Tuesday 18 August 2020

Verse 17

 


उपेंद्रो वामनः प्रांशु: अमोघः शुचि: ऊर्जितः ।

अतींद्रः संग्रहः सर्गो धृतात्मा नियमो यमः ।। 

upendrō vāmana prāṁśuramōgha śucirūrjita |
atīndra sagraha sargō dhtātmā niyamō yama || 

 

151. Upendra

Upa + indra. It means that He assists Indra in creation. He is the one who guides Lord Indra and gives Him the energy for creation.

Upa also means upari meaning 'up'.

So we can also understand this as - the one who is above Indra. 

'indrasya upari indrah' - one who is superior to Indra.


152. Vamana

Vamana means Dwarf

‘Vamayati tyajayati madam balim’

Despite being so small, he is so powerful that He destroys the ahankara or pride of Bali Chakravarthy.   

Vam literally means to vomit out, and vam could mean one who made Bali literally vomit out his pride. 

We can also split the word into its roots as - Va + ama + na

Va meaning Jnana (amruta beeja)+ ama meaning ajnana + na meaning nayati (give)

Of the four vyuhas, Buddhi +chitta gives janana;  ahankara + manasu gives ajana

Which means that both knowledge and ignorance are present within us. The absence of knowledge is ignorance. When our ahankara rules our mind, we are ignorant. When we allow our buddhi and chitta to guide our manas, we become knowledgeable.  

  

153. Pramshuh

The opposite of the above is Pramshu meaning Giant. We can also understand it to be our growth.  

Prasnute prakarshena urdhvam iti pramshu

In the Vamana incarnation, the lord very quickly grew from His dwarf form into a form which covered the three worlds under His two feet.

We have to grow from dwarf to giant, the energy is in us. He is the one who gives us that shakti.

 

154. Amogha

This word is repeated yet from contextual point of view, the meaning varies.

Mogha means futile

Amogha means nothing is futile. Everything has a purpose

From our mental thought to physical action, every karma of ours has a fruit. Nothing is wasted. As per our karma we get its fruits- whether good or bad.

Our anthakarnas, buddhi, chitta, manas, ahankara, decide our karma.

Our karmas must be such that they take us from Vamana to Pramshu

 

155. Shuchi

Suchi means Pure

He resides in us and purifies us provided we put our effort too.

One who contemplates on Him becomes pure, and thus association with Him makes one pure.  Whatever He does is uncontaminated by anything other than dharma, and so His purity never diminishes.

We must also strive to be Swaratam, archayatam, karmatam shuddha’ - being pure in our actions, words and deeds as a means to attain Him.

How can we put our effort? Whatever our mind, Manas, thinks, it offers it to the Buddhi so that it differentiates if it is right or wrong. It is up to us whether we take accept the right decision.  

 

156.Urjita

Urjita can means to rise. It also means Strength.

Here we are not speaking about physical strength but Psychological strength. This is one of the six gunas (shadgunas) and helps us rise through our buddhi and chitta.

He is Urjita not only because of His immense strength, but also because whatever strength each being in His creation has, is because He is the source.

 

157. Atindrah

Ati + Indra It means One who is superior to Indra by His inherent attributes like omnipotence, omniscience etc.

Indra also reflects our manas or intellect. It controls our mind.

 

158. Sangraha

Sangraha means Storage or to accumulate

It means by our devotion we can accumulate his grace .

Sarvesham samharthau pratisamharat sangrahah

The one who withdraws everything into Him during pralaya.

Also, when everything is destroyed, we (our soul) get stored in him.

Sama + graha

He keeps everything inside him.

We can equate it to our Chitta, which is the storage in us. The Vedas say that the entire knowledge of this Bramhanda is said to be stored in our chitta but we are not able to access it.

 

159. Sarga

Srjati iti sargah

To pushes out whatever he has stored, which leads to creation.

He is Sarga since He is the basis of creation or root cause of creation. He created the entire world out of Himself. He is knowledge and he creates out of his knowledge and that knowledge is present in himself. Which he pushes out. And despite this in the end what remains is perfection.

 

160. Dhritatma

The one has the shakti to store and push out the knowledge

Dhrita- the one who wears. He wears both qualities of sangraha and sarga .

Dhrtah atma yena sah dhrtatma

One who supports all the jivatmas.

 

161. Niyama

Ashtanga yoga means the 8 limbs or branches of yoga. Niyama and Yama are the first two branches .

Niyamah teaches us control.

He is the controller of the creation.

Yam uparame – to check and

Yam pariveshane – to observe and control from outside

He orders the Prakrutika shakti like Surya, Chandra, Agni, Vayu, etc and controls them and through them control us.

 Niyamayati iti niyamah.

The one who gives direction to his creations and controls them.   

 

162. Yamah

Yamah means discipline. It also means the Ruler.

Discipline comes from within.

While Niyama talks of external control, Yama talks about control that happens from within, internally – through our antha karna, jnanaendriyas and karmendriyas.

Antar yacchanti iti yamah

The one who controls from within is Yamah.

He controls both from inside and outside hence Yama Niyama. 

This verse deals with our mind, intellect, consciousness and ego and how we can bring about the realisation of the Lord by controlling our mental thoughts as well as physical actions in such a way that it leads to Him. These names are gunavachaka. Hence instead of taking the meaning of these names as saguna we take them as nirguna.  


Jai Shri Krishna!

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