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Ananadha RaamAyaNam & Si VishNu Sahasra Naamam (1).

From the Bhakti List Archives

V. Sadagopan • June 20, 1997 


Dear Friends :

It is so delightful to learn about the eulogy of
Sri Ramachandra by Lord Siva in Anandha 
RaamAyaNam (AR ) from Srimathi KrishNamAcchAri"s 
posting . For a long time , I had the impression that 
these were verses from  Raama KarNAmrutham ,composed  
by one of the peetathipathis of Kaanchi KamakOti Peetam.
He gave up his pontifical status and retired to the banks 
of one of the tributaries of Cauveri river and had jeeva 
samadhi with the Raama taraka nAmam on his lips 
on the river bed of Veerasozhan  . Now I am glad to know 
that number of the verses similar to that quoted in 
the Saara KhAndam of AR inspired this Rama BhakthA 
( BhodEndrAL ) of recent times . 

Sri KrishNamAchAri's comments on the first naamam of 
Sri VishNu sahasra Naamam triggered a lot of thoughts .
I am happy to share them with you , while congratulating 
Sri KrishNamAchAri on his pious endeavour . 

First of all , ParAsara Bhattar's intrepretation of the NaamA ,
" Visvam " as FULL in all rspects is extraordinarily symbolic.
The sAnthi Paatam and the first manthram of IsAvAsya 
Upanishad immediately springs to my mind . The sAnthi 
paatam declares : 

Om PoorNamadha: poorNamidam 
poorNAth poorNamuduchyathE I
poorNasya poorNamAdhAya 
poorNamEvAvasishyathe II

The profound statement of the Visva VyApi 
( VishNu ) is celebrated by this sAnthi paatam :

" That is Whole ; This is Whole ; from the Whole ,
the Whole becomes manifest . From the Whole , when
the Whole is negated , what remains is again
the Whole . "

The poorNathvam and the SampoorNathvam 
of the Visvathomukhan is saluted here echoing the first
nAmam of Sri VishNu Sahasra Naamam .

The half of the first manthrA of this Upanishad 
goes on to dwell more about the Lord and His 
universe and how He pervades them after creating them :

Om IsAvAsyam-Idam Sarvam 
Yath kimcha JagathyAm Jagath I

This portion of the manthram states that " All this ,
whatsoever moves in this Universe , including 
the Universe itself , is pervaded or enveloped by 
the Omnipresent Lord " . The root " Vis " to enter 
informs the meaning of Visvam . His poorNathvam 
is celebrated thus thru the first Naamam as indicated 
by Sri KrishNamAchAri . The Purusha Sooktham 
portion , " sa bhoomim VISVATHO vruthvA " is another
echo from this first nAmam .

Many Subsequent nAmAs of VSN will elaborate on 
this Visva Murthy: ( 722nd Naamam ) . He is saluted as
VisvaKarmA ( 50th Naamam ) . Visvasrut ( 240th naamam ) ,
Visva rEthA ( 89th naamam ) , Visvabhukvibhu : ( 241st nAmam) ,
Visva YOni : ( 242 & 270th nAmams ) and finally 
VisvAthmA ( 227th nAmam ) . The last nAmam is the closest
in spirit to the FIRST nAmam of Visvam . Since Sri KrishNamAchAri
will be covering the meanings of these nAmAs at length
later , I will not elaborate further on them except to hint at
the connectivity in meanings associated with the First nAmam .

The other connection of the First nAmam is to the oldest 
Vedam , Rg Vedam . We find the profoundly meaningful 
word " Visvam " by itself and with suffixes and  sandhis 
appearing NINETY times in the different Khandams of
Rg Vedam . I will cover illustrative Rks of Rg Vedam 
which start with " Visvam " in my next posting . 

Sri Bhumi Devi SamEtha Oppiliappan 
ThiruvadigaLE  SaraNam .

Oppiliappan Kovil VaradAchAri Sadagopan