SAHASRANAMA OF VISHNU: 483 of 1,000

AVIJÑĀTAḤ {अविज्ञात:}

Avijñāta, the nāma rolled around in Bhīṣma’s mouth before it made its presence felt and then introduced itself to the audience that stood around the ancient warrior, listening in rapt attention to every word that was issuing forth from him. Bhīṣma’s pause was for a reason – he was being forced to reflect on each of these nāmas – longer and harder than for the earlier ones. He couldn’t simply reel out the names and be done with them could he? – these nāmas had a purpose, a goal, they needed to be eternal etchings on the canvas of Dharma – it should be possible for the reflective mind to meditate upon them, the troubled mind to chant them, the fearful mind to hold onto them for succor and relief from the daily grind of life, and for the Sādhaka on the path to the divine to be able to use them as the bridge to reach the shores of the supreme – therefore, he paused and pondered and chose his words carefully. Meanwhile, the audience held their breath and waited…

Avijñāta – the non-knower? the unknown? Ignorant!? – these are some of the ways this word can be interpreted and Bhīṣma thought about what would make sense contextually, sequentially, and respectfully. He looked at Kṛṣṇa as he had done several times over the course of the 482 nāmas that preceded this nāma. Kṛṣṇa in turn glanced at Arjuna who was standing there with a pained expression, still guilty at having been the cause of Bhīṣma’s current suffering and in that glance was encoded the message behind this nāma – the wheels turned inside Bhīṣma’s head and he understood – his mind went back to the beginning of the great war, the first day when the Kṣetrajña of the Kurukṣetra, delivered arguably the greatest discourse ever on a battlefield, goading the greatest warrior of the times to not back away from living his Dharma and performing his Karmic duty. In the process, the Kṣetrajña unraveled the secret of life – the Kṛṣṇa-Arjuna Saṃvāda that has since been immortalized as the song divine – the Bhagavad-gītā – the answers to many questions were embedded therein.

He is the “non-knower” (a term used by Swami Chinmayananda in his English translation of the Viṣṇu Sahasranāma) in the sense that he has no desire or need for a “sense of agency” nor a desire to take any credit whatsoever or see himself as the “doer” or the perceiver of all things that happen in the world. The individual Jīvātma, imprisoned within himself and through his own agency, thinks that he is the doer, the perceiver, and the enjoyer of all things that happen through and around him – seeing himself as the agent of all things, he goes through a multitude of emotions, desires, likes, and dislikes – happy one moment, sorrowful the next, angry now, calm later, and then angry again. The Jīvātma enveloped by the Pañcakośas, the five sheaths, lives in this state of delusion, veiled from the supreme reality dwelling within, beyond the Pañcakośas and unaffected by their influence. He who thinks that he is the “doer” is the Vijñāta, covered in the sheaths born out of the tendencies and Vāsanās that control his present, influence his past, and inform his future. The in-dwelling being who is beyond all of these influences and tendencies is the Avijñāta – in that sense he is the non-knower as well as the unknown.

Śaṅkara‘s interpretation is on similar lines as the above. As he says, “He is Avijñāta because he is without the attributes of a Jīvā or Vijñāta like the sense of agency and so on.”

Parāsara Battar interprets Avijñāta as the “non-cognizant one” – because “although he sees (cognizes) the many faults of his devotees, he is always ready to forgive them and take them back into his benevolent folds.” Parāsara Battar, the supreme Bhakta quotes his own father, Śri Vatsanka Mishra, more popularly known as the great Śri Koorathalwar: “We call him ‘ignorant’ because we love him so much and he loves us back so much. He deliberately chooses to be ‘ignorant’ of our many faults and remain non-cognizant of all the mistakes we commit; therefore, he is Avijñāta“. Battar also points to Śri Rāma and how he did not really care much about harsh words or abuse directed at him personally: “Though harsh words are used against him, Rāma does not retaliate.”

Sri Narasimhan Kṛṣṇamācāri in volume-2 of his 4-volume translation of the Viṣṇu Sahasranāma cites the following verse from the Bhagavad-gītā where Bhagavān says that “even if a man (outwardly) of evil conduct worships me with one-pointed devotion and Bhakti, then he too must be considered a good person, because he has chosen wisely and acted in the right manner.”

अपि चेत्सुदुराचारो भजते मामनन्यभाक् |
साधुरेव स मन्तव्य: सम्यग्व्यवसितो हि स: ||9-30||^[1]

api chet su-durāchāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk
sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ samyag vyavasito hi saḥ

This is not a license though for people to behave as they please. It is only an assurance that finally such people too will turn the corner and mend their ways if they come into the “Śaraṇ” (Śaraṇāgati) i.e., benevolent protection of Bhagavān.

Sri Radhakrishna Shastri in his Tamizh commentary on the Viṣṇu Sahasranāma speaks of how, when the Jīvātma finally breaks through the Pañcakośas and all the sheaths that veil him/her from the presence of the divine within, then he/she arrives in the presence of the Avijñāta, devoid of all Vijñātas.

This nāma reverses so much of what we take for granted and think are relevant in today’s context. In a world where agency and individuality are seen as fundamental elements of modernism and progress, the path of spirituality leads us in a direction that is at a tangent – in order to progress on this path, the idea of “doership” and I, me, and mine, need to be rejigged completely. Perhaps, both are needed – the former to survive and grow in the world and the latter to log out of it – it is for us to choose…

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 References and further reading:

1. Available at: https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/9/verse/30. Last Accessed: March 29, 2023.