[Advaita-l] Vishnu as vedAntic brahman in Adi and Sabha parva-s

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Namaste,

Good work. Please also refer to the verse from the Kaivalya Upanishada as follows:

स ब्रह्मा स शिवः सेन्द्रः सोऽक्षरः परमः स्वराट् ।
स एव विष्णुः स प्राणः स कालोऽग्निः स चन्द्रमाः ॥ ८॥

Regards,
skb






--------------------------------------------
On Fri, 8/12/16, D Gayatri via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

 Subject: [Advaita-l] Vishnu as vedAntic brahman in Adi and Sabha parva-s
 To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
 Date: Friday, August 12, 2016, 4:10 PM
 
 Namaste
 
 It is well known that in the Bhagavad Gita portion of the
 Mahabharata,
 Vishnu has been praised as the Vedantic brahman by
 Krishna-Dvaipayana. What
 is not-so-well-known is the praise of Vishnu in Vedantic
 terms in other
 parts of the Mahabharata. I will present here, instances of
 such praise in
 the Adi and Sabha parvas.
 
 Just as the Rig Veda begins with the word Agni, indicating
 the importance
 of Agni to the Rig Veda, so also the Mahabharata begins with
 the word
 Narayana, indicating his importance in the scheme of the
 things of the
 Mahabharata. The invocation verse at the beginning of the
 Adi parva goes
 out to Narayana, Nara and Saraswati (all verses taken from
 the critical
 BORI edition). I have used the help of translations given on
 the internet,
 along with the one given by J. A. B. van Buitenen, coupled
 with my own
 understanding of Sanskrit (which I acknowledge is far from
 perfect).
 
 
 The invocation verse in the Adi parva -
 
 
 नारायणं नमस्कृत्य नरं
 चैव नरोत्तमम् | देवीं
 सरस्वतीं चैव ततो
 जयमुदीरयेत् ||
 
 [The Jaya (Mahabharata) shall be recited after bowing down
 do Narayana and
 Nara, supreme among men, and to the Goddess Saraswati.]
 
 Mbh: 1.1.20-22
 
 आद्यं पुरुषमीशानं
 पुरुहूतं पुरुष्टुतम् |
 ऋतमेकाक्षरं ब्रह्म
 व्यक्ताव्यक्तं
 सनातनम् ||२०|| असच्च
 सच्चैव च यद्विश्वं
 सदसतः परम् | परावराणां
 स्रष्टारं
 पुराणं परमव्ययम् ||२१||
 मङ्गल्यं मङ्गलं
 विष्णुं वरेण्यमनघं
 शुचिम् |
 नमस्कृत्य हृषीकेशं
 चराचरगुरुं हरिम् ||२२||
 
 (The above verses also occur at the beginning of the
 Harivamsa)
 
 [I bow to the primeval Purusha, the Lord, first one to
 receive oblations in
 Vedic rituals, one to whom first orisons are sung, one who
 is the Truth,
 one who is symbolized by the one-syllabled (Om), one who is
 Brahman, one
 who is manifest and unmanifest, Eternal, the existent and
 the non-existent
 and beyond the existent and non-existent, the aggregate of
 the entire
 universe, the creator of things high and low, the Ancient
 one, the supreme
 immutable, who is blissful and brings forth bliss, who is
 Vishnu, the
 all-pervading (VIshnu is called Vishnu because he is
 all-pervading, an
 etymology given by Yaska in his Nirukta), the most desirable
 (by seekers of
 salvation), free from all sins and pure, who is Hrishikesha
 (the Lord of
 the senses, who impels the sensory organs), the God Hari,
 who is the guru
 (preceptor) of all creatures, those that move and those that
 move not.]
 
 
 Mbh: 1.1.124
 
 यदाश्रौषं
 कश्मलेनाभिपन्ने;
 रथोपस्थे
 सीदमानेऽर्जुने वै |
 कृष्णं
 लोकान्दर्शयानं शरीरे;
 तदा नाशंसे विजयाय
 सञ्जय ||१२४||
 
 (Dhritarashtra recounting to Samjaya, the Vishvaroopa
 Darshana episode of
 the Bhagavad Gita)
 
 [When I heard that Arjuna has been seized with cowardice and
 sat down on
 his chariot and Krishna showed him all the worlds within his
 own body, then
 Samjaya, I lost hope of victory].
 
