Text 23
haṁsaḥ suparṇo vaikuṇṭho
dharmo yogeśvaro ’malaḥ
īśvaraḥ puruṣo ’vyaktaḥ
paramātmeti gīyate
haṁsaḥ — the transcendental swan; su-parṇaḥ — whose wings are very beautiful; vaikuṇṭhaḥ — the Lord of the spiritual kingdom; dharmaḥ — the maintainer of religion; yoga-īśvaraḥ — the master of all mystic perfection; amalaḥ — immaculate; īśvaraḥ — the supreme controller; puruṣaḥ — the supreme enjoying male; avyaktaḥ — the unmanifest; parama-ātmā — the Supersoul in the heart of every living being; iti — thus; gīyate — His names are variously chanted.
In Satya-yuga the Lord is glorified by the names Haṁsa, Suparṇa, Vaikuṇṭha, Dharma, Yogeśvara, Amala, Īśvara, Puruṣa, Avyakta and Paramātmā.
The sage Karabhājana Muni is replying to Videharāja Nimi’s questions about the varieties of the Lord’s incarnations. In Satya-yuga the Lord’s color is white, and He wears tree bark and a black deerskin as an ideal meditative brahmacārī. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has explained the Lord’s various names in Satya-yuga as follows. Those who are self-realized know this supreme reality of the Personality of Godhead as Paramātmā. Those souls who are situated in the religious system of varṇāśrama glorify Him as the haṁsa who is transcendental to all the varṇas and āśramas. Persons absorbed in gross matter consider Him to be Suparṇa, “the beautifully winged” basis of the conceptions of cause and effect who flies within the subtle sky of the soul, as described in Chāndogya Upaniṣad. Persons accustomed to wandering within this universe of subtle and gross matter created by the Lord’s illusory potency chant His name Vaikuṇṭha. Persons deprived of the power of transcendental meditation (dhāraṇā), who are thus subject to falling from the path of religion, glorify Him as Dharma, or religion personified. Those who are forced to submit to the illusory modes of material nature and whose minds are uncontrolled and disturbed glorify Him as the most perfectly self-controlled Yogeśvara. Persons tainted by a mixture of the modes of passion and ignorance call Him Amala, or the uncontaminated. Persons devoid of potency call Him Īśvara, and those who consider themselves to be under His shelter chant His glories by the name Uttama Puruṣa. Those who know that this material manifestation is only temporary call Him Avyakta. In this way, in Satya-yuga Lord Vāsudeva appears in various four-armed transcendental forms, and the jīva souls worship Him, each by their own particular process of devotional service. Therefore the Supreme Lord has many different names.