Hari

For other uses, see Hari (disambiguation).

Hari (Sanskrit: हरि) is an Avatar, another name of Viṣṇu and Krishna, and appears as the 650th name in the Vishnu sahasranama of Mahabharata. In Sanskrit "hari" sometimes refers to a colour, green, yellow, or fawn-coloured/khaki. It is the colour of the Sun and of Soma. The word Hari is widely used in Dharmic literature covering Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh religions.

Some other related meaning of Hari

1. bearing (adj.) 2. bay 3. tawny 4. an exclamation 4. people 5. sun 6. Lion 7. horse 8. monkey 9. steed

Religious usage

• The word Hari is a particular class of gods under manu tamasa.
• The Harivamsha ("lineage of Hari") is a text in both the Puranic and Itihasa traditions.
• Vaishnavites believe that God (conceived as Vishnu) has form and is without form. Swami Tapasyananda, in his book, Bhakti Schools of Vedanta, reminds readers that Vishnu pervades everything and is not anthropomorphic. Vishnu has no particular material form but can manifest in any form, and is a center of all force, power, will, auspiciousness, goodness, beauty, grace, responsiveness, etc. As Swami Tapasyananda said, "Vishnu is the Indwelling Spirit in all beings and the whole cosmos constitute His body."
• In the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, Hari is a name of both Krishna or Vishnu meaning "he who steals, or takes away", referring to how Krishna takes away all distress and anxieties, and lovingly robs the heart of His devotee. During religious festivals it is a common occurrence to hear people call out Haribol ! Haribol ! meaning "please call out the name Hari", the Hare Krishna mantra contains the name in the vocative.
• According to Adi Sankara's commentary on the Vishnu sahasranama, Hari means "One who destroys samsara", which is the entanglement in the cycle of birth and death, along with ignorance, its cause.
• In the Ravidasi religion it is the holy symbol consisting of the three Gurmukhi letters with the character for "i" being made into a flame. It adorns all Ravidasi temples, known as Gurdehras. In Ravidassia Dharam it is used as "हरि" "ਹਰਿ".
• It is a name of God in Hindu.

Influences

The Avestan cognate is zari, sometimes incorrectly identified as the first part of the name of Zarathustra. The English words "gold" and "yellow" are probably also both cognates of hari. They all derive from the hypothetical Proto-Indo-European root *ghel-, meaning "to shine". Many words in other unrelated languages in Asia are also derived from the word due to the influence of Sanskrit as a language of learning in the region. For example, the word for "daylight" in Indonesian, the word for "day" in Malay and the word for "king" in Tagalog are "hari". It is also a commonly used name in many Indian languages.

See also

• Gauranga
• Hari Nama Keerthanam
• Hari Tuma Haro
• Harikatha
• Hara, a name for Shiva

References

Cited from Sri Vishnu Sahasranama, commentary by Sri Sankaracharya, translated by Swami Tapasyananda ((Ramakrishna Math Publications, Chennai))

External links

• Online Vedic Encyclopedia
• Krishna.com All about Krishna.