Why Lord Vishnu is Called as Shunyah or Zero in the Vishnu Sahasranama

8/18/2019 Why Lord Vishnu is Called as Shunyah or Zero in the Vishnu Sahasranama

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Why Lord Vishnu is Called as

Shunyah or Zero in the VishnuSahasranama?

One of the “namas” in the Sahasranamam that I’m always intrigued by is the

name “shunyah” given to Vishnu, which appears in sloka o! "#$


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suvarnavarno hemango varangas chandhanangadhi

viraha vishamaha sunyo grithasirachalaschalaha

%he Sanskrit word “sunya” means “&ero”, “nullity”, “cipher”, “emptiness”!

It would strike anyone as e'tremely odd that the Sahasranamam should

choose to call (ord Vishnu as )ero* +ou can understand od being called

“ekaha”, the One Supreme -eing! %he essence of all monistic theism lies in

the belief that od is One .the /panishad says, “sayaschayam purushe0

yaschasavadhithye0 sa ekaha”1!

+ou can understand too od being addressed as “ananthaha” the Infinite, asin the Sahasranamam stan&a "2$

kamadhevaha kamapalaha kami kanthaha krithagamaha

anirdhesya vapurvishnuhu viro 3nantho dhanan4ayaha

Since od is Immeasurable it seems plainly alright to name 5im

“ananthaha” the Infinite! -ut how is one to e'plain hailing the 6lmighty as

“shunyah” the 7ipher8

%here is a view that “If Infinity is immeasurable, so is )ero”! 9athematically

speaking, one could define &ero to be anti:infinity! If “Infinity” is

immeasurable plenitude, “)ero” is immeasurable emptiness! If you were to

imagine, say, an interminable series of values, from &ero to infinity, floating

somewhere out there in endless space, then, surely, )ero would be at one

end of it while Infinity would be found at the other end, wherever, that is,

the two ends may be found, if at all! 6nd if you reflect upon it deeply, thatwould make out “)ero” and “Infinity” to be two sides of the same un:

graspable coin!

-y the same logic, you might say the Sanskrit “ananthaha” and “shunyah”

might seem antonymous but in reality they mean the same thing! 5ailing


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od 6lmighty as “(ord Infinity” is hence no different from hailing 5im “(ord

)ero”!

Incredible logic notwithstanding, we know for a fact however that the

“Infinite” and the “7ipher” are never really the same thing! one of us would

be willing to e'change one for the other if it came to a real choice between

the two! If I go up, for instance, to a venerable “acharya” or “guru” and

prostrate at his feet, I would e'pect him to shower his benediction upon me

saying, “9ay you be blessed in life, my son, with ods infinite race*” If

instead the man were to say, “9ay ods &ero grace be thine in life*”, the

blessing would stand transformed into a vicious curse, wouldnt it8

So then, why is od, who is Infinite -eing, being called “sunya”, a )ero ; the

very opposite of infinity8 %he traditional commentators of the Vishnu:

Sahasranamam offer us some e'planation in their respective “bhashyas”!

(ets take up 6dhi Sankara’s “Sahasranama bhashya ” first!

In his commentary, Sri Sankara .ualities like

omnipotence, omniscience etc! only serve to help us in ascertaining 5is

reality but they do not “per se” define 5im! %he truth of ods e'istence

cannot be grasped by us with reference to 5is >ualities or “guna ” alone,

says Sankara! -rahman is to be apprehended as an 6bsolute -eing whostands far apart from and >uite beyond any of 5is infinitely .“ananthaha”1

great >ualities ; i!e! 5e is “nirguna brahman”, a -eing without >ualities, a

-eing with “&ero” >ualities! 5ence it is fit to call 5im “shunyah”


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(ets turn to the other e'planation found in the commentary of Sri ?arashara

-hattar .@@th 7=1 on the Vishnu Sahasranamam titled “bhagavadh guna

dharpanam”!

-hattar e'plains “shunyah” in the typical way of the school of Visishtadvaitha

theology! 6ccording to this school, od is the Supreme 6bode of all

auspicious attributes! %he 6lmighty is full of innumerable good >ualities like

“gnyAanAa”, “bala”, “aiswarya”, “virya”, “shakthi” and “the4as”! In

Visishtadvaitha, od is “ananthakalyana guna gananA” .to use a famous

e'pression of Sri Bamanu4acharya1 ; i!e! -rahman is -eing with infinite

number of happy and wholesome attributes! %he theology ne't states that

od, by corollary, is also totally devoid of inauspicious, un:wholesome ornegative >ualities!

6ccording to -hattar, in so far as, -rahman is replete with infinitely good

attributes, 5e is to be known as “ananthaha”! 6nd in so far as 5e is

absolutely bereft of defective >ualities, 5e is to be known as the od of

“&ero:defects” ; in other words, 5e is “shunyah”!


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Crom a purely theological standpoint both e'planations above are e>ually

valid and wholly satisfying .depending, of course, upon which school of

Vedanta ; Sankaras or Bamanu4as ; one is predisposed towards1! 6ll the

same, for one who is not steeped in the various nuances and niceties of

Vedhantic theology, .especially for one who cannot really appreciate the


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technical difference between the metaphysical “nirguna” and “savisesha”

-rahman1, the e'planations of 6dhi Sankara and ?arashara -hattar for

“sunya” might only seem to resemble the case of the proverbial bottle that

got described as “half:empty” by one and “half:full” by another!

