Verse 8

65. Ishaana –

Isha + ana

Isha means the lord. He is the Lord who protects us.

Ishaana means the supreme controller. He controls everything that takes place in the universe.

A famous Vedic hymn says,

Ishaan sarva vidyanaam, eshwara sarva bhootanam, brahmanodipate brahma shivome astu sada shivom

May the supreme lord who is the master of knowledge, the controller of all created beings, the overlord of Brahman, the creator, and the destroyer, always be benevolent to me. The Supreme Lord is the lord of the creation and all creation is within him.

 

66. Pranadah

Prana + daha – he is the one who infuses us with life.

Prana – The Shuddh Chaitanya or pure consciousness, enters our body through the prana. Prana is the ‘life giving energy’.

Pranaam dadhati iti pranadaha

Da- The one who gives us life as well as the innate characteristics that we are blessed with is Pranadaha.

Daha can also be understood as opposite in meaning to the above – The one who takes away our prana by destroying the ‘deha’ or body.

Hence he’s the one who gives and also the one who takes away.

Praanan deepyati iti

The one who lights up / gives shakti to our prana is also Pranadaya

 

65. Prana

He himself is the prana. He is not only the Pranadaya but the prana itself.

Prana is one of the Panch vayu – prana , udana, vyana, samana, apana . It’s always in movement and never stops as long as life exists.

Therefore those which have Prana are called ‘prani’ or living beings. Since he is himself present in every one of us, all living beings have equal ‘chetana.’

Prana can also be understood as –

Pra + aa+ na – special + one who is complete + Ananda

aa- indicates Vishnu 

the one who is complete in every special way and is filled with bliss.

Another way to look at it is - pra+ ana-

ana - speech – vaak shakti – vagdevi

Our body is the tool we have to achieve everything.  But no matter what we achieve with our body, everything is stored as ‘anubhava’ or experience.  All experience pertain to the ‘navarasas’. Our entire life is a sum total of these experiences and the form the ‘vasana’ or ‘samskara’.

These samkaras shape our punarjanma or next life. When the body dies, these samkaras do not leave us. We are reborn and we carry forward these karmas to our next life in ‘sookshma roopa’. (not vyakta roopa)

 

66. Jeshta

Jestha means the oldest/ or one who the senior – there is no one beyond him.

There can be two types of old or ‘Vruddha’  – ‘jnana vruddha’- one who is mature, and ‘vayasu vruddha’ – old  in age.

In pictures, Lord Brahma is depicted as old – as a vruddha. Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu however are depicted as young looking.

But it is also said, that Brahma comes from nabhi of Vishnu. Hence there is a supreme Lord who was there before the creation of the universe.

Thus He is older than the oldest.

 

67. Shresta

Shreshta means glorious .

He is paramatma hence Shresta. He is greater than the greatest.

The one is oldest in age is Jeshta and the one who is enriched with all glories and gunas is Shreshta. The Lord himself is Jeshta and Shreshta.  

The Chandogya Upanishad also describes the Lord is the same sequence - Pranovava Jestashcha Shrestashcha

 

68. Prajapatih –

We are ‘praja’ or his subjects and  he is the one who rules or lords over us and is the Prajapati.

Lord Brahma is called Prajapati , the creator –but here, it refers to the one who is the energy for creation. The one who gives the creator the energy for creation is Prajapati.

 

69.Hiranyagarbha-

Hi (hitakaraka- good) + ra (ramaniya - likable)

To take an example. medicine is good (hita) for the person who is ill, but is not likable (ramaniya). Similarly, fried food stuff is not good for us though it is likable. So what’s good for us may not be likable and what’s likable may not be good for us.

Vedas are called Hiranya as they are good for us and also likable. They are hidden in the womb or garbha. If we had to search for the Lord, he would be hidden in the scriptures.

The Bhagavad Gita 16.24, Shri Krishna instructs Arjun to comprehend the teachings of the scriptures and act according to them.

tasmāch chhāstraṁ pramāṇaṁ te kāryākārya-vyavasthitau

jnātvā śhāstra-vidhānoktaṁ karma kartum ihārhasi    

Even the Manu Smṛiti states:

bhūtaṁ bhavyaṁ bhaviṣhyaṁ cha sarvaṁ vedāt prasidhyati 

The authenticity of any spiritual principle of the past, present, or future, must be established on the basis of the Vedas.

