इष्टो विशिष्टः शिष्टेष्टः शिखंडी नहुषो वृषः ।
क्रोधहा क्रोधकृत कर्ता विश्वबाहु: महीधरः ।।
309. Iṣṭaḥ:
Istaha means the one who is liked by everyone.
The form of the Lord itself is so beautiful that he attracts us to Him. Such is the divine smile of Krishna that merely looking at his form brings unexplainable peace, joy and calm to our mind.
His beauty and attractiveness is such that we fall short of words to describe Him!
Hence he has been beautifully described as Prahasannidamabravit , the one with a divine smile on his face at all times.
Also, He is dear to those who realise his true nature and the bliss that comes from knowing Him. Hence he is liked by those who surrender to Him.
This love for the Lord must be out of devotion and not out of fear.
Ishtah also means Yagna or sacrifice.
If we have to gain something, we must sacrifice something. In order to gain the Lord, we must give up our undesirable thoughts and actions.
He gives us inspiration to search him. He endears himself to us and then inspires us to seek him.
310. Aviśiṣṭaḥ:
One who resides within all.
Sarveshaam antaryamitvena avishishtah
He is present in as antaryami in everyone and everywhere.
After searching for him everywhere we realise that he is not outside but within us itself.
311. Śiṣṭeṣṭaḥ:
Sistah + istah
Shistaanaam vidushaam istah shishteshtah
One who is dear to shishta or devotees
Shishtaih ishtah poojitah iti vaa
One who is worshipped by shistah.
Shishtaah ishtaah asya iti
He loves his sistas, and his devotes dearly.
Let us see who is a shista. But before that we must know that everyone has a different reason why they seek the Lord-
1. Those who remember Him or like him only when they are in trouble (sankata).
2. Those who desire something (kamya). They remember him or like him just to fulfill their wants and needs. God merely becomes a wish-fulfilling object.
3. Those who are curious to know about Him.
4.Those who know about Him and want to spend their lives remembering him and meditating about him. Such people understand the existence of the Lord. They are enlightened and are jnanis. They are called shishtas.
Conversely, dushta means those who do not meditate upon him. They dushta may not necessarily be evil. They may change at some point in time.
If we have the Dushta buddhi, our search for Him is futile. We must bring our minds back to meditating about the Lord.
Bringing ourselves back to the path of Lord will help us know him better and help in attaining moksha. When we become a shista, we also experience the grace of the Lord and it is akin to wearing a feather in our crown. Which leads us to the next name.
312. Śikhaṇḍī:
Shikhandi means the Crown of peacock feathers.
Krishna is called Shikhandi. Sikhanda means feathers of a peacock. One
who used it as a decoration for His crown when he adopted the form of a cowherd
(Gopa).
Shikha + anda meaning Hair + egg
It is said that mother Yashodha used to roll up and tie Krishna’s long hair
high on his head, resembling the shape of an egg! The hair tied up in the shape
of an egg is Shikhanda and one bearing is it Shikhandi.
Also, it can be split up as Shi + khandi
Shi means sleep of ignorance or ajnana. Khandi means to chide us and
shake us from our sleep. So he wakes us up from our sleep of ajnana and takes us
to jnana.
313. Nahuṣaḥ:
He who is free of all binding.
To understand it better, let's look at a story from our puranas.
The Aranya parva of Mahabharata tells us about King Nahusha, who is a Chandravamshi.
He conquers the throne of Lord Indra and becomes consumed by ego. He thinks that
he is all-powerful and insults the maharishis by asking them to carry him in a
palanquin. Sage Agastya who was one of the bearers was short in height. Due to
that, the palanquin moved slowly much to the King’s dislike. The King chided Sage
Agastya and ordered him to 'sarpaa’ meaning move fast. But so angered was Sage Agastya
that he cursed Nahusha to be born as a snake.
Later when the Pandava Bhima is in the forest, Nahusha in the form of a snake catches him and coils
tightly around him. When Yudhistira comes to save Bhima, he bows down humbly to
the snake and requests the snake to release Bhima. The snake Nahusha tells him that
he can release Bhima on the one condition that Yudhistira must answer his
questions. This came to be known as the Nahusha prashnah. The concepts of the
Upanishad are revealed in the process of questions and answers.
