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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 78 - Part 2.

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Narasimhan Krishnamachari • November 1, 2002 


   SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 78 - naikah, sah (savah).

731. naikah- He Who is not One only.

Om naikAya namah (om naikasmai namah in Samkara pATham - see nAma 730).

a) SrI BhaTTar explains how He is One (the previous nAma), and also
"Not one only" (the current nAma).  He is One in the sense of being
unique in having everything in all the Universe as His possession;  But
 He is not one only, since there are all these other things which are
His glorious vibhUtis or extensions which are of a nature different
from His.   He is the antaryAmi of all that exist.  SrI BhaTTar's words
are - vibhUtitayA vijAtIyena sarveNa dvitIyavAneva iti naikah - Since
He has as His glorious possessions all that are of a nature different
from His, He is not One only.  He quotes from the gItA in support - 
"nAnto'sti mama divyAnAm vibhUtInAm paramtapa" (11.40) - "O arjuna,
There is no end to the divine glories of Mine (What I have stated in
detail is only a small part of My glories)". 

SrI v.v. rAmAnujan gives support from nammAzhvAr's tiruvAimozhi:

	Â…tIyAi nIrAi nilanAi viSumbAik kAlAi
	tAyAit tandaiyAi makkaLAi maRRumAi muRRumAi
	nIyAy nI ninRavARu ivai enna niyAya'ngaLE?   (tiruvAi. 7.8.1)

"You are the Fire, Water, Earth, Ether, and Air.  To us You are the
mother, father, children, other relatives all rolled into one.  You are
more; You are the whole Universe.  Yet I enjoy You in Your own
beautiful Form.  Now pray tell me the secret of all this.  I don't
understand this high-level abstract mysticism".

	nIrAi nilanAi tIyAi kAlAi neDu vAnAi
	SirAr SuDargaL iraNDAi SivanAi ayan AnAi Â… (tiruvAi. 6.9.1)

"You are Water, Earth, Fire, Air, and Ether, the Sun and the Moon.,
Siva and Brahma.  (You are antaryAmi of all of them; You became all of
them; You entered into them all)."

Since He is AtmA of all the AtmA-s, He has all of these as His body. 
Thus He is not only One, but He is also Many.                          
                                           

SrI Samkara explains the nAma naikah -  He Who is not one only, by
attributing His many forms to His mAyA - mAyayA bahu-rUpatvAt naikah. 
In the nAmAvaLi, the advaita pATham is "naikasmai namah".

b) SrI kRshNa datta bhAradvAj gives a different interpretation - naikah
- dvitAm vindamAnah; mAta-pitR-bhAvanayA SrI-lakshmI-nArAyaNa rUpeNa
virAjamAnah | - He is not One but should be recognized as two - in the
form of our Father and Mother, in His Form as SrI lakshmI-nArAyaNa.  

SrI cinmayAnanda observes that His being One (ekah) is to be realized
at the "knowledge" level, but His being Many is realized at the "Being"
level.  He is in everything that exists, and without Him nothing
exists; so He is Many.   However it is He and He alone who is in
everything making everything function, and so He is One.  

c) SrI satyadevo vAsishTha's explanation is that He is called naikah
because there is no identity in anything that is created by Him, and
everything is different  - na eko yasmAt iti naikah.  (na tasya pratimA
asti - yajur. 32.3.).  SrI vAsishTha refers to this as the naikattva
dharma of bhagavAn.

732. sah - a) He Who spreads knowledge.
	b) He Who is the final authority on all knowledge.
	c) He Who destroys all obstacles to His devotees.
	d) He Who is easily accessible, to the point of being pointed out as
"He" by the youngsters of 
                               AyarpADi.
	e) He Who is of the form the soma sacrifice (when the nAma is taken as
savah)
	f) He Who is the final Knowledge, and Who dwells everywhere (savah)

Om sAya namah.

The root from which the word sah is derived in the interpretation of
this nAma is so - antakarmaNi- to destroy, to bring to an end.  

a) SrI BhaTTar gives the vyAkhyAnam - sva-vishaya j~nAnam syati iti sah
- He Who spreads knowledge about Him is sah.   The explanation of this
interpretation starting from the root so - antakarmaNi, is given under
item ii) under "savah" below (syati = antayati = niScayati sva-vishaya
j~nAnam).    SrI BhaTTar gives the example of Lord kRshNa spreading
knowledge about Him right from His childhood to everyone.  SrI v.v.
rAmAnujan gives the support from embAr's interpretation for
periAzhvAr's "ap pUcci kATTuginRAn" pASurams - the reference here is
that even as a child, kRshNa reveals His tiru Azhi and tiruc ca`ngu to
even the children of AyarpADi and reveals His greatness to them. 
nammAzhvAr declares that  he has realized the whole truth about
emperumAn because he has been bestowed with "mayarvaRa madi nalam" by
perumAL - avanE avanum avanum avanum avanE maRRellAmum aRindanamE
(tiruvAi. 9.3.2, and the associated vyAkhyAnam by SrI V. N. VedAnta
deSikan).

b) SrI satyadevo vAsishTha gives the interpretation that bhagavAn has
this nAma because He ultimately determines (brings to a conclusion,
ends the discussion on) how everything in this Universe functions etc.
(see the additional explanation under ii) for the nAma interpreted as
"savah" below.   

c) SrI kRshNa datta bhAradvAj gives the interpretation - syati
vinASayati sva-jana vipada iti sah - He is called sah because He
destroys the obstacles of His devotees.

d) SrI aNNa'ngarAcArya svAmi seems to give his interpretation using the
direct meaning of the word sah - He.  His actual words are:  "appaDip
paTTavar enRu koNDADat takkavar" - He Who is worthy of being praised as
such and such", where I assume that the reference "appaDip paTTavar"
refers to His previous nAma-s such as ekah, naikah, etc.  SrI
rAdhAkRshNa SAstri gives a similar interpretation, and notes that  He
has the nAma sah because He was such ( a saulabhyan) that the other
young and innocent gopa-s in AyarpADi could point to Him and say "He"
is kRshNa.  

savah: 

i) While SrI BhaTTar treats sah (the current nAma) and vah (the next
nAma) as two separate nAma-s, SrI Samkara treats the two words as
forming one nAma - savah (om savAya namah).  savah is defined in the
amarakoSa vyAkhyAna as "sUyate abhishUyate somah atra iti savah" - that
event in which the soma juice is offered is called savah, namely the
soma sacrifice.    SrI Samkara's explanation is that He is the soma
sacrifice Himself, and so has this nAma.   SrI rAdhAkRshNa SAstri notes
that the term savah refers to the soma yAga because the juice extracted
from the stems of the soma plant (soma latA) is used in this sacrifice.
 He adds that the inner meaning is that bhagavAn is the essence or the
final extract of everything that exists. 

ii) SrI satyadevo vAsishTha gives the above interpretation, and also
gives an alternate interpretation:  savah - yo hi syati = antayati -
niScAyayati sva-vishayam j~nAnam, vasati ca sarvatra, iti savah - He
Who gives the final knowledge about Him to His devotees, and also
dwells everywhere, is savah. 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan  



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