Names of the Lord

Acyuta is a-cyuta, 'not fallen': cyuta is one who has slipped or been parted, and He never is. Parāśara Bhaṭṭar gives two meanings together. First, He never falls from His own state of lordship, unlike Brahmā, Indra and the other gods, who lose their high places when their merit is spent. Second, He never lets go of those who have come to Him for refuge: a verse of the Mahābhārata has the Lord say that He has never abandoned them, and so is Acyuta. Arjuna calls Kṛṣṇa by this name in the Gītā, as the chariot is to be driven between the armies.

The hymn gives the name three times, and each place takes a sense of its own from the names around it. At name 101 He is the One who never slips or lets go; at 321 He loses none of His glory, even when He comes down and is born among men; at 560, beside Saṅkarṣaṇa who draws all together, He is the Unfailing One, steady when creatures rise and decline and the gods themselves fall from their high places. The verse of the fruits names Him once more as Acyuta, the Lord of dharma.

Dāmōdara is dāman, a cord, and udara, the belly: He is the Lord bound about the waist with a rope. The tradition tells that as the child Kṛṣṇa in Gōkula He let His foster-mother Yaśōdā tie Him to a mortar with a rope, the Lord whom nothing can hold bound by love alone, and the Āḻvārs sing of the cord. The teachers love the name for the contrast it holds, for the same word says that all the worlds lie within His belly: the boundless Lord who lets a cowherd's wife bind Him, and so shows that He is subject to the wish of His devotees.

Other readings gather round it. Parāśara Bhaṭṭar, citing a verse of the Mahābhārata, hears in dāma the gladness that the Lord brings to the gods; Śaṅkara hears dama, self-command, and takes the Lord to be known through the mind made clear by restraint. Bhaṭṭar also joins the name to the next, Saha, the Patient One: He bore the binding patiently. In the hymn the name stands at 371.

Gōvinda is gō plus vinda. Gō means the cow, the earth and sacred speech, and vinda is one who finds, gains or knows; so the name is 'the finder of the earth', 'the keeper of cows' and 'He who is known by the word', and the tradition holds all three together.

The finder of the earth: when she lay sunk in the waters, the Lord took the form of the Great Boar, sought her out and raised her, and a verse of the Mahābhārata has Him say that for this the gods and the scriptures call Him Gōvinda. The keeper of cows: as the cowherd Kṛṣṇa He tends the herds of Gōkula, and the Harivaṃśa tells how Indra, lord of the gods, saluted Him as lord of the cows and said that men would praise Him always by this name. The One known by the word: the sacred speech of the Vēdas finds in Him its goal, and Śaṅkara hears in the name the Lord who is to be known through scripture.

The hymn gives the name twice. At name 190, in the śloka of the Refuge of the good and the Joy of the gods, He is the Guardian of cows, earth and speech, and the next name makes Him the Lord of those who know the word. At name 546, straight after the Great Boar, Parāśara Bhaṭṭar hears the finder of the earth, for the name follows the Boar because it recalls the Boar's own deed.

Hari is read two main ways. From the root hṛ, to take away, it is the One who takes away: the sins and sorrows of those who remember Him, and the bond of birth and death that binds them; and the tradition loves to add that He takes away the hearts of His devotees as well. The word is also an old word of colour, for green or tawny, and Parāśara Bhaṭṭar cites the Lord's own words in the Mahābhārata that His complexion is green and that this is why He is called Hari. Toṇḍaraḍippoḍi Āḻvār sees in His body a great green mountain.

The hymn gives the name twice. At name 363, next to the Offering, it is the One who takes away sorrow; at 659, last in the śloka that names Kēśava and the slaying of Kēśin, it is Hari of the emerald-dark hue, to whom the helpless call to carry away their trouble. The two readings meet in one picture, for the dark-green Lord is the One who takes sorrow away.

Hṛṣīkēśa is hṛṣīka, the senses, and īśa, lord: He is master of the senses of every being, including those of Brahmā and the other gods, and gives them the power to know and to act. The tradition keeps a second reading, which Śaṅkara supports with a verse of the Mahābhārata: kēśa also means a ray, and hṛṣī is gladness; with the rays of the sun and the moon the Lord wakes the world and lays it to rest, and so makes it glad.

