Brahmastra, Vimanas and Salva

[Paramananda das]

Dandavat pranams

Jaya Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharvika Giridhari

Jaya Srila Prabhupada

There is something interesting about Brahmastras and Vimanas on yourtube one is from the History channel"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK5qG6bKLCM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_PfhV_Hns4&feature=related

Regarding Salva attacking Dvaraka in his battle ship is explained in SB 10.chapter 77

Salva ate only a handful of dirt for one year and pleased Lord Siva that gave him a Vimana build by Maya Danava.

SB 10.76.1: Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Now please hear, O King, another wondrous deed performed by Lord Kṛṣṇa, who appeared in His humanlike body to enjoy transcendental pastimes. Hear how He killed the master of Saubha.

SB 10.76.2: Śālva was a friend of Śiśupāla's. When he attended the wedding of Rukmiṇī, the Yadu warriors defeated him in battle, along with Jarāsandha and the other kings.

SB 10.76.3: Śālva swore in the presence of all the kings: "I will rid the earth of Yādavas. Just see my prowess!"

SB 10.76.4: Having thus made his vow, the foolish King proceeded to worship Lord Paśupati [Śiva] as his deity by eating a handful of dust each day, and nothing more.

SB 10.76.5: The great Lord Umāpati is known as "he who is quickly pleased," yet only at the end of a year did he gratify Śālva, who had approached him for shelter, by offering him a choice of benedictions.

SB 10.76.6: Śālva chose a vehicle that could be destroyed by neither demigods, demons, humans, Gandharvas, Uragas nor Rākṣasas, that could travel anywhere he wished to go, and that would terrify the Vṛṣṇis.

SB 10.76.7: Lord Śiva said, "So be it." On his order, Maya Dānava, who conquers his enemies' cities, constructed a flying iron city named Saubha and presented it to Śālva.

SB 10.76.8: This unassailable vehicle was filled with darkness and could go anywhere. Upon obtaining it, Śālva went to Dvārakā, remembering the Vṛṣṇis' enmity toward him.

This Vimana bombarded Dvaraka as described in the next 2 verses:

SB 10.76.9-11: Śālva besieged the city with a large army, O best of the Bharatas, decimating the outlying parks and gardens, the mansions along with their observatories, towering gateways and surrounding walls, and also the public recreational areas. From his excellent airship he threw down a torrent of weapons, including stones, tree trunks, thunderbolts, snakes and hailstones. A fierce whirlwind arose and blanketed all directions with dust.

SB 10.76.12: Thus terribly tormented by the airship Saubha, Lord Kṛṣṇa's city had no peace, O King, just like the earth when it was attacked by the three aerial cities of the demons.

see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vimana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaim%C4%81nika_Sh%C4%81stra

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vimanas/esp_vimanas_9.htm

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13133117/Vaimanika-Shastra

SB 10.76.21: At one moment the magic airship built by Maya Dānava appeared in many identical forms, and the next moment it was again only one. Sometimes it was visible, and sometimes not. Thus Śālva's opponents could never be sure where it was.

SB 10.76.22: From one moment to the next the Saubha airship appeared on the earth, in the sky, on a mountain peak or in the water. Like a whirling, flaming baton, it never remained in any one place.

SB 10.76.23: Wherever Śālva would appear with his Saubha ship and his army, there the Yadu commanders would shoot their arrows.

SB 10.76.24: Śālva became bewildered upon seeing his army and aerial city thus harassed by his enemy's arrows, which struck like fire and the sun and were as intolerable as snake venom.

SB 10.77.4: Gada, Sātyaki, Sāmba and others began killing Śālva's army, and thus all the soldiers inside the airship began falling into the ocean, their necks severed.

SB 10.77.14: Lord Kṛṣṇa then pierced Śālva with sixteen arrows and struck the Saubha airship with a deluge of arrows as it darted about the sky. Firing His arrows, the Lord appeared like the sun flooding the heavens with its rays.

SB 10.77.15: Śālva then managed to strike Lord Kṛṣṇa's left arm, which held His bow Śārńga, and, amazingly, Śārńga fell from His hand.

SB 10.77.33: While Śālva continued to hurl torrents of weapons at Him with great force, Lord Kṛṣṇa, whose prowess never fails, shot His arrows at Śālva, wounding him and shattering his armor, bow and crest jewel. Then with His club the Lord smashed His enemy's Saubha airship.

SB 10.77.34: Shattered into thousands of pieces by Lord Kṛṣṇa's club, the Saubha airship plummeted into the water. Śālva abandoned it, stationed himself on the ground, took up his club and rushed toward Lord Acyuta.

Vaisnava das anu das

Paramananda das