Vishnu Sahasra Naamam-Vol III-RR-edit.pub - Ibiblio

Slokam 72
mha³mae mhakmaR mhateja mhaerg>,
mha³tumRhayJva mhay}ae mhahiv>. 72.
mahAkramO mahAkarmA mahAtejA mahOragah |
mahAkratur mahAyajvA mahAyaj~nO mahAhavih ||
[ PLEASE ADD PRANAVAM BEFORE EACH NAAMA ]
SrI BhaTTar enjoys bhagavAn's greatness in terms of His unbounded
vAtsalyam towards His devotees in the next few nAma-s. The interpretation of
SrI BhaTTar is in terms of His relation with His devotees, how He makes it
easy for the worshipper to worship Him, etc.
nAma 676. mha³m> mahA mahA-kramah
mahA kramah
a) He Who provides easy step-by-step access for the elevation of His devotee.
b) He of the three great strides (in His tri-vikrama incarnation).
c) He Whose strides are great in that He reaches everything fasterthan
anyone else.
d) He Whose Feet are great (to surrender).
The word kramam refers to step or pace (of the feet), and also to a
systematic orgradual approach. SrI Samkara uses the first meaning to explain
thenAma in terms of His tri-vikrama incarnation, and SrI BhaTTar uses the
second meaning and interprets the nAma in terms of bhagavAn's making it easy
for devotees to reach Him through gradual steps.
a) Since bhagavAn provides a systematic approach to elevate us who are at the
bottom of the pit of samsAra from our lowly levels to His level, He is called
mahA-kramah. SrI BhaTTar provides a very lucid analogy to make this point
clear. Just as a mother starts feeding breast milk to the child first for easy
digestion, and then slowly starts feeding cow's milk, then other fluids, and
then solid food, so also bhagavAn provides gradual steps to His devotees to
reach Him. At first, He removes from our mind the dislike against Him; then
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