SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 81 - sarva-Sastra-bhRtAm varah.

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SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 81 - sarva-Sastra-bhRtAm-varah.

 

765. sarva-Sastra-bhRtAm-varah – The Best among those warriors who are

armed with all weapons.

 

Om sarva-Sastra-bhRtAm-varAya namah.

 

The relevant roots for this nAma are (SrI satya devo vAsishTha):

 

- Sas – himsAyAm – to cut up, to destroy; based on the pANini

sUtra 3.2.182 – dAmnI Sasa yu yuja ….karaNe (shTran), whereby the root

Sas with the affix shTran gets the sense of instrument. Thus, the word

Sastra gets the meaning “a weapon”.

- bhR – dhAraNa poshaNayoh – to hold, to support; bhRt means One Who

holds.

- vR – varaNe – to choose. VarItum arhah varah – One Who is fit to be

chosen is varah.

 

So the nAma means “He Who is Best among all those who hold or carry

weapons”. – sarveshAm Sastra-bhRtAm madhye varah – SreshThah.

 

a) SrI BhaTTar’s vyAkhyAnam is that He has the nAma indicating that He

was the foremost among the wielders of weapons in His fight against the

asura by name naraka, king jarAsandha, and others. SrI bhaTTar

emphasizes that it was child’s play for the Lord during His

incarnations to wield these weapons against His enemies:

 

manushya dharma leelasya leelA sA jagat-pateh |

astrANyaneka rUpANi yad arAtishu mu’ncati || (vishNu purANa

5.22.14)

 

“For the Lord of the world Who was diverting Himself with the

activities of the human beings it was mere play to discharge different

kinds of weapons against His enemies”.

 

SrI ananta kRshNa SAstry gives the support from bhagavad gItA 10.31:

 

pavanah pavatAm asmi rAmah Sastra-bhRtAm aham |

jhashANAm makaraS-cAsmi srotasAm asmi jAhnavI || (gItA 10.31)

 

“Of moving things, I am the wind. Of those who bear weapons, I am

rAma. Of fishes, I am makara, and of rivers, I am ga’ngA”.

 

SrI cinmayAnanda points out that bhagavAn is the “Best” among those Who

wield weapons, because He uses them to bring about “constructive

destruction”, as opposed to other weapon-wielders who bring about

“destructive destruction”. His words are: “The Lord never uses His

weapon of annihilation indiscriminately – for He is ever just . It is

also significant that all destructions in nature are always

‘constructive destructions’; therefore, the Lord’s Discus is itself

called ‘the auspicious vision’ – su-darSana. In the maturity of one’s

evolution when one becomes fit for one’s own inner unfoldment, slowly

but irresistibly, the seeker can ever detect a secret hand that

diligently cuts off all this connections with the outer world, and

compels him to lean more and more on the higher. Our purANic

literature is replete with instances, and, without exception, in all of

them SrI nArAyaNa is described as using His weapon to destroy the

devilish – and to give him moksha! – “the auspicious vision” –

su-darSana. Others, when they employ their weapons of destruction, the

result invariably ends in a sad “destructive destruction”, and

therefore, to invoke Him as the “the best among those who wield

weapons” is most significant for a seeker.”

 

SrI satyadevo vAsishTha asks the rhetorical question as to why He

should be considered the “Best among those with weapons”, and answers

it by pointing out that it is because He has expressed Himself by

equipping every living creature with the appropriate weapon for its own

protection and for its enemies’ destruction. On the one hand, He has

equipped the different creatures with different claw types for those

creatures with claws, the different types of teeth for those that

protect themselves with their teeth from their enemies, with their

fangs, horns, etc. However, it is to be noted that each creature has

only one or two such weapons for its own protection. He is the origin

of all these Sastra-s, and so He is rightly known as the

sarva-Sastra-bhRtAm-varah. He also reserves for Himself the ability to

strike with all the weapons as necessary and when necessary. Thus, the

enormous earthquakes, the great epidemics that strike down masses of

people, etc., are weapons that He wields as He deems necessary on a

mass scale.

 

The dharma cakram writer comments that it is because rAma and kRshNa

used their weapons for the destruction of evil and for the protection

of the good, that they were SreshTha-s or vara-s among wielders of

weapons. Those that used their weapons for committing atrocities only

ended up being ruined. The lesson to take from this in these modern

days of invention of more and more technologically advanced weaponry,

is that they should be used for the good of mankind, and not for their

destruction.

 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

 

 

 

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