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

From the Bhakti List Archives

Narasimhan Krishnamachari • December 20, 2002 


     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 BhaTTarÂ’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 childÂ’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 muÂ’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 oneÂ’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 enemiesÂ’ 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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