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I am confused. Basically I do not understand the claim
in the enclosed mail that the Vishnu-Sahasranama is in
response to Yudhisthira's questions. 

I thought that the Vishnu-Sahasranama (the main body)
of 1008 names is the stothram that Bhishma mentions as
a salutation to Shri Krishna when he is lying in the
Dharmashetra (Kurukshetra battlefield). 


--- "M.K.Sudarshan" <sampathkumar_2000@xxxx>
wrote:
> 
> 
> Dear friends,
> 
> The 735th 'nAmA' of Vishnu in the
> 'Vishnu-Sahasranamam' is the
> one-syllabled Sanskrit name -- "kim". It appears in
> the 78th
> 'shlOkA':
> 
> ekah naikah sah vah kah kim yat tat
> padama~nuttamam
> lOka bandhur lokA natha: mAdhavO
> bhaktavatsalah
> 
> It's a rather unusual name indeed for anyone to
> have. Even God
> Almighty, one might say...
> 
> In native India it is common for mothers and fathers
> to select a name
> for their new-born from the one-thousand hallowed
> 'nAmA-s' of God
> found in the 'SahasranAma'. Yet I doubt you will
> find a single soul
> anywhere in the country having "kim" as either first
> name or surname.
> 
> 
> I learn, on the other hand, that 'Kim' is a pretty
> common feminine
> first name in America and Europe. In Korea I
> understand every fourth
> man you pass on the street bears the name 'Kim'. My
> 13-year old
> daughter tells me there is a famous Hollywood
> actress by the name of
> 'Kim Bassinger'; and my 15-year old son enlightens
> me about 'Kim'
> being the title of a lesser-known novel written by
> an English author
> of colonial fame, Sri.Rudyard Kipling. 
> 
> God bless children these days! How profoundly
> worldwide their
> knowledge of trivia is and how well they educate
> their ignorant
> parents indeed. Thanks to my two children, I have
> now made the
> important discovery that the western first name
> 'Kim' is actually
> short for 'Kimberly'. And since then, believe me, I
> have lived in
> secret dread of the day when 'Kim' might catch on
> fast amongst NRIs
> everywhere in the world, all clamouring to christen
> their new-borns
> with a 'tirunAma' found at last to be both hallowed
> by the
> 'Sahasranamam' and glamourized by Hollywood! 
> 
> The Sanksrit "kim", however, is actually a very
> common, very ordinary
> interrogatory. The Sanskrit word for 'Question' or
> 'Query' is
> "prashna". A "prashna" cannot be framed without
> using an
> interrogatory like 'kim'. The whole of the
> Vishnu-Sahasranamam, if
> you have carefully noticed, is actually a response
> to Yudhishtara's
> "prashna" beginning with 2 simple but profound
> 'kim?':
> 
> "kim Ekam daivatam lOkE? kim vyApEkam
> parAyaNam?"
> 
> "Whither God? What is the path unto Him?"
> 
> The Sanskrit 'kim' literally means "what?" or
> "which?". In a limited
> context, it can also be used as the English
> equivalent of
> "wherefore?" or "whither?". Most questions, most
> 'prashna-s' hence
> usually begin with this interrogatory.
> 
> It is because the Sanskrit 'kim' is an interrogatory
> that in India it
> is considered unfit, in spite of being sacred
> 'nAmA', to christen
> one's child with it. Otherwise, one can easily
> imagine how endless
> the embarrassments in life would be for a child
> named 'kim' who when
> asked, "What's your name?" has to respond saying,
> "What?". And the
> questioner who, then thinking he hadn't been heard
> well, repeats, "I
> asked you for your name?". And the child, poor
> thing, insisting, "I
> already told you -- "What?""... And to this the
> bewildered questioner
> asking again, "Excuse me, what do you mean?". And
> the poor child
> having to retort, "I heard you. It's really
> "What?""... 
> 
> And on and on, so forth thus, would it all probably
> go -- a farcical
> chain in a theatre of the absurd called 'kim'! 
> 
> ***********
> 
> Our ancient Vedic forbears (the great Sage Vyasa,
> for instance, the
> author of the 'Vishnu-Sahasranama') however had no
> compunction at all
> giving Lord Almighty the unusual "nAmA" of "kim"
> i.e. "What?",
> "Which?" and "Whither?". Even if one knew nothing
> whatsoever that is
> certain about God, the Vedic Masters said, one thing
> at least should
> be beyond Man's doubt: God remains and shall ever
> remain an eternally
> unanswered question... Hence, it is quite in order
> to call him,
> simply, 'kim?'. 
> 
> There is a widespread feeling in the world, even and
> especially
> amongst young Indians today, that the religion of
> the Vedas is one
> founded on blind, mechanical and credulous faith. It
> is thought that
> there is really nothing more to this religion called
> 'Hinduism' than
> ritual, pilgrimage, purificatory bath,
> breath-control and chanting
> Sanskrit litanies called 'stOtrA-s' that few 
> understand and fewer
> still appreciate... Nothing could be further than
> the truth. The
> piety of the Vedantic religion does not lie in
> parroting. It has its
> springs deep in an age-old tradition of unceasing,
> relentless
> questioning about and after Truth. 
> 
> This tradition is called "pari-prashna" and it has
> been around in
> India for centuries. The word "prashna" means (as
> already explained)
> "questioning" and the adjective "pari" means "deep",
> "unrelenting".
> This Vedantic tradition of "pari-prashna" is perhaps
> even more
> rigorous, uncompromising and single-minded in its
> search for Truth
> than what we know modern sciences to be. It is this
> tradition
> precisely that Krishna recommends to Arjuna as a
> solution to the
> oppressive problems of life:
> 
> "tadvidhi praNipAtEna pari-prashnEna sEvayA
> upadEshyanti tE gnyAnam
> gnyAninas-tattva-darshinah:" 
> 
> (B.Gita IV.34)
> 
> "Seek out the wise men of knowledge", says Krishna
> in the
> 'Bhagavath-Gita', "They will surely show you the Way
> if only they see
> you to be truly humble, devoted and unrelentingly
> questful". 
> 
> Although he embraced Krishna's prescription quickly
> enough, Arjuna
> seems to have lagged a bit in acting upon it. The
> suggestion of
> "pari-prashna" was made by Krishna towards the end
> of the 4th Chapter
> in the 'Bhagavath-Gita' but not very late
> thereafter, and not until
> the opening of the 8th Chapter, do we see Arjuna
> really acting upon
> the Lord's cue and counsel. But when Arjuna did
> indeed frame his
> first serious questions on the problems of life, it
> is all put, and
> quiet predictably so, with the inevitable "kim?"! 
> 
> kim tadh brahma? kim adhyAtmam? kim karma
> pUrUshOtama?
> adhibhutham cha kim? prOktam~adhidaivam kim
> achyutha? 
> (bhagavath-gita VIII.1)
> 
> 
=== message truncated ===


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