We are starting Lord Shri Vishnu Sahasranama series, with meaning. Lord Shri Vishnu Sahasranama is distributed in 108 stanza. One who wants to attain Nirvana (Moksha), chanting of Lord shri Vishnu Sahasranama helps them. I hope you will like our effort.

Hari Aum.

Vishnu Sahasranama

(Meanings: based upon the commentary of Shankaracharya)

Vishnu Sahasranama means the “Thousand Names of Vishnu.” This narrative is based upon the commentary of Shankaracharya. Acharya Shankara reached the feet of his Guru, Sri Govindapa Acharya, and on the bank of Narmada, the Nambootiri-boy from kaaladi got initiated into the secrets of the Mahaavaakyas. At the end of his short but intense study, Shankara, the inspired missionary, wanting to fulfill his glorious work, craved from the blessings of his teacher. Govindapa Acharya tested Shankara by ordering him to write an exhaustive commentary (Bhashya) upon the Vishnu Sahasranama. He accomplished his great task and the very first work of the Upanishadik commentator, Shankara, the greatest Hindu missionary of the 7th century, thus came to see the light of the day.

Govindacharya, satisfied with the proficiency of the student blessed him and set him on the road of service and action. Earning the grace of the teacher and the blessings of the Lord Vishnu, Sri Shankara inaugurated an incomparable revival movement of the decadent culture of the 7th century Hinduism. We shall here follow closely Shankara’s commentary and also draw our material from the Puranik literature that has an endless store of appeal to the hearts of all devotees.

The Vishnu Sahasranama was composed by Shri Veda Vyasa, the author of the Puraanas, and we meet this great chant in his classical work, the Mahabharata, Prince Yudhishthira, the eldest of the Pandavas, at the end of the war approached Bhishma Pitaamaha, when the mighty grandsire of the Kuru family was lying on the bed of arrows, unconquered and in conquerable, awaiting the scared hour of his departure to the feet of the lord. Yudhishthira, the righteous, asked six questions, Bhishma, the constant devotee of Krishna, the gigantic Man of Action, calmly answered them all. This is how we find the “Thousand Names of Lord Vishnu” introduced in the immortal classic of the Hindus, the Mahabharata.

Question 1:
Kim ekam daivatam loke?

Who (“kim”) is the greatest (“ekam”) Lord (“daivatam”) in the world (“loke”)?

Answer 1:
Pavitraanaam pavitram yo
Mangalaanaam cha mangalam
Daivatam devataanam cha
Bhootaanam yo avyayah pitaa

He who is (“yo”) the very sanctity (“pavitram”) that sanctifies all sacred things (“pavitraanaam”); he who is most auspicious (“mangalam”); he who is the god (“devataa”) of gods (“daivatam”); he who is the eternal (“avyayah”) father (“pitaa”) of all creatures (“bhootaanaam”) is the one god – VISHNU.

Question 2:
Kim vaapyekam paraayanam?

Who is the one (“ekam”) refuge (“paraayanam”) for all?

Answer 2:
Paramam yo mahat-tejah Paramam yo mahat-tapah
Paramam yo mahat-brahma Paramam yah paraayanam.

He who is the great (“mahat”) effulgence (“tejah”); He who is the Great controller (“tapah”); He who is the Supreme All-Pervading Truth; (“brahma”) he who is the Highest (Param) Goal (Ayanam) - the Lord VISHNU.

Question 3:
Stuvantam kam praapnuyuh (Maanavah subham)?

By glorifying (“sthuvantah”) whom (“kam”) can man (“manavah”) reach the Auspiciousness (“shubam”) (peace and prosperity)?

Answer 3:
Jagat-prabhum deva-devam
Anantam purushottamam
Stuvan naama-sahasrena
Purushah satatotthitah

The supreme (“uttamam”) Purusha, who is ever up and dong for the welfare of all, the Lord (“prabhum”) of the world (“jagat”) the endless (“anantam”) – Sri Maha Vishnu.

Question 4:
(Kam archantah) praapnuyuh Maanavaah subham?

By worshipping (“archantah”) whom can a man reach auspiciousness (peace and prosperity)?

Answer 4:
Tameva cha archayan nityam
Bhaktyaa purusham avyayam
Stuvan naama-sahasrena
Purushah satatthitah

By meditating upon (“sthuvan naama”), by (“cha”) worshipping (“archayan”) and by prostrating at the same Purusha, man can reach true Auspiciousness – Sri Maha Vishnu.

Question 5:
Ko dharmah sarva-dharmaanaam
Bhavatah paramo matah?

What (“ko”) is, in thy opinion, the Greatest Dharma?

Question 6:
Kim japan muchyate jantuh
Janma-samsaara-bandhaaat?

By (“kim”) doing japa of what can “creatures” (jantu) go beyond (“mutchyate”) the bonds (“bandhanaath”) of samsara?

Answers 5 & 6:
Anaadi-nidhanam vishnum
Sarvaloka-maheshvaram
Lokaadhyaksham stuvan nityam
Sarva-duhkha-atigo bhavet.

