Re: Analysis of the name 'nArAyanA' for Sri Vishnu
Originally Posted by
Viraja
Namaste,
Namaste Viraja,
In another recent thread, one member had noted that the name 'nArAyanA' for Sri Vishnu is inappropriate as it supposedly signified sUrya Bhagwan.
I am that unfortunate culprit. I wrote:
Thirdly, calling Shri Vishnu as "nArAyaNa" is in my eyes (and in others) a serious disrespect to Shri Vishnu, Narayana is a proper name of Surya, a Vedic god. Narayana as epithet of Shri Vishnu, no problems, but as a proper name itself is a huge denigration of Shri Vishnu and the Vedic Dharma.
But, on a recent kaalakshepam (spiritual discourse), I have heard of the following explanation for the name 'nArAyanA' as being that of Sri Vishnu's:
nAr - means water.
nAr means waters, also means woman, mother.
Let us just say, it means "refuge".
Thus, Sri Vishnu who is seated on water (lying down on a seat of AdiSesha atop water) is thus 'Sriman nArAyanA'.
We are not talking about "Samudra" (the Father) here, instead we are talking about Apah, nAra, Mothers' expanse.
Who is the first born of Mother? In Shaiva tradition it is Ganesha, and equivalently in Vedic it is Agni, also called "apAm-napata" i.e. waters' child.
Surya is the highest deity in the span of Shri Agni so He is understood as the very first manifestation of Creation from Mother's womb of Infinity. The first God that we can understand in terms of forms and worship accordingly. The overlord, as well as the guide, of all Creation.
So we can see that this way, nArAyanA only refers to Sri Vishnu and not to Surya.
Shri Vishnu, a "composite God" like Shri Agni, has a far grater scope- which includes virtually everything within it- than Shri Agni, and therefore He obviously contains Surya also within Himself (in the infinite unbroken continuity of His being).
In this way He can assume any of the various deities' names as His adjectives. This is not the same as calling His proper name as something which is a proper name of some other deity.
However, the avatara who can indeed take Narayana as His proper name is the Avatara of Lord who comes in the Surya-mode of Shri Vishnu.
And that will be, Shri Rama. Ever heard of "rAmAyaNa"? The sacred book that is the refuge of all mortals? Ramayana is Narayana.
Does RamNarayana ring a bell? yes?
Does KrishnaNarayana ring a bell? No?
Is it clear now why praising the Vedic gods is equivalent to praising Lord Vishnu? Or why Lord Vishnu cant be praised at the cost of denigrating other Vedic Deities? Why doing that is non-Vedic? Or, as my friend Jaskarana Singh says, "mlechcha like"?
EDIT: One can remember the famous 'Narayana Ashtakshari Mantra' that has been around since the beginning of Sanathana Dharma itself - 'Om Namo Narayanaya Namaha'. And of the presence of a form of Narayana - Sri Satyanarayana Swami - surely, Narayana then cannot be an ambiguous name to denote both Sri Vishnu as well as Sri Surya, is it not?
I am really not invested in this topic or thread, really. If you want any other information I will be more than happy to give it to you. The point I was making there was that a sect cannot even think that it has a propriety, or necessarily a perfect understanding, over its Devta. Hinduism is just too vast to hazard such assumptions.
The core aspect of Vishnu, also has a name given out by the Veda, but I will not go into that right now (but if you wish to know it is somewhere in the first 20 posts of mine at HDF).
And in the end, got to say loud:
IMHO.
Things to remember:
1. Life = yajña
2. Depth of Āstika knowledge is directly proportional
to the richness of Sanskrit it is written in
3. Āstika = Bhārata ("east") / Ārya ("west")
4. Varṇa = tripartite division of Vedic polity
5. r = c. x²
where,
r = realisation
constant c = intelligence
variable x = bhakti
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