SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 83 - dur-labhah, dur-gamah, dur-gah, dur-AvAsah - Part 3.

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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 83 - dur-labhah, durgamah, dur-gah,

dur-AvAsah - Part 3.

 

Other anubhavam-s:

 

SrI kRshNa datta bhAradvAj gives interpretations that suggest that all

these statements about bhagavAn being difficult to attain, difficult to

know, difficult to access, difficult to retain, etc., all apply to only

those that do not strive with sincerity. His interpretations clearly

bring out this point:

 

- duhkhena labhyo mRduvega ArAdhakaih iti dur-labhah – He is difficult

to attain for those who seek Him only with mild effort

- duhkhena AyAsena gamyate j~nAyayate manta-matimadbhih iti dur-gamah –

He is difficult to know for those who are not smart enough to seek Him

- duhkhena gamyate prApayate a-tIvra samvegaih iti dur-gah – He is not

accessible and impenetrable like one in a fortress for those who are

not excited enough about attaining Him

- duhkhena AvAsyate hRdaye a-samAhitaih iti dur-AvAsah – He is

difficult to retain in heart for those who are not collected and calm

enough in their meditation

 

Thus, SrI kRshNa datta bhAradvAj’s interpretation is that He is a

sulabhan, or easy of access, for a true devotee. He is easy to attain,

easy to retain, easy to access, etc., as far as a sincere devotee is

concerned.

 

dur-labhah:

 

SrI satyadevo vAsishTha gives the anubhavam that even though bhagavAn

is present in everything and everywhere, and in all of us, and is the

force behind our every action, still it is so difficult for us to

appreciate this and even accept this. Given this state of affairs, to

know His svarUpam is next to impossible for most of us. Hence He is

called dur-labhah. SrI vAsishTha points out that this jIva does not

have the ability to know when life will leave this body, and when the

jIva will take the next SarIra, or anything else. He rhetorically asks

the question of how much more difficult it will be to know His true

nature in full, and to attain Him. He observes that even the likes of

sage MarkaNDeya with his long life did not succeed in understanding Him

fully. So SrI vAsishTha’s interpretation is that bhagavAn is called

dur-labhah because He is difficult to attain even for the best of the

sages.

 

dur-gamah:

 

For the nAma dur-gamah, SrI vAsishTha gives the anubhavam that the nAma

refers to bhagavAn’s Eternal Principle that He reflects everywhere in

His creation – namely, that even though He is inside all of us and thus

very near to us, still He is very far for most of us, and so

inaccessible. It is the reflection of this Eternal Principle of

dur-gamatvam that we cannot accompany the jIva with our body when it

departs the body after our death, no one knows exactly what another

person’s thoughts are, etc.

 

784c. SrI baladeva vidyA bhUshaN interprets the nAma dur-gamah as

follows: duh sAdhena upanishad vicAreNa gamyate budhyate iti dur-gamah

– He Who is known through the tedious and difficult process of

inquiring into the upanishads.

 

dur-gah:

 

785c. SrI vAsishTha points out that bhagavAn is ananta or Infinite, and

the success in realizing Him is related to the effort that is put in,

but is never complete. This is the sense of the nAma dur-gah - He Who

is difficult to be accessed in His totality. For humans who are

constrained by the limitations of their antah-karaNa-s (the seat of

thought and feeling, the mind, the thinking faculty, the heart, the

conscience, the soul), He is dur-gah.

 

785d. SrI satya sandha yatirAja gives the interpretation – durgo

duhkham gamayati daityAn prati iti dur-gah – He Who causes pain and

suffering to the evil-minded rAkshasa-s. The root used here is gam –

gatau – to go.

 

785e. SrI baladeva vidyA bhUshaN interpets the nAma dur-gah using the

root gai – Sabde – to sing, and gives the interpretation that the nAma

refers to His being sung though sAma gAnam which is to difficult to

learn, practice and master.

 

dur-AvAsah:

 

786c. dur-AvAsah – AvAsah refers to the place or location of a person.

SrI vAsishTha observes that because He is everywhere and in everything,

it is impossible to precisely say where He is, and so He is called

dur-AvAsah – One Whose place or location is impossible to pinpoint

precisely. He quotes the atharva vedic passage:

 

antariksham utodaram divam yaScakre mUrdhAnam tasmai jyeshThAya

brahmaNe namah | (atharva. 10.7.32)

 

“Reverence to the Supreme Brahman, whose base is earth, whose stomach

is air, and whose head is the sky”.

 

786d. SrI vAsishTha gives an alternate interpretation also – Because

bhagavAn sustains the lives of even the creatures that do not have

access to common needs of life such as air, water, etc., He is called

dur-AvAsah – durgatamapi prANivargam yathAvyavastham duhkham

anubhavantam AvAsyati it dur-AvAsah.

 

To recapitulate, the different anubhavam-s for the four nAma-s above

are:

 

783. dur-labhah:

 

a) He Who can be attained only by single-minded devotion

 

784. dur-gamah:

 

a) He Who is unapproachable in the context of His Effulgence.

b) He Whose True Nature can be known only with difficulty

c) He Who can be known only by the difficult process of enquiry into

the upanishads etc.

 

785. dur-gah:

 

a) He Who is shielded from us like One in a fortress by our avidyA

b) Nor easily realized because of unanticipated obstacles during our

efforts to seek Him

c) He Whose realization is constrained by our own limitations.

d) He Who causes pain and suffering to the evil-minded rAkshasa-s.

e) He Who is praised by the sAma gAnam which is difficult to master.

 

786. dur-AvAsah:

..

a) He Whose place (SrI vaikunTham) is inaccessible to us.

b) Not easily retained in their mind for prolonged intervals even by

yogin-s during meditation

c) He Whose precise location can never be specified because He is

everywhere and in everything.

d) He Who supports the lives of even those creatures which do not have

access to the essentials of life as we know them.

 

It is important to keep in mind the point brought out by SrI kRshNa

datta bhAradvaj in the context of these four nAma-s, namely, that in

the case of those who long for Him, He removes the obstacles, and makes

sure that He is easily accessible. He uses diverse means to get rid of

the enemies or mislead them etc. We will see this aspect in the next

series of nAma-s, 787 to 810 in SrI BhaTTar’s scheme of interpretation.

 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

 

 

 

 

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