SrImate SrI ra'nga rAmAnuja mahA deSikAya namah.
SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 106 - nAma 989 - devakI-nandanaH.
989. devakI-nandanaH ? The Source of joy to devaki.
om devakI-nandanAya namaH.
Recall that the whole vishNu sahasra nAma has been revealed to
yudhishThira by bhIshma in the presence of kRshNa. SrI BhaTTar's
interpretation for the nAma is that through this nAma, bhIshma is
clarifying to yudhisThira that the nAma-s that have been revealed all
along are not about some Deity who is beyond reach, but they describe
none other than devakI-nandana who is seated just next to him, and
who has taken incarnation as the kinsman of yudhishThira. SrI
BhaTTar refers us to a Sloka from mahAbhArata:
sa esha pRthudhIrgAkshaH sambandhI te janArdanaH |
esha bhUtam bhavishyacca bhavacca bharatarshabha | ||
"O! Best of Bharata-s! JanArdana, the broad and long-eyed Lord is
your kinsman. He is all things in the past, the present and the
future".
SrI Sa'nkara's interpretation is also along the same lines. He gives
another support from the mahAbhArata:
jyotIgmshi SukrANi ca yAni loke
trayo lokA loka-pAlAS-trayI ca |
trayo agnayaSca AhutayaSca pa'nca
sarve devA devakI-putra eva || (mahAbhArata 13, app.
1, 156-7)
"All the luminaries of the world, the three worlds themselves, the
protectors of the worlds by guarding the quarters, the three veda-s,
the three sacred fires, the five oblations are all but the Son of
devaki (kRshNa)".
SrI kRshNa datta bhAradvAj gives the reference from SrImad
bhAgavatam, describing the incarnation of ParamAtmA as the Son of
devaki:
devakyAm devarUpiNyAm devakI-nandanaH SrI kRshNaH |
AvirAsIt yathA prAcyAm diSir-induriva pushkalaH ||
((bhAga. 10.3.8)
"Lord kRshNa, the Joy of devaki, appeared as the child of the divine
devaki just like the moon appearing from the eastern direction".
While the nAma devakI-nandana immediately reminds us of Lord kRshNa
who was 'born' to devaki, a couple of interpreters have taken a
different approach to interpreting the nAma that does not refer to
this incident of Lord kRshNa's incarnation. A couple of these
interpretations are included below as an example:
- SrI raghunAtha tIrtha's interpretation is: devAnAm kam
sukham asya asti iti devakI somaH | tena devakinA somena nandate iti
devakI-nandanaH | - "The term devaki refers to soma juice because
it gives pleasure to the deva-s; The Lord is called devakI-nandanaH
because He is delighted by the offering of soma juice". Or, devena
pAshANena kriyate sUyate iti devakI | devakyA somena nandate iti
devakI-nandanaH | - "soma juice is extracted by the use of stones and
so it is called devakI; One Who is delighted by the offering of soma
juice extracted through the use of stones, is devakI-nandanaH".
- Sri satyadevo vAsishTha also avoids any reference to Lord
kRshNa in this nAma, and explains the nAma as a reference to sUrya.
We will not go into the details of how he gets this interpretation,
but will only note that for some reason, he also chose to not use the
obvious interpretation that suggests itself for this nAma, namely
that the Supreme Deity Lord vishNu is none other than kRshNa who was
seated in the midst of the bhIshma and yudhishThira.
One can only speculate on why they chose to take this approach. One
reason could be that kRshNa chose to leave devaki within a few
moments after He was born to devaki, and so He was not a source of
delight for devaki at least for a few years after He was born. A few
interpreters observe that another name was yaSodA was devaki, and so
He was a devakI-nandana (for instance, SrI rAdhAkRshNa SAstri and SrI
baladeva vidyA bhUshaN both make this observation).
Bhagavad rAmAnuja mentions in his SrI Bhashya, in the explanation of
the mahA vAkya `tat tvam asi', that "when a direct meaning of an
_expression_ is sufficient, it is illegitimate to seek an indirect
implied meaning ? (SrI AdidevAnanda's words in his Introduction to
the translation of bhagavad rAmAnuja's gitA bhAshyam). The 'indirect
implied meanings' have been included here for those with academic
interest, and may kindly be ignored by the bhAgavata-s of this group.
-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan
(To be continued)
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