The name stands once in the hymn, at name 47, between the Immeasurable and the Lotus-navelled. In the Gītā the name is used of Kṛṣṇa, the charioteer of Arjuna.

Janārdana means 'He whom the people beseech'. Jana is the people, and the root ard means to ask or beseech and also to afflict, so the name has two sides that the tradition holds together: the people ask Him for every good and He gives it, and He puts down those who oppress them. Śaṅkara gives both readings, the One who crushes the wicked and the One whom people approach for what they want.

Parāśara Bhaṭṭar rests the name on a verse of the Mahābhārata that calls Him Janārdana because He saves the people from the lawless who prey on them: the Lord who is begged is the Lord who protects. Arjuna addresses Kṛṣṇa by this name in the Gītā, and the hymn brings it back at its close.

In the thousand it stands once, at name 129, in the śloka of His reach and the Vēdas, beside Viṣvaksēna. In the closing verses it comes twice more: the verse of the fruits traces the knowledge of yōga and Sāṅkhya, the branches of learning, the crafts, the Vēdas and the śāstras to Janārdana, and in Arjuna's prayer it is the name he calls Him by when he asks Him to be the protector of those who love Him.

Kēśava is first of all 'He of lovely locks': kēśa is hair, and the name praises the dark, soft, curling hair of the Lord's form. Parāśara Bhaṭṭar takes it so at name 23, as a sign of the beauty that is His by nature and lent by nothing else, and Nammāḻvār sings both the darkness of those locks and their fragrance.

The tradition hears more in the name than hair. Kēśa also means a ray of light, and the Lord is the master of the rays of sun, moon and every shining thing, as a verse of the Mahābhārata has Him say. He is the One from whom Brahmā and Śiva were born: in a verse of the Harivaṃśa that both Śaṅkara and Bhaṭṭar quote, Śiva tells the Lord that Ka is the name of Brahmā and Īśa the ruler of all embodied beings, and that both were born of the Lord's own body, whence the name Kēśava. And Śaṅkara hears the Slayer of Kēśin: Kaṃsa sent the demon in the form of a mighty horse against the child Kṛṣṇa, and the Lord put an end to the demon.

The hymn gives the name twice, and the Slayer of Kēśin once beside it. At name 23, after the Man-Lion and Śrīmān, it is the Lord of lovely locks; at 657 it stands next to Kēśihā, at 658, which says the slaying outright, and there the other readings come forward, the locks and the rays and the One from whom Brahmā and Śiva came.

Mādhava is read three ways, and the hymn gives the name three times, so that each place takes a reading of its own. The first, on which the Śrīvaiṣṇava teachers dwell longest, is 'the Lord of Mā': Mā is Lakṣmī, Śrī, and dhava is lord or husband, so Mādhava is the Spouse of Śrī, who is never apart from Him. Parāśara Bhaṭṭar uses the name to speak at length of Her, as if to say that He is not named without Her. The second is 'of the line of Madhu': Madhu is named as the forefather of a line of the Yādavas, and Kṛṣṇa was born in that line; Arjuna calls Him Mādhava in the Gītā. The third is 'the Lord of knowledge': Mā is knowledge, and He is its Lord and the Teacher who gives it.

The first place is name 73, in the śloka that closes on Madhusūdana, and there He is the Spouse of Śrī. At names 170 and 744 the other two readings come forward, the One born of Madhu's line and the Lord of true knowledge, who gives His devotees the understanding by which they come to Him. Name 170 stands beside Madhu, 'sweet as honey'; name 744 stands between the Lord of the worlds and the lover of devotees. A further reading in the Mahābhārata takes the syllables of the name as silence, meditation and yōga, by which the seeker reaches Him; the line of Madhu is not the demon Madhu whom Madhusūdana slew.

Madhusūdana is 'the destroyer of Madhu': sūdana is one who puts an end to. A verse of the Mahābhārata that the teachers cite says that the great asura Madhu was born of Viṣṇu's ear and was slain by Him, and that gods, sages and men therefore call Him by this name. Other tellings say that Madhu and Kaiṭabha together rose against Brahmā at the beginning of creation, and that the Lord put them down.

