Names of God

Question: What is the entire list of names of God that bhaktas can call the almighty. Is Vasudeva ok?  Tell us why Shiva, Vishnu and Ram are not appropriate.  Padmanabhan?

The following is my response to the above question sent by me

Names of god

‘God who does not have any name or form, let us tell thousands of names to him and worship him’, [ஒருருவம் ஒருநாமம் ஒன்றும்மில்லார்க்கு ஆயிரம் திருநாமம் சொல்லித் தெள்ளேனம் கொட்டோமோ] says a Tamil Saiva saint.  So one can give any name or form for god that suits her to worship him.  But when one uses the name of a particular sectarian deity for another deity, then it not only creates a theological problem but also sentimental one.  For example Jesus means ‘One who saves’.  And I prefer to call him ‘Muktinath’ which means ‘the Lord of Mukti’.  But already Siva is also called ‘Mukteshwar’.  But this name ‘Mukteshwar’ is not a universal one for Siva but limited to a particular place and temple.  Therefore for my personal use I call Jesus as Muktinath, changing ‘Ishwar’ to ‘Nath’, as ‘Nath’ also means ‘Lord, owner’ etc.  However, no Hindu is going to call her deity as Jesus as it is related to the deity of another religion, though the concept of ‘one who saves’ is attributed to a particular sectarian deity in Hinduism also.  Though God is not limited, still we humans made him limited for various reasons and also for our need to approach him.  And the name of God is one such.

 So according to my understanding, while we allow the ‘Good News’ to incarnate in every culture and tradition, I also want to be sensitive to other’s sentiment and not to dilute the theology related with each sect.  Similarly, most of the names have their own etymological meaning.  For example ‘Padbanaban’ is ‘one who has lotus in his navel’. Padmam is lotus, nabi is navel. As Brahma emerged from the navel of Vishnu, Vishnu is called ‘Padbanaban’. Similarly Venkatachalapati means ‘one who dwells at Venkatam’.  Venkatam + achalam+ pati.  Venkatam is the name of the place, ‘achalam’ means hill [chalam means movable; achalam means immovable so stable which means hill] pati means Lord.  The Lord of the hills of Venkatam, like Virudhachalam, Arunachalam etc.  Let us take another one ‘Dhamodar(an)’/Thamodar(an) = dhamo/thamo or dham/tham means sting, (rassi in Hindi; kayiru in Tamil), udaram means stomach.  One that has a string around his stomach. This is related to a childhood play of Krishna.  Devaki ties a string around child Krishna as he becomes too mischief.  But this name is related to a particular incident in the story or life of Krishna.

Similarly, Vishnu means ‘one who pervades’ the entire world or universe.  But this is also related to the theology of Vaishnavism which believes in pantheism.  As creation emanated from Vishnu everything in the cosmos is within him.  He is the one who pervades everything viz., Vishnu.  Therefore, in pantheistic Vaishnavism, he is not only everywhere but also in everything.  Of course this is not only a Personal name for Narayana but also an attribute which is sometimes, assigned to another deity.  For example Ganapathi in the famous sloka: Suklambaradaram….. is called ‘Vishnum’ as an attribute to Ganapathi and not as a Personal name.  [In fact in this entire sloka no name of any deity is mentioned but only as it is mentioned as one who removes all obstacles, and as Ganapathi is considered as the creator as well as remover of obstacle, this sloka is chanted addressing only to him.  [Also see my article ‘Obstacle to God’].

 Similarly, you can search in the Internet for so many Names. The famous ‘Vishusahasranamam’, the thousands names of Vishnu, with translation is available in i(I)nternet.  Download and read it.

So according to my understanding, while we believe that the Trinitarian Father is the Universal God, still we cannot use the name of every sectarian deity attributing to him.  Every religion and most of the major sampradayas (sects) in Hinduism also believe their religious or sectarian god as the only one universal god.  And they have every right to claim it.  Most won’t use the name of another sectarian deity attributing nature and theology for their supreme deity.  However, some inclusive sampradayas, like Saivism, won’t mind includeing the name of other deities as part of its main deity like ‘Sankaranarayanan’; ‘Hariharan’ =Hari for Vishnu and Haran for Siva. But most of the exclusive sects like Veerashivaism and Sri Vaishnavism won’t do that.

