Shunya - Vishnu Sahasranamam

One of the “namas” in the Vishnu Sahasranamam is the name “shunyah” given to Vishnu, which appears in sloka No. 79

The Sanskrit word “shunya” means zero, nullity , cipher,  emptiness.

It would strike anyone as extremely odd that the Sahasranamam should choose to call Lord Vishnu as Zero! 

You can understand God being called eka, the One Supreme Being. The essence of all monistic theism lies in the belief that God is One.

You can understand too God being addressed as “ananthaha” the Infinite, as in the Sahasranamam stanza 70.

Since God is Immeasurable it seems plainly alright to name Him “ananthaha” the Infinite.  But how is one to explain hailing the Almighty as “shunyah” the Cipher?

There is a view that “If Infinity is immeasurable, so is Zero”. Mathematically speaking, one could define zero to be anti-infinity.  If Infinity is immeasurable plenitude, Zero  is immeasurable emptiness. 

If you were to imagine, say, an interminable series of values, from zero to infinity, floating somewhere out there in endless space, then, surely, Zero 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.  And if you reflect upon it deeply, that would make out Zero  and lnfinity  to be two sides of the same un-graspable coin.

By the same logic, you might say the Sanskrit “ananthaha” and “shunyah” might seem antonymous but in reality they mean the same thing. Hailing God Almighty as “Lord Infinity” is hence no different from hailing Him “Lord Zero”.

--------_----------_----------_----------
Received thru WhatsApp...