[Advaita-l] Re: Narayana - Word

[S Jayanarayanan]

--- "Jaldhar H. Vyas" <jaldhar at braincells.com> wrote:

[..]

> This is just speculation on my part but having
> recently read the section
> dealing with vyuhavada in the BSB I think it might
> be plausible.
> Vasudeva etc. were in prominent use by the
> Bhagavatas for non-Vedic
> purposes.  Narayana on the other hand is prominently
> used in the Vedas and
> quite clearly demonstrates an Advaita bhava (Nara +
> ayana = that which
> pervades Man.  See also Jays' posting.)  So by using
> the name Narayana not
> only is Bhagavan being praised but an important
> Advaitic concept is
> mentioned and the authority of non-Vedic Agamas is
> criticized.  Another
> favorite phrase of Acharya is "higher than the
> avyakta." This apart from a
> term of praise is an implicit criticism of the
> Samkhya/Yoga idea that
> unmanifest Prakrti is the cause of creation.
> 

There was an important point raised in the Bhakti list
about the way the name "nArAyaNa" was interpreted by
appayya dIkshita. The posting is at
http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/sep97/0095.html
and here's an extract:

begin quote------------------

a panini sutra in ashtadhyayi ( purva-padat samjnyayam
agah ) which means in short ( since my grammar teacher
N.T srinivasaiengar of bangalore, supposed to be
acclaimed as a master in vyakarana  by all
matadhipatis of all the three  schools - gave me a big
lecture on  this sutra recently), if a samjna is
intended, na-kara gets a Na-kara (adesha). ie. when a
specific person is intended  by a word the na- will be
replaced by Na.

example : ramayana is a story of any person whose name
 is  rama

but ramayaNa is the story of only that rama  who is
intended by adikavi valmiki!!

similarly narayana is any person  who is  explained by
the term: naranam ayanam ie. the goal and the support
for naras ie.  imperishables which are jivas and
prakriti.  But if by this term narayana,  a specific
person is intended  then the language uses narayaNa. 
Since Vedas use the term narayaNa and not narayana, 
the  intention of this term narayaNa can be used only
for a specific person.  who is this specific person?

...

This being the case our Appayya Dikshita HIMSELF
agrees in one of his works :

"I would have made all the words to refer to Siva
(parvati pati)  but unfortunately this pain ful
Na-kara in NarayaNa is bothering me and my hands are
tied since big boss panini is involved- who cannot be
ignored by any respectable pundit of sanskrit"

end quote------------------

In short, the word "nArAyaNa" is a proper noun of
sorts according to pANinian grammar, and has been so
treated by appayya dIkshita (AD) himself, a famous
advaitin who was in fact a devotee of shiva. Anyone
know anything more about this?

-Kartik

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