This prayer was offered in a synod held on Dec, 1992 in the church of South India, Palayamkottai:- ‘God the Father, who is also Siva the kind one, Allah the merciful one, Buddha the companionate one’ [quoted from memory] along with so many other names. I strongly objected to writing such prayers using the name of gods from other faiths.  For example, Buddha was never considered as god in Buddhist theology though he is elevated as god later. Some Christians in order to create a ‘Nicianity’ [to remain nice for all] create such theological blunder.

The following are some extracts from scholarly works:-

…Visnu, translated as the ” all-pervading one,” may be only a Sanskritization of an older Dravidian name (vin, “the blue sky.”), an opinion confirmed by the tradition, even now, of always painting Visnu a dark blue color.–Klaus K. Klostermaier,  A Survey of Hinduism, Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1990, p.137

…the name Visnu may be derived from the Sanskrit verbal root vis (`to enter’), so Visnu is `he who enters or pervades the universe’…– Gavin Flood, An introduction to Hinduism, Cambridge University Press, 1996, p.114

Muraari: ‘The enemy of Mura’.  It is an appellation of Visnu who slew the Asura Mura….— ANCIENT INDIAN TRADITION & MYTHOLOGY; Translated by A board of Scholars, Edited by Prof. J.L.Shastri, Delhi; Mothilal Banarsidass Pub. Pvt. Ltd. (1970), 2002, The Siva Purana Four Volumes, notes 146, p.748

The orthodox Hindu would never give up believing in the Visnu element in Rama in spite of the fact that there is no enough internal evidence in Valmiki Ramayana to this effect.  The few slokas referring to it may clearly be shown as very late interpolations.  Vaidya says, “The Ramopakhyana in the Mahabharata was an incentive to the recasting of the Ramayana of Valmiki itself in accordance with the new theory of Rama being an Avatara of Vishnu.” [C. Vaidya, The Riddle of the Ramayana, p. 26]— Benjamin Khan, The Concept of Dharma in Valmiki Ramayana, Delhi, Munshi Ram Manoharlal, 1965, pp. 18-19

…It is worth noting that Krsna presents himself in the Bhagavadgita as the supreme, identical to or more often superior to Brahman and that there is no real trace of his identification with Visnu, either directly or as avataara.— The Sanskrit Epics, John Brockington, in The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, Gavin Flood (ed.), UK, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Indian Reprint 2003, p.121

The lists of Visnu’s manifestations occur within the didactic portions (primarily books 12-13) which also contain a significant amount of material relating to the emergence of Vaisnavism as such, as well as a certain amount of broadly philosophical material. The process of fusion of Narayana with Visnu is under way by now; whereas the story of Markandeya entering the mouth of Narayana and seeing the whole universe inside his body (3.186) uses only the name Narayana and there is no hint of his identity with Visnu or Krsna Vasudeva, in the Naaraayaniiya (12.321-39) from chapter 328 onwards the name Visnu is often used instead of Narayana, while elsewhere it is often stated that Arjuna and Krsna are Nara and Narayana, who are ancient rsis, sages and also divine beings noted for the eternality and perfection of their friendship.  The Naaraayaniiya is the main but relatively late passage (probably no earlier than the third century CE) on worship of Narayana and is clearly a composite  text: the first six chapters form a complex sequence of emboxed narratives, while the remaining chapters contain a series of subsequent expansions.

The text declares that the supreme deity Narayana is gracious to those who are single-mindedly devoted to him and that they attain the highest goal, which is Vasudeva, thus bringing into relationship with Narayana the name Vasudeva which is elsewhere regarded as a patronymic of Krsna….—ibid. p.123

Some of Vishnu’s incarnations or avataras, like Matsya, Kurma, and Varaha, were earlier ascribed to Brahma, for both (p.5) Vishnu and Brahma were described as ‘ Narayana’, one who moves on the waters.  However, as Brahma’s importance declined and Vishnu’s rose, these avataras were transferred to Vishnu.— India Mystica, Brahma, pp. 5-7 (page 6  is the picture of Brahma and Vishnu).

