[Advaita-l] How Lord Shiva tested Arjuna before blessing him with Pashupatastra

[V Subrahmanian]

Sannidhanam explains How Lord Shiva tested Arjuna before blessing him with
Pashupatastra (Kannada)
Short Messages from Sringeri Jagadgurus:

Sannidhanam explains How Lord Shiva tested Arjuna before blessing him with
Pashupatastra (Kannada):

(a rough translation)

While God has to bestow his blessings upon us, He will first verify if we
are worthy of it. It is in His nature to do so. If we pass that test
successfully, we will undoubtedly receive His grace.

This is the reason Sri Krishna, in the Mahabharatha, makes the following
allusion to Arjuna while he was in exile – Sri Krishna tells Arjuna,
“Listen, you are on the verge of completing your twelve year tenure of
exile and one year period of incognito. Duryodhana is not going to hand
over the empire back to you graciously. You have to strive to retrieve it.
Therefore, there are chances that a war may transpire in the future.
Duryodhana has great warriors like Bheeshma, Dronacharya and Kripacharya on
his side. These great warriors have vowed to fight till their last breath
to protect the empire of Hastinapura, being the land from which they all
have derived a good living. Duryodhana has used this promise of theirs’ to
his advantage. So, in the war that may ensue, the first person to stand
against you will your grandfather Bheeshma, followed by Dronacharya,
Kripacharya, Ashwathama and several other great warriors. In order to
combat them, there is a need for you to possess Divya Astras (Divine
Weapons). It is impossible to win over them sans these weapons. This will
be no ordinary war that is being fought between you and the Kauravas, but
this is going to be a war between Dharma and Adharma. So victory has to be
on the side of Dharma which means victory must be on your side. In order to
win the war, you need Divya Astras and the one who is capable of giving you
these Divya Astras is Lord Parameshwara. You should therefore perform a
penance focusing on Lord Parameshwara, who, as a result will bless you and
bestow you with Divya Astras.”

Heeding Krishna’s advice, Arjuna performs penances over a long period of
time and succeeds in pleasing Lord Parameshwara. The gratified Parameshwara
does not bestow Arjuna with the weapons at once, but first tests whether or
not he is worthy of getting His weapons. To do so, He first sends a wild
boar charging towards Arjuna who is engrossed in his penance. Arjuna, whose
penance was disrupted, sees the boar running towards him. He immediately
takes out his bow and strikes an arrow on the animal. The boar succumbs to
the shot. On taking a closer look, Arjuna notices that there was one other
arrow apart from his own, indicating that another person too has hunted
down the boar. On looking around, he sees Lord Parameshwara, not in His
real form but in the guise of a hunter.

Arjuna asks who the hunter was to shoot an arrow on the animal that he had
hunted down. He further tells the hunter that the boar rightfully belonged
to him as he hunted it with his arrow and also that the hunter shot his
arrow only after Arjuna’s was effected. To that, the hunter replies saying
it was not Arjuna’s arrow that hit the boar first, but was his. Arjuna does
not accept this and an argument ensues between Lord Parameshwara (disguised
as the hunter) and Arjuna. Over some time, the dispute worsens. It
escalates to a level such that Arjuna and the hunter decide that they fight
each other and the one who wins can take possession of the boar. A severe
battle begins between them. This was not any ordinary fight as the
opponents were Lord Parameshwara Himself and Arjuna. Like how these days,
we all follow games played between two countries to find out who wins, all
the Devathas and Ishwara’s Pramathaganas assemble to witness the battle
anxious to know which side was going to win.

Arjuna displays extraordinary valour during the battle and in the middle of
it, shoots an arrow that strikes Ishwara’s head, wounding Him. This act of
Arjuna’s leaves all the Devathas horrified as it was no trivial thing to
strike Ishwara’s head or to bear the brunt of His wrath. They conclude that
Arjuna’s end was certain and anxiously wait for Ishwara to react. To
everyone’s surprise, Ishwara is immensely pleased with Arjuna’s exhibition
of bravery and thinks to Himself that if I were to ever bless someone
worthy, it shall be Arjuna and none other. Giving my Astra to him alone,
will make it meaningful. Immediately Ishwara reveals his true identity to
Arjuna and comes in front of Arjuna in His ever charming form. Thereafter,
He blesses Arjuna and bestows him with the Paashupathastra which makes
Arjuna invincible and consequently win over the Kauravas.
This was narrated by me, to emphasize that whenever God is willing to bless
us, he first tests us. He makes sure to check whether we will remain
perseverant in our undertaking to serve the Almighty despite being faced
with obstacles. Therefore whenever we resolve to do a good deed, if we keep
on moving forward unperturbed by difficulties arising in the course, firmly
believing that we have God’s grace to help us, the result of such a
resolution will always be a grand success. It will also be of purpose to
the world at large. Therefore, the grace of God is very important to us,
and without it, it is impossible for us to do anything.

It is the result of performing good deeds over several births, that we have
been blessed with a great Guru who is capable of showing us the path to
obtain the grace of God. There is a requirement for every human to have a
Guru in his life. It is impossible to obtain the grace of God without a
Sadguru, because it is He who shows us the path to it. So, the very first
thing that we all need is Guru’s grace. If we have the grace of Guru, if we
have His guidance and if we act according to the guidance, we will reach
God and beget His grace. Else, there is nothing we can achieve. Hence,
Guru’s grace is what is first required. It is our duty to seek Guru’s
grace. We all have been blessed with and are experiencing the grace of such
a Guru. Our duty henceforth lies in following, up to whatever extent
possible, that what is preached by our Guru. We should never ponder over
the words coming out of Guru’s mouth. We should simply follow what He says,
because a Guru would have already deliberated and weighed the consequences
of everything He tells us. Hence there is no necessity to rethink about the
same and it is our duty to obediently follow His directions. It is the
result of our noble deeds performed over several births to have been
blessed with such a great Guru.

Video: https://youtu.be/24zUG9-tVwo
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Copyright: Dakshinamnaya Sri Sharada Peetham, Sringeri