CONTENTS:
- LORD NRSIMHADEVA
- SRILA PRABHUPADA’S APPRECIATION
- SRILA PRABHUPADA APPRECIATION
1. LORD NRSIMHADEVA
Today is Lord Nrsimhadeva’s appearance day. Lord Nrsimhadeva is an incarnation of Krishna. Krishna mentioned in Bhagavad Gita wherever there is a decline in religious principles and increase of irreligion He appears whenever that situation arises.
[BG 4.7]
yadā yadā hi dharmasya
glānir bhavati bhārata
abhyutthānam adharmasya
tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham
In Bhagavad Gita Krishna mentions how He appears. He appears with the internal potency. The internal potency of Krishna makes all the arrangements. Krishna is unborn and Krishna can appear anytime. Sometimes He takes birth like when He appeared as the son of Vausedeva and Devaki He took birth as a human being. When He appeared as Ramachandra, He took birth as a human being from Dasarath and Kausalya. In this way sometimes He takes birth and sometimes He just appears from nowhere like He appeared as Varahadeva from the nostril of Brahma. From the nose of Brahma, he appeared small then assumed a gigantic form. And in this incarnation the Lord appeared in a very wonderful way in a pillar. The Lord is omnipresent He is present everywhere therefore He can appear from anywhere. Why did He appear? For the sake of establishing the religious principles and in order to protect the sadhus, devotees and in order to annihilate the miscreants. From time to time the miscreants appear and cause great trouble.
In Satyayuga at that time there were not many miscreants but the one or two miscreants that were there they were very troublesome. There were only two miscreants Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksa otherwise the rest of the population was saintly. But these two miscreants started to create so many disturbances. At the beginning of creation Brahma assigned the responsibility of filling the universe with progeny so those personalities are known as prajapatis. One of the prajapatis were Kasyapa. Kasyapa had many wives, one of his wives was Diti and from Diti two sons were born Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksa. Their nature was demoniac. Soon after their birth they started to grow so big that their heads practically touched the sky. They were very proud of their powers and they were very fond of fighting. Although born of a brahmana, Kasyapa was a brahamana, but they assumed the qualities of a warrior. In the scriptures there are detailed description why they were like that, apparent reason was that they were conceived at the wrong time, at an inauspicious hour that was one reason why they developed a demoniac nature. But there is another reason far deeper and a profound reason and that is there were two gatekeepers in Vaikuntha the spiritual sky.
They desired the mellow of chivalry for the Lord
These two gatekeepers Jay and Vijay they desired to give the Lord the opportunity to experience the mellow of chivalry. There are seven secondary mellows and five principle mellows. One of the secondary mellows called vidarasa or chivalry. This mellow is derived out of fighting. By fighting and smashing, like when you see the boxers are fighting or warriors fighting, they derive joy out of it. They risking their lives but they derive a joy out of it and especially when they kill their enemy or defeat their enemy. The mellow of chivalry is experienced. Heroes experience that joy defeating the enemies but in Vaikuntha everyone is a devotee of the Lord. No one would ever think of fighting. Sometimes this mellow can be experienced just out of wrestling, the wrestlers find that when they defeat other wrestlers, they derive the joy.
The four Kumaras curse Jay and Vijay
In Vaikuntha everyone is in worshipful mood. In Vaikuntha everyone knows that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and therefore everyone is worshipping Him in awe and reverence. No one ever thinks of fighting or wrestling with Krishna. Jay and Vijay felt that our Lord is missing out on that mellow of chivalry, we wish we could allow Him to experience that mellow of chivalry. The Lord was aware of it because He is situated in everyone’s heart, omniscient. These two devotees of mine want to give me a taste of chivalry so I will fulfill their desires and by the arrangement of Yogamaya everything was arranged. The arrangement was that these two very obedient and submissive devotees of the Lord Jay and Vijay were cursed by the four Kumaras. The four sons of Brahma, Sanaka, Sanätana, Sanandana and Sanat, perfect celibate sages called the Catuhsana. They cursed this Jay and Vijay. ‘You are not fit to be in the spiritual sky, your mentality is like the mortal beings so we curse you to fall down to the material nature. As a result of that they took birth as the two sons of Kasyapa and Diti, because they were the sons of Diti they were known as Daityas. In the Sanskrit language the sons and daughters are identified by the parents for example, here they were born as sons of Diti so they were Daityas. Some sons were born as Aditi and they were known as Adaityas.