Both questions are answered here:-

the greatest Dharma is the one Vishnu, who has neither a beginning (Aadi) nor an end (Nidhanam), the supreme Lord (“maheshwaram”) of the world. All creatures can go beyond the bonds of samsara, “and he goes beyond all sorrows” who daily (“nityam”) chants (“stuvan”) the Sahasranamas and within glorifies “the knower of the world” (Lokaadhyaksha).

The supreme is described as that from which the whole world of names and forms had risen in the beginning of the creation, that in which the world continues to exit, that into which alone the world can merge back during the ‘Dissolution’ (Pralaya); this supreme is VISHNU.

After thus answering all questions, “His thousand Name”, said Bhishma, “I shall now advise you. Please listen to them with all attention”.

This is how the Sacred Hymn, called as “The thousand names of Lord Vishnu”, is introduced in the Mahabharata.

Extra Comments:
The Supreme cannot be defined and since He is the very substratum of all qualities, He cannot be denominated by any name, or indicated by any term, or defined in any language, or ever expressed, even vaguely, in any literary form. He is beyond both the “Known” and the “Unknown”. He is the very illumining Principle of Consciousness that illuminates all experiences.

And yet He has many manifestations and, therefore, He can have infinite names in terms of His manifestations. Definitions should directly describe the thing defined, and here we have a thousand indirect definitions with which the Real, the Infinite is being indicated in terms of the unreal and the finite. These “Thousand names of the Lord” have been coined and given out by the Rishis (Sages). They were collected and strung together into a joyous Hymn to Vishnu, a garland of devotion and reverence, by the poet-seer Vyasa.

Since each of them is thus an indicative definition of the unknown in terms of the known, each term here is believed to rocket-us up into the realms of the divine experience, only when we have lifted our minds towards it through contemplation. Thus the Vishnu Sahasranama is employed not only by the devotees, in the sweet attitude of ‘sporting with the Lord’, but these are also employed by the contemplative students of philosophy, as gliders to roam in the realms of inspired Higher Consciousness.

More commentary:
In the Kali-Santarana Upanishad, which is one of the minor Upanishads, we find that,

the great devotee Narada approaching Brahmaaji to enquire, “What is the way out for man to evolve in these hard days of extrovertedness, which is quite natural and unavoidable in the Iron-age (Kaliyuga)?”

”Repetition of the names of Narayana is sufficient enough.”, was the reply given by Lord Brahmaaji..

It is to be carefully noted here that in the sixth question the enquiry was how can ‘creatures’ realise the Highest. Jantu means ‘that which is born’ (Janana-dharman). So all living creatures are fit for this easy path. ‘Creatures’ could even include the animal kingdom as it is described in the Puraanas in their own poetic language. In the Trikutaachala lake, the elephant that was caught by the crocodile is described as having been saved by the Lord (Gajendra Moksha). The story of Jadabharata is yet another example.

Shankara in his commentary describes here Japa as comprehensive of all the three types.

(A) That which can be heard by others;
(B) That which is heard by ourselves;
(C) That which is mental.

Vishnu Sahasranama can be employed in performing Japa of all these three kinds.

In the following “Thousand Names”, we meet with, though rarely, some repetitions. Exactly 90 names have been repeated in this Great Hymn; and of them, 74 are repeated twice, 14 are repeated thrice, and again 2 of them are found to have been repeated four times. Sometimes, the terms are repeated as such Vishnu- Vishnu, Siva-Siva etc. and sometimes different words with the same meaning are also employed (Sreepati- Maadhava; Pushkaraaksha- Kamalaaksha). These need not be considered as a defect, since this Hymn is a chant of His Glory .In a chant of glory (stuti) repetitions are acceptable-it is but a style of the emotional heart to repeat its declarations of love.

There are exactly 1,031 single “Names” of the Lord in the 1000-Name-Chant (Sahasranama). The extra 31 Names are to be considered each as an adjective qualifying (Viseshana) the immediately following noun. When one makes Archanaa to the Lord the correct dative case is to be used. There are 20 double-names in the first 500 Names and 11 double-names in the second half of the chant. There is one indeclinable (Avyaya) word used, and it (896th) should be used in the dative for Archanaa as Sanaat Namah; so too the 929th Name in the chant, being a plural noun, should be used in Archanaa as Sadbhyo Namah.

It will also be found, as we study the significances of these Divine names, that Vyasa has employed sometimes masculine gender, on other occasions feminine gender and some other times even neuter gender. Wherever it is masculine- it denotes
Vishnu, the Lord of Lakshmi. and when it is feminine it is indicative of His Might. Glory or power (devataa) that is manifests everywhere, and when the term is in neuter gender, it means Pure Brahman, the infinite Reality.

This Archanaa is generally performed by devotees daily; if this is not convenient they perform this worship at least on their own birth-days, on eclipse days and on the day on which the Sun moves from one zodiac to another (the Sankranti-day). This performance has been prescribed by the Shashtra for warding off troubles arising from the position of planets, anger of the rulers, incurable diseases and ruthless enemies. The highest effect is for purifying the mind and thus gaining more and more inner-poise for the Sadhaka in meditation.

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