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Re: Opening of Vishnu Sahasranamam...

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TCA Venkatesan • September 20, 2002 


Sri:
Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama:

Dear Sri Vijay Raghavan,

This coems from the last part of the opening line:
sarva vigna upashAnthaye, which talks about one who
is responsible for the removal of all difficulties.
This is commonly used to refer to Sri Ganesha, whose
other names include Vigneshvara. However, for
Srivaishnavas, Sri Vishvaksena is responsible for
the removal of difficulties. Even during homas, we
invoke Vishvaksena homam first as opposed to non-
Srivaishnavas who would do a Ganapathi homam first. 

Note that the term vishNum is taken not in the 
masculine mode but as a qualifying term and as such 
is not necessarily interpreted as refering to Lord 
Vishnu.

Ultimately though, since He is the antharyami for 
everyone, I don't see any difficulty in taking that
these lines to refer to none other than Sriman 
Narayana.

Interestingly the second set of lines "yasya ..."
which directly refer to Sri Vishvaksena is recited
by all Srivaishnavas but recordings of Sahsranamam
such as that by Smt M.S. Subbulakshmi do not have it.

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan
TCA Venkatesan
http://www.acharya.org

--- vijay raghavan  wrote:
> Dear Sri Vaishnavas,
> 
> With my limited knowledge I've a doubt regarding this
> question. Why are these opening lines attributed to
> Shri Ganesha or Shri Vishwaksenar? These lines do not
> mention any of them by name. As far as I read, these
> lines mean:
> 
> SuklAm-bara-dhara, He who is clad in pure white
> vishNu He who pervades everything and everywhere 
> Sasi-varNa, He who is of the cool colour of the moon
> catur-bhuja, He who has four hands
> prasanna-vadana, He whose face is always beaming with
> satisfaction.
> 
> Could we not consider these lines as attributed to
> Sriman Narayana Himself as he is the Paramatma and
> hence "Vishnua Sahasra Naamam" may start by invoking
> His attributes?
> 
> Please excuse me if I've written or interpreted
> anything wrong here. I too had this doubt for a long
> time and would like to clarify the same from the
> learned Bhagavathas here.
> 
> Adiyen,
> Vijayaraghavan.


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