Similarly, Sitadevi was brought up as the daughter of king Janaka therefore the name of Sita is Janaki. The Pandavas were the sons of Pandu therefore they were known as Pandavas. They were the sons of Kunti therefore they were known as Kaunteya. In Sanskrit language sometimes the children are identified by the parents. These two Daityas Jay and Vijay became known as the two demons Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksa. What did they want to do? Give pleasure to the Lord out of fighting. Now before that something interesting also happened. As soon as they were cursed these four Kumaras were upset with them, the Lord immediately came out to the gate and apologized on their behalf. Then He asked Jay and Vijay ‘so now you have been cursed you have to go to the earth planet; the material nature and you have two options. If you want to remain as my devotees in the material nature then you have to take eight births but if you become my enemies then you will only have three births so the choice is yours, you decide what you want to do.’ Jay and Vijay said, ‘We do not want to stay in the material nature for too long and want to come back quickly so we rather become your enemies.
As a result of that in Satyayuga there is Jay and Vijay born as Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksa. In Tretayuga they were born as Ravan and Kumbakarna and in Dvaparayuga they were born as Sisupala and Kamsa. In this way they became extremely inimical to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By the arrangement of Yogamaya, although they were devotees and wanted to serve the Lord to give the Lord the mellow of chivalry. Chivalry means you going to fight and this fight is not a mock fight, it’s going to be a real fight therefore they have to forget all their relationships with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They had to forget about the submission they had, the devotion they had, the love they had for the Lord and they developed deep hatred for the Lord.
Hiranyakasipu’s quest to avenge his brother’s death
He also considered that his brother was very very powerful and this Hari killed his brother so that means he is more powerful so he felt that in order to defeat Hari he will have to become more powerful if he becomes immortal then he will be able to defeat Him. He left his family and went to the Mandaräcala mountain and started to perform austerities. He performed such severe austerities standing on one leg on the toe of one foot with his arms stretched upwards; he stopped moving, eating and drinking. He stood there for so long that ants and termites came and started to eat his body and made an anthill around his body and inside they had an unlimited food supply so they started to eat up Hiranyakasipu’s body. They ate up his skin, fat, muscles, nerves, intestines, lungs, kidneys, liver, gallbladder, heart and brain. It was just the skeleton of Hiranyakasipu that was standing but he was such a powerful personality that he preserved his spirit soul inside his bone marrow.
Externally everything was eaten up. The severe austerity of Hiranyakasipu caused so much heat that the demi-gods in the heavenly planet found this heat to be unbearable. They were burning so they approached Lord Brahma to please do something about this personality. Brahma from his water pot sprinkled some water on this body of Hiranyakasipu and his body was revived. A beautiful body so strong that this body became invincible so Brahma asked Hiranyakasipu, ‘Why are you performing such severe austerity?’ Hiranyakasipu said, ‘I want to be immortal.’ Brahma said, ‘Okay I cannot give you that because I myself is not immortal, I live only for 100 years so how can I make you immortal?’ Hiranyakasipu thought that he will outsmart Brahma and Brahma said you can ask for any benediction besides this immortality. Hiranyakasipu said, ‘Give me the boon that no man, animal, demi-god and he mentioned all the creatures in existence and none of them will be able to kill me.
I cannot be killed by any weapon. I will not be killed on the land, in the water in the sky. I will not be killed in the day or at night. I will not be killed inside or outside.’ Brahma granted all. Now Hiranyakasipu became almost immortal because he won’t be killed by anybody, by any weapon, not be killed in the sky, land or water, not be killed in the day or night, not inside or outside so he became practically immortal. He knew that Hari is the friend of the Brahmans and those who perform sacrifices so he started to attack those people. He defeated the demi-gods and took over the kingdom of heaven. In this way he created a lot of disturbance. In the meantime, another wonderful thing happened.
