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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)





 
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