"raNa-priyah:" -- The Lord of All Weapons of Mass Destruction

[Guest guest]

My dear friends in Kuwait,

 

In a few days from now, we will probably witness the first War of the

new millennium, the first of the 21st century. One country will

employ "weapons of mass destruction" in order to disarm another of

its own stockpiles of the same, possession of which the latter denies

again and again. On the sands of the desolate Kuwaiti desert, on the

lonely road to Baghdad, a War will be fought to bring everlasting

Peace upon earth. So, at least, it is believed...

 

In these days of ours filled as they are constantly with fearful

stories and scenarios of the imminent War, let us for a moment give

our anxious minds some rest and recreation. Although it is only

altogether natural for our minds to keep returning to dwell upon the

prospects of a war -- a war that will be fought virtually upon our

doorsteps -- still I think we should make a conscious effort to

divert our minds away from the grim portents surrounding us.

 

Therefore, let us take up a rather unusual "nAmA" from the

Vishnu-Sahasranamam today for discussion. It is a "nAma" that may

sound actually very warlike to us. In fact, this particular 'nAma' is

a very potent mantra designed to drive away even the darkest

war-phobia lurking in our hearts.

 

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One of the rarest but most beautiful names of God we find in the 'Sri

Vishnu-Sahasranamam' is the 'nAmA' "raNa-priyah:". The word "raNa" in

Sanskrit means "war", "battle", "engagement", "confrontation"... In

Indian history, as we all know, the great Rajput Warrior-Kings of

Rajasthan, liked to prefix their names with this very word "rANA"

("Rana" Pratap Singh, for example) just to distinguish themselves as

extraordinary men of arms.

 

Our great Lord, EmperumAn, is more than a mere 'Rana'. He is a

"raNa-priyah:" -- a great Warrior who not only just goes to War but

One who looks forward to it with a great deal of relish. He loves to

lead in battle. He likes to stand first, and ahead of the rank and

file of all the greatest armies in the world...

 

Our Lord Vishnu is so proud of being a Warrior that he is known to be

extremely pleased when someone lavishes praise on Him for his

warrior-qualities. Like a nostalgic old, retired, battle-scarred

ex-army General, the Lord too beams with pleasure whenever someone

recognizes Him for his martial eminence. And He feels very flattered

when somebody sings paeans to the daring military exploits for which

He became famous on many an avataric battle-field. Which is why in

the 'Vishnu-sahasranamam', in the same breath in which Vishnu is

hailed as "stavapriyah:" i.e. as the Lord who is praise-worthy and

who values praise greatly too -- in the very same breath God is also

said to be a "raNa-priyah:" i.e. He who loves to battle:

 

"stavyah stavapriyah stOtram stUtah stOtA raNapriyah:..."

 

(Sahasranamam stanza#73)

 

It is precisely for the reason that that God is at once both

"raNa-priyan" and "stava-priyan" that the great SriVaishnava

'achAryA', Swami Venkatanathan (Vedanta Desika) composed a short but

bewitchingly beautiful 'stOtrA' in praise of the qualities of the

Lord as Supreme Warrior -- the Lord as He stands today in beauteous

'archA' form as "Vijayaraghava-perUmAl" in the famous temple at

Tirupputtkuzhi, a village near Kanchipuram, India. In this 'stOtra'

or hymn of praise known to us as "paramArtha-stUthi", the Lord is

hailed as "raNa-pungavah:" -- the Valorous and Victorious One in War!

 

It is hence small wonder then that the God of the "Sahasranamam", He

that is said to be a "raNa-priyah:", is very fond of always going

about armed to the teeth (somewhat like the intrepid movie-character,

"Rambo", known to all of us)! Our Lord carries on his person arms and

weapons ("aayudha") of every conceivable (and inconceivable) variety

and calibre! Which is why the 108-versed 'Sahasranamam' too, after

giving out all of the 1000 names of Vishnu, finally concludes the

litany with the crowning catch-all, omnibus "nAma":

 

"sarva-praharaNa-ayudhah:"

 

 

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Sometimes our Lord bears His weapons openly for all the worlds to

see; at other times, when He knows it would be inappropriate to bear

arms, He carries them fully concealed. Little is known to Man as to

where the Lord conceals His great Weapons. None can hope to carry out

a U.N. weapons inspection on our Lord; nor can one hundred George

Bushes Jr. seek to disarm Him.

