[Advaita-l] vishnu sahasranama question

[V Subrahmanian]

On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 10:29 PM, Kalyan K <kalyankc.81 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear members,
>
> I looked at Sri Adi Sankara's bhashya on Vishnu sahasranama and it starts
> with commentary on - Shri vaisampAyana uvAcha - SrutvA dharmA na sesheNa
> etc.
>
> But the vishnu sahasranAma that we recite today starts with Shukla
> aMbaradharaM Vishnum and it has a few more verses like vyAsAya vishNu
> rUpAya etc.
>
> Are these verses shuklambaradharam vishnum and vyasaya vishnu rupaya etc.
> (that Sankara has not commented on) present in the mahabharata? If not,
> where are they found?
>
> Regards
> Kalyan
>

Dear Kalyan,

It is my guess that while the Mahabharata context is Bhishma's stuti, this
very stuti when adapted as a stotram to be recited by all gets modified
into a full anuShThAnam where we have nyAsa, phala shruti, etc.  Thus the
Ganesha dhyanam, etc. must have been included with this end in view.

To a question in the Bharatiya Vidwat Parishat forum on a particular verse
found in the dhyAna shloka of the VSN, I got a reply as follows:

// i got  this reference while i was going through  the book "VISHNU
SAHASRANAMA WITH THE BHASHYA OF SRI SHANKARA" trasnslated into English in
light of Sri Samkara's bhashya By R.Anantakrishna Shastri(Adyar
Library-1980) says that(in page no 60)-
" * itah param daakshinaatya pustakeshu adhonirdishyamaano adhikapaatho
drashyate-
rishirnaamnaam...............etc (the verse भूः पादौ यस्य ...follows.....)
 the book says that it is available in only daakshinaatya text...//

This also shows that in other parts of the country the VSN is recited with
a different set of verses as dhyana / phala shruti, etc.  In the Gitapress
small size book containing the Bhagavad gita and the VSN at the end, the
starting verse is: yasya smaraNa mAtreNa janma samsAra bandhanAt...There
even the Ganesha dhyanam is not there.

Regards,
subrahmanian.v