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Across the world all gods preach harmony and peace among their devotees. But in Hinduism all gods are depicted with an array of weapons. The powerful weapons of god in hinduism range from the deadly Brahmastra to the powerful Sudarshan Chakra. The necessity for every incarnation of hindu gods is to resurrect goodness in the world. From time to time there have been evil forces that have threatened the livelihood of the people. As Lord Krishna conveys to Arjuna in the Bhagvad Gita –
यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत ।
अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम् ॥४-७॥परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम् ।
धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय सम्भवामि युगे युगे ॥४-८॥
All our gods are depicted with weapons that are indigenous to them. When Mahishasura, the demon created terror in all the three worlds the gods decided to create a warrior goddess that would vanquish evil and restore peace to the world. They created her out of all the gods and named her Durga. To aid her in the war against the demon they bestowed upon her the weapons and powers of all gods. Some of those weapons are trishula, sudharshana chakra, vajrayudham, gada and so on.
It is said that the conch shell in her hand represents sacred Om or the Pranava. The thunderbolt speaks of firmness of mind. Bows and arrow carried by her display her energy or strength. Sudarshana chakra held by her is supposed to be given to her by Vishnu. The revolving Sudarshana chakra signifies that the whole world is at her command.
The trishul or trident reveals three distinct qualities of Rajas (activity, Satwa (inactivity) and Tamas (non-activity). It may also mean to eradicate three miseries from the world i.e. mental, physical and spiritual miseries. Shiva’s weapon the trishula is one of the most powerful weapons in Hindu mythology .
They are also said to represent various trinities—creation, maintenance and destruction, past, present and future. When looked upon as a weapon of Shiva, the trishula is said to destroy the three worlds: the physical world, the world of the forefathers (representing culture drawn from the past) and the world of the mind (representing the processes of sensing and acting). The trishula’s central point represents Shushmana, and that is why it is longer than the other two, representing Ida and Pingala.
Arjuna is described as the finest archers in Hindu mythology. He has with him a powerful bow called as gandiva. The gandiva is the strongest bow ever created. The bow was supposed to be unbreakable. And it is not just the bow. Along with the bow come two quivers of arrows. The arrows in the quivers never get over. Thus the user of the gandiva can keep up with a constant and relentless firing of arrows with the gandiva.
Whenever the string of the bow was twanged it made a sound like thunder, striking fear in the hearts of the enemies of the user! All the people from the fourteen worlds worshiped the Gandiva. Though it was created by Brahma, it shifted hands from prajapati, Agni and finally was bestowed upon Arjuna. Immediately after the kurukshetra war, the bow was taken back by lord varuna because it had served its purpose. It is believed that the gandiva remains with him till date.
Sudharsana chakra is however more powerful than the gandiva, su means good and darshana means vision. It can cause great destruction to enemies as well as bestow immense goodness and prosperity to its beholder. There are two stories as to how the sudharsana chakra came into being.
Once an asura challenged Shiva’s might and Shiva who was amused by the asura’s arrogance asked him to pull out a piece of earth that he marked with his toe. The asura lifted the piece and held it at his neck. The piece of earth started spinning in to the sudharshana chakra and killed the asura.
Later during the war between the devas and the asuras. The asuras had a trick to bring back even the slain asuras. This deeply worried lord Vishnu. He meditated on Shiva to help him in this regard. Shiva was touched by Vishnu’s penance and he being the destroyer gifted Vishnu the sudharsana chakra to kill asuras who can’t be restored back to life. It is legend that the power of the chakra was too great for one man so it was divided between Shiva and parvati, the remaining one third was given as the sudharsana chakra to Vishnu. That was one version. According to another version of the story the Sudarshana Chakra was created by Vishwakarma, the architect of the Devas.
There is another version of the same story: Vishwakarma had a daughter Sanjana who was married to Surya, the Sun God. However the Sun God was too fierce and bright and Sanjana found it difficult to look at her husband or even live with him. She went to her father and asked him to devise a solution for her problem. Vishwakarma being an engineer thought about it and arrived at a practical solution. He removed the outer layer of the ‘sun dust’ from Surya, to make him less fierce.
By making use of that powerful sun dust vishwakarma created Shiva’s trishula, Vishnu’s sudharshana chakra and the pushpaka vimana which is the flying chariot that Kubera owns. This was later taken over by Ravana when he took over Lanka from Lord Kubera.
Another interesting anecdote about the sudharsana chakra is that when the devas and asuras churned the ocean for amrita, they used mount manthara as the rod. For that purpose mount manthara was cut from its position and carried to the ocean. Sudharsana chakra was used to cut the mountain. The sudharsana chakra was also in the hands of lord Krishna with which he won several battles. At the end of the kurukshetra battle, Queen Gandhari was furious on losing all her sons; she cursed Krishna and the entire Yadavas clan to die after 36 years from the Mahabharatha war. As Gandhari’s curse came into effect, the Yadavas started seeing terrible omens and events. It is said that during this time, the Sudarshana Chakra left the earth and flew back to the heavens.
The most deadly of all the weapons however is the brahmastra; it is mentioned in several puranas and myths. When the Brahmastra was discharged, there is no counter strike against it, except by Brahmadanda, a stick also created by Brahma. It was believed to be obtained by meditating on the Creator in the Vedas, Lord Brahma; it could only be used once in a lifetime. The user would have to display immense amounts of mental concentration. The target, when hit by Brahmastra, would be utterly destroyed. Brahma had created a weapon even more powerful than the Brahmastra, called the Brahmashira. The Brahmashira was never used in war, as it had four times more power than the Brahmastra, i.e. Fourth power square, as the name suggests, since Brahma has Four Heads. Only Arjuna and Ashwatthama possessed the knowledge to summon the Brahmashira. The Brahmastra was an elite weapon with only a handful of greatest of religious and devoted archers having access to it. It could not be acquired by mere training or meditation; it could only be bestowed upon a warrior by Lord Shiva or Lord Brahma. It required great sacrifice and devotion to be granted a Brahmastra, only a few people in the Mahabharata had this weapon at their disposal.
The Parashu is a battle axe wielded by Bhagwan Parshuram, the guru of Dronacharya. He is also the guru for Karna and Bhisma. He is said to have a great temper and cursed karna on knowing that he wasn’t a Kshatriya. He cursed Karna that he would forget all the martial skills in the crucial moment of war when he needs them most.
Vajra is the weapon of lord Indra. Vajra’s earliest mention is in the rig Veda. The vajra is believed to represent firmness of spirit and spiritual power. Indra is described as using the Vajra to kill sinners
There are other weapons such as the vel in the hands of lord kartikeya and the gada in the hands of lord hanuman. Pinaka Shiva, the Destroyer Also called as Shiva Dhanush, was the bow of Lord Shiva, which he used to kill countless Asuras in battle, It Was given to Parshuram By Lord Shiva, which was passed down to King Janaka, the father of Sita, and was broken by Lord Ram in her swayamvara.
The reason for most of the Hindu gods having weapons is one simple philosophy,
“Dushta Nigraham, Sishta Paripaalanam”
meaning -“To destroy Evil, to protect Good.”
When the human race is in dire need of a supreme power to save itself from the hands of treacherous forces of evil. These weapons are put to good use. They are used to punish people who sin against the human race.
“as you sow, so you reap” stands true for all of us. No evil force can exist forever it is only a matter of time before the good forces save the day.