 

Sometimes these weapons seem to appear in the form of the great and

inscrutable forces of the Cosmos -- Gravity, Time and endless Space,

for example. At other times, they seem concealed inside the

unconquerable forces of Nature -- the far oceans and storms, for

example, or the forest-fires, the volcanoes, the earthquakes and the

virulent epidemics of this world... everyone one of them more

destructive than any weapon known to Man. No one knows for sure

really where the Lord conceals His 'AyUdhas'. Nevertheless this

Warrior, this "raNa-priyan", is known to make sure that at all times

His armoury is close at hand, ever ready and never beyond an instant

away from drawing, deploying and striking.

 

The arsenals at the command of our Lord are, we might say, both

'conventional' as well as 'non-conventional'. While everyone has a

fair estimate of the potency of the former as they manifest

themselves openly as the great forces of Nature, it is the latter

type of weaponry that very often completely defies and overwhelms

Man's imagination. For example, once upon a time, the Lord forsook

all of the wonted inventory in His armoury and, instead, took

everyone in the world by awe and surprise by using His fingernails --

a hideous, rampaging weapon-system that dealt out death, terror and

sheer mayhem.

 

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So adept is our Lord with the use of conventional arms that the Lord

and His weapons have become virtually eponymous. In fact, often it

appears as though it is the Weapons He bears upon His person which

give the Lord his unmistakable personality we know him to possess,

and the unique identity of His that all our scriptures commemorate.

Without those weapons we would know Him not. Without them God could

pass by us on the street, perhaps, and we would give him no more

attention than we would any stranger.

 

The Lord's Weapons are His business cards. It is they that announce

His existence as the Absolute Sovereign of all things and all beings

in this world...

 

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NammAzhwAr, the greatest of mystic-saints that ever set foot upon

this earth, once witnessed through his inner eye ("yOga-drushti") the

splendour of the Lord bearing all glorious Weapons. The saint

described that rare vision of his in unforgettable words of Tamil

poetry found in the immortal "tiruvoimOzhi":

 

aazhi ezha-changUm villUm ezhu disai

vaazhi ezha-thandUm vALUm ezha-andam

mOzhyai ezha mudi paadam ezha appan

oozhI ezha ulagam kondavaarE ! (tiruvoimozhi- 7.4.1)

 

 

"First the discus

rose to view.

 

then the conch

the long bow,

the mace,

and the sword;

 

with blessings

from the eight quarters,

 

he broke through

the egg-shell of heaven,

making the waters bubble;

 

giant head and giant feet

growing away from each other,

 

time itself rose to view:

 

how the lord

paced and measured

 

all three worlds!"

 

(translation by A.K.Ramanujam: "Hymns for the Drowning")

 

 

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Unlike weapons of the world fashioned by Man, meant solely and

utterly for destructive (and sometimes self-destructive) purposes,

the great Weapons of our Lord Vishnu are used by Him primarily for

Good and Creative ends. The weapons are as NammAzhwAr enlists them

above -- the discus ("aazhi"), conch ("changu"), long bow ("villu"),

the mace ("thandam") and the sword ("vAL").

 

In the Vishnu-Sahasranamam, we find the Lord has been named after

each of the weapons exactly as the five enumerated by NammAzhwAr. In

the penultimate and 107th stanza, the Sahasranamam hails our Lord as:

 

 

"sankhabhrit nandaki chakri sArngadhanvA gadhAdharah:

rathAngapAnih akshObhyah sarva-praharaNa-ayUdhah" II

 

Our Lord is "sankhabhrit" -- the blower of cosmic sound that echoes

eternally through space. To the evil-hearted, this is the primeval

sound of the death-knell, a sound that is more terrible than the

trumpeting wail of pipes on battle-fields, the clash of swords and

steel as it cuts through bloody flesh or the roar of battle-crazed

elephants.

 

Our Lord is also "chakri", the one who wields the discus, the deadly

wheel that can set everything in this world to naught in the

inexorable course of Time.

 

Next, the Lord is called "nandaki", the wielder of the great sword

called "nandaki". Just as the legendary King Arthur was known to

carry a sword called the 'Excalibur', which was said to give magical

powers of invincibility on earth, the "Nandaki" of our Lord gives Him

absolute sovereignty over all existence, both here and everywhere,

now and forever.

 

Next, our Lord is a "sArngadhanvah", the wielder of the great longbow

that NammAzhwAr calls "villu". This is the mighty bow of Rama who

felled the fourteen thousand armies of Khara and the many more hordes

that belonged to Ravana. It is also the mighty bow that inspired

Swami Venkatanathan to hail the Lord as "raNa-pungavah" in the

"paramArtha-stuti".

