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

From the Bhakti List Archives

Narasimhan Krishnamachari • January 13, 2003 


  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 bhAradvAjÂ’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 vAsishThaÂ’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 bhagavAnÂ’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
personÂ’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 BhaTTarÂ’s scheme of interpretation.
  
-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan


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