Verse 9

73. Ishawarah

He is the one who is Omnipotent. The one with unlimited powers. Hence he is called as ‘Sarva shakta’

The powers or shakti of the entire universe is centralised in him. So he uses his iccha shakti to materialise everything. Everything happens as per his desire. Yet he chooses to be a facilitator. He observes what we do and how we perform our actions or karmas.

 

74. Vikrami

Vikrama means courageous.

Vikrama or Trivikrama is also another name by which the Lord’s Vamana Avatar is known by. When the great King Bali shows ahankara or pride and when his ego or aham comes in the way of his duties, the Lord in the Vamana avatar places his foot on the head of Bali and destroys the pride and ego.

Vamana requests for three footsteps of land and claims the earth, devaloka and patala.  

The earth signifies the ‘jagrut’ state or wakefulness, The ‘patala’ signifies the ‘Swapna’ state or dream state and the ‘devloka’ signifies the ‘Sushupti’ state or the dreamless state.  

And it requires great courage to go beyond all these stages to ‘turiya’.

 

75. Dhanvi

Dhanush refers to the bow. The one who wields a bow is called Dhanvi.

Just like an archer takes aim and concentrates solely on his object, the one who is concentrated towards his goal or ‘ekagra’ is Dhanvi.

It can also be explained as the one who carries the Dhanush is Dhanvi

‘Dhanurasya asti iti dhanvi’

The Chaturbhuja Vishnu carries 5 weapons or ayudhas. Dhanush is one of the ayudhas.

He carries the Saranga Dhanush , the bow (and hence is called Sarangapaani), Paanchajanya shankha, the conch, the Sudarshana Chakra, the Gadha Kaumodaki , the mace and the Khadga Nandakam, the sword.

A deeper meaning that is derived from this is that our mind- keeps wandering aimlessly all the time. It is important to bring all our thoughts together at one point (Nigraha) in order to achieve Samadhi or a thoughtless state.

Therefore the one who is himself in this state of sadhana and also leads towards it is Dhanvi.

It is said that ‘Pranava dhanuhu’ – the concentration of mind should be like a bow when meditating on the omkara; keeping the lord as the goal, so that the arrow of our penance can reach its goal i.e towards the Lord.

 

76. Medhavi

Medha means the one who has a great memory or unparalleled  intelligence.

He is ‘Bahu granthi’ – the one who is not only knowledgeable about many topics but also keeps everything in his memory.

Each kalpa* consists of so many years, and the universe goes through so many cyclic creations and destructions yet He keeps all this in his memory.

Our ability to think  has 3 components- Manas(mind), buddhi (intelligence) and chitta (awareness or consciousness).

Manas or mind is described as ‘chanchala’ or fickle. It wants everything that it sees.

Buddhi or intelligence helps us differentiate between right and wrong. It helps us to decide what we really want.

Chitta or consciousness is made up of our ‘anubhava’. It knows from the experience of its own or that of others what it the right thing to do. It gives direction to the buddhi to decide properly.

If Chitta is not pure, we may walk on wrong path, and take wrong decisions.

Chitta shuddhi  leads to good anubhava and it becomes a storehouse for future references.   

Praying to him as the medhavi, helps our memory in four ways - Grahana (grasp what is taught), dharana (retain what is taught), smarana (recollect what is taught at appropriate time), and spoorthi (know instinctively even that which has not been taught)   

 

77. Vikrama

The name Vikrama is repeated again in this verse. In the earlier verse, we saw that it means the ‘Trivikrama’ or Vamana Avatar.

Here it means,

Vi+ krama

Krama – journey

vi- huge bird like the Garuda pakshi

The one who has the Garuda for ‘sanchara’ or journey. 

Vi krama also means the one who is without a krama (sequence of action)

Things sometimes don’t happen as per our wishes as what we think is the krama is not the actual krama . What He follows is the krama. Everything happens as per His will.

We must know that whatever He has created is so orderly and everything goes in an orderly manner.

If we look at the working of our body, every organ and every action  happens seamlessly and in an orderly manner.

The one who ensures that there is no chaos and things happen in an orderly manner is Vikrama.

 

78. Krama -

Krama means a journey or sanchara. It also denotes some sort of continuity. Creation, its protection and thereafter its destruction will happen continuously. That is his krama or order of action.

 

79. Anutama

An + uttama

Uttama means the best or the most glorious.

Anuttama is the one who is beyond uttama . He is immeasurable or incomparable . He can’t be compared to anyone.

The Bhagavad Gita 11.43 says,

न त्वत्समोऽस्त्यभ्यधिक: कुतोऽन्यो लोकत्रयेऽप्यप्रतिमप्रभाव |

When there is none equal to you in all the three worlds, then who can possibly be greater than you, O possessor of incomparable power?

 

80. Duradharshah

Dharshah – can be captured

Dura – evil

Means the one who is invincible – the one over whom we cannot win.

Whether it is any demonic shakti or any deva shakti, none can win over him through their powers.

Bhakti is the only way to win him over. There are many instances in our puranas that speak about the bhakti of Shabari, Draupadi or Meera who won over the Lord by their bhakti.  

 

81. Krutajna

Krutanjna means gratitude.

The one who is grateful to us. We might wonder why the Lord should be grateful to us. He is grateful because of the bhakti we show towards him.

To quote from the Bhagwad Gita (9.26)

पत्रं पुष्पं फलं तोयं यो मे भक्त्या प्रयच्छति |

तदहं भक्त्युपहृतमश्नामि प्रयतात्मन: ||

With bhakti, love and devotion, whatever we offer, whether a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, he will accept it gratefully.

 

82. Krutihi

Krut means to do. It refers to our actions and our efforts.

Whatever we want to do, and whatever we think of doing, he gives us the shakti  or energy to do that. He is the effort behind our actions. All our actions, happen through him. He is supreme.

Whatever happens is never in our control. Yet things happen as they should happen. Circumstances come together to make things happen. Everything happens due to God’s grace. We must realise that we are not the doer, he is the one who does everything.

 

83. Aatmavaan

We have seen that atma is described as atti, that which eats away.

But here contextually, it means that the Atma is independent .

Sa-mahima prahistavan aatmavaan

All souls finally merge into him. He gives shelter or ‘aashraya’ to all souls.  

To summarise, this verse talks about His supremacy. It says that He is the doer and everything happens as per his will. He cannot be won by strength but can be easily won over by our Bhakti. 

Jai Shri Krishna!