The birth of Prahlad the great devotee of the Lord
When Hiranyakasipu went to perform austerities, taking advantage of Hiranyakasipu’s absence the demi-gods attacked his kingdom. The demons lost the battle as they had no one to guide them. The devas demi-gods headed by Indra found that Hiranyakasipu’s wife Kayadu was pregnant so they tried to take her in captivity and when the child was born, they would kill the child. They were dragging Kayadu Hiranyakasipu’s wife in captivity to put her in prison and at that time Narada Muni appeared and told them why were they being so bad to this lady and should not do that ladies must be treated with respect. Then Indra said that this is the wife of Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyakasipu’s son is in her womb and he is going to be another Hiranyakasipu so we don’t want to take any chance. Narada said ‘No, the child she is carrying is not a threat, he is a great devotee so let her go you don’t have to be worried about this child. Rather you rejoice this child is going to be one of the greatest devotees.’ Indra let Kayadu go.
Narada Muni gave Kayadu shelter and if the child was to be born when Hiranyakasipu was away then there would be scandal or talk so Narada Muni gave her the benediction that the child would be born only after Hiranyakasipu returns. When Hiranyakasipu returned Narada Muni send Kayadu back and in due course of time the child was born. How did this child become a great devotee? When Kayadu was in the ashram of Narada Muni he used to instruct her about spiritual life, about Krishna’s pastimes, Krishna’s wonderful activities and Krishna’s wonderful qualities. He would instruct her on the benefit of being in the service of Krishna. Now Prahlad used to listen to those instructions of Narada Muni. See although he was lying in the womb of his mother he was listening. The child although in the womb can hear what the mother hears as it is tuned in the mother’s consciousness.
That is how Abimanyu when he was in the womb of his mother Subadra wanted to know how to enter and exit from the chakrabhumi and Arjuna was describing and at that time Abhimanyu was in the womb of his mother and he heard and that’s how he knew how to enter the chakrabhumi but then his mother fell asleep and he could not hear the other half, how to come out because his consciousness was tuned into his mother’s consciousness. When the mother fell asleep, he also fell asleep that is why he did not know how to exit chakrabhumi. Similarly, here Prahlad when he was in the womb of his mother, he received the instructions from Narad Muni and right in the womb of his mother he became a great devotee of the Lord.
When Prahlad was five
When he was five years old, he was sent to Gurukula. Who was the instructing guru of Prahlad it was the son of Sukracharya who is the guru of the demons? Sukracharya’s sons were Shanda and Amarka were the two teachers of Prahlad. Other demon’s children were also there at the ashram and there they used to learn all kinds of subject matters like politics, economics, philosophy, psychology, and all those subjects. Now Prahlad he was not interested; he would just wait for the break and assemble all his friends and they would chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare and as you raised your hands they used to chant and sing the glories of Hari. Shanda and Amarka saw how they dancing and singing the glory of Hari. Hari is Krishna so they were completely upset. They took Prahlad to a closed room and asked Prahlad, ‘Where did you learn all this?’ Prahlad said, ‘It’s the glorification of the Lord and has been going on since time immemorial. Why don’t you also do that?’ They were very afraid if Hiranyakasipu if he gets to know their life will be in danger.
They reported to Hiranyakasipu and he asked how did Prahlad find out maybe some demi-gods were coming in disguise and brainwashing the children. He told them to guard the place so that no one could come in. The teachers were very vigilant over Prahlad. Hiranyakasipu asked Prahlad, ‘Tell me what did you learn, the most interesting topic?’ Prahlad said, ‘I learnt that Hari is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and is the worshipable Lord of everyone.’ Hiranyakasipu just threw that child and said, ‘where you learnt this.? Prahlad said Krishna is omnipresent and is present everywhere. He is maintaining everyone even you.’ Hiranyakasipu said, ‘No one maintains me I maintain EVERYBODY! Your Hari is bogus, He is the enemy of our family, He killed your uncle so I have to take revenge to uphold the glory of our family life, our heritage pride so don’t you ever glorify this enemy of our family’ Hiranyakasipu was very upset. The teachers were sincerely and wholeheartedly trying to make a demon out of Prahlad but they failed. Then one day when Hiranyakasipu asked Prahlad, he said that Hari is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Hiranyakasipu tries everything he can to kill his own son
Hiranyakasipu ordered the soldiers to kill this child although he was his own son. These soldiers who could fight with the demi-gods were so powerful and had such advanced weapons but with all their weapons they could not do anything to Prahlad. They could not even scratch or touch his body with all these weapons. Even before the weapons could touch his body the weapons broke to pieces. What kind power this boy has. Hiranyakasipu ordered. ‘Put him onto the pit of the venomous snakes! ‘These were not ordinary snakes they were king cobras they were celestial with many many heads and gallons of poison in their sacks. They were biting Prahlad but nothing was happening to him. They appealed to Hiranyakasipu, ‘Our Lord our fangs are broken, our venom sacks are empty but nothing is happening to the child, we do not know what kind of power he has.’ Then Hiranyakasipu lit a fire with logs like a mountain and threw Prahlad in the fire and nothing happened to him.
