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

SrI Samkara’s interpretation is: “sarva purushArtha rUpatvAt Brahmaiva
vicAryam iti Brahma kim” – As Brahman is the supreme goal among all aims of
life, He is to be inquired after, and so is called kim. He refers us to the first
Slokam of chapter8 of Bhagavad gItA, where arjuna precisely starts with this
question:
kim tad brahma kim adhyAtmam kim karma purushottama |
adhibhUtam ca kim proktam adhidaivam kim ucyate ||
223
(gItA 8.1)
“What is that Brahman? What is adhyAtma? What is karma? What is said to
be adhibhUta?
O Supreme Person, who is said to be adhidaiva?”
SrI satyadevo vAsishTha gives similar passages from the Rg veda, which ask
similar rhetorical questions about Brahman:
1. ambhah kim AsIt gahanam gabhIram (10-129-1) - Was water there,
unfathomed and deep?
2. kutah AjAtA kuta iyam visRshTih (10-129-6) – Whence was it born, and
whence comes this creation?
3. yo’syAdhyakshah parame vyoman (10-129-7) – (He) whose eye controls
this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows
not.
Thus, He is called “kim - What” because He is the Ultimate answer to all the
questions.
b) SrI kRshNa datta bhAradvAj uses the root ku~ng – Sabde – to sound, and
the uNAdi sutra kAyater dimih (siddhAnta kaumudi, uNAdisutra 600) to derive
the word kim, and gives the definition – kUyate – AhUyate svajanaih
bhajamAnaih iti kim – He Whose praise is sung by His devotees is kim.
c) SrI aNNa’ngarAcArya gives the interpretation that this nAma means that
He is One who is worth being sought after; One Who is described as
sadagopan.org