sahasrAkSa – the thousand eyed one is used to describe the puruSa in puruSa sUktam by nArAyaNa RSi.
This high praise was conferred upon indra by Gautama Maharshi, inviting the criticism of durvAsa who said that this made indra arrogant. (please see my articles on Indra, Gauthama, Durvasa and the Devas, use the right side bar. Popular stories link it to a curse, but that is less likely!)
Vishnu‘s eyes have been compared to lotuses and lakes and to the sun and moon. But I am left with the impression of a total of two eyes.
Siva has 3 eyes. The third is in the forehead, a gnyAna nEtra with which he is aware of everything and the flames from which killed madana Kama the person-form of desire.
It is possible to compute that caturmukha Brahma has 4*2=8 eyes.
I remember reading that the god of water, Varuna was also once described as sahasrAkSa, with these thousand eyes he looked after the whole world.
Chanakya referred to the thousand eyes of Indra as his many spies.
Sukracharya has but one eye and lost one courtesy vAmana.
It is physical attributes/descriptions like this that clash in our heads when we try to apply Vishnu Sahasranamam to other devas.
But as far as the bulk of the abstract attributes they apply easily to any of our dEvAs. And some of them appear to apply to allAh as well, if the translation I saw is correct. I don’t know arabic. Matching Meanings : The names of Allah and the names of Vishnu, S’iva and Devi are all attributes of Divinity.
So everyone (who believes in the existence of God) kind of agrees that God is kind and good and helpful, but they don’t agree on God’s gender, name, species and other physical attributes. Almost everyone feels that God should be worshipped, only how often, when and in what way are in doubt.
Deva Bhashas : Sanskrit And Tamil?
Ghosts and Demons or Translation Errors?
Author : Satya Sarada Kandula : All Rights Reserved
