Dear learned members,

One of my friends (non hindu) has asked the question Why Hindu Gods
and Goddesses having so many hands and weapons in it. Also he asked Is
God powerless without weapons.

Can anyone kindly provide some good reply to this.

Regards,
Kannan

Dear Sri Kannan :

The sankalpa sakthi (Will power ) of Bhagavan alone can destroy
his and his devotee's enemies as well . He bears these weapons for
three reasons :
1. To assure the devotees that He bears these weapons in
defense of them .

2. As Jewelery on His divine body.

3. The Aayudhams stand as subtle doctrines of VaishNavam .
For instance , BHagavan's manas (Volition , Sankalpam)
is symbolically represented by the rotatign disc , Sudarsanam .

The elaboration on the one to one correspondence between
the VaishNavite doctrines and the Weapons seen on the Lord are
described in the 41st Pasuram of AdhikAra Sangraham of
Swamy Desikan's Tamil Prabhandhams .

Please access them at :

http://www.malolan.org/trk24.htm

That describes the way in which the weapons and the aabharaNams
are represented onnthe Lord's Divine body .

The 80th Pasuram in that write up on AdhikAra Sangraham
covers these aspects . An understanding of the Tatthva Thrayam
( Sentient , Insentient and Iswaran) covered in other parts of
the AdhikAra Sangraham would help to gain a clear understanding .
You might have to read the commentaries on the previous paasurams
as well .

More write ups are available at :

http://www.sadagopan.org
as well under Acharyan section/Swamy Desikan link .

V.Sadagopan


----- Original Message -----
From: "kankan_73" <kankan_73@...>
To: <Oppiliappan (AT) yahoogroups (DOT) com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 4:06 AM
Subject: [Oppiliappan] Why weapons & so many hands


> Dear learned members,
>
> One of my friends (non hindu) has asked the question Why Hindu Gods
> and Goddesses having so many hands and weapons in it. Also he asked
> Is > God powerless without weapons.
>
> Can anyone kindly provide some good reply to this.
>
> Regards,
> Kannan