SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 107. nAma 1000. sarva-praharaNAyudaH.

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SrImate SrI ra'nga rAmAnuja mahA deSikAya namaH.

 

SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam - Slokam 107.

nAma 1000. sarva-praharaNAyudaH.

 

1000. sarva-praharaNAyudhaH – He Who has all weapons that act against

evil.

 

Om sarva-praharaNAyudhAya namaH.

 

praharaNam means `striking, beating, attacking, hurting' etc.

sarvANi praharaNAni AyudhAni yasya iti sarva-praharaNAyudah. – He Who

has all kinds of destructive weapons to punish the evil.

 

In this Slokam, starting from nAma 993, and up to nAma 999, bhIshma

has explicitly referred to the following Ayudha-s of bhagavAn –

Sa'nkha – the divine conch, nandaka – the divine sword, cakra – the

divine discus, Sar'nga – the divine bow, and gadA – bhagavAn's mace.

These are the five weapons that are prominently sung in the

pa'ncAyudha stotram. Then we have the shoDaSAyudha stotram that

describes the 16 weapons that cakkarattAzhvAn himself has. This in

no way is the limit of His weapons. He has limitless number of

weapons that can strike at the enemy. This is the message conveyed

in this nAma. The difference in the anubhavam of the different

vyAkhyAna-kartA-s is on why He is carrying these weapons.

 

SrI bhaTTar explains that the nAma signifies that bhagavAn possesses

countless Ayudha-s that are very powerful in removing all the

obstacles encountered by the prapanna-s (those who have

unconditionally surrendered to Him), are befitting His greatness,

possess the great power to destroy the enemies of His devotees, serve

as both ornaments and armaments to Him, and which have taken a vow as

it were, to protect His devotees always, in all places, and through

all means. Just as Hee has infinite Sakti, He has infinite Ayudha-

s. These weapons are not to be looked upon simply as mere tools of

machinery in the mundane physical sense. Each of these weapons

possesses infinite power. (SrI bhaTTar's words are – sva-nishThAnAm

sarva anishTa unmUlayitRRNi ……sadA, sarvatra, savathA, sarva-prakAra

samASrita….). These weapons help Him discharge His responsibility as

the Supreme Lord of the Universe, to root out all the miseries of His

devotees " . The yAga that is mentioned by SrI BhaTTar in his

vyAkhyAnam – dIrgha satra yAga, could also be enjoyed as referring to

bhagavAn's long and never-ending yAga or undertaking of

the `protection of the people, and all His creation'. This aspect –

namely, that whatever bhagavAn does, including the carrying of

weapons, is solely for the protection of His devotees, has been the

emphasis throughout SrI BhaTTar's vyAkhyAnam for all the nAma-s. We

will enjoy more of this commitment of bhagavAn to protection of all

of His creation in a subsequent write-up.

 

The words sarva and praharaNa are adjectives to the

word `Ayudhah " . `sarva' signifies that in addition to the Ayudha-s

that have been mentioned explicitly, He has many more such Ayudha-s

not mentioned here, which are all aspects of His indescribable

splendor.

 

SrI v.v. rAmAnujan's anubhavam is that bhagavAn, who can destroy all

His enemies through His mere Will, still carries the weapons just to

cause terror in the hearts and minds of the wicked people.

 

SrI Sa'nkara explains the nAma as `etAnyeva AyudhAni asya iti na

niyamyate, api tu sarvANyeva praharaNAni AyudhAni asya iti sarva-

praharaNAyudhah – He has all of kinds of destructive weapons, and it

cannot be categorically declared that He possesses only such and such

weapons. SrI Sa'nkara comments that even though finger-nails are not

considered Ayudham by any standards, in His case, He uses them as

Ayudham as well, as He showed in the case of hiraNya-kaSipu –

Ayudhatvena aprasiddhAnyapi karajAdIni asya asya AyudhAni bhavanti

iti. SrI Sa'nkara further comments that this final nAma declaring

that " He is One Who possesses all kinds of weapons with which He can

strike " , is chosen to show His satya-sa'nkalpam and His Lordship over

all. He refers us to the bRhadAraNyaka upoanishad – " esha

sarveSvaraH " (BU 4.4.22).

