The siddha pranali business

The siddha pranali business
and the spiritual form of the soul





Srila Prabhupada: The siddha-pranali process is followed by a class of men who are not very authorized and who have manufactured their own way of devotional service. They imagine they have become associates of the Lord simply by thinking of themselves like that.

This external behavior is not at all according to the regulative principles. The so-called siddha-pranali process is followed by the prakrita-sahajiya, a pseudosect of so-called Vaishnavas. In the opinion of Rupa Gosvami, such activities are simply disturbances to the standard way of devotional service. Sri Rupa Gosvami says that learned acharyas recommend that we follow the regulative principles even after the development of spontaneous love for Krishna. -- Nectar of Devotion 16

To speculate on what your eternal position with Krishna is, or to have some one tell you what it is, is a sign of a prakrta-sahajiya. You will know when you get to that platform. It is irrelevant in the practice of bhakti yoga to speculate on this. Srila Prabhupada says, "That will be revealed when you are liberated. Why you are bothering now?" (Morning Walk, 6-7-76, LA)

According to the Vedanta Sutra (4.4.1) and Sri Sanatana Goswami (Brhadbagavatamrtam, 2.2), a soul never gets given a spiritual body at any time. The spiritual body is an eternal and inseparable facet of the individual soul, the jiva-atma. The spiritual form of the self is eternally and inseparably connected to the individual self. My spiritual body is inseparable from me and, though dormant, my spiritual body has been with me for all of eternity. When a soul desires to render service to the Lord in his spiritual form then the dormant spiritual body becomes fully manifest. This is clearly stated to be the case in the Vedanta Sutra and in more recent texts such as Sri Sanatana Goswami's book Brhadbhagavatamrtam. It is utterly wrong to think that a soul can be given a spiritual body.

Srila Prabhupada Conversations, Morning Walk, 6-7-76, LA

Prabhupada: In this sahajiya party, then preaching will be finished. Siddha-pranali. Then everything will be finished. Preaching will be finished.
Tamala Krsna: What does that mean, Srila Prabhupada, siddha-pranali?
Prabhupada: Siddha-pranali is nonsense. They have manufactured a siddha-pranali.
Ramesvara: [break] ...the initiation that you are given your siddhas, your eternal position.
Prabhupada: They have learned it from these Radha-kunda babajis.
Tamala Krsna: From Radha-kunda babajis?
Prabhupada: Babajis, yes. After all, they're fool, rascals, so whatever they say. Let them say all nonsense. They are disqualified. Sahajiya babajis, that's all.
Ramesvara: Srila Prabhupada, when the devotee is in the original relationship with Krsna, his siddha-deha, why is it that he sometimes changes his original rasa with Krsna?
Prabhupada: Hm?
Ramesvara: Each one of us has an original relationship with Krsna, some as plant, some as tree, some as cow, some as cowherd boy. So if that is re-established, why should the devotee desire to change it?
Prabhupada: Well, that is spiritual kingdom. You can change if you like.
Tamala Krsna: It is not static, Prabhupada once explained. Love is not static.
Prabhupada: Generally, it is not changed. Just like mother Yasoda, she's mother all the time, eternally.
Tamala Krsna: The question came in Bombay two or three years ago. Prabhupada said that it is not static. You can have (inaudible).
Hari-sauri: I always understood before that the rasa was fixed, but that within that rasa one may take different..., one may take a different line.
Prabhupada: That will be revealed when you are liberated. Why you are bothering now?
Prabhupada: A patient is thinking, "How shall I dance when I become healthy?" First of all, rascal, become healthy, then talk of all this. The rascals are thinking like that. You are patient; first of all cure your disease, material disease. Then talk of all this. Utopian. "When I will get rich, how I shall treat.... I shall.... Then my wife is disobedient and I shall kick her like this," (laughter)
Ramesvara: That's the point.

"A bhakta will naturally be attracted towards a specific bhava and mood of service. It is inherent within the bhakta. Everyone is different." That is the whole point.

To speculate on what your eternal position with Krishna is, or to have some one tell you what it is, is a sign of a prakrta-sahajiya. You will know when you get to that platform. It is irrelevant in the practice of bhakti yoga to speculate on this. Srila Prabhupada says: "That will be revealed when you are liberated. Why you are bothering now?"



The Spiritual Form of the Self
by Sriman Muralidhar das
Following is a critique of the philosophy of the Radha Kunda babajis who teach that when a disciple comes to a guru he should be "given" a spiritual body of a manjari. In this article, the author carefully presents the teachings of Prabhupada Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur who taught that this "siddha pranali" system of worship is a concoction and a deviation from the ways of devotion taught by Sri Rupa-Sanatana.

A significant aspect of the siddha-pranali doctrine as it is generally practiced nowadays is the proposition that a guru will assign a spiritual body to their disciple. Followers of this doctrine think the spiritual form of a liberated person is given by their guru to a devotee.

For example, in a book about manjari swarup written by Kunjabihari das Babaji he wrote:

"In the Lord's abode, there are an unlimited number of forms, all suitable for rendering service to him. Every one of those forms is non-different from him, being expanded from his effulgence; each one is eternal, full of consciousness and bliss. They are the crowning, central jewels of the spiritual world - its very life. These unlimited spiritual bodies are the perfected forms of the liberated souls which are awarded to an individual, according to his taste, when he reaches the state of absolute liberation. This state is called attainment of the spiritual body. All these spiritual bodies are eternal for they exist even before the liberated souls enter them and will continue to exist ever afterward. However, prior to the entry of the liberated soul they are in an inactive state."

As all of the unlimited souls are servants of the Lord, each one of them has a spiritual body in the Lord's abode just suitable for rendering service to the Lord. When an individual becomes qualified for direct service to the Lord by the grace of the Goddess of Devotion, then the Supreme Lord awards him that spiritual body.

According to this school of belief, a devotee must be “awarded” or “given” a spiritual body (siddha-deha) by their guru so they can practice the meditation that they are assisting Sri Radha in the divine pastimes of the spiritual world. If some disciple has not been given a spiritual body by their guru then how can the disciple engage in the practice of raganuga bhakti?

Yet it must be pointed out that according to the Vedanta Sutra (4.4.1) and Sri Sanatana Goswami (Brhadbagavatamrtam, 2.2), a soul never gets given a spiritual body at any time. The spiritual body is an eternal and inseparable facet of the individual soul, the jiva-atma. The spiritual form of the self is eternally and inseparably connected to the individual self. My spiritual body is inseparable from me and, though dormant, my spiritual body has been with me for all of eternity. When a soul desires to render service to the Lord in his spiritual form then the dormant spiritual body becomes fully manifest. This is clearly stated to be the case in the Vedanta Sutra and in more recent texts such as Sri Sanatana Goswami's book Brhadbhagavatamrtam. It is utterly wrong to think that a soul can be given a spiritual body. In the commentary by Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana to verse 4.4.1 (sampadyavirbhavah svena sabdat) of the Vedanta Sutra, Baladeva has written the following:

"The individual soul who, by means of devotional service accompanied with knowledge and renunciation, attains the effulgent Supreme, becomes free from the bondage of karma and attains a body endowed with eight virtues. This body is said to be the soul's original form. Why is that? The sutra explains, “svena-sabdat” (because of the word “svena”). The word “svena” here means, “in his own original form”. For this reason it cannot be said that this passage means, “the soul arrives there and then accepts a form which is an external imposition”. In that way it is proved that the form here is the original form of the soul."

In this section of Vedanta Sutra, the topic being discussed is: “When a soul attains liberation does the soul attain a body that is different from himself, as the bodies of demigods are different from their inner self, or does the soul manifest his original identity which is not different from himself?” In Baladeva's commentary, he emphatically declares that in his sutras Vyasa himself is saying that when a soul becomes liberated they realize their inner identity and see they are a purely spiritual self with an eternal body of full of spiritual consciousness and bliss (sat-chitananda).

Baladeva quotes the Chandogya Upanishad:

"Thus does that serene being, arising from this body, appear in its own form, as soon as it has approached the highest light, the knowledge of Self. He, in that state, is the highest person (uttama purusha). He moves about there laughing or eating, playing, and rejoicing in his mind, be it with women, carriages, or relatives, never minding that body into which he was born."
Chandogya Upanishad 8.12.3.

Baladev Vidyabhusan then quotes from the Padma Purana:


anur nityo vyapti-silas cid-anandatmakas tatha
aham artho 'vyayah saksi bhinna-rupah sanatanah

"The soul is atomic, eternal, is present by consciousness everywhere in the material body, is by nature full of spiritual bliss and knowledge, has a sense of individual identity, is unchanging, is a witness within the body, and is different from the Supreme."

Srila Baladev Vidyabhusan states that the spiritual form of bliss the liberated being attains is the original form of the soul that lay dormant within when the soul was in illusion. The Vedanta Sutra tells us that the spiritual body of the liberated being is the soul's original form. This form is a form of eternity, knowledge and bliss, as is mentioned in the verse above (cid-ananda-atma). It is not that the soul attains liberation and enters into a spiritual body or a form of existence which is an external imposition, an external state of being different from the self itsef. Not at all. The liberated soul realizes the spiritual nature of one's own inner being.

Srila Sanatan Gosvami has also presented the same conclusion. In his commentary to verse 2.2186 of Sri Brhadbhagavatamrtam, Srila Sanatan Gosvami quotes Shankaracarya's verse, “mukta api lilaya vigraham kritva bhagavantam bhajanta”, which he translated as “Even the liberated assume a form and worship the Lord in his pastimes”. Srila Sanatan Gosvami then quotes Srimad Bhagavatam 6.14.5 “muktanam api siddhanam narayana parayana”, that is, “The liberated and perfected souls are engaged in Narayan's service.” Then Srila Sanatan Gosvami asks himself: “If liberated souls didn't have forms then how could they engage in the Lord's service?” The answer: “Bhagavati layam praptasyapi nri dehasya mahamuneh punar narayana rupena pradurbhavah”. Even those who have merged into the Lord have dormant human forms.

The statement of Srila Sanatan Goswami is clear and unambiguous. Even those souls who have never known Krishna and are merged in the formless light of Brahman have dormant human forms.

In another part of Brhad Bhagatamrtam, the commentary to verse 2.2.207, Sri Sanatana Goswami also wrote:

"O great sage, among many millions who are liberated and perfect in knowledge of liberation, one may be a devotee of Lord Narayana, or Krishna. Such devotees, who are fully peaceful, are extremely rare. Impersonalists generally imagine themselves perfect and liberated, and among them a very few may actually attain impersonal liberation. But those rare souls, like all others, are eternal servants of Hari, the all attractive Lord. Out of millions of such rare liberated impersonalists, one very fortunate soul may realize this natural fact. Since intelligence is dormant in the “merged” soul, it can be reawakened. Even the liberated souls who have merged into the formless divine light of the spiritual sky retain their eternal spiritual bodies, complete with spiritual mind and senses. Nothing, not even liberation, can ever deprive a jiva of these assets. Thus when a liberated soul gains the favour of the Supreme Lord's personal energy, his spiritual body and senses are reawakened for hearing and chanting the glories of Lord Hari and acting in other ways for the Lord's pleasure."

The spiritual body and senses are reawakened, so that the soul returns to his original state of pure siddha perfection. This soul in its pure state, still merged in Brahman, can develop a mood of submission to the Absolute and begin moving towards the gates of the spiritual world. Or, awakening with a false sense of ego, the soul may descend into the world of duality, birth and death. Again and again the jiva may attain Brahman and then fall again, developing an “exploiting” mentality that drags the soul back into samsara. However the soul who enters the kingdom of Narayana attains real immortality.

Elsewhere in Brhad Bhagatamrtam, Srila Sanatan Goswami gives a beautiful description of souls entering the spiritual world of Vaikuntha. The form of one's self that someone contemplates during one's life of devotional practice, the stage of sadhana bhakti, is the form you will have in your state of perfection. And that state of being of a soul is capable of further transformation and development.

Srila Sanatan Goswami describes souls entering the spiritual world:

"Some came with associates, some with paraphernalia, and some with both associates and paraphernalia. Some merged their associates and paraphernalia in their own selves and became like penniless solitary sages plunged in the nectar of meditation. Some moment by moment manifested different wonderful and charming forms, each opulent with different and wonderful ornaments, features and pastimes. Some were humans, some monkeys, some demigods, some demons, and some sages. Others carried the marks of being initiated in the orders of varna and ashrama. Some were like Indra, Chandra or the other gods. Some had three eyes, some four heads, and some four arms, some eight arms, and some a thousand faces. I will tell you the reason for this great wonder: How can they who taste the nectar of devotion to Lord Krishna not be handsome? The glories of Vaikuntha's residents, who are all beyond the material world of five elements, the glories of Vaikunthaloka and of Vaikuntha's hero, Narayana, cannot be described with the examples drawn from the world of five elements. "
(Brhad Bhagatamrtam 2.4.35-41)



Forum Discussions
The teaching of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati on raganuga-bhakti is, that ajata ruci (without taste) raganuga sadhakas (practitioners) should adopt the methods of raganuga sadhana that they are qualified to adopt in proportion to their development of sacred greed (lobhamayi sraddha), while following the angas (limbs) of vaidhi bhakti (regulated devotional service).
This follows Sri Jiva Goswami's Bhakti-sandarbha 311
ajata-tadrsa-rucina tu sad-visesa adaramatradrta
raganugapi vaidhi-samvalitaivanus heya/
tatha loka-sangrahartam pratis hitena jata-tadrsa-rucina ca/
atra misratve ca tyatha-yogyam raganugayaikikrtyaiva vaidhi kartavya.
"One in whom this taste (ruci) has not arisen but who has come to appreciate raganuga-bhakti only on account of appreciation for a particular saint or scripture (sat), may still practice raganuga-bhakti but with an admixture of vaidhi-bhakti. In the same way, for the sake of preaching (loka-sangrahartaham) one who is advanced and in whom taste has manifested should also practice raganuga with an admixture of vaidhi. Such mixing of the two kinds of bhakti means that one practices vaidhi-bhakti by uniting it with whatever raganuga practices one is capable of."
In the opinion of Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, such mixing of the two kinds of bhakti means that one embrace the angas of vaidhi-bhakti with a view to attain greater eligibility for raganuga-bhakti and its sadhya (goal) by uniting them with whatever raganuga practices one is eligible for (yatah-yogyam). In his opinion this did not include an emphasis on meditating on the pastimes of Radha-Krsna from the vantage point of one's siddha deha for those who had not attained the stage of nistha, based on the reasoning that dhyana (meditation) requires a pure heart, whereas kirtanam (chanting) does not. He reasoned, as has Sri Sanatana Goswami in Brhad-bhagavatamrta, that smaranam (remembering) arises naturally out of kirtanam. Thus he emphasized nama smaranam for beginners, stressing inoffensive chanting that would lead naturally to meditation on Krsna's form (rupa samaranam), qualities (guna smaranam), and pastimes (lila smaranam). (lila-smaranam, the remembrance of one's lila in Krishna's pastimes)
Of course he also emphasized mantra dhyana of Gopala mantra, kama gayatri, etc., and these mantras were given to sadhakas only after they had attained a degree of steadiness in nama smaranam (japa).
Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati was reacting to what he perceived as 'a sleight of hand' in the name of giving, or in some cases making a business out of and selling siddha pranali. Thus his position was that sadhakas while aspiring for Vraja bhakti should do kirtanam and that as this kirtanam qualified them they should combine it with smaranam. Furthermore he maintained that one's svarupa would be glimpsed in the stages of ruci and asakti, at which time effective and meaningful lila smaranam from the vantage point of one's svarupa could take place propelling the sadhaka into bhava bhakti.
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I don't see people engaged in astakaliya lila-smaran from day one. The idea that nama-kirtan is required to bring about purity of heart, which gives a solid basis for smaran, is there in Jiva's Bhakti-sandarbha, too. Smaran and kirtan supplement each other.

I discussed the matter of lila-smaranam with Baba last time I was at Radha Kund. He told me to not worry of it, that it would eventually come, and when it would naturally come, I could commence with astakaliya-lila. Until then, I was to engage in nama-japa, diksa-mantra-smaran and Giridhari-seva, and also manasik yogapitha-seva to become better acquainted with the basic scenario and personalities in the lila, including myself.

No objection there, either -- it's just that we hear of our svarupa prior to attaining our first glimpses of it as ruci and asakti arise. This hearing provides us with incentive to yearn for the attainment, just as hearing of Krishna's qualities and pastimes gives rise to eagerness for direct darshan.

A bhakta will naturally be attracted towards a specific bhava and mood of service. It is inherent within the bhakta. Everyone is different.

One's siddha-deha is not something manufactured in the mind of a conditioned soul, nor is it artificially assigned, nor is it something to dangle before disciples of the lineage of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati to say, "You cannot attain siddha-deha (Vraja bhakti) without coming to our lineage."

The siddha-deha is gradually revealed to the sadhakas realization, qualification and progress in devotional service. There is no need to artificially designate or assign a siddha-deha. It lies already dormant within the self and will fully manifest, when the bhakta develops real love or prema bhakti.

Instead of onself or the guru concocting an imaginary spiritual identity, simply meditating upon Krishnas name will reveal everything in due course of time. It is therefore not necessary for the guru to artificially give siddha-pranali to the disciple. This view is held by all bonafide vaishnava goswamis.



Srila Prabhupada Letter to Rupanuga — Los Angeles 8 August, 1969

My Dear Rupanuga, please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter of August 3rd, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. In further reference to your question about the form of the spirit soul of the conditioned living entity, there is a spiritual form always, but it develops fully only when the living entity goes back to Vaikuntha.

This form develops according to the desire of the living entity. Until this perfectional stage is reached, the form is lying dormant like the form of the tree is lying dormant in the seed.