 
 Mbh: 1.1.193-195
 
 
 भगवान्वासुदेवश्च
 कीर्त्यतेऽत्र सनातनः |
 स हि सत्यमृतं चैव
 पवित्रं पुण्यमेव
 च ||१९३|| शाश्वतं ब्रह्म
 परमं ध्रुवं ज्योतिः
 सनातनम् | यस्य
 दिव्यानि
 कर्माणि कथयन्ति
 मनीषिणः ||१९४||
 असत्सत्सदसच्चैव
 यस्माद्देवात्प्रवर्तते
 |
 सन्ततिश्च
 प्रवृत्तिश्च जन्म
 मृत्युः पुनर्भवः
 ||१९५||a
 
 [The eternal and unchanging blessed Lord (Bhagavan),
 vAsudeva (Krishna) is
 glorified here (in the Mahabharata). He is true, he is
 right, he is pure
 and holy. He is the eternal Brahman, supreme and immovable,
 the everlasting
 Light, of whose divine exploits, the wise tell the tales.
 From Him begins
 the existent that is not yet, and the non-existent that
 becomes.
 Continuity, pravritti, birth, death, rebirth (are from
 Him)]
 
 Mbh: 1.19.13
 
 अध्यात्मयोगनिद्रां च
 पद्मनाभस्य सेवतः |
 युगादिकालशयनं
 विष्णोरमिततेजसः ||१३||
 
 [(The ocean is the bed of) the boundlessly powerful Vishnu,
 the one with
 the Lotus-navel, who sleeps in Adhyatma yoga nidra at the
 beginning of the
 yuga]
 
 
 Mbh: 1.57.83-87
 
 अनुग्रहार्थं लोकानां
 विष्णुर्लोकनमस्कृतः |
 वसुदेवात्तु देवक्यां
 प्रादुर्भूतो महायशाः
 ||८३|| अनादिनिधनो देवः स
 कर्ता जगतः प्रभुः |
 अव्यक्तमक्षरं ब्रह्म
 प्रधानं
 निर्गुणात्मकम् ||८४||
 आत्मानमव्ययं चैव
 प्रकृतिं प्रभवं परम् |
 पुरुषं विश्वकर्माणं
 सत्त्वयोगं
 ध्रुवाक्षरम् ||८५||
 अनन्तमचलं देवं हंसं
 नारायणं प्रभुम् |
 धातारमजरं नित्यं
 तमाहुः परमव्ययम्
 ||८६|| पुरुषः स विभुः
 कर्ता सर्वभूतपितामहः |
 धर्मसंवर्धनार्थाय
 प्रजज्ञेऽन्धकवृष्णिषु
 ||८७||
 
 
 [Vishnu, whose fame is great, who is worshiped by all the
 worlds, the
 Unmanifest, Akshara, Brahman, and Cause, to favor all the
 worlds became
 manifest in Devaki by Vasudeva–God without beginning or
 end, the Lord,
 Maker of the universe, who is without attributes as well as
 the
 imperishable Soul (Atman), and Nature, the ultimate Source,
 the Man, the
 Maker of all things, the Yoker of Being, the stable
 Intransient, the
 Unending, Unmoving God, the Swan, the Lord Nārāyana, whom
 they call the
 unaging, sempiternal Place, supreme and everlasting. He is
 the ubiquitous
 Purusha, Maker (kartA), and Grandfather of all creatures;
 and so in order
 to further the growth of Dharma, he was born amidst the
 Andhaka-Vršnis (as
 Krishna).]
 
 Mbh: 1.61.90
 
 यस्तु नारायणो नाम
 देवदेवः सनातनः |
 तस्यांशो
 मानुषेष्वासीद्वासुदेवः
 प्रतापवान् ||९०||
 
 [The eternal god of the gods with the name Narayana,
 descended on the earth
 with a portion of himself among mankind as the majestic
 vAsudeva]
 
 
 Mbh: 2.35.22-25
 
 (These are the words of Bhishma)
 
 
 कृष्ण एव हि
 लोकानामुत्पत्तिरपि
 चाप्ययः | कृष्णस्य हि
 कृते भूतमिदं विश्वं
 समर्पितम् ||२२|| एष
 प्रकृतिरव्यक्ता
 कर्ता चैव सनातनः |
 परश्च
 सर्वभूतेभ्यस्तस्माद्वृद्धतमोऽच्युतः
 ||२३|| बुद्धिर्मनो
 महान्वायुस्तेजोऽम्भः
 खं मही च या | चतुर्विधं
 च यद्भूतं सर्वं कृष्णे
 प्रतिष्ठितम् ||२४||
 आदित्यश्चन्द्रमाश्चैव
 नक्षत्राणि ग्रहाश्च
 ये | दिशश्चोपदिशश्चैव
 सर्वं
 कृष्णे प्रतिष्ठितम्
 ||२५||
 
 
 [Krishna alone is the origin of the worlds as well as their
 dissolution,
 for Krishna's sake is all that exists here offered. He is
 the Unmanifest
 Cause and the Sempiternal Doer, higher than all creatures;
 it is thus that
 Acyuta is the eldest. Spirit, mind, the Large One, wind,
 fire, water, ether
 and earth, and the fourfold creation, all rest upon Krishna.
 The sun, the
 moon, the stars, the planets, the points of the compass and
 the
 intermediate points—it all rests on Krishna.]
 
 
 Regards
 Gayatri
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