Vyuha

Vyūha (Sanskrit: व्यूह) means - 'to arrange troops in a battle array (formation)', 'to arrange, put or place in order, to dispose, separate, divide, alter, transpose, disarrange, resolve (vowels syllables etc.)'. Its root is व्यः which means - a 'cover' or 'veil'. This word also refers to emanation and to the manifest power of Lord Vishnu. It has different meanings depending on the doctrine of the treatise and the context, such as revealing of the knowledge of Vedas, manifestation of Vishnu or Buddha, and the war formations of Mahabharata.

In the Upanishads the word vyuha occurs once, it appears in śloka 16 of the Isha Upanishad :-

In this passage vyūha means – 'remove' (to a distance thy rays). The sage declares that the Truth is concealed in the Vedas, covered by a golden lid or vesselBadarayana, by declaring – उत्पत्त्यसम्भवात् (Owing to the impossibility of origin) - Brahma Sutras (II.ii.42) refutes the Bhagavata view that the Chatur-vyūha forms originate successively from Vasudeva, for any origin for the soul is impossible, an implement cannot originate from its agent who wields it. Whereas in a vyūha an army re-sets its different able warriors and weaponry into a specific arrangement as per battle demands, the Supreme Being re-sets the contents of consciousness through yogamaya with each formation concealing yet another formation. The five layers of matter (prakrti) that constitute the human body are the five sheaths (panchakosa), one moves inwards from the visible layers through more refined invisible layers in search of own true self.

The Pāñcarātra Āgama, which are based on Ekāyana recension of the Śukla Yajuveda, is later than the Vedas but earlier than the Mahabharata, the main āgamas are- the Vaiśnava (worship of Vishnu), the Śaiva (worship of Shiva) and the Śākta (worship of Devi or Shakti) āgamas; all āgamas are elaborate systems of Vedic knowledge. According to Vedanta Desika, the Pāñcarātra āgama teaches the five-fold daily religious duty consisting of – abhigamana, upādāna, ijyā, svādhyāya and yoga, the name of this āgama is derived on account of its description of the five-fold manifestation of the Supreme Being viz, para (supreme or the transcendental form), vyūha (formation or manifestation as the four vyūha), vibhava (reincarnation or descent to earth as avtāra), arcā (the visible image of God) and antaryāmi (the cosmic form of God as existing everywhere and in everything). Lakshmi accompanies Vishnu in His vyūha manifestation which is four-fold (Chatur-vyūha) – Vāsudeva (as the creator), Samkarśana (as the sustainer), Pradyumna (as destroyer - dissolution of the universe) and Aniruddha (as promulgator of spiritual knowledge). This is the Vaiśnava doctrine of Vyūha or the doctrine of formation.

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