The 108 Names

Words of praise

Aaditya Hrudaya begins with a preamble with Agastya addressing Raama on the battlefield and ends with Agastya predicting that whosoever chanted this thrice is assured of victory.

The main prayer consists of words or phrases which are the names of God and are also words that define his particular qualities, like the 1000 names in Vishnu Sahasranaama.

Madhwaachaarya has given a 100 meanings to every word of the Sahasranaama, all of which describe Vishnu. Similarly, the words found in Aaditya Hrudaya have multiple meanings. While each word seems to describe the Sun, they also describe Naarayana. A few words do not seem appropriate in describing Surya, which corroborates the theory of Aaditya Hrudaya being a prayer addressed to the supreme lord.

There is also mention of various names of numerous gods, each of which may mean something else (for instance, the word Shivam can mean bliss/Shi, and knowledge/Va) or may simply refer to Naarayana who is the antaryaami or the in-dweller within every entity. Naarayana goes by the same name of the deity that he dwells within.

Victory over enemies

In the preamble, Agastya assures Raama that the stotra grants victory over ‘enemies’. The use of plural is considered a giveaway. Raama had only one enemy, Raavana. It is we humans who have multiple enemies, namely the six within... the arishadvarga: lust, anger, arrogance, greed, ignorance and envy. In a further play of letters, it is indicated that we will win over our enemies and that is the main benefit of the stotra, since Naarayana in the form of Raama does not stand to gain any benefit.

The victory or ‘jaya’ is not only over enemies but ultimately the victory over the bondage of samsaara. And the benefit is ‘moksha’. The word ‘akshayam’ indicates that our saadhane is not limited to one lifetime but keeps adding up over multiple births. Hence any effort, however minuscule, is not going to go waste.

Not 100 but two meanings...

The word Aaditya is itself a common word used to refer to the Sun as well as Naarayana, as described in the previous Spiritual Nugget.

Here onwards, we take a look at some words of the stotra that can be interpreted in two or more ways.

Devasura namaskrutham: Agastya says that this stotra is venerated by devasuras. Devas and Asuras (a- sura) may be considered to mean sathvik jeevas or the awakened ones and the tamasic jeevas or the ignorant ones, respectively. But the word asura can also be interpreted as asu + ra, where asu refers to our indriyas and asura refers to the abhimaani devathes, who along with the devas bow down to the supreme lord present within the Sun.

Hrishikesha: Hrishi –kesha can mean the Sun, the one who delights us with his rays while Hrishika- eesha is the lord of the devathes or the lord of the indriyas, who is Naarayana.

Vivaswantham: Vivaswan is the name of our Sun among the 12 Aadityas. But if one takes the word vasu to mean devathe or wealth, we understand that the true wealth of devathes is Naarayana himself.

Bhaskaran: Again another name of the Sun but if we look at its meaning as ‘provider of light’ it refers to Naarayana who provides the light to the Sun that the Sun, in turn, provides us with.

To be continued...