The other event that we hear of is the Yaksha prashanah. Both these
happenings throw a lot of light on the Upanishads and its learnings.
We can connect this story to the verse below.
Nahyati bhootani mayaya atah nahushah
The root 'nah’ means bondage. Nahya means to bind.
One who binds all beings by Maya. Just like the serpent has coiled itself around Bhima, maya binds us to this world. And just like Yudhistira answered Nahusha's questions with his knowledge, we can also be set free only through knowledge.
Here, Nahusha means, nahi nahi nahi
We must say nahi or no to any form of binding or attachment.
In jnana yoga we often hear an expression, Neti Neti – na +iti
Meaning it is neither this, nor that. a unique concept in Upanishad.
To understand it better, when a patient goes to a doctor, he may present
symptoms which may be common to many diseases. To rule out the illness not
present, doctors carry out differential diagnosis, till the actual illness is
found.
They follow the ‘this is not it, that is not it’ method till they arrive
at a result.
Neti- Neti helps to remove obstructions produced due to our ignorance.
He is Nahusha because he does not have any binding. Whereas for us, our
karma binds us. Hence we must perform the actions without any desire for its
fruits.
314. Vṛṣaḥ:
Vrusha means Dharma. He, who is the form of Dharma.
Karmanaam varshanaat vrishah dharmah means he is the one who fulfills all
our desires.
In the previous name we have seen that our karma binds us. This name
tells us that if our actions or desires are based on dharma, he not only
fulfills our desires but it also takes away our binding.
The Bhagavad Gita tells us the difference between a Karmayogi (who
performs actions without bothering about the fruits of action) and a karmishta
(who performs actions to beget fruits). If we do not desire binding, then we
must be a karmayogi.
Vrusha also means Varsha or rain. He showers us and drenches us with his
grace, those who are scorched by the heat of the samsara.
It means that he showers us with knowledge so that we can be free of
attachment not just to our actions but also to the family and society.
Vru + sha also refers to the 6 gunas and 6 life stages that we have seen
in verse 1 (vashatkara). He is rich in all 6 gunas and does not undergo the six
stages of life, unlike mortals.
315. Krōdhahā:
Krodha + ha – anger + destroys
One who eradicates anger in virtuous people.
The Bhagavad Gita 2.62 and 2.63 says,
dhyayato visayan pumsah
sangas tesupajayate
sangat sanjayate kamah
kamat krodho 'bhijayate
krodhad bhavati sammohah
sammohat smrti-vibhramah
smrti-bhramsad buddhi-naso
buddhi-nasat pranasyati
It means that when
a person develops an attachment to material objects, it leads to desires. When
desires are unfulfilled, it leads to anger. From anger arises delusion and from
it, memory gets bewildered. From this intelligence is lost and it leads to
avonati or causes his fall down from grace.
316 .Krōdhakṛt-
One who generates Krodha or anger in evil people. Some amount of anger
is required.
Asaadhushu krodham karoti iti krodhakrit.
Asaadhau means those who are not sadhu. He produces anger in the minds
of evil people hence he is called krodhakrut.
317. Kartā:
Kriyate iti karma jagat tasya kartaa.
One who has created the universe.
He destroys both kama and krodha if we surrender to him.
318. Viśvabāhuḥ:
Vishva means universe; bahau means arms.
One who is the support of all or one who has got all beings as His arms.
His hands give or nourish the whole world whatever we desire without
discrimination.
Vishvatah baahavah asya iti vaa
vishvabahau.
His arms extend everywhere which means he supports his entire creation.
319. Mahīdharaḥ:
Mahi means both earth and worship. So the name means one who supports
the earth or receives all forms of worship.
Anor aniyan mahato mahiyan means he is smaller than the vsmallest and larger
than largest.
Mahi means infinite or great.
He gives us infinite grace.
Jai Shri Krishna!
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