Book Presentation

"Vishnu Sahasranamam"

by Dr. Ekkirala Krishnamacharya

 

Vishnu Sahasranamam means “The Thousand Names of the Lord” and represents the quintessence of ancient Indian thought. The text of this Scripture is the 13th book in the great epic poem of Vedic literature, The Mahabharata, composed by the sage Veda-Vyasa, a contemporary of Lord Krishna, more than 5000 years ago. Word meaning for each of the stanzas is described, followed by a lucid explanation which utilizes the etymological, astrological and spiritual keys to bring out the significance of each of the 1000 names of the Lord.

Each of the thousand names is a word with a meaning attached to it. The meaning is usually a description of the form or the qualities of God. The set of thousand names is to indicate that all the names represent only one God who is shining through the utterer himself.

Kulapathi Book Trust at The World Teacher Trust, Visakhapatnam, India. 2nd edition 2003.

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Sample:

Stanza 11

(Sanskrit…)

Word Meaning:

(Ajah) = The unborn (1)
(Sarveshwarah) = The Lord of all (2)
(Siddhah) = accomplished (3)
(Siddhih) = accomplishment (4)
(Sarvadih) = The beginning of all and everything (5)
(Achyutah) = The one without a slip or a fall (6)
(Vrsakapih) = He who showers and reabsorbs (7)
(Ameyatma) = The soul with the spirit immeasurable
(Sarvayogavinisrtah) = one who causes the evolution through the synthesis of all planes of existence (9)


Meaning:

Invoke the Lord as the unborn, the Lord of all, as the accomplished and the accomplishment; as the beginning of all and everything; as the one without a slip or fall. Also invoke the Lord as the one who showers and reabsorbs; as the soul with the spirit immeasurable and the one who causes the evolution through the synthesis of all planes of existence.

Explanation:

1. Since birth and death belong to the created beings and not to the content, we have to meditate the Lord as unborn.

2. He is the Lord of the creation and the creator. He is also the Lord of matter, force, mind and soul. He is the Lord of name, shape, nature and the content. He is the filling content of all the devas and hence He is the Lord of all.

3. The idea to practice yoga and the accomplishment of yogic practice depend upon the very existence of the Lord in us and by the grace of his inducement. Therefore, the living being who attains, accomplishment is the Lord Himself as potential though He is the finite being functionally. Hence the Lord Himself is the accomplished one.

4. The very process of practice to attain accomplishment is due to his grace of presence and hence it is Himself.

5. Beginning and ending are real only to the individual and the universe. The Lord is beyond these two and is the real being of both.

6. A slip and a fall is characteristic of mind and matter and that part of intelligence which is in contact with the mind and senses. Mind, matter and senses belong to the lower nature whereas their content belongs to the Lord nature which has neither slip nor fall.

7. During the rainy Season, the sun's rays cause the clouds shower. During summer, they reabsorb the water of the earth as clouds. Similarly during mating season, the mind makes the living being shower as the sperm to reproduce. During the process of death, the prana of this earth reabsorbs all the layers of the material and mental planes, into itself. Similarly while expressing something, the will showers intelligence into the objective plane through the utterance. During sleep and meditation, it reabsorbs all the concepts of intelligence into itself. The whole process is a pulsation containing exhalation and inhalation. Meditate the Lord as the one who conducts both.

8. All the lower planes of matter, life and mind come out of the essence at every birth. They exist on the surface of the essence as its own sheaths. They are once again reabsorbed into the essence. This whole process is to exemplify the essence which we call soul and allegorise into the life with all changes. Anyone of these changes react with each other and with the essence and hence, they cannot measure thp essence which is the soul. They can never measure the spirit which is the essence of the soul itself

9. The Lord comes down into creation in the form of all the planes and layers. The process of coming down is by virtue of his existence as the synthesis of all these though it bears their analysis.
Man is today subservient