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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 87 - sarvaj~nah.

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champakam • Fri Mar 14 2003 - 20:04:06 PST 


     SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 87 - sarvaj~nah.

821.	sarvaj~nah: a) He Who knows all.
b) He Who knows all the needs of all His devotees.

Om sarvaj~nAya namah.

This nAma occurred earlier in Slokam  48  - nAma 454.

a) In Slokam 48, SrI BhaTTar gives the interpretation that bhagavAn 
is sarvaj~nah because He knows that He is the antaryAmI in 
everything – tathA sarvAtmanA AtmAnam jAnAti iti sarva~jnah.  SrI 
rAdhAkRshNa SAstri refers to us bRhadAraNya Upanishad, which conveys 
this message:  idam sarvam yad ayam AtmA (bRha. 6.5.7).  He knows 
that He is the best means and the best end (best upAyam and best 
upeyam).  SrI v.v. rAmAnujan refers us to nammAzhvAr's tiruvAimozhi 
4.7.7, where AzhvAr refers to emperumAn as "nirainda j~nAna mUrti" – 
sarvaj~nan.  

SrI rAdhAkRshNa SAstri has given several additional references to the 
Sruti where Supreme Brahman is referred to as sarvaj~nah:

-	yah sarvaj~nah sarvavit (muNDakopanishad 1.1.9); 
-	sa sarvaj~nah sarvo bhavati (praSna 4.10); 
-	esha sarveSvara esha sarvaj~nah (mANDUkya 6); 
-	sa viSvakRt siSvavid Atmayonih j~nah kAlakAlo guNI 
sarvavidyah (SvetASva. 2.6.2,16).

SrI satyadevo vAsishTha comments that as the Maker of everything that 
exists (the Creator), He knows the in and out of everything there is 
to know about everything.  He gives several Sruti references, where 
He is referred to as "One Who knows everything":

   - tvam indra asi viSva-jit sarva-vit puruhUtas-tvam=indra   |  
(atharva. 17.1.111)
   - sa no bandhur-janitA sa vidhAtA dhAmAni veda bhuvanAni viSvA   
|   ( yajur. 32.10)
   - yo nah pitA janitA yo vidhAtA dhAmAni veda bhuvanAni viSva   |  
(Rg. 10.82.3)
   - yas-thishThati carati yaSca va'ncati yo nilAyam carati yah 
prata'nkam    |
     dvau sannishadya yan-mantrayete raja tad veda varuNas-tRtIyah   
||     (atharva. 4.26.2)

SrI kRshNa datta bhAradvAj brings out the significance of the "all-
knowing" aspect through the following words –  
SrI bhagavAn hi sarvam sarvatra sarvadA sarvathA ca jAnAti – He knows 
everything, always, everywhere, through 
all means.  He is the Only One Who knows the past, present and the 
future – bhUta-bhavad-bhavishyAdInAm 
j~nAnam.  He is inside everyone and everything.  All the bodies and 
all the souls are His body, and nothing is beyond  His reach.  His 
sarva~jnatvam thus covers everything that is known, and everything 
there is to know.  

b) While SrI BhaTTar's anubhavam for the previous instance of this 
nAma (in Slokam 48) was that He knows that He is the antaryAmI in 
everything, his vyAkyAnam for the current nAma is in terms of what is 
particularly beneficial for the devotee - that He knows precisely 
what is useful for the devotee.  His vyAkhyAnam is that bhagavAn 
knows what is in the power of His devotees and what is not in their 
power, what they can accomplish by themselves and what they cannot 
accomplish by themselves – teshAm Sakya aSakya sAdhya asAdhyAdikam 
anusandatte iti sarvaj~nah.  The benefit to us from this is that He 
will help us achieve things that we cannot achieve by ourselves, 
depending on our wishes.   SvI v.v. rAmAnujan reminds us of 
tiruma'ngai AzhvAr's pASuram of this quality of perumAl, where AzhvAr 
takes issue with perumAL for not revealing Himself to AzhvAr right 
away, without delay, even after knowing fully well how much AzhvAr is 
suffering from the separation from Him:

nallAr aRivIr, tIyAr aRivIr;  namakku iv-ulagattil 
ellAm aRivIr, EdE ariyIr indaLUrIrE   !                   (periya 
tirumozhi 4.9.6)

"You know who Your devotees are that cannot bear separation from You, 
and who those people are that do not know the value of their 
association with You!   You know everything else in this universe 
too!  But somehow You do not seem know the purity and simplicity of 
the intense pain that I am undergoing right now, because You are not 
giving Your darSanam to me right away!"

  SrI Sa'nkara bhAshyam for the instance of this nAma in Slokam 48 
is "sarvaSca asau j~naSca iti sarva~jnah" - He  
  who is all and who knows all.   For the current instance of the 
nAma, his interpretation is – sarvam jAnAti iti sarva~jnah – He Who 
knows all.  The difference is that in the first case he treats the 
nAma as sarvah + j~nah (sarvah as a noun or pronoun), and in the 
second case as sarvam + j~nah (as qualifying j~nah).  

c) SrI cinmayAnanda gives the interpretation as "One Who illumines 
all – "The Illuminator of all thoughts, all intentions, motives, 
emotions, and all sense perceptions in an individual".

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan



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