SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 83 - durAri-hA.

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SrI vishNU sahasra nAmam - Slokam 83 - durAri-hA.

 

787. durAri-hA – a) The Dispeller of the evil-minded enemies.

b) The Dispeller of evil thoughts from the minds of the devotees.

 

Om durArighne namah.

 

This is the first of the series of nAma-s that are interpreted by SrI

BhaTTar in the context of bhagavAn’s Buddha incarnation.

 

The word is made up of dur + A + ari + hA. dur and A are upasarga-s.

dur here means bad. A stands for samanta – complete, entire ( A

samantAt – SrI vAsishTha); ari refers to foe, and hA stands for

destroying or killing, derived from the root han – to kill, to destroy.

SrI vAsishTha explains the term durArih as meaning “one who causes

pain and misery from all sides” – duhkham samantAt arpayati prApayati

iti durArih. The nAma durAri-hAstands for “He Who destroys the

durAri-s” – durArih tAn hanti iti durAri-hA.

 

a) SrI BhaTTar’s anubhavam is that bhagavAn uses different means to get

rid of the evil-minded asura-s. One of them is to make them weak by

turning them away from the veda-s. He gives a quote from vishNu

purANam:

 

mAyA mohena te daityAh prakAraih bahubhih sadA |

vyutthApitA yathA naishAm trayIm kaScit arocayat ||

hatASca te’surA devaih san-mArga paripanthinah || (vishNu purA.

3.18.34)

 

“By His powerful skill, He confounded in several ways their minds, and

led them astray, as a result of which there was no one amongst them who

had a liking for the veda-s. They became averse to going in the right

path, and they were easily disposed of by the gods”.

 

To understand the significance of the above, it should be kept in mind

that even the daitya-s or asuras will have the good effects of

practicing the veda-s, and their power will correspondingly increase.

And the asura-s use this power to cause misery to His devotees. This

is illustrated by the might of rAvaNa, who has accumulated enormous

powers by the practice of austerities, and then used it to create

terror among the deva-s. When the asura-s use these acquired powers to

perpetrate evil further, in the interests of protection of the world,

bhagavAn thinks of ways to diminish this power of the asura-s. It is

in this context that He decides to take some deceitful incarnations so

as to mislead the evil-doers, and steer them away from the practice of

the veda-s etc., so that they do not keep increasing their powers.

This is described in SrI vishNu purANam 3.17, where the deva-s who have

been defeated by the asura-s come and seek the help of bhagavAn, and

after listening to them, bhagavAn shows them a deceptive form, and

responds to them as follows:

 

mAyA mohao’yam akhilAn daityAnstAn mohayishyati |

tato vadhyA bhavishyanti veda mArha bahishkRtAh || (VP 3.17.42)

 

sthitou sthitasya me vadhyA yAvantah paripanthinah |

brahmaNo ye’dhikArasya devadaityAdikAh surAh || (VP 3.17.43)

 

“This deceptive form of Mine shall wholly beguile the daitya-s, so

that, being led astray from the path of the veda-s, they may be put to

death, for be they gods, demons, or others, those who are opposed to

the authority of the veda-s, shall perish by My might, which is

exercised for the protection of the world”. SrI BhaTTar explicitly

refers to the Buddha incarnation in the above context in his

interpretation of the nAma-s 787 to 810 – idam daurlathyam aprapipsu

pApavishaye prayacchan budddhAvatAram niyacchati – durAri-hA.

 

SrI v.v. rAmAnujan refers us to tiruvAimozhi 5.10.4:

.

kaLLa vEDattaik koNDu pOyp purampukkavARum, kalandu aSurarai

uLLam pEdam SeidiTTi uyir uNDa uPAya’ngaLum….

 

“Your spreading anti-vedic religions, say, as Buddha, your contriving

to seduce asura-s at the time of distribution of nectar as Mohini,

…These melt my heart. Why do you do all this, My Lord?”.

 

This concept of bhagavAn creating mAyA Sastra and other ways to milead

the asura-s is also mentioned in svAmi deSikan’s dayA Satakam 47:

“mAyA SastrANyapi damayitum tvat-prapanna-pratIpAn” – to control the

enemies of Your devotees, You create the mAyA SAstra-s also. SrI

rAdhAkRshNa SAstri gives reference to the kaushItakI upanishad, which

also reveals this same truth: “esha u evainam asAdhu karma kArayati

tam yamadho ninIshate” (3.9) - He makes them deviate from the good and

proper karma-s, and makes them perish in the process.

 

b) SrI satyadevo vAsishTha gives a different anubhavam. He takes the

term durAri to refer to the bad aspects of our intellect, and gives the

interpretation that the nAma means “One Who destroys the negative

aspects in our mind when we resort to Him” – dur-matih tAm hanit iti

durAri-hA. He indicates that this is the worship we do through the

mantra “tat savitur vareNyam bhargo devasya dhImahi dhiyo yo nah

pracodayAt”. SrI cinmayAnanda gives a similar explanation – bhagavAn

is called durAri-hA because, out of His compassion, He destroys the

Asuric tendencies in us and redeems us from its sad consequences, when

we invoke Him.

 

SrI kRshNa datta bhAradvAj gives a different derivation for the nAma,

even though the meaning is the same – He Who destroys the enemies who

make a mockery of the dharma mArga. He uses the root dula – utkshepe –

to shake to and fro, and gives the derivation – dolyate utkshipyate

dharma mArgo yaih te dulAh; delA eva durAh; te ca arayah iti durArayah;

tAn hanti iti durAri-hA – He destroys those who flout the dharma mArga

and who are His enemies.

 

SrI baladeva vidyA bhUshaN interprets the nAma as referring to bhagavAn

being the One Who destroys the likes of kAma etc. that represent the

great the enemies in our desire to reach Him – dushTArim pratigacchanti

iti durAriNah kAmAdayah, tAn hatavAn iti tatra sAhAyyakAritvAt na

atikashTam iti artha – With His help, it is not at all difficult to

overcome the enemies such as kAma, in our path to Him.

 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

 

 

 

 

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