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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 78 - Part 3.

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Narasimhan Krishnamachari • November 5, 2002 


        SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 78 - vah, kah. 

733. vah – The Dweller.

Om vAya namah.

The nAma vah is derived from the root vas – nivAse – vasati iti vah –
He Who dwells as the antaryAmi of everything.  The pANini sUtra
anyeshvapi dRSyate (3.2.101) is applied in the derivation of this word
from its root , similar to jah standing for “one who was born” (e.g.,
na jAyate = a-jah, dvir-jAtah = dvi-jah, etc.).    SrI BhaTTar gives
support from SrI vishNu purANam for his interpretation:

	vasanti tatra bhUtAni bhUtatmanyakhilAtmani   |
	sa ca bhUteshvaSeshesu vakArArthas-tato mune  ||  (6.5.76)

“All beings dwell in Him Who is Himself all beings and the Inner Soul
of all.  He also dwells in all of them without exception.  Therefore, O
sage, He is signified by the letter ‘va’.”

(The above Slokam in SrI vishNu purANam occurs in the context where all
the letters of the word “bhagava” is explained).

nammAzhvAr refers to His being everywhere always, in his tiruvAimozhi
pASuram 2.8.9, in the context of the description of prahlAda caritram
(ref: SrI v.v. rAmAnujan):  eÂ’ngum uLan kaNNan enRa maganaik kAyndu,
IÂ’ngu illaiyAl enRu iraNiyan tUN puDaippaÂ…. 

SrI v.v. rAmAnujan also gives reference to nammAzhvArÂ’s tiruvAimozhi
pASuram 1.1.10:

	paranda taN paravaiyuL nIr torum paranduLan
	paranda aNDam idu ena nila viSumbu ozhivaRak
	karan Sil iDam toRum iDam tigazh poruL toRum
	karandu eÂ’ngum paranduLan ivai uNDa karanE      (tiruvAi. 1.1.10)

“He is present in every atom in the cool waters that are widely
distributed everywhere;  He permeates everything everywhere in the land
and in the sky in all the Universes;  He is present in the minutest of
things, and also in the AtmA of everything; He Who swallowed all these
things and kept them in His stomach, is present in everything without
their even knowing that”.

SrI kRshNa datta bhAradvAj gives the interpretation “He Who goes to the
abodes of those who sing His praise”, using the meaning vAti = gacchati
 (vAti gacchati sva janAyojita bhajana bhavanam iti vah.    

As pointed out under the previous nAma, vah is not treated as a
separate nAma by SrI Samkara and those who follow his bhAshyam. 

734. kah – a) He Who shines.   
	b) He Who is invoked or praised through words by devotees.
	c) He Who is the personification of happiness.
	d) He Who remains an unanswered Question Mark when approached through
“intellection”.

Om kAya namayh.

The root from which this nAma is derived is kan – dIpti kAnti gatishu –
to shine etc.  The same grammatical rule which applied for vah above
(pANini 3.2.101) is used here to derive the nAma kah from kanati – He
shines.   

a) SrI BhaTTar points out that even though He dwells even in things
that are dirty (as the Soul of their soul), He Himself is
ever-resplendent – maleemaseshu vasannapi kanati iti kah.  Even though
bhagavAn is the antrayAmi in everything including those that are
impure, sinful, etc., their impurity or sin do not affect Him or His
luster in any way.  SrI v.v. rAmAnujan adds that in His case, His
luster is natural, unlike in the case of people like us whose
appearance is dependent on the clothes we wear, the talk we talk etc. –
vastra AbharaNa vapushA vAcA.  Based on kan – dIpti kAnti gatishu, SrI
vAsishTha gives the explanation that because He shines everywhere, and
He is present everywhere (gati), and enlightens everything or makes
everything shine (dIpti), thus in all senses He is called kah.  At an
individual level, we see that the kAnti that a living being has is only
so long as He is in that body as the Soul of the soul;  when the Soul
leaves the body, the luster is gone also.  This whole Universe shines
because He is present everywhere and in everything, illuminating all.  
                         

b) SrI kRshNa datta bhAradvAj uses the root kai – Sabde – to sound, and
gives the interpretation – kAyate Sabdyate AhUyate bhaktaih iti kah –
He Who is invoked by devotees or praised by them through sound is kah. 


c) One of the meanings of the word kam is happiness – kam sukhe’pi
vijAnIyAt – (as quoted by A. A. Ramanathan in his title “amarakoSa” –
Part 2, p. 228, 1978 edition).  SrI Samkara uses this meaning, and
gives the interpretation that bhagavAn is called kah because He is the
personification of happiness.  He gives the support from chAndogya
Upanishad 4.10 – kam  brahma – Happiness is Brahman.  SrI rAdhAkRshNa
SAstri adds that the limit of happiness is the tyAga of ahamkAra and
mamakAra, and bhagavAn is One who has realized the limit of this.  The
dharma cakram writer points out that there are two kinds of happiness:
the happiness of the body and the happiness of the soul.  The first one
leads to sorrow, but this is the happiness that most people go after. 
It is only by sacrificing this bodily happiness that the happiness of
the soul is achieved, and the latter is achieved only to the extent
that the former is sacrificed.  It is the happiness of the soul that
should be sought after, and this is the lesson to be learnt from this
nAma.

d) SrI cinmayAnanda adds a new interpretation based on the common
meaning of kah – “Who?”.  His interpretation is that this nAma says
that bhagavAn is a Question Mark with no answer when approached with
the human intellect or reasoning alone;  He can only be experienced
when one transcends the intellect, and not through “intellection”. 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan


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