Narayana Suktha.................Brief introduction

By way of a brief introduction :....................

The Narayana Suktam unfortunately is not as well documented or as well
criticalklytranslated as the Purusha Suktam, so I have not been able to consult asmany sources on this to check my translations and in some cases, interpretations. I have come across Raymundo Panikkar's translation of some verses, and these are attributed to the Mahanarayana Upanishad. So this is definitely not a Vedic hymn, but a later Upanishadic composition.

Contrastingly some Vishnu Suktam hymns are found in Sama, Atharva and Yajus (Vajasaneyi) samhitas, and other parts of the Vishnu Suktam in the Tattiriya Samhita of the Yajur Veda alone. The Purusha Suktam of course, is
undeniably early vedic, being found in the Rg Veda itself.

The Narayana Suktam is not cosmogonic on a grand scale like the Purusha
Suktam. The Narayana of this suktam does not "atyatishtad dashaangulam".. instead, he is the most personal God, minutest of the minute ( a grand celebration of aNimaa -atomicity ).

Beginnning with the invocation of Sriman Narayana as "Vishvam" in the
first verse, the Narayana Suktam proceeds to "shrink" him, until he is minutest of the minute. " Like a lotus bud, the heart is suspended from sinews, and there is a smallest cavity in it. In the middle of that is the world-illuminating great flame, that goes in all directions. That flame-
god, first eater, who gives all the world its food, eternal,omniscient.... In the middle of that flame is HE, who is Brahma, Shiva, Hari, Indra, Greatest and Endless"

The Narayana Suktam is not a cosmogonical riddle like the Purusha Suktam
is, not a celebration of "by sacrifice the Gods sacrificed to sacrifice"... It is a worshipful chant of adoration, and in citing comparisons in the hope of reinforcing its message, I have chosen
similar sources.. what little I know of the sweet thamizh of the Alwars,
and sources from Mahomahopadhyaya M. V. Ramanujacharyar's translation of the Mahabharata (the Kumbakonam edition.) From the Mahabharatha, two sections are very relevant here, the Bhagavad Gita and the Vishnu Sahasranama. The latter especially has been cited extensively both in its crystalline and scholarly Shankara Bhashyam and the more mystand therefore indirect Bhattar Bhashyam. I would welcome more citations from the readers,
depending on how this hymn speaks to you.

I have followed the same format as I followed for the Purusha Suktam here,
breaking down the verses into words and following the translation with comments and last, a rendering ( I dare not call THAT a translation ) into free verse.



Courtsey.......V .Sundar