In the hymn the name stands at 74, straight after Mādhava, so that the śloka ends on the Spouse of Śrī and the slayer of the demon. The Madhu slain here is the demon; the Madhu of whose line Mādhava is named is the forefather of a line of the Yādavas.

Mukunda is 'the Giver of mukti', release from the round of birth and death. Śaṅkara and Parāśara Bhaṭṭar alike derive it so, reading the word as He who gives release and allowing it the irregular shape that the old grammar permits to words of this kind. The Āḻvārs sing of the same gift: Nammāḻvār tells how the Lord raised all the creatures of Ayodhyā, down to the grass and the ants, to the good world.

The name ends a meditation verse that pictures the Lord on a shore of gems in the Milk Ocean, seated on a seat of pearls, with showers of nectar falling from white clouds above. The joyful Mukunda, with the discus, the lotus, the mace and the conch in His hands, is asked to purify the reciter. In the thousand the name stands at 521, in the śloka of the Witness and of the Lord who rests upon the great sea: the One who sees every deed is also the One who frees.

Nārāyaṇa is the name the Śrīvaiṣṇava tradition holds closest, and it speaks of a home. Nāra is the whole company of beings, and ayana is a dwelling and a way: He is the home in which they all live, the goal to which they go, and the One who abides within them, with Śrī ever at His side. Parāśara Bhaṭṭar points out that the Vēdas themselves give the name this sense: a Vēdic hymn that bears it says that whatever is seen or heard in the world, Nārāyaṇa stands pervading it, within and without. Other teachers hear in nāra the elements born of the Self, or the first waters, and in ayana His abode among them.

The hymn gives the name once, at name 248, and the next name, Nara, joins it: for Parāśara Bhaṭṭar the One whose possessions never perish, for Śaṅkara the Leader of all beings. Bhaṭṭar reads both as names of the Lord Himself and not of the twin sages Nara and Nārāyaṇa. The name runs through the whole recitation. In the nyāsa the deity of the hymn is Śrīman Nārāyaṇa, with Śrī held in the very name; the closing prayer asks Śrīman Nārāyaṇa, Viṣṇu and Vāsudēva to guard the reciter; the verses of the fruits trace the seers, the gods and all moving and unmoving things to Nārāyaṇa; and a closing verse promises that the afflicted, the frightened and the ill are freed from sorrow once they have called aloud the word Nārāyaṇa alone.

Padmanābha means 'He with the lotus in His navel': padma is the lotus and nābhi the navel. The tradition tells that as the Lord rests upon the waters at the beginning of a creation, a lotus rises from His navel, and on it Brahmā is born, to whom the Lord gives the Vēdas and the task of making the world. The name therefore says that He is the root of all making, even of Brahmā who makes; Parāśara Bhaṭṭar takes it as the sum of the names before it that call Him the cause of Brahmā.

The hymn gives the name three times. At name 48 it is the lotus from which the world springs; at 199 nābhi is heard also as the hub of a wheel, so that He is the centre from which the world blooms and on which it rests, and Śaṅkara hears besides the lotus of the heart, with the Lord in the centre of every heart; at 349 the lotus stands among the lotus names of navel, eye and heart, as part of the beauty of His form. Arjuna calls Him Padmanābha in his prayer at the close.

In this hymn Śiva, Sthāṇu, Śambhu, Īśāna, Śarva and Īśvara are names of the one Lord, Śrīman Nārāyaṇa, and each is read by the plain sense of its word, as the table shows. A reader who knows these words as titles of the god Śiva will find them here as qualities of the Lord whom the whole hymn praises: Śiva is the Auspicious One, Sthāṇu the Steadfast, Śambhu the giver of happiness, Īśāna and Īśvara the Ruler, Śarva the One who draws all back at the end.

The Śrīvaiṣṇava teachers read them so on the ground of the Vēdas, for the Nārāyaṇa Upaniṣad itself calls the Lord the eternal and the auspicious, the One who never lets go. The god Śiva is met on the People page, where he is the speaker of the hymn's closing verse, and the name Rudra, which the hymn also gives, has its own entry.

