vishnu sahasra namam stanza- 18

[Bharathi]

STANZA-18
vedyo vaidyah sadayogi
viraha madhavo madhuh
atindriyo mahamayo
mahatsaho mahabalah
Word Meaning :
Vedyah - the knowable
Vaidyah - the healer
Sada yogi - yogi forever
Madhavah - dear husband of the Goddess of splendour
Madhuh - embodiment of sweetness
Atindriyah - one who transcends the senses and one who is beyond the
comprehension of the senses
Mahamayah - the great illusion
Mahotstahah - the great fondness
Mahabalah - the great strength

MEANING:

Invoke the Lord as the knowable and the healer; as the yogi forever
and the one who strikes down great heroes in war; as the dear husband
of the Goddess of splendour and as the very embodiment of sweetness.
The Lord transcends the senses and is beyond the comprehension of
senses. He is also the great illusion, the great fondness and the
great strength that leads the beings of creation.

Explanation :

1. Everyone has something knowable according to his own degree of
comprehension. This goes on increasing as the individual unfolds into
knowledge and hence, it leads him on unto perfection which is the
experience of the presence of the Lord everywhere through eternity.
This capacity is one form of the grace of the Lord and hence, He is
the knowable.

2. The Lord heals the defects of the body by revealing the science of
medicine. He heals the man, by rev~aling the path of yoga. Through the
incidents occuring to everyone according to his past deeds, everyone
gains in experience and goes on rectifying himself Hence the Lord is
the healer of all in the form of the result of one's own karma.

3. The Lord consciousness in everyone keeps all the vehicles in
synthesis which we call life. Hence, the Lord is the power of
synthesis which is yoga itself When anyone is ready to appreciate this
synthesis and practise yoga, he finds a yogi to guide him as his own
guru. This occurs unfailingly. One yogi creates another yogi as his
disciple and the process goes on forever. Thus the Omnipresence
continues to be a yogi in the form of a relation between the Master
and the disciple. Thus the Lord is a Yogi forever.

4. Valour among the warriors manifests as a force which establishes
the law by destroying the enimical forces in war. Hence, the Lord is
the war-like nature among the rulers.

5. The Goddess of splendour manifests as the name, shape and the
beauty of everything while the Lord forms the content of it. Hence,
Heis the Lord of the splendour.

. 6. Everyone has his own object of sweetness which leads him from
plane to plane until he tastes the highest plane of pervasion which is
the presence of the Lord Himsel£

7. Since the senses are the very manifestations of the Lord through
the working of Prakriti, they caimot comprehend the Lord who is within
Him. Hence, the Lord is the comprehension beyond the sense and at the
same time, He is the object of realisation to the senses.

8. Just as the fabric of cloth makes us forget about the cotton with
which it is made and attracts our view away towards the utility of
cloth and its ownership etc., so also the forms and the behaviour of
the worlds make us forget about the Lord who is the content and
attract our attention away towards the relationships we establish and
the utility we work out. This quality is called mahamaya or the great
illusion which keeps the living beings interested in working out the
plan of the whole universe. It is all a play of the Lord Himsel£
.
9. Everyone has his own spur towards action which works as the
fondness that attracts him towards his work. It is also a play of the
Lord.

10. Every one has his own source of strength according to his own
concept. This sustains him and keeps him work out things that are to
be accomplished through him. It is also a play of the Lord.

COURTESY MASTER E.K

Regards
Bharathi.A