Narayana - Hari Sarvottama

The word Narayana has special meanings. A small attempt to explain the meaning are

•'naara' means one who is described in Vedas. All vedas sing praise of His qualities.
•Naara means Vayu devaru (Jeevottama) who worships Narayana.
•SrimadAcharya in his various works has quoted Narayana as first word
•Narayana who is worshiped by 'naara(human) samooha(community)'.
•'ara' means defect, 'na + ara' no defects. Narayana is full of auspicious qualities free from defect.

Moola roopa Lakshmi-Naryana takes four forms namely, Shanti-Anniruddha, Kriti-Pradhyumna, Jaya-Sankrushna, Maya-Vasudeva for all Jeeva Shristi. Maya devi takes 3 other form as Sri, Boo & Durga Devi. We see Sri & Boo Devi during Srinivasa Kalyana in detail and also during Pralaya (destruction of all creation). Entire Jeeva Shristi from Brahma, Garuda, Sesha, Rudra, Indra, and other devatas and their respective wives are based on these pancha roopi paramatma presence within (Antaryami).

Narayana takes different avatars for the benefit of the society not through birth but through His Darshan (making it visible). There are infinite benefits from each avatars. Narayana graces the devotees with benefits based on how each devotee think and pray on Him. Some avatars are Sri Veda Vyasa (The Supreme Guru), SriRama (Demonstration of Conduct), SriKrishna (Never fought for self), Sri NaraSimha (to make devotee's word a reality) and so on. But foremost reason for all these avatar is to fullfill the wishes of His formemost devotee, Brahma devaru.

Narayana first man form is Purusha roopa and first woman form is Jaya roopa (Ref:Srimad Bagavatha). He is the Father and Mother of all Jeevas. To demonstrate, He created Brahma from His navel, but to keep the order of chief creation authority, He created Lakshmi first (Lotus) to seat Brahma. Lakshmi is the Jeeva Matha. All creations below SriLakshmi is subject to Samsara (cycle of change : birth, life and death). SriLakshmi's adobe is Naryana so He is called SriNivasa. In living (Jeeva or Soul) entity or beyond, SriLakshmi is present in all places as Samana (Omnipresent) along with Narayana.

Narayana Dasavatara is the most popular avatars which are Matysa, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, ParashuRama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Kalki. Time attribute(Chatur Yuga Cycle) has to be understood to get to know the various time of avatars. It is not just 3000 years old or so that Krishna took avatar in this world. Dasa not just mean numeral 10, but it means Poorna (full, complete). In any avatar God is complete. Some more commonly known avatars include Kumara, Hayagreeva, Dattatreya, Danavantri, Naryani, Gayatri, Kapila, Ajita, Vishwa, Turyia, Pragya, Taijasa, Keshavadi, Mahidasa, Rishaba... list is endless.

Narayana cannot be learnt or reached or offered directly. Lakshmi is the only eligible person to do pooja to Narayana directly. Narayana accepts all the offering of the Jeeva only through BrahmaVayu, the Jeevottama. Whatever offer being made to Narayana, it should be as 'Barathi Ramana Mukhya Prana Antargatha LaksmiNarayana...'. In all the offers let it be Fruit, SugarCandy, Food, Utensil, Flower, Tulasi, Pooja articles, etc or for that matter the person doing pooja Lakshmi takes that form to offer or serve SriNarayana. Refer to (Ref:'Yenu Dhanyalo Enta Maanyalo...' Dasara song).

Lakshmi, or Brahma any of them separately prayed as Sarvottama will only make them feel bad and will only earn sin for performing the prayer in a wrong way. Example, when Principal, Vice-principal, and Class-Teacher are seen together in a function forgetting to acknowledge the supreme role of Principal will only make Vice-principal and Class-Teacher uneasy.

There are infinite (ananta ananta) avatars and roopas of Narayana spanning Space, Time, and Attributes. Say for example in Time aspect, for each day, He takes unique Samvatsara (Year), Ruthu (Season), Masa (Month), Paksha (Fortnights), Thiti (Days), Nakshatra(Cosmos Stars), Yoga (Class of Time), Karna (Class of Act) form in each person to help them do their acts (Karma) according to their yogatha(capacity). The countless avatars itself denotes the Sarvottama which no other devatas have to their credit.

Narayana has several endless names to be invoked. These names sometimes are attribute based some are action based names and some are beyond our capacity of understanding. SrimadAcharya has prooved to people by refering to SriVishnu SahasraNama that each Name has hundreds of meaning. For example Vishnu can mean , one who is all-prevading or one who has great brightness or giver of very special powers and so on. Narayana and Vishnu are same. Likewise, ParasuRama and Rama are same. Just as a source lamp does not loose its brightness when other lamps are lit from it, there is no iota of difference between any of these avataras and moola roopa Narayana. Based on the oil(Bakthi) and wick(Samarpanay), the intensity of light (or realization of Narayana) differs.

Narayana is the root cause of Shristi(Creation), Stiti (Protection) and Laya(Destroyer). He is the Antaryami (residing within) of all Jeeva. Sarvottama as Anniruddha, Pradhyumna, Sankrushna, Vasudeva and Narayana he resides within all Jeeva Samasara (prior birth, after birth, after death) with Jeevottama Vayu.



Taatparya (Moral)


•Narayana is Sarvottama
•Narayana is Paripoorna
•Narayana is Antaryami in all jeeva
•Narayana is understood by Vedas and Guru's Teachings
•Narayana is The Only Independent, others are dependent on Him
•Narayana is the sole cause of Creation, Sustenance, Destruction
•Narayana is endless; spanning space, time, attributes(immeasurable, defect-free)
•Narayana, Lakshmi, BrahmaVayu are Moola Deva, Devi & Mukhya Devata respectively