Vishnu Sahasra Naamam-Vol III-RR-edit.pub - Ibiblio

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It is very rare indeed to find human beings who are not tossed around, because
their indriya-s control them. But he who controls his manas and indriya-s isfirm
in his resolve, and he is not tossed around or shaken by happenings around him.
His mind becomes a-cala manas. The peace that comes out of this disposition is
the true peace that we should aim for.
nAma 752. cl> calah
a) He Who swerves. b) He Who moves (in the form of vAyu etc.). c) He
Whorushed out of SrI vaikunTham at the cry for help from gajendra. d) He
Who isfull of leelA-s.
calAya namah.
We just saw in the previous nAma that bhagavAn is a-calah. Now we see that
He is also calah, He Who swerves. His a-cala guNam or firmness was towards
His enemies; his cala guNam is reserved for His devotees.
SrI bhaTTar gives the well-known instance of His carrying arms against
bhIshma after making a promise earlier that He will never take to arms in the
mahA bhArata war. Thus, He swerved from His word, and so He was a calah in
this case. A couple of reasons are given for His breaking His own promise. One
was that He wanted to save His dear devotee, arjuna, from the wrath of
bhIshma, and so decided to go with His cakra against bhIshma to protect
arjuna. The second reason given is that bhIshma, who was a great devotee of
kRshNa, had taken an oath in front of kRshNa the previous evening that he will
fight so ferociously the next day as to make kRshNa break His promise and
take to arms; what was at stake was the word of His devotee bhIshma, and
kRshNa had to protect the word of His devotee even if it meant that He had
to break His own promise. Making His devotee's word come true was more
important for Him than to keep His own promise. So He took to arms, and thus
became a calah - One Who swerves for His devotee. Another instance was His
cheating jayadratha by converting day into night. The real truth to be
understood in the above instances that He is the One who establishes what is
right and what is wrong, and so by definition, what He decides is Justice.
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