=ven leaving theological considerations aside, one can still regard )ero to be

a remarkably apt “nama” for the 6lmighty! 7ommon knowledge of the world

around us reveals how allpowerful the concept of )ero, “sunya”, truly is!

Dhen we look at the history of )ero, we reali&e why “sunya” is almighty

indeed*

/ntil about @E22 years ago nobody in the world outside India could countnumbers beyond # without enormous difficulty! %he entire raeco:Boman

Destern world knew nothing about the 5indu:6rabic system of numerals that

prevails in the entire world today! %he Bomans depended upon alphabets to

denote numbers ; such as I, F and 7 or with V, ( and G! In their system the

number H had to be written, for e'ample, as FFFII but writing a number

like H22 or H222 for the reeks and Bomans presented a huge, often

insurmountable problem* Cor several centuries the raeco:Boman civili&ation

struggled with this cumbersome system of numbering! It was the principalreason why for almost a thousand years Destern mathematics hardly

advanced beyond being a method of elementary counting and mensuration

using crude devices like the abacus! %he reeks and Bomans had no

knowledge of how to deal with large numbers, ratios, series, comple'

algebraic functions and calculations ; all childs play for any high:school

student today! Destern thought simply stagnated for ages since it could 4ust

not grapple with the mathematical problem of large numbers and

calculations!

Somewhere between @222 and @22 6G, the Destern world came in contact

with the 6rab world and that was when the 5indu:6rabic system of numerals

opened the eyes of the =uropeans to a whole new world of mathematical

thought!


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%he 6rabs had for long borrowed and been using the 5indu system of

numerals that had been in use in ancient India for more than a thousand

years earlier! %he 5indu system did not use alphabets but a simple but

versatile scheme of numeric symbols starting from “)ero” ; the famous

“sunya” ; and ending with #! %hese symbolic numerals made it so easy to

represent and calculate numerate values anywhere from &ero to infinity in

>uick time! %hey enabled comple' functions and calculations! %hey made it

possible to represent the most formidable series of values by a mere formula

which in turn facilitated further comple' mathematical functions* %he

Destern world reali&ed ; for the first time ever ; the power of the 5indu

numeral system$ a power that became the inspiration for all the

mathematical advancements to later come out of =urope$ algebra, ratios,surds, functions such as s>uares, cube and root, series and progressions,

logarithmic tables, >uadratic e>uationsJ and so on and so forth!

It was the power of )ero, “sunya”, indeed, that made the =uropean

Benaissance possible ; the Benaissance that eventually gave birth to all the

wonderful discoveries of modern mathematics such as Cibionacci series,

?ascals ?robability theory and even ewtons 7alculus* “%he concept of )ero

unleashed something more profound than 4ust an enhanced method ofcounting and calculating”! )ero revolutioni&ed the old modes of human

thought! It meant firstly people could use only ten digits, from 2 to #, to

perform every conceivable calculation and to write any conceivable number!

Secondly, it opened up a whole new world of possibilities for abstract human

thinking that had been simply unthinkable before*


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5ow did the ancient 5indus discover such a powerful concept as “sunya”

while the rest of the world remained ignorant of “)ero” for ages8

%o grasp the concept of “sunya” re>uired a very high level of intellectual and

spiritual advancement as what prevailed in India during and after the Vedic

period! 6s the =nglish philosopher, 6!!Dhitehead wrote$ “%he point about

&ero is that we do not need to use it in the operations of daily life! o one

goes out to buy &ero fish or eggs! .-ut1 It is in a way the most civili&ed of all

the cardinals, and its use is only forced on us by the needs of cultivated

modes of thought”! Vedic mathematics and astronomy of those ancient times

clearly bear evidence to the highly sophisticated conceptual and ideological


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skills that our Indian forbears possessed! %here was no doubt at all that the

ancient Vedic Indians who gave to the whole world the idea of “sunya” were

indeed masters of the most civili&ed and “cultivated modes of thought”!

%here was a great mathematician in India who lived in the @2th century 7=,

5e was -haskaracharya! 5e wrote several pioneering treatises .in Sanskrit1

on Vedic mathematics! In one of the treatises, it is said, he wrote a small

dedication$ “%o the Supreme -rahman, who is Infinity, I offer my salutation”!

-haskaracharya used the Sanskrit word “khahara” to denote od as

“Infinity” in the dedication! It is derived from “kham” which means “)ero”

and “hara” meaning “divided”! %he word “khahara” was meant to indicate

that od who is Infinity is related to )ero!

-haskaracharya was the first mathematician to reveal to the world the

intimate relationship between “sunya” and “ananthaha”, between )ero and

Infinity! 6ny >uantity divided by “sunya” is e>ual to Infinity, he said! %ake a

value like @< and divide it .“haraha”1 with progressively decreasing divisors!

Dhat happens8 %he >uotient progressively enlarges! Cor e!g! @< divided by K

L K0 and @< divided by L M0 and eventually when @< is divided by 2 it

e>uals “Infinity*” =very >uantity, every value in the world, when divided by

“sunya”, results in the same >uotient or result vi&! Infinity, “ananthaha”

Such is the mighty power of )ero that it can raise and relate all values on

earth to the e'alted state of Infinity ; that very same state in which od

6lmighty, the Vishnu of the sacred “Sahasranama”, is said to eternally resideand rule*

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Why Lord Vishnu is Called as Shunyah or Zero in the Vishnu Sahasranama