Sri Vishnu, Sri Vishnu, Sri Vishnu

Srimad Bhagavatam (3.28.25):

“A seer should meditate upon the deep lake of Vishnu’s navel, hidden within His vast abdomen, which contains the multitude of worlds. From that sacred lake the cosmic lotus rises up, the seat where the creator Brahma sits, a lotus holding within itself all the realms of creation. One should see the two sides of Vishnu’s broad and beautiful chest, glowing like the finest mountain of emeralds; spotless necklaces cast their pure white radiance across it, while the bright Srivatsa mark, curling clockwise upon His right side, shines like another ornament formed entirely of light.”

Sridhar Swami, the ancient commentator on Bhagavatam wrote: 

“The Lord’s abdomen is described as a hidden chamber because it is the resting place and foundation of all the worlds within creation.Within that hidden chamber there is a lake in the region of His navel, and in that lake is the seat of the creator, the lotus upon which Brahma appears. That lotus contains the whole of the material universe. The Lord’s chest has the deep green brilliance of the finest emeralds. And the rays shining from His spotless necklaces spread a pure white light across His chest so that its natural emerald radiance appears softened and luminous — His form displays both a depth of colour and a gentle, luminous beauty.”

Srimad Bhagavatam (3.28.26):

“Upon the broad chest of the Supreme Lord, the Goddess Maha-Lakshmi awaits Him on the left side. The sight of Vishnu’s beautiful form fills her mind and her eyes with sublime happiness. A seer will see Hari’s graceful neck, shining underneath the Kaustubha jewel. In the vision of the sages, that priceless gem receives its beauty from Him, for His divine form adorns the jewel more than the jewel could ever adorn Him.”

Sridhar Swami notes: 

“The Lord’s chest is the dwelling place of Goddess Maha-Lakshmi. Because she resides there, His chest shines with her beauty that brings peace and delight to those who meditate upon Him and Her. The Kaustubha jewel adorns Him, but the ornament does not create the Lord’s beauty; rather, the jewel becomes more beautiful since it rests on His divine form.“

Srimad Bhagavatam (3.28.27):

“One should meditate on the Lord’s four powerful arms, upon which the guardians of the worlds depend. Vishnu’s radiant armlets appear to have been polished to even greater brilliance by the revolving of Mount Mandara, when Sri Vishnu’s extraordinary heroic strength was revealed during the churning of the ocean by the gods and demons. From those mighty arms, His devoted servants receive the authority and strength to protect the worlds. One should also behold His Sudarshana discus, with its thousand spokes and unbearable radiance, as well as His beautiful conch resting in His lotus hand like a regal swan upon a lotus.”

Sri Jiva Goswami, in his commentary to Bhagavatam, wrote:

“In regard to the mention of ‘Mount Mandara,’ the sole intention is to indicate the Lord’s heroic strength. The passage is not describing the actual polishing of Vishnu’s armlets, because their brilliance is an eternally established truth. Those armlets are nitya-siddha opulences of His divine form and did not acquire their ‘polish’ through contact with an external object such as Mount Mandara. Therefore, the directly expressed literal meaning must be completely set aside: tasmad atyanta-tiraskrita-vacya evayam dhvanih. The intended meaning [in this passage of Srimad Bhagavatam] is conveyed through poetic imagination, or imaginative supposition: utprekshaya gamyate. The image of Mount Mandara polishing the Lord’s armlets is not meant to describe something that literally occurred. It is a poetic construction whose purpose is to reveal the extraordinary heroic strength of the Lord’s arms.”

Srimad Bhagavatam (3.28.28):

“One should first meditate upon Kaumodaki, the Lord’s mace. Then Vishnu’s garland resounding with the humming songs of swarms of bees, intoxicated by the honey of nearness to their Lord. The flawless Kaustubha jewel rests upon His chest, near His heart. Untouched in its perfect nature by the impurities of material existence, the jewel shines eternally with the divine principle of love that always exists within the jiva soul.”

The Kaustubha jewel is not a material object worn by the Lord as a physical ornament. Sri Jiva Goswami explains that this “jewel” is a manifestation of Vishnu, Maha-purusha Himself. Kaustubha did not come into existence at some moment in time; it is a distinct manifestation of the Lord’s eternal spiritual presence.

Sri Jiva Goswami writes:

evam tasya bhushananam api para-brahmatve tad-ashrayasya tasya kaimutyam anitam

“If His ornaments are Para Brahman directly, what may be said of the greatness of the Supreme Lord who is their shelter?”

‘Kaustubha is not an object with a symbolic meaning, it is a body of transcendental consciousness. It belongs to the transcendental reality of Bhagavan and is itself a form of the Lord’s spiritual being, Para Brahman. Since it is a manifestation of the Maha-purusha who exists beyond material nature, it is entirely different in its own nature from everything that has been created, everything that undergoes transformations and then decays.”

Sri Jiva Goswami next explains the eternal relation between this softly glowing gem and the jiva souls — the living beings like us — the jiva-tattva. He writes:

jivasya tattvam maha-samasti-rupasya tasyavirbhavaspadam

“It is the resting place in which jiva-tattva is eternally manifest as the totality of all souls.”

The countless jivas do not lose their individual identities when they are merged within this collective reality. Rather, the idea is that the scripture teaches that all jivas belong eternally to the one spiritual category, the jiva-tattva.

Visvanatha Chakravarti makes this image more explicit:

kaustubhasyaivanantah kiranah jivah iti bhavah

“The intended meaning is that the jivas are the innumerable rays of the Kaustubha gem.”

Kaustubha signifies jiva-tattva as a collective, a unity. Its countless self-effulgent rays represent the countless individual souls. The Kaustubha gem is the shelter of the totality of the jiva souls; and Sri Jiva Goswami advised us Kaustubha is a direct manifestation of Maha-purusha Himself. Indeed, in the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna says: 

mattah parataram nanyat kincid asti dhananjaya

mayi sarvam idam protam sutre mani-gana iva

“There is nothing whatsoever above Me, everything rests upon Me like clusters of jewels strung upon a thread.”