Prahlad was thrown off the top of a mountain and nothing happened to him Prahlad was hurled into the ocean and was throwing big boulders at him and soon he was buried under but he pushed them aside and raised his hands. A five-year-old boy pushed big boulders as if they were made out of foam and he came out of the ocean. Hiranyakasipu was completely bewildered. He asked him, ‘Where did you get the strength from?’ He was thinking that he performed such austerities to get the power that he got and this little child where did he get the power which is even more effective than his power. He could see that this child was immortal so he asked, ‘Where did you get this power from?’ Prahlad said, ‘I got this power from the same source where you got your power from. I got it from Hari’’ Hiranyakasipu asked, ‘Where is your Hari?’ ‘Hari is everywhere.’
Lord Nrsimhadeva appears from the pillar and kills the demon Hiranyakasipu
‘Is your Hari in this pillar?’ ‘Yes, He is also in this pillar.’ Immediately like a lion He emerged from the pillar and just struck it with his fist and it broke into pieces. He was so powerful. The pillar broke with a tumultuous sound. Hiranyakasipu noticed that the sound was coming from this strange creature that looked like a lion and sometimes it looked like a man. Its head was like that of a lion and its body was like that of a man. They fought for a long long time. Nrsimhadeva appeared at noon and they fought from noon until 6 o’clock. It was an exciting fight and everyone was awestruck. Sometimes it seemed that Lord Nrsimhadeva was winning and sometimes the demon was winning. When the day was just about to turn into night, when it’s neither day nor night at the time of dusk he grabbed Hiranyakasipu and sat in the corridor, in the doorway neither inside nor outside. His benediction was that he would not be killed inside or outside and here he was neither inside nor outside.
He placed him on his lap which is neither land, water or sky and with his nails which is not a weapon he just tore open Hiranyakasipu and pulled out his heart along with the intestine and He wrapped the intestine around his neck like a garland. In this way He killed Hiranyakasipu. tava kara-kamala vare nakham adbhuta-shringam Your lotus like hands and the nails of this lotus like hands were so powerful and fierce that it tore open the body of Hiranyakasipu just like the body of a wasp, an insect’s body is so soft with a nail you can just pierce it. Hiranyakasipu’s body which could not even be affected by thunderbolts that body you just tore open with Your nails as easily as if that was a body of a wasp. dalita-hiranyakashipu-tanu bhrigam keshava dhrita-narahari-rupa jaya jagadisha hare. That happened on this auspicious day today. He assumed the form of half lion half man because Hiranyakasipu got the benediction he would not be killed by any man or beast and Lord Nrsimhadeva was neither man nor beast assuming this wonderful form in this way the Lord performed His wonderful pastime and killed this demon in Satyayuga.
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA’S APPRECIATION
The more we recognize and appreciate the glory of Srila Prabhupada the more we will be able to appreciate of the activities of Supreme Personality of Godhead, because Srila Prabhupada came to give the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The mercy of the Lord flows through Srila Prabhupada, the most bona fide representative of the Lord. (Excerpt from “Prabhupada Realizations” by HH Bhakti Charu Swami)
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
A devotee surrenders to the Lord and the Lord takes care of His devotees in all respects.
(The content of this E-magazine was based on a lecture given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami at Orlando, USA on 18 May 2008, Lord Nrsimhadeva’s appearance day.)
(Compiled and Edited by Hemavati Radhika Devi Dasi)