पृष्ठम्:गोपालसहस्रनामस्तोत्रम्.pdf/७

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पुटमेतत् सुपुष्टितम्

EDITORIAL PREFACE

The Gopālasahasranāma (hereafter abbreviated toG S N is a devotional poem in excelsis the thousand divine names of Gopāla or Lord Kŗşņa in 193 verses (Introductory stanzas 23, meditative hymns 2, sahasranāma 142 and phalaśruti 26) composed in simple anuşțub metre. It professes to form part of the संमोहनतन्त्रम् or संमोहन - संहिता excerpted from the रुद्रयामल-work. It is also called गोपालसहस्रनामस्तवः, सहस्रनामस स्तोत्रम्, राधिकानाथसहस्रनाम, जगत्कल्याणसंहिता and so on. But the proper title of the poem is GSN, and the colophon at the end of Ms. No. D. 8293 (Catalogus Cotalogorum, Madras) reads as follows:

इति श्रीसंमोहनतन्त्रे पार्वतीपरमेश्वरसंवादे गोपालसहस्रनाम समाप्तम् ।

 Lord Śaṁkara narrates the poem to Goddess Parvati. It is said in GSN (Vs. 21) that originally Lord कृष्ण communicated the poem to God शिव and then to राधा who passed it on, in turn to Sage Nārada. From him the devotees of विष्णु would come to know GSN in the Kali age, since it could pave the path for universal welfare and immortality.

The idea that a critical edition of GSN must be brought out was first suggested to me in 1978 by Professor Dr. K. Satchidananda Murthy (former Vice-chancellor, S. V. University and Chairman, S. P. Samiti of Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Tirupati), He wanted us to prepare an authentic version of the popular Kŗşņaite devotional poem based on reliable Mss., with a lucid commentary on the critically constituted text. Accordingly Professor Dr. N. S. R. Tatacharya of K.S. Vidyapeetha, an erudite scholar in four Sāstras, wrote a simple commentary entitled, भगवदगुणरत्नपेटिका (lit. the box containing gems in the form of the Lord's qualities), based on the Rāmānuja's school of philosophical thought. He interpreted the narratives, allusions. concepts, epithets, contained in GSN by tracing their sources to the रामायण, महाभारत, भगवदगीता, and the Puranas. He would strike a balance between the subject matter and the style of the text in