's 
interpretation is - na nilIyate naSyati iti anilah.

i) One more of SrI Sa'nkara's interpretations is: anAdAnAt anilah – 
One Who has no binding.  SrI rAdhAkRshNa SAstri explains this as na 
nilAti Adatte puNyam pApam vA – Neither puNyam nor pApam stick to 
Him.  

j) SrI baladeva vidyA bhUshaN seems to use the pATham nilah instead 
of anilah in his interpretation – nitarAm lAti gRhNAti aikAntino 
bhaktAn iti – Since He totally attracts the single-minded devotees, 
He is ni-lah.

j) An alternate interpretation by SrI vidyA bhUshaN is that He has 
the nAma signifying that He gifted the kingdom to ugrasena after 
killing kamsa – kamsa vada nirjitAyA ilAyA bhUmeh ugrasenAya dAnAt.

k) Yet another anubhavam of SrI vidyA bhUshAn is in terms of the 
sleepless nights that kRshNa spent planning on how to rescue 
rukmiNi.  The term ilA is used here with the meaning "sleep", and the 
pATham used is anilah.  rukmiNi-spRhayA nidrAparityAgAt anilah.  He 
quotes Lord kRshNa's words to support this interpretation:  
tathAhamapi tac-citto nidrAm ca na labhe niSIti.  

The dharma cakram writer gives the meaning for this nAma that 
bhagavAn is in the form of air, and gives  us a view of how important 
the meditation on this guNa of bhagavAn is for our life. Without food 
we can go on for many days; without water we can survive for a few 
days; but without air, but a few minutes. That is how important air 
is for our living; and so also is the meditation on vishNu for our 
spiritual life. He quotes mahAtmA gAndhi in this context - that he 
could survive without food for several days (and hasn't he proved it 
several times!), but he could not live without prayer for even a day. 
The air is also spread around everywhere, just as mahA vishNu is.  
Our mind wanders around everywhere, and occupies everything, just as 
air occupies all available space.  Man has learned to control and 
contain air.  So also, he can learn to control his mind by constant 
meditation on vishNu. This is another lesson we can take from this 
nAma. 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan





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