SAHASRĀṂŚU {सहस्रांशु}
This was a nāma that brought a smile to Bhīṣma’s face – a smile that further crinkled his already wrinkled and weather-beaten face that had been exposed to the scorching sun for several weeks. He could relate to this nāma at an intimate level – he had been at his mercy the last several weeks! He uttered the nāma and then paused, so that he and the others assembled around him could reflect on it. These nāmas and the reflections about and around them would hopefully percolate down the ages. Perhaps, each of those who came in contact with the thousand names would reflect on them in his/her own way and find meaning and purpose in their lives – this gave Bhīṣma satisfaction and hope…
Sahasrāṃśu is a reference to the thousand (innumerable) rays of the Sun. That the sun was seen as a divinity that controlled life on earth and nourished all aspects of earthly life is a well-accepted ancient truism. The sun’s rays enter into every space and into every being, becoming an integral part of life on earth – thus a drop of divinity enters into every aspect of our life on a daily basis.
The Sun as a symbol of the divine or as the visible manifestation of the divine is something that is common across civilizations and ancient cultures. It is only the modern man stereotyped through scientific temper and analytical thinking who sees the sun as nothing more than just a ball of fire. The genius of the Hindu is in taking this concept even further and sacralizing it and making it a living reality. When he first saw that the sun moved across the sky and then later realized this was only apparent motion and it was, he who was moving around it, he made it the center – the Bindu of divinity from where eternity sprung forth. He invested the orb of the sun with the divinity of Nārāyaṇa and called it Sūrya Nārāyaṇa– it is from here that we understand the true purport of the name “Viṣṇu” – he who envelops everything that he has created and then enters into everything as well. We are all pieces of the sun and in that sense eternally a part of Viṣṇu – we come from him and go back to him, as is the earth and all that is in and on it – since she came from him, Pṛthvī, the earth is his consort.
Each one of us ingests a little bit of the sun everyday through what we eat – this is what Kṛṣṇa means, in the Bhagavad-gītā, when he says, that I am the fire of hunger that dwells within each being.
अहं वैश्वानरो भूत्वा प्राणिनां देहमाश्रित [15-14][1]
ahaṁ vaiśhvānaro bhūtvā prāṇināṁ deham āśhritaḥ
Śaṅkara, says that this nāma is a reference to him who is endowed with numerous rays and that could only be the Sun. However, the brilliance of the sun and its rays come from him who is the supreme being – Therefore this epithet can only be a reference to the brilliance of the supreme being, personified in the form of Nārāyaṇa says Śaṅkara. He cites the following verse from the Bhagavad-gītā in support of his stance:
यदादित्यगतं तेजो जगद्भासयतेऽखिलम् | [15-12][2]
yad āditya-gataṁ tejo jagad bhāsayate ’khilam
I am the brilliance of the sun that illuminates the entire solar system.
Śaṅkara also points to a verse in the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa: “It’s his effulgence that lights up the Sun!“[3]
Parāsara Battar sees the reference to the “thousand rays” as the thousand different knowledge and wisdom streams that Nārāyaṇa is a master of. He is the treasure house of all wisdom and knowledge.
Sri Radhakrishna Shastri in his Tamizh commentary on the Viṣṇu Sahasranāma, parses this nāma in three ways.[3]
- He who manifests as the brilliant rays of the Sun.
- He who is the source of the illumination of the Sun.
- He whose knowledge is so vast that it spreads in all directions like the thousand rays of the Sun.
Bannanje Govindācārya in his Kannada translation of the Viṣṇu Sahasranāma, agrees broadly with all the other translations and interpretations but adds a nuance of his own: The “aṃśu” in Sahasrāṃśu can also be seen as each one of us being “aṃśas”, i.e., parts of that supreme being just as the rays of the sun are part of the sun.
The worship of the sun during the three melting points of the day called the Sandhya-Kālas has become a lost cultural vestige – there are several reasons for it including the fact that most of us are taken in by rationalism and modernism and are embarrassed to be seen as worshipping “elements of nature”. Another reason is the fact that we live in a time when the electric light has blurred the natural boundaries that defined what was day and what was night with the melting points of dawn, noon, and dusk becoming simply timestamps on a timepiece. Furthermore, work today consumes us to the exclusion of everything else and the old adage of whether we work to live or live to work is becoming increasingly relevant. In a hyperconnected digital world, we seem to have lost our connection to the natural rhythm of the world itself…
References and additional Reading:
- Available at: https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/15/verse/14. Last Accessed: March 29, 2023.
- Available at: https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/15/verse/12. Last Accessed: March 29, 2023.
- Given below (image):
Ramesh Venkatraman 