Works of Sri Sankaracharya 13 - Sahasranama & Sanatsujatiya [devdakilla].pdf

Sahasranāma (Devanagari सहस्रनाम) is a Sanskrit term which means "a thousand names".[1] It is also a genre of stotra literature,[2][3] usually found as a title of the text named after a deity, such as Vishnu Sahasranāma, wherein the deity is remembered by 1,000 names, attributes or epithets.[1][4]

As stotras, Sahasra-namas are songs of praise, a type of devotional literature.[2] The word is a compound of sahasra "thousand" and nāman "name". A Sahasranāma often includes the names of other deities, suggesting henotheistic equivalence.[5] Thus Ganesha Sahasranama list of one thousand names includes Brahma, Vishnu, Shakti, Shiva, Rudra, SadaShiva and others.[5] It also includes epithets such as Jiva (life force), Satya (truth), Param (highest), Jnana (knowledge) and others.[5] The Vishnu Sahasranamam includes in its list, work and jnana-yajna (offering of knowledge) as two attributes of Vishnu.[6] Lalita Sahasranama, similarly, includes the energies of a goddess that manifest in an individual as desire, wisdom and action.[7]

A sahasranama provides a terse list of attributes, virtues and legends symbolized by a deity. There are also many shorter stotras, called ashtottara-shata-nāma, which have only 108 names.



The Sānatsujātiya refers to a portion of the Mahābhārata, a Hindu epic. It appears in the Udyoga Parva (book), and is composed of five chapters (Adyāya 41-46).[1] One reason for the Sānatsujātiya's importance is that it was commented upon by Adi Shankara,[2] the preeminent expositor of Advaita Vedanta, and one of the most important Hindu sages, philosophers, and mystics.

Buitenen wrote that "The Sānatsujātiya had a minor reputation as a philosophical classic.... The text certainly deserves more study than it has received" (p. 182).[2] He also wrote that

The Sānatsujātiya should probably be best approached as a brief, late-upaniṣadic text that very early attracted to itself, by way of appendix, commentary, and continuation, other texts that were considered to be of the same inspiration.... Its core seems to be the triṣṭubh verses of the beginning, in which the problem of death is addressed. This is followed, in ślokas, by reflections on brahman and wisdom, on the twelve vices and twelve virtues, and on brahmacarya. It ends with a mystical hymn on the manifestations of the Supreme... with the refrain: "The yogins behold the sempiternal blessed Lord." (p. 182[2])




First Page Screenshot: