Śaṅkara could have written a short list: name, meaning, next. Instead he stops at each of the thousand names and asks why the Lord is called this. Watching how he answers is the best way to learn to read the names yourself.
He starts from the word
Most names are built from a Sanskrit root, and Śaṅkara begins there.
- Viṣṇu comes from viś, to enter, or viṣ, to pervade: he is the one who has entered and filled everything, unlimited by space, time or substance. Śaṅkara quotes the Viṣṇu Purāṇa: ‘because this whole world is pervaded by his power, he is called Viṣṇu.’
- Puruṣa is ‘the one who rests (śete) in the city (pur)’, the city being the body with its nine gates. Or the one who existed (āsīt) before (purā) all things.
He often gives more than one meaning
Śaṅkara rarely insists on a single reading. ‘Or’ is one of his favourite words. Keśava is the one with beautiful hair (keśa); or the one who holds within him Ka, A and Īśa, that is Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva; or the slayer of the demon Keśī. The names are rich enough to hold all of these at once.
He reads repeats as new names
When Viṣṇu appears again (names 2, 258 and 657), or Acyuta, Keśava, Mādhava, Śaṅkara gives a fresh sense each time. His principle is simple: a name placed in a new setting is pointing at something new.
He supports each meaning from scripture
For Śaṅkara a meaning is not a guess. He anchors it in the Upaniṣads, the Bhagavad Gītā, the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, the Harivaṃśa and the Mahābhārata. Muktānāṃ paramā gatiḥ, the supreme goal of the liberated: ‘having come to me, there is no rebirth’ (Gītā 8.16). Bhūtātmā, the self of beings: ‘this is your self, the inner ruler, the immortal’ (Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad).
He keeps one truth in view
For all their variety, Śaṅkara reads the thousand names as describing one reality: Brahman, pure consciousness, the self of all. The names of deeds and forms are not set aside; Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, the lion and the dwarf, are that same reality appearing for the good of the world. So the cosmic names and the tender names do not compete. Viśvam, the whole universe, and Suhṛt, the friend, are the same one.
Reading a name for yourself
When a name catches you, try asking what Śaṅkara asks:
- What does the word itself say? Look at its parts in the word-by-word panel.
- What quality of the Lord does it point to?
- Is there a story behind it?
- Where else have you met it in the hymn, and what did it mean there?
- What would it change if it were true of the one closest to you, your own self?