797. Śṛṅgī शृङ्गी

Śṛṅgi refers to a type of catfish, possibly indicating to His incarnation as a fish. It also refers to gold used to make ornaments. Reference to gold seems to be appropriate. Pure gold is Paramātman, and ornaments are His creations, jīvātman. Only from gold, ornaments are made and similarly, only from Him, other beings are created. Pure gold does not have any blemishes, whereas, the gold used for ornaments is mixed with copper. Copper can be interpreted as māyā. Pure gold can still be obtained from the copper mixed gold and similarly, pure consciousness of Brahman can be realized when the individual consciousness becomes devoid of māyā.

798. Jayantaḥ जयन्तः

Jayanta means victorious. He is always victorious because He is the source of everything that exists in the universe. It can also be said that He is victorious in winning over many devotees and offering them liberation.

When He is dear to His devotees, devotees are also dear to Him. When one’s karma is not that bad, He establishes commune with him and makes him to advance further towards Him. As seen earlier, it is not easy to attain Him. Out of many, if one is able to pursue the right path and attains liberation, he becomes a Guru to others and leads them towards Him. Brahman does not operate directly, but acts indirectly through enlightened persons. Attunement with Him can happen only through the subtle body and not through the gross body. Subtle body means mind, intellect (sometimes consciousness is also included) and ego and they are together, known as antaḥkaraṇa.

799. Sarvavijjayī सर्वविज्जयी

He is omniscient. He knows everything. He observes all the acts of all the beings by remaining as a witness to all their actions.

This nāma is also interpreted to mean that He is always victorious. There is a difference between the previous nāma and this nāma. Previous was a generalized statement. This nāma can be interpreted to mean that He wins over both external and internal enemies. External enemies are those who destroy the equilibrium between good and bad. When bad prevails over good, He incarnates to destroy the bad and restores the equilibrium. 

Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad Gītā (IV.7):

यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत।
अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम्॥

yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānirbhavati bhārata |
abhyutthānamadharmasya tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmyaham ||

“Arjuna, wherever righteousness is on the decline and unrighteousness is on the rise, I incarnate.”
Internal enemies are more dangerous than external iniquitous forces. Internal enemies are desires, attachments, pride, etc. As long as they prevail in one’s mind, the mind cannot be purified. Even the traces of internal enemies present in the mind could manifest in gigantic proportions. This has happened to several great sages and saints. Once fallen from the higher levels of spirituality, one has to begin his spiritual journey all over again. He helps those devotees who always think about Him and ensures that they do not fall from the spiritual heights by annihilating all the harmful impressions in their minds. He does not do this directly, but through other Self-realized persons.

800. Suvarṇabinduḥ सुवर्णबिन्दुः

He has golden limbs. It also refers to a type of precious pearl.

Bindu is the point of origin of the universe and at the time of annihilation, it is the point into which the universe is dissolved.

Bindu is also commonly used to mean ājñācakra. When ājñācakra is activated and when one is able to transcend beyond ājñācakra, a flashing light can be seen. This is the bindu. When this is activated by practicing meditation, one can frequently experience the state of Bliss.

This nāma says that He is the form of a gold coloured Bindu, from which everything originates and everything dissolves. This is on the macrocosmic level. At the microcosmic level, one can enter into the state of Bliss when the bindu at ājñācakra is activated.

801. Akṣobhyaḥ अक्षोभ्यः

Akṣobhya means imperturbable. He is not perturbed by any acts of anyone. He is not perturbed because He does not have attachments and desires. He does not have friends and foes. He does not have likes and dislikes. Sensory organs and mind are responsible for the operation of these dyads in humans. But He is beyond all this as He does not have a shape or form. He operates through His pure and illuminating consciousness, which is in the form of the Bindu, described in the previous nāma. He is subtler than the subtlest and there is no need for Him to get perturbed as He knows that everything operates on the basis of Law of Karma.

802. Sarvavāgīśvareśvaraḥ सर्ववागीश्वरेश्वरः

He is the master of all languages; in other words, He is omniscient. Language means the knowledge, which originates from the sound. Root of knowledge is sound, as without sound nothing can be understood properly.  An elephant can be known as an elephant only through words. Hence, this nāma says that He presides over all the languages. He is the form of vācaka, the primordial energy of sound, which evolves and unfolds as the universe.

Kena Upaniṣad (I.iv) explains this by saying, “itiśuśruma pūrveṣāṁ” which means ‘this is what we heard from our ancient teachers.’

The best way to acquire knowledge is listening.

803. Mahāhradaḥ महाह्रदः

The sacred river Ganges is known as mahāhrada. Hrda means a lake or a huge water body. The water body that is referred here is the Bliss. If one immerses into the blissful lake, he is unwilling to come to the shore, the material world.

Sometimes, a clean and transparent mind is also called as a lake. Water in a lake does not have waves, which is an indication of tranquillity of the mind.

This nāma subtly conveys that He is the store house of Bliss, unique state of placidity. If one enters this state through his mind, he becomes one with that state. Bliss is too powerful to resist. The rapturousness of Bliss has to be personally experienced.

804. Mahāgartaḥ महागर्तः

Garta means a pit. This pit is dangerous. When one does not realize the presence of the pit, he falls into that pit. Pit is deceptive and its true form is not visible to the biological eyes, as it is hidden by various objects over it. To catch a wild elephant, such pits are dug and covered with dry leaves. The elephant, unaware of the pit walks into it and falls down. This is known as māyā, the illusion.

The entire universe is nothing but His reflection. But due to the effect of māyā the material world is conceived as real. The deception is caused by māyā, which is also His power. The world of māyā is His playground. The power of māyā is difficult to transcend and if transcended, one realizes the Self.

One has to come out of the clutches of māyā, as it draws ignorant people towards it and make them suffer by causing repeated births. Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad Gītā (II.62 & 63), “The man dwelling on sense objects gets attached to those objects; from this attachment desire arises and from the unfulfilled desire, anger originates. From anger infatuation; from infatuation confusion; from confusion loss of reasoning arises leading to compete catastrophe for that man.”  From this one can understand that attachment and desire are the worst enemies for the sufferings of humanity. They always try to induce humanity in some form or other. Those with fragile mind fall for them and those with resolute mind fix their consciousness on Him, ignoring the effects of māyā and attain liberation.

805. Mahābhūtaḥ महाभूतः

Generally mahābhūta refers to the five principle elements – ether, air, fire, water and earth. Only from these five elements, creation happens. These five elements originate from Him and hence He is addressed as mahābhūta.

This nāma also means that He is beyond any modification, beyond the concept of time like past, present and future. Alpha and omega is the unique quality of Brahman.

806. Mahānidhiḥ महानिधि

Nidhi means a storehouse apart from the well known meaning treasure. He is the storehouse of all the individual souls. From Him, creation happens and at the annihilation, the entire creation integrates unto Him.

Similarly, the liberated souls merge into Him to become one with Him. During creation, a soul is released from Him and takes a particular shape and form. During its existence, it accumulates the impressions of its actions in the form of karma and depending upon the quality of the karma, further birth happens and this process continues, till all its karmas are exhausted. After several births, the soul again goes back to Him to remain one with Him. This is liberation.

This nāma says that He is the storehouse of individual souls.