 

It may be recalled from discussions of several previous nAma-s that a

major distinguishing feature between SrI Sa'nkara's and SrI BhaTTar's

commentaries is that the former emphasizes Lord vishNu's paratvam

(Supremacy), whereas the latter stresses His saulabhyam and

sauSIlyam, and above all, His supreme concern for the welfare of His

devotee. The respective vyAkhyAna-s for this final nAma by the two

vyAkhyAna-kartA-s reflects this aspect of their approach to the

commentary very distinctly – SrI Sa'nkara concludes that the final

nAma reinforces Lord's sarveSvaratvam – Lordship over all, whereas

SrI bhaTTar concludes that the nAma signifies bhagavAn's ever-

readiness to go for the protection of His devotees with all His

weapons.

 

While SrI Sa'nkara mentioned bhagavAn's use of even His fingernails

as Ayudham, SrI rAdhAkRshNa SAstri goes one step further – The Lord

used grass as a weapon (kAkAsura), the sucking of the breast milk

from a demoness (pUtanA) as a weapon, etc. SrI veLukkuDi kRshNan

notes that bhagavAn used the garbha grass in the case of SukrAcArya

who tried to interfere in bhagavAn's scheme to get three feet of land

from vAmana. The point to enjoy is that just as He uses anything as

a weapon to destroy the wicked, He will use anything to protect His

devotee as well – He is satya-sa'nkalpan; by His mere Will, He can

accomplish anything He wishes.

 

A legitimate question that can be raised, is: " Why does the Lord

even need any weapons at all to destroy His devotees' enemies, when

He can achieve this by His mere sa'nkalpam? For instance, Lord rAma

Himself tells sugrIvan:

 

piSAcAn dAnavAn yakshAn pRthivyAm caiva rAkshasAn |

a'ngulyagreNa tAn hanyAm icchan harigaNeSvara ||

(yuddha. 6.18.22)

 

" O King of the army of monkeys! It is quite possible for Me to

destroy all the ghosts, the asura-s, the yaksha-s, and all these

rAkshasa-s with the tip of My finger, if I so desire " .

 

Then why is it that He carries all these weapons? On reason given is

that He carries them so that they will induce terror in the hearts of

the enemies of His devotees, and at least in some cases, they will

desist from harming His devotees, without His having to punish

them. SrI v. v. rAmAnujan refers us to ANDAL's tiruppAvai

(25): " ka'njan vayiRRil nerppenna ninRa neDumAlE! " – He struck fear

deep down in the bowels of kamsan by His very thought. Another

anubhavam is that when dealing with those who show enmity to Him

alone, He uses His sa'nkalpa Sakti to punish them, but if anyone ill-

treats His devotee, then bhagavAn becomes angry, and instead of

destroying them through His sa'nkalpa Sakti alone, He resorts to His

weapons to punish them (tiruvAi. 4.8.1).

 

Another aspect of His many divya Ayudha-s is that they are nitya-sUri-

s who worry about His protection out of their love and attachment to

Him, even though He does not need any protection Himself. But it is

their love of Him that makes them be always on the lookout for His

protection, and so they all reside in His tirumEni, always watching

out for any unforeseen enemies. Recall periyAzhvAr singing pallANDu

for Him, for His divine weapons, etc., all because of his concern for

the welfare of emperumAn, driven by His deep love to Him.

 

This nAma formally concludes the write-up on the 1000 nAma-s of Lord

vishNu. We still have the phala Sruti Sloka-s to cover. In

addition, a member of the list who has been giving me great

encouragement and support in all my works (including sahasra nAma,

tAtparya ratnAvaLi, etc.), raised a very interesting question: Is

there any special significance that the enumeration of the most

prominent nAma-s chosen by bhIshma based on the nAma-s most commonly

sung by the Rshi-s etc. (Rshibhih parigItAni), ends with a

description of bhagavAn's weapons? We will cover this in a separate

write-up devoted for this subject.

 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

(To be continued)