SAHASARA NAMA OF VISHNU: 116/1,000

BabruḤ

He who supports the world.^(Śaṅkara) As Ananta, he bears the entire world – ĀdiŚeṣa it is who supports this world.^{(Parāsara Battar)}

This is a name that reiterates earlier name(s) that confirm that it is the Supreme Being Viṣṇu who is the one supporter of the entire world – the substratum and foundational basis.

However, it is also important to view this name in context. This name appears in a string where the previous two names Rudraḥ and Bahuṡirāḥ refer to he who makes all beings cry, i.e. brings tears to their eyes (at the time of death) as Śaṅkara interprets it, or as he who brings tears of joy to the true devotees whose hearts are brimming with joy and their hairs standing on end as Parāsara Battar interprets it (Rudraḥ). And the next name Bahuṡirāḥ, meaning he who has innumerable heads – meaning he who is everywhere – within and without.

Seen in context, this name is a call to those who still do not realize their mortality and how ephemeral life actually is. And Bhagavan refers to these very people in the Bhagavad-gītā – people who claim that the world is without a ‘basis’ that there is no Supreme Being who controls it and exercises complete sway – it is all just a play of the sexes and the world is only for gratification of the senses and nothing more -live as you please is their motto for they know of nothing beyond that which their base-senses see and cognize^[1]:

असत्यमप्रतिष्ठं ते जगदाहुरनीश्वरम् |
अपरस्परसम्भूतं किमन्यत्कामहैतुकम् || 16-8||

asatyam apratiṣhṭhaṁ te jagad āhur anīśhvaram
aparaspara-sambhūtaṁ kim anyat kāma-haitukam

In the subsequent verses of this chapter, Bhagavan further points to how these people of little intellect and large egos, filled with hypocrisy, pride, lust, and anger remain enmeshed in the web of their own making – deluded and interested in only gratifying their base-senses they never see the possibility of anything beyond the limitations of their senses and live in a hell of their own making.

It is in order to break away from this delusion that one must make Nārayana the foundational basis of our lives. One of the easiest means to that is to take up the nāmajapa of the Supreme Being. In fact the thousand-headed/hooded ĀdiŚeṣa can be taken to mean the Sahasranāma itself – a call to take up the chanting the Viṣṇu Sahasranāma itself on a daily basis – The Viṣṇu Sahasranāma japa is acknowledged as the easiest means to connect to that Supreme Being Viṣṇu who is the Babruḥ – the foundational basis of each one of us – without him anchoring us, we are like little boats tossed about in the stormy waters of the ocean of saṃsāra.

If even that is difficult, then as Mahādeva himself told Pārvatī, the simple and constant japa of Rāma–nāma is in itself a great purifier for it is the very essence of the Viṣṇu Sahasranāma itself:

श्री राम राम रामेति रमे रामे मनोरमे ।
सहस्रनाम तत्तुल्यं रामनाम वरानने ॥

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