Govinda is probably a Praakrit word, absorbed by Sanskrit in its original form.  The correct Sanskrit equivalent would thus be Gopendra.  On the orthodox assumption that the word is pure Sanskrit its translation would be “Cow-finder”.— A. L. Basham, The Wonder that was India, Delhi, Rupa & Co., (1954) 1990, foot notes, p. 308

…Kalkin’s very name is ambiguous.  Kalkin is one who possesses kalka, filthy residue, sediment, or impurity; he has the dregs of the Kali Age in some way—as the image of the barbarian who is impurity incarnate, or as the god who destroys that impurity.  The frequent confusion of the Buddha and Kalkin avatars led to the invention of a version of the Buddha-Visnu myth among the Buddhists themselves, in Ceylon, almost certainly because of the familiarity not only with the Hindu myth of the Buddha avatar but with that of Kalkin as well (to say nothing of the Maitreya myth from which Klakin was probably derived) [Malallgoda, Kitisiri, “Millennaialism in Relation to Buddhism.” Comparative Studies in Sociology and History, Cambridge University, vol. 12 (1970), pp, (424-441). 438n]— Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology, University of California Press, Berkeley. Paperback Edition, (1976) 1980, p.202

One aspect of Hinduism that made possible such a positive identification of Visnu and the Buddha was the tendency to regard “any genuine religious  reformer… as an abode of divinity.” [Derrett, J.D.M. Religion, Law  and the State in India, London, 1968, p. 50].  A text often cited in justification of this view is the Bhagavad Gita, in which Krsna says that he is reborn whenever dharma wanes and that those who worship other gods are actually worshipping him [Gita 4:7; 9:23].  Elsewhere Krsna declares, “Worshippers of the sun, Siva, Ganesa, Visnu and the Goddess all reach me, just as all rains reach the sea” [Padmapurana 5.90.63].  The Muslim sect of the Imam Shahis believed that the Imam himself was the tenth avatar of Visnu and that the Qur’an was a part of the Atharva Veda [Ivanow, W, “The Sect of Imam Shah in Gujurat.” JBBRAS (Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society) 12 (1937): 19-70, pp. 62-64].  Christ is sometimes included among the avatars of Visnu, a practice that was once “a cause of great alarm among Christian missionaries” [Danielou, Alain, Hindu Polytheism, London, 1964, p. 12; Drekmeier, Charles, Kingsip and Community in Early India, Stanford, 1962, p. 146]….—ibid. p. 205

…Krishna, meaning ‘dark’, has led to his being associated with the flute-playing Tamil god Mayon, ‘the darkone’, the herdsman who spent many hours in the company of the milkmaids, which is what the cowherd of Mathura is associated with in the northern tradition. It is believed that the Abhiras, a pastoral tribe of the peninsula, brought this god with them when they traveled north and settled in central and western India. The cult became popular in the region of Mathura, from where it spread rapidly to other parts of northern India….— Romila Thapar, A HISTORY OF INDIA, vol. One, New Delhi, Penguin Books, (1966), Reprint, 1990. p. 260

…Hari means he who takes away, of course, sorrows of life….— Sushila Mahajan, Couplets of Kabir … a Vision of Beyond. New Delhi, Deep & Deep publications. 2008. Preface. p. xii.

…The name Mayon signifies the black one (Ma-black) just as Ceyon means the red one….—‘Vaisnava Concepts in Early Tamil Nadu’, in Champakalakshmi, Religion, Tradition, and Ideology: Pre-colonial South India, Oxford, New Delhi (2011), 2012 p. 167

Visnu was known under a variety of names such as Mal or Deivamal, Mayon and Netiyon. The term Vindu occurs in the Purananuru,{v. 391} one of the Sangam anthologies, and it appears to be the earliest known Tamil form of the name Visnu….—‘Vaisnava Concepts in Early Tamil Nadu’, in ibid. p. 168

…Madhusudana…name from the act of ‘destroying defiled passion’, that is, purifying the passion of Brahma so that he could proceed to generate the world in the form we know it….— Introduction, John Stratton Hawley pp.  xiii-xxxiv, in D. Dennis Hudson, Krishna’s Mandala: Bhagavata Religion and Beyond, New Delhi, Oxford, 2010, p. xxx.

Dayanand Bharati

31-1-2020