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

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Narasimhan Krishnamachari • January 13, 2003 


     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 bhagavAnÂ’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 BhaTTarÂ’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 teÂ’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 mohaoÂ’yam akhilAn daityAnstAn mohayishyati   |
		tato vadhyA bhavishyanti veda mArha bahishkRtAh  ||  (VP 3.17.42)

		sthitou sthitasya me vadhyA yAvantah paripanthinah   |
		brahmaNo yeÂ’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 uPAyaÂ’ngaLumÂ….

“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 deSikanÂ’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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