Drop 7: Each name a capsule of Divinity : DROPLET 1 DROPLET 2 DROPLET 3 DROPLET 4

1201: subrahmaNya 1202: Idol worship 1203: One truth - Many Expressions 1204: Glory of the Lord's name1205: sahasranAmas 1206: Power of words 1207: Capsules of Divinity 1208: Scriptural epitomes1209: AUM or OM 1210: rAma 1211: kRSNa 1212: nArAyaNa

All the names below are from the VISHNU SAHASRANAMA.
1. He is udbhavaH, because He is the (material) cause for the origin of the universe. 'I am the origin of everything; It is from me everything appears' says the Lord in the gItA(10 - 8).

aham sarvasya prabhavao mattassarvam pravartate

But though He has brought about the whole universe, this action does not in any way bind Him. For He says in the gItA (9 - 9): These actions do not bind me; I am untouched by the actions, I sit, as it were, totally indifferent to them:

na ca mAm tAni karmANi nibadhnanti dhananjaya / udAsInavad-AsInam asaktam teshu karmasu //

And therefore, say the commentators, He removes our bondage even as we meditate on Him.In fact we may even meditate on Him as the little Krishna who was 'bound' by ropes by His mother!

2. He is pramodanaH: He revels in joy and bliss. Moda is carnal pleasure. Pramoda is spiritual bliss. He is full of pramoda. Therefore he is ever blissful. He gives that bliss to those who meditate on Him. The very meditation itself gives bliss. That is why, in the mantra of the gAyatrI, the second line which says 'let us meditate on the Glory of the Absolute' stands for the Ananda of the three representations sat, cit, Ananda of the Ultimate Reality.
3. He is guhyaH: He is himself a secret. He can be known only by the mantras and messages of the upanishads. Also he dwells subtly in the innermost cave of the heart:

yo veda nihitam guhAyAm parame vyoman / so'Snute sarvAn kAmAn saha //

in the taittirIyopanishad, meaning: He who knows it as resident of the subtle space in the secret cave (of the heart) experiences all his desires. Also in the nArAyaNopanishad:

dahram vipApam vara-veSma-bhUtam yat-puNDarIkam pura-madhya-saMstham / tatrApi dahram gaganam viSokas-tasmin yad-antas-tad-upAsitavyam //

4. He is priyakRt - He does for us what is pleasing to us. We may worship Him just for our own petty wishes. He fulfills them so that we may finally want what He is always ready to give us, namely moksha.
5. He is gahanaH- so profound that He is unfathomable. You cannot scale the depth of the Truth that is He.
6. He is avyayaH, imperishable. Recall the gItA, 7 - 25:

mUDho'yam nAbhijAnati loko mAm ajam avyayam /

that is, 'this foolish world does not know Me as unborn and imperishable'. Also the gItA (9 - 18): 'nidhAnam bIjam avyayam'. The epithet 'avyayam bIjam' here is of significance. He is the seed from which everything sprouts but the seed itself never vanishes. A most unique seed indeed! Note that the seed can never vanish because when everything perishes the seed itself is necessary for the re-creation of the Universe. Vyaya also means change. There are six changes for any object: (asti =) appears; (jAyate =) is born; (vardhate =) grows; (pariNamate =) undergoes modification; (apakshIyate =) decays; (naSyati =) dies, vanishes, disappears. None of these changes apply to the Lord. And more, it is only of Him that such a statement can be said. Everything else will have at least one of these changes. What is not may appear; what was not there is born; what is born may have default and it will grow; what grows may decay; what grows or decays certainly undergoes modification; what is born finally dies and what appears also disappears. All these are the effects of the play of the guNas. The only subject that transcends the guNas is the lord. That is why the gItA says, in 7 - 13: This entire universe is deluded into action by the three attitudes of the guNas, but it is not aware of Me who is unchanging and unaffected by any of these.:

tribhir-guNa-mayair-bhAvair-ebiH sarvam-idam jagat / mohitam nAbhijAnAti mAm ebhyaH param avyayam //

7. He is aprameyaH, immeasurable, not reachable by any rules of logic. The kenopanishad says: That which man does not comprehend with the mind, that by which they say the mind is encompassed, know that to be brahman and not what people worship as an object. (I - 6) :

yan-manasA na manute yenAhur-mano matam / tadeva brahmatvam viddhi nedam yadidam upAsate //

Also gItA (2 - 18): 'anASino'prameyasya'

8. He is adhAtA, not propped up or supported by anything else; He needs no support. He is his own support. Recall from tirukkuraL :

paRRuga paRRaRRAn paRRinai appaRRaip-paRRuga paRRu viDarku

Hold on to the One who has no attachment. By attaching yourself to the attachmentless, you will be rid of attachments.

9. He is anuttamaH, unexcelled. More supreme than He there is nothing more supreme, nothing larger, nothing smaller: (nArAyaNopanishad)

yasmAt param nAparmasti kimcid-yasmAn-nANIyo na jyAyo'sti kimcit //

Also the gItA (7 - 7): There is nothing more supreme than Myself, O Arjuna.

mattah paratarm nAnyat kimcidasti dhananjaya //

10. He is agrAhyaH, He cannot be sensed by the senses. This is one of the classical ways in which the Absolute is described in the Upanishads by all negatives. MANDUkyopanishad, says, for instance: not visible, not relatable, not sensed by the senses, not definable, not imaginable, not indicatable, …:

adRshTam, avyavahAryam, agrAhyam, alakshaNam, acintyam, avyapadeSyam, …

11. He is bhUtakRt, He produced all beings. Not only He produced, He sustains them, and He takes them back. These three actions are all there in that one epithet kRt. The mAyA Sakti through which He acts, has three strands - the rajo- guNa causes the production, the satva- guNa causes the sustenance and the tamo-guNa causes the dissolution. Cf. The gItA, 9 - 7

sarva-bhUtAni kaunteya prakRtim yAnti mAmikAm / kalpa-kshaye punastAni kalpAdau visRjAmy-aham //

12. Therefore He is also bhUtabRt. The one who supports all beings. But on that account He is not to be considered as one of the beings. cf. gItA, 9 - 5: bhUtabRn-na ca bhUtastho …
13. He is AtmavAn, meaning, simply, the one who is His own Self. But this does not say all. In the ChAndogya upanishad, the question is raised: What supports Him? The answer is given. In His own Self.

sa bhagavan kasmin pratishTita iti sve mahimni

The Supreme Divinity does not need anything else for its support for there is nothing else other than Itself. So it is based on its own Self. So He is the only AtmavAn, no other entity can have this epithet. That is why we are asked to enjoy by renouncing the world - tena tyaktena bhunjIta in Isopanishad. When you have renounced everything else, only the Self, full of bliss, remains. This is the state of being the one who is His own Self. It is interesting to note that among the sixteen questions which Valmiki asks Narada before He wrote the Ramayana this is one: Who is the AtmavAn? The answer comes it is rAma.

14. So He it is that is established in Own Self. Therefore He is also the 'established' - pratishTitaH.

More names in DROPLET 3

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May 1, '99 Copyright Ó V. Krishnamurthy