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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 73 - Part 3.

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Narasimhan Krishnamachari • May 9, 2002 


         SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 73 - stotram, stutah.

686. stotram -  The Eulogy Incarnate.

Om stotrAya namah.

The word stotram is derived from the root stu - to praise, through the
addition of the affix shTran, which gives the sense of instrument (i.e,
means of praise), according to pANini sUtra 3.2.182.  The nAma means
that bhagavAn is stotram incarnate.

SrI BhaTTar's interpretation is that  bhagavAn is the cause or the
instrument of the stotram or praise, because it is only by His
anugraham that the devotee praises Him.   SrI BhaTTar gives the example
of child dhruva who was spell-bound when bhagavAn appeared before Him,
and could not utter even a word.  Then bhagavAn gently touched dhruva's
cheek with His conch, and immediately words of praise of bhagavAn
started pouring out form dhruva's mouth.   Thus, bhagavAn was the true
instrument for His praise in this case.  SrI rAdhAkRshNa SAstri refers
to  the following words of dhruva:  

yo antah praviSya mam vAcam imam prasuptAm sa'njIvayatyakhila Sakti
dharah sva dhAmnA   |
anyAmSca hasta caraNa SravaNa tvagAdIn prANAn namo bhagavate purushAya
tubhyam   ||

"I worship that Lord who entered into me, gave life to my words which
were more or less dead, and with His unique Sakti, rejuvenated my
hands, legs, ears, skins, etc., and gave movement to them". 
	
 SrI v.v. rAmAnujan gives reference to tiruvAimozhi 10.7.5, where
nammAzhvAr echoes this same sentiment:  paNNAr pADal in kavigaL yAnAit
tannait tAn pADiÂ…, where nammAzhvAr says that bhagavAn sang His own
praise by Himself through tiruvAimozhi using nammAzhvAr as the vehicle
or means. 

SrI Samkara's interpretation is that bhagavAn is Himself the Hymn.  SrI
cinmayAnanda explains this by pointing out that when a glorious hymn,
praising His Divine Nature, is sung with full devotion and ardent
aspiration to realize Him, this praise lifts the devotee into the
experience of the Nature of Truth.  Thus, the nAma (praise here) and
the nAmee are one and the same in experience.   SrI rAdhAkRshNa SAstri
observes that words that praise Him are by their very nature good
words, and so they are His manifestation (Note that Lord kRshNa
declares in the gItA that all that are best in this world are but His
manifestations).  

The dharma cakram writer explains that the great Rshi-s to whom
bhagavAn has revealed Himself, have a mind which is pure and where He
resides.  When these sages reveal their experience of Him through words
to others, this becomes the mantra or the word of praise or stotram. 
Thus the stotram or the mantra becomes the representation of Him.  This
is what AzhvAr declares when he says "nalam tarum Sollai nAn kaNDu
koNDEn nArAyaNA ennum nAmam".  One is reminded of the incident of
draupadi being saved by invoking the nAma of kRshNa which saved her
even before kRshNa could personally come and save her.  In this sense,
the nAma or the stotram is even more powerful than Him.  

SrI satyadevo vAsishTha interprets stotram in the current context to
refer to veda - stUyate anena iti stotram vedah - that by which
bhagavAn is praised, is veda.   Since bhagavAn is the object of praise
of the veda-s, He is stotram Himself (vedasya pradhAna vishayatvA
brahmApi stotram).  

687. stutah - He Who is praised.

Om stutAya namah.

SrI BhaTTar's vyAkhyAnam is that bhagavAn is called stutah because He
is praised by everyone including the nitya sUri-s for the attainment of
their respective desires.  This includes the thousand-hooded AdiSesha,
garuDa who is the embodiment of the three-fold veda-s, brahma and other
gods, and also by humans being like ourselves (sahasra-phaNa
trayI-mayAdibhih anantaih brahmAdibhih, asmadAdibhiSca
tat-tad-abhilAsha siddhaye stuta iti).   SrI BhaTTar gives reference to
the Sruti "dhAtA purastAt yamudAjahAra Sakrah pravidvAn
pradiSaS-catasrah" - purusha sUktam - "At first, brahma, the creator,
praised Him, then indra of great knowledge extolled Him, and then the
four directions".  The reference to the four directions indicates that
He is the Object of praise by all beings like ourselves.  SrI v.v.
rAmAnujan gives reference to nammAzhvAr's tiruvAimozhi 3.3.5, which
conveys this idea - "SodiyAgi ellA ulagum tozhum Adi mUrti enRAl
aLavAgumO?".  

SrI Samkara pATham for this nAma is stuthih - the act of praise.  SrI
rAdhAkRshNa SAstri observes that with SrI Samkara's version, the
previous nAma refers to the words of praise, and the current nAma will
refer to the act of praise.  With SrI BhaTTar's version (stutah), the
previous nAma says that He is the instrument for His praise (including
the words and the acts), and the current nAma indicates that He is the
object of these words and acts of praise.   The dharma cakram writer
notes that it is only when we have a mind that is clean, and is
occupied by Him, that meaningful and proper stuti comes out through our
words.  It is then that the greatness of bhagavAn takes shape in the
form of words and comes out as stuti.  Thus, it is He who causes the
stuti to occur, and hence He is called stutih.

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan 


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