To look at it another way, Garbha or the womb is an unseen, dark place. We cannot decipher it’s working. Similarly, Krishna is also dark, meaning he cannot be grasped by everyone.

The Vedas describe that at the beginning everything was dark much like a womb. With the light of a 1000 Suns, the creator has created the universe.

The light here also refers to the Light of knowledge.

If we look at it with reasoning, darkness is merely the absence of light. Darkness is always present. In the presence of light, darkness is dispelled.

The Isha Upanishad says,

Hiranmayena patrena satya-syapi-hitam mukham,
tattvam pusanna-pavrnu satya –dharmaya drstave.

Truth lies concealed by golden vessel. Hence, we pray to the Sun, to open the entrance of that cover, so that the truth that it conceals is visible to the devotee, who by nature is truthful. So that the darkness if ignorance may be dispelled by the brightness of the light of knowledge! And the Vedas show that light as they are the words of the Lord himself.  

Another interpretation is,

Hiranya –means gold. But it refers to ‘jnana’ or knowledge.

garbha means a womb from which the creation is born.

We find the word ‘hiranya’  occurring several times in the Sri Sukta – which extols the virtues of the Goddess Lakshmi. The chanting of the Sri Sukta is not just a quest for obtaining wealth, but more importantly, a quest for the wealth of knowledge.

 

70. Bhugarbha

Bhu means Bhumi or the Earth.

He who has kept the bhumi in his womb.

Garbh as we have seen refers to the place from where we come.

Bhumi is considered to be our mother.

Hence we say, ‘Bhugarbhe yasya saha bhugarbha’

It refers to Him being our creator. He nurtures and nourishes the earth just as a mother nourishes her child.

The one who is hidden in the bhumi. The bhumi refers to our body. He is hidden within us. His presence within us must be realised.

These two names Hiranyagarbha and Bhugarbha tell us that we can search for him through the scriptures (Hiranyagarbha) and then look for him within us too.  

 

71. Madhava

Madhava is another name for Krishna.  

‘Madhu kule jatava, Madhava’ The one who is born in the Yadu Vansham is the avatara roopi, Krishna.

To look at other meanings, we can break the words into its roots.

Ma ( Lakshmi ) + dhavah (consort/ lord) 

The one who is the consort or Lord of Ma Lakshmi is Madhava.

Hence we always worship them together - Lakshmi sahita Narayana.

Ma – Lakshmi represents iccha shakthi as we have seen earlier, Dhava -the Lord represents jnana shakti

Both iccha shakthi and jnana shakti go together to create kriya shakti. The two are inseparable.

Our knowledge and desire go hand in hand for us to perform actions or kriya. 

The lord of the knowledge is also Madhava – as we have already seen earlier, that Lakshmi also represents the wealth of knowledge.

 

Madhava split into its root is –

Ma ( mauna- silence)+ Dha (Dhyana- meditation) + va (yoga)

The combination of all three together give us God awareness. And is known as Madhu vidya (Brihadaranyaka upanishad ) which Rishi Dadichi received from Lord Indra.

 

72. Madhusudan

Madhu was the name of a rakshasa or demon.

Sudana  means the destroyer

Krishna killed the demon named Madhu and hence is called Madhusudana.

Now to understand the deeper meaning-

The Chandokya Upanishad refers to Madhu as our karma phala  which is the 4^th stage ( jnana- iccha—kriya- phala- anubhava)

We have already understood that our anubhavas are carried forward to our next life. But if one does not want punarjanama and they desire moksha then they should be devoid of anubhava. But if one does not wish to have anubhava, they must not perform kriya and  have iccha or desire. When you stay at the knowledge stage but don’t go beyond it, it gives us moksha .

Madhu or karma phala is a kama or Desire. When desires are unfulfilled it leads to anger (krodha  is also known as kaitabha ) 

Hence He destroys the demons Madhukaitabha, who stole the vedas – The one who destroys the desire and krodha, arising out of ignorance. 

 

This verse can be summarised as follows

He is the Supreme Lord who is older than the oldest and the most glorious. He is the life force in us and is our creator. He bestows us with the wealth of knowledge and gives us the energy for our actions but at the same time if we desire moksha he also paves way for it.

Jai Shri Krishna!