Sanandana

Sanandana · sa-nandana, “he who is full of joy”

Vaṭa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Vaṭa. Yoga has other meanings too: see all meanings of Yoga. Yoganidrā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Yoganidrā.

Sanandana is one of the mind-born sons (mānasa-putras) of Brahmā, pure in mind, who dwells with Sanaka and the others in Janoloka, high above the earth. The Brahma Purāṇa names him second, after Sanaka, both when it tells the lokas and when it tells of the siddha-yogīs who meditate on Śrī Kṛshṇa.

In the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa he is Sananda, also called Sanandana, the second of the four Kumāras born from Brahmā’s mind, Sanaka, Sananda, Sanātana and Sanatkumāra. His name, with Sanaka’s, means ānanda, for he was ever in the bliss of perfect bhakti. He did not take up household life, but went with his brothers to do tapas to Śrī Kṛshṇa. Durgā counts him among the foremost bhaktas of Śrī Kṛshṇa, and he speaks in the sabhā of King Suyajña and in Śukra‘s sabhā when Brahmā asks for Tārā‘s return.

In Janoloka

The munis ask Lomaharshaṇa to tell them of the lokas above the earth, and the Sūta gives their measures. One crore yojanas above Dhruvaloka is Maharloka, where beings who live till the end of the kalpa dwell. Two crore yojanas above that is Janoloka, the place of Sanaka, Sanandana and the others, the pure mind-born sons of Brahmā. Eight crore yojanas above Janoloka is Tapoloka, the home of the bodiless devas called the Vairājas, and above it shines Satyaloka, the Brahmaloka.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 23

Meditating on Śrī Kṛshṇa

Vyāsa tells the munis how Akrūra, taking Balarāma and Kṛshṇa to Mathurā, stopped at midday on the bank of the Yamunā to perform his daily rite. In the water he had darśana of Balarāma as Śesha with a thousand hoods, and in his lap Śrī Kṛshṇa: dark as a rain-cloud, four-armed, bearing the cakra and his other divine weapons, in yellow garments, the Śrīvatsa on his chest, crowned and shining, the very form of bliss. He is the one, Vyāsa says, on whom the siddha-yogīs Sanaka, Sanandana and the others, filled with puṇya, meditate in their minds with their gaze fixed on the tip of the nose.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 192

Per Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa

Sauti tells Śaunaka the Brahma Khaṇḍa at Naimisha; in the later Khaṇḍas Nārāyaṇa Maharshi tells Nārada.

Son of Brahmā

From Brahmā‘s mind came four sons, Sanaka, Sananda, Sanātana and Sanatkumāra, five years old in appearance and blazing with brahma-varcas. Told by Brahmā to create, they did not listen, and went to the forests to do tapas to Śrī Kṛshṇa. Sauti explains that the words sanaka and sananda both mean ānanda (bliss): because these boys, full of perfect bhakti, were always in ānanda, they were named Sanaka and Sananda. Haṃsa, Yati, Āraṇi, Voḍhu, Pañcaśikha, Apāntaratama, and Sanaka, Sanandana and the others are the sons of Brahmā who did not take up household life; all the others obeyed their father and had offspring. Brahmā himself, telling Nārada he would go to Goloka to serve Śrī Kṛshṇa, names Sananda among his tapasvin sons. Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Rādhā that Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana and Sanatkumāra are siddhas, mind-born sons of Brahmā, five years old and naked.

Source: Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 8, 12, 22, 24; Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 30, 35

In Suyajña’s sabhā

In the account of King Suyajña, which Mahādeva tells Devī Pārvatī, Sananda is among the ṛshis who followed the brāhmaṇa who left Suyajña’s sabhā, to stop him. When the ṛshis then told the king the kinds of kṛtaghna and their narakas, Sanandana said: one who does puṇya-karmas and then speaks of them to increase his own fame is also a kṛtaghna. He stays three yugas in the naraka Taptasūrmi suffering its torments; then he is born a frog for five births and for three births as another creature; then he becomes mute, poor and greatly diseased; after that he becomes pure.

Source: Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapters 50–51

In Śukra’s sabhā

When Brahmā went to Śukra‘s sabhā to ask for the return of Tārā to Bṛhaspati, the four Kumāras pleaded in turn. Sanandana said: “Śukra, Śrī Kṛshṇa Paramātmā, who is higher than Prakṛti, is your ishṭadevatā. You are a Vaishṇava; your guru is a Vaishṇava. Who could conquer you?”

Source: Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 61

Among the foremost bhaktas

Source: Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapters 34, 63; Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 21

In the great assemblies

  • Sanaka, Sananda and the others, brāhmaṇa boys five years old and of great brahma-tejas, came to the house of the brāhmaṇa who was raising the son of the gopikā Kalāvatī, and the brāhmaṇa honoured them with madhuparka, bows, fruits and roots (Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 21).
  • Sananda came with his disciples to Pārvatī Devī’s Puṇyaka vrata, and was among the brāhmaṇas who came to Lakshmī on the shore of the Kshīra Samudra (Gaṇeśa Khaṇḍa, Chapters 6, 23).
  • Yaśodā names Sanandana among the maharshis when she asks Garga which of them he is (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13).
  • When the devas came to the rāsa, Brahmā came on a golden chariot with Bhāratī Devī, served on his left by the Saptarshis and on his right by Sanaka, Sanandana and the rest (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 28).
  • He was among the munis who came to Brahmā and bowed to him in the account of Mohinī‘s śāpa, and among the munis in Śiva‘s retinue whom Himavān saw at the Akshaya-vaṭa (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 33, 38).
  • Sanaka and Sananda came to Kaṃsa‘s yajña in Mathurā for its conducting (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 64).
  • He was among the ṛshis who came to see Śrī Kṛshṇa at Mathurā and to Vasudeva‘s āśrama for Śrī Kṛshṇa’s upanayana, and with Sanaka, Sanātana and Sanatkumāra he came to Dvārakā (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 87, 99, 104).
  • Rādhā teaches Uddhava that the four, Sanaka, Sananda, Sanātana and Sanatkumāra, are long-lived by the contemplation of Hari, and that those who remember them gain hari-bhakti (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 96).

Source: Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 21; Gaṇeśa Khaṇḍa, Chapters 6, 23; Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 13, 28, 33, 38, 64, 87, 96, 99, 104

Sources

  • Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 23, 192
  • Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 8, 12, 21–22, 24; Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapters 34, 50–51, 61, 63; Gaṇeśa Khaṇḍa, Chapters 6, 23; Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 13, 21, 28, 30, 33, 35, 38, 64, 87, 96, 99, 104