 

Finally, the Lord is also the wielder of the mighty battle mace or

club called KaumOdaki -- hence He is hailed as "gadhAdharah". Through

this formidable weapon, Vishnu, our Lord, gently reminds us of His

power as a Law-giver and Law-enforcer; and that He rules us all from

within. The Law of Karma, for instance, is one such God-enforced Law

that none can escape. It is the club with which He tames all

creation.

 

The sight of the Lord bearing all these wonderful weapons upon His

person is a sight full of majesty and grandeur. These weapons do not

make us cringe in fear. They do not chill our bones. Instead the

sight of these weapons is a feast for the eyes and upliftment for the

soul. It is the spectacle of the Lord bearing these weapons that made

Swami Venkatanathan cry out in the 'paramArtha-stuti':

 

bhuvanAssraya-bhUshanAsstra-vargam

manasi tvannmayatAm mamAtu-nOtu I

vapUrAhava-pungava tvadheeyam

mahIksheenAm-animEsha-darshanIyam II (Stanza 5)

 

"My valorous One! My Warrior!

The arms you bear

Are the eternal "tattvas"

Of all Life --

How beauteous they make you look!

Did you know, my Lord, your consorts even

Can't bear to shift their gaze upon Thee,

Not for a moment, not for eternity..."

 

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When the Lord really wills it, all these great Weapons of His serve

Him as irrepressible Weapons of Mass Destruction. They are of such

awesome, unimaginable power and fury they quite easily make the most

diabolic of Man's weapon-systems ever designed seem toy-like in

comparison.

 

It is far too easy for us to see how Man's might measures up against

the vast and untamed forces of Nature. What indeed is the puny

strength of Man compared to that of a typhoon on the high-seas? What

man-made weapon can stand up to an earthquake that tips the scale of

a Richter seismograph at 10 or 12? What is plight of Man in the face

of a raging fire that goes devouring tract after tract of forest-land

in a matter of mere days? How puny indeed is the power of Man's

weapons of mass destruction compared to the power of such awesome

agents of God?

 

Howsoever formidable the Weapons of God may seem in their destructive

potential, they are still not "weapons of mass destruction" in the

vile and horrible sense in which Man fashions his own. The Weapons of

God are not meant to destroy but to resurrect and redeem. They are

not meant for the annihilation of Man but for his emancipation.

 

God's weapons of mass destruction are so named not because they are

capable of wreaking physical destruction or havoc. The mass that

God's weapons destroy are not physical mass. The real targets of

God's weapons are within our hearts: the masses of sin, 'pApa', lust,

greed, selfishness and hatred that we all accumulate and keep

concealed all the time. It is those masses of destructive potential

hidden away within our minds that God seeks to disarm and destroy.

 

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Let us now savour what the religious writer Sri.Eknath Easwaran in

his book "Thousand Names of Vishnu" has to say too about these

"weapons of mass destruction" that God possesses:

 

(quote)

"sarva-praharana-ayudha": The name is quite a mouthful, but well

worth the effort when understood. When we love the Lord with all our

heart, he gives us every weapon -- "sarva-praharana-ayudha" -- we

need to fight the war within.

 

Our enemies in this war, the Bhagavath Gita tells us, are ultimately

three: anger, fear and selfish desire. And the most basic of the

three is selfish desire which stands for all compulsive craving. This

is essentially an expression of self-will, the compulsive drive to

get what we want (be it as individuals, as a society or as a nation

as a whole) whatever it may cost others. Nothing stands between us

and the Lord, the mystics say, except selfish desires and self-will.

 

The battle-field is each individual heart. In every one of us two

forces are at work. One flows towards love, selflessness, happiness

and spiritual fulfillment. The other pulls us back toward our

evolutionary past: toward anger, violence, lust, greed and

selfishness.

 

The force of goodness can never be eradicated, the scriptures tell

us; it is the underlying reality of life. So this battle is

unavoidable as long as there is selfishness in the mind of man. We

may not be aware of it, but the conflict cannot help going on below

the conscious level. Nothing can free us from its stress and turmoil

except to face our selfishness squarely and put it to an end…"

 

(Whether as individuals, societies or nations we must realize) Life

is not given to us for grabbing what we can; it is meant for giving

what we can. When we appreciate that this precious human birth has

been given to us for making a lasting contribution to the rest of

life, we get continuing motivation… Nothing then can provide a better

shield (against every weapon that may be used against us in life)…

 

All life is part of us. This deepest of convictions can turn the most

ordinary human being (or society or nation) into a powerful force or

weapon for the unity that is God's world and the unity that God

Himself stands for…"

 

(unquote)

 

 

Regards,

 

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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