Śrīman, in the hymn Śrīmān, means 'He who has Śrī'. Śrī is the Goddess Lakṣmī, who dwells on His chest and is never parted from Him; the word also means beauty, fortune and glory, which are His because She is His. The Śrīvaiṣṇava tradition never names the Lord without Her, and so the deity of the whole hymn is called Śrīman Nārāyaṇa in the nyāsa, with Śrī held in the name itself, and the closing prayer asks Śrīman Nārāyaṇa to guard the reciter.

The hymn gives the name five times, and Parāśara Bhaṭṭar hears it afresh at each place, as the names around it direct. At name 22, beside the Man-Lion, it is the beauty that even that fearful form has; at 181 it is the beauty of the divine ornaments that adorn His body; at 223 it is the wealth and glory that fill Him, even in the form of the Fish. At 614, 'foremost of those who have Śrī', it is the Goddess who chose Him from all the gods at the churning of the Milk Ocean, so that He is the best of those on whom Her glance falls; at 622 it is Śrī to whom those who seek the highest good resort, and who stands by Him.

As Śrīmat or Śrīmad the same word is the honour set before holy names and holy works.

Trivikrama means 'He of the three great strides': tri is three and vikrama a stride. The tradition tells that the Lord came as the dwarf Vāmana, a son of Aditi, to the generous asura king Bali, who had taken the heavens from Indra, and asked for as much ground as three of His paces would cover. Bali gave it, and the small form grew until two strides measured the earth and the heavens; for the third there was no ground left, and He rested it upon the king who had given all. The seventeenth śloka names the Dwarf, the younger brother of Indra, and the Tall One, and the name Trivikrama, at 536, names the strides themselves.

The strides are older than the telling. The Vēdas already speak of Viṣṇu who strode out in three steps, and Śaṅkara reads the name by that picture. Parāśara Bhaṭṭar hears in 'three' the three Vēdas, the Ṛg, the Yajus and the Sāman, which He pervades as the One of whom all of them speak; others hear the three worlds, and the readings stand together. The Dwarf and the Strider are one Lord: the smallness that hides the greatness, and the greatness that comes as a petitioner.

Vāsudēva carries two meanings at once, and the tradition keeps them side by side. Taken from the root vas, to dwell and to cover, it is the One in whom every being dwells and who dwells in every being: He wraps the whole world about as the sun wraps it in its rays, and all of it is His play, for dēva is the shining and sporting One. The same word is the name of the son of Vasudēva and Dēvakī, born as Kṛṣṇa; the father Vasudēva is met on the People page.

The hymn gives the name three times. At name 335 the two senses are joined: the son of Vasudēva, and the One in whom all dwell. At names 703 and 717 other readings come forward: the first of the four forms or arrays, the Lord in the fullness of His glory, with all knowledge, strength, lordship, valour, power and splendour, from whom the other three go forth; and 'He who clothes the world', as the sun clothes it in light. The twelve-syllable mantra of the meditation verses, the verses of the fruits that call the whole hymn the thousand names of Vāsudēva, and Vyāsa's closing homage all return to this one name.

Viṣṇu is the name that says the Lord pervades. The Śrīvaiṣṇava teachers take it from the root viś, to enter: having made all things, He entered into them, moving and unmoving alike, and nothing stands outside His reach. Parāśara Bhaṭṭar adds how the entering is to be understood: as smoke cannot be without fire, so no being can be without Him, yet He and the beings are never one and the same.

The hymn gives the name three times, and each place hears it afresh. At name 2 He is the One who enters and fills all that is His; at name 261 He is the Boundless Pervader, whose presence has no end in place, time or thing, and whose three strides cross the worlds in the Vēdas; at name 666 He is the Indweller, who dwells in the heart of every being, so that the One no word can reach is nearest of all to each soul. The invocation bows to Him by this name, a meditation verse pictures Viṣṇu whose body is the three worlds, and the nyāsa makes Śrī Mahāviṣṇu, the Supreme Self, the deity of the whole hymn.