711. Analaḥ अनलः

Repetitive nāma 293.

Anala means three and contextually, it refers to the three primary acts of Brahman - creation, sustenance and dissolution. The power and glory of Brahman is incomprehensible. All these terms used only helps us to understand His glory. The glories of the Brahman are narrated by means of perceivable things to comprehend Him; still He is incomprehensible.

For example, Scriptures say that Brahman is several million times more powerful than the sun. In reality, Brahman cannot be compared to the sun as the sun is one of the tiny objects of His creation. But when it is said that He is several million times more powerful than the sun, it becomes easier for us to conceptualize Him.

Nāma 293 interpreted differently.

712. Darpahā दर्पहा

Darpaha means destroyer of pride. Ego is a strange gift of God to man. Too much of ego makes a person arrogant. By becoming arrogant, disconnect between Brahman and man happens. Ego becomes strong when one identifies himself with his body. Ego is often mistaken for conscience (not consciousness). Conscience is the unconditional awareness of individual identity, whereas ego is conditioned by selfish interests. Most of the advanced spiritual aspirants fall from their heights only due to ego. Dissolution of ego means that traces of ego still remain. Only during death, ego totally dissolves.

Ego is bound by three guṇa-s – sattva, rajas and tamas which are nothing but the qualities of a persons such as goodness, passion and darkness or virtuous, wickedness and ignorance. Every person will have one of these qualities predominantly.  Depending upon the predominance of these attributes or guṇa-s, one’s character is determined. The predominance of tamas leads to demonic qualities, thereby disturbing the equipoise between good and bad. Not only the demons are tamasic in nature; but also all those who cheat the innocent spiritual aspirants are worse than the demons in possessing tamasic nature. False spiritual gurus are recognised because of their deceptive appearance and a true spiritual guru is never recognised, as he lives one amongst us, totally concealing his true identity. 

This nāma says that He destroys those with very high level of tamasic ego to sustain the universe.

713. Darpadaḥ दर्पदः

After destroying the ego of the demonic beings, He endows pride on those who follow the virtuous path, whose predominant guṇa will be sattvic. He endows pride on them so that they are revealed to the world, at least to a select few.

It is not enough to destroy the evil; it is also equally important to establish goodness. When demons are destroyed, truly realized persons are revealed to the world to make the world follow them. Viṣṇu is more concerned in offering liberation to as many seekers as possible.

The greatness of sages and saints are revealed to the world by granting them supernatural powers, which are nothing but the reward for their austerities.

714. Dṛptaḥ दृप्तः

Dṛp means extremely delighted. Brahman is full of Bliss hence, He is addressed as Dṛptaḥ. Chāndogya Upaniṣad (VII.xxiii.1) says, “yo vai bhūmā tatsukhaṁ” which means that which is infinite that is happiness (bhūmā means abundance and refers to the Brahman).

Happiness cannot be experienced as long as one is attached to the material world in one form or other. When one advances in spirituality, detachment happens mechanically. This stage is very significant while pursuing spiritual path. This is the point where devotion turns into love for Him and this love leads to the state of bliss, the penultimate state to realization.

715. Durdharaḥ दुर्धरः

Repetitive nāma 266.

Durdhara means irresistible. The love for Him makes Him irresistible. When the devotion turns into love, the aspirant needs to do nothing, except to stay connected with Him perpetually. The symptom of this love is tears rolling down. This is the stage where there is no necessity for performing rituals and rites. There is no need to pray or recite mantras. There is no need for all this, as the aspirant’s mind is already pervaded by Him. The Lord and the aspirant cannot be separated. The Lord becomes irresistible for him.

716. Aparājitaḥ अपराजितः

Repetitive nāma 862.

Aparājita means unconquerable. Brahman cannot be conquered as He is omnipotent. Īśa Upaniṣad (4) explains this. “Brahman is without a second. It never moves, yet it goes faster than the mind. It is always ahead. The sense organs can never catch up with it. It is still, yet it defeats all in a race….”

When He pervades the mind, all senses are subjugated. These causes disconnect from the material world, ultimately leading to Bliss.

Aparājita is the name of a son of Kṛṣṇa.

717. Viśvamūrtiḥ विश्वमूर्तिः

Viśva means universal, omnipresent; mūrti means embodiment, manifestation. He is the embodiment of universal consciousness. From Him alone the universe was created. Without Him as the soul within, no sentient or insentient can ever exist.

Bhīṣma after having explained about Kṛṣṇa’s glories now proceeds to explain His manifested forms.

718. Mahāmūrtiḥ महामूर्तिः

Mahāmūrti means great bodied, generally used to mean Viṣṇu. Probably, Bhīṣma could have referred to His viśvarūpa darśana, shown only to Arjuna. Viśvarūpa not only means His gigantic form, but also the entire activities of the universe happening within His body.

This nāma could also mean His Vāmana avatar. Nārāyaṇīyaṁ  (canto 31 describes His Vāmana avatar) says, “As the worlds looked on, Your form grew up higher and higher to the cosmic dimensions.”

Brahman has an exclusive quality. Kaṭha Upaniṣad (I.ii.20) says, “He is smaller than the smallest and bigger than the biggest.” Brahman cannot be explained beyond this.

An aspirant is associated with names of forms only up to a certain point. When his devotion turns into love for Him, the aspirant moves away from names and forms and dwells on His inexplicable splendor, Self-illuminating Light. Nārāyaṇa means, having an import not apparent to the senses, nor obvious to the intelligence beyond ordinary human understanding. An aspirant cannot continue to be as an aspirant throughout his life. For achieving the goal of life, he has surrender to Him; then he has to meditate and make attempts to unite his individual soul with Supreme Soul (Nārāyaṇa). This way, the aspirant becomes a yogi. Without becoming a yogi, one cannot attain liberation. Yogi does not mean the external appearance, but the mind. A true yogi does not want others to recognize him. He enjoys His Bliss by remaining all alone.  It is said “ātman Ātman eva paśyati” which means only the jīvātma can recognize Paramātma. This is where meditation helps.

719. Dīptamūrtiḥ दीप्तमूर्तिः

Dīpta means splendid, brilliant, shining, etc. Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad (II.i.1) says, “From that blazing fire, sparks of the same nature, arise by thousands.” Blazing fire is Paramātma and sparks of fire refers to the creation of individual souls or jīvātma-s.

This nāma says that He is Self-illuminating.

720. Amūrtimān अमूर्तिमान्

Amūrti means formless. After having explained His manifestations, this nāma says that He is subtle. This nāma takes the aspirant to the higher levels of spirituality. After having said in the previous nāma that He is Self-illuminating, this nāma says that He cannot be seen with biological eyes, which can be used only to view the materialistic world. To view the cosmic world, one requires divine eye, which is known as the third eye or ājñācakra. Kṛṣṇa gave divine eye to Arjuna to see His cosmic form.

Since He is amūrti, He is omnipresent. With mūrti (form), He cannot be omnipresent.

721. Anekamūrti अनेकमूर्ति

Aneka means many. He is in many forms. Since He is present in the form of multitude of individual souls, He is addressed so in this nāma.

Nāma 717 to 721 end with “mūrti”, which means form. They said that He is universal form, great form, luminous form, without form, multitude of forms.