La Aparición del Señor Nrisimhadeva en Mayapur Dham

La Aparición
del Señor Nrisimhadeva
en Mayapur Dham

por Atmatattva das adhikari

El 24 de marzo de 1984, a las 12:20 a.m., treinta y cinco dacoites que portaban armas de fuego y bombas atacaron Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir. Inicialmente los dacoites hostigaron a los devotos y se mofaron de ellos. Pero la mayor conmoción vino cuando osaron robarse las Deidades de Srila Prabhupada y de Srimati Radharani. Sin ningún temor, los devotos se enfrentaron a los agresores. ¿Cómo podían permitir que se llevaran a Srila Prabhupada y a Srimati Radharani? De súbito hubo disparos; un par de dacoites cayeron al piso, y así el plan de estos fue desbaratado. Se pudo rescatar a Srila Prabhupada, pero la hermosa forma de Radharani ya no agraciaría más el altar principal.

Este incidente realmente agitó la mente de los devotos. Los encargados de la administración estaban particularmente determinados a implementar una solución permanente. No era la primera vez que los devotos de Mayapur habían tenido que lidiar con actos de asedio y violencia. Un directivo de ISKCON de Mayapur, sugirió que se debía instalar al Señor Nrisimhadeva. La ocasión en que los dacoites amenazaron a los devotos del Yoga-Pitha, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura y su hijo Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura rápidamente instalaron a Sri Sri Lakshmi-Nrisimhadeva. Después ya no hubo más incidentes de esa índole. Sin embargo en Mayapur había unos devotos que no estaban tan entusiasmados de dar esos mismos pasos. El pujari tenía que ser un naisthika-brahmacari (haber practicado celibato desde el nacimiento) y la adoración del Señor Nrisimhadeva tiene que ser muy estricta y regulada. ¿Quién estaba preparado para adorarlo?

A pesar de las reticencias, era muy importante traer al Señor Nrisimhadeva a Mayapur. Se nos pidió a Bhaktisiddhanta Dasa y a mí que hiciéramos unos bosquejos. Un día alguien me indicó que las piernas de la Deidad debían estar encuclilladas, como listas para dar un salto. Además, debía estar mirando ferozmente al derredor; que sus dedos debían estar contraídos, y que llamas debían emanar de su cabeza. Yo dibujé un boceto del Señor exhibiendo tal humor.

A los devotos les gustó el dibujo y Pankajanghri Dasa accedió a adorarlo. Radhapada Dasa, un devoto adinerado de Kolkata, se ofreció para pagar el trabajo de escultura y la ulterior instalación de la Deidad. Daba la impresión que la aparición del Señor Nrisimhadeva en ISKCON Mayapur iba a ser un asunto fácil y sin complicaciones. Radhapada Dasa solícitamente adelantó 130.000 rupias y se convino que la Deidad iba a estar lista en un plazo de tres meses para que la instalaran.

Partí hacia el sur de la India para empezar a hacer realidad la iniciativa. Por la gracia de Krishna pronto halle a un sthapati muy reputado. Un sthapati no solamente esculpe Deidades; también es un experto en arquitectura e ingeniería. El hombre se comportó muy amablemente hasta que le dije que la Deidad que queríamos era un Ugra-Nrisimha. Se negó rotundamente a esculpir esta Deidad. Luego recurrí a muchos otros escultores de Deidades, pero la respuesta fue siempre la misma: “no”. Hice varios viajes entre Mayapur y el sur de la India y entretanto transcurrieron seis meses; no obstante, el Señor Nrisimhadeva aún no Se había manifestado en Su aspecto de Deidad.

Radhapada Dasa estaba muy ansioso de ver al Señor Nrisimhadeva instalado en Mayapur. Me pidió que visitase al sthapati con quien me había reunido inicialmente, y que de nuevo invocara su consentimiento. Esta vez el escultor estaba un tanto más condescendiente y se ofreció leerme un capítulo del Silpa-sastra (una escritura védica de escultura y arquitectura de templos) que trata sobre las diferentes formas de las Deidades. El sthapati leyó en voz alta unos versos que describen al Señor Nrisimhadeva. Una serie de versos describía Su melena llameante, Su mirada escudriñadora y Sus rodillas flexionadas y con un pie hacia delante listo abalanzarse desde el pilar. Cuando leyó esta descripción yo no salía de mi asombro. Era justo lo que queríamos. Le mostré el boceto que había dibujado. Quedó impresionado y me dijo que iba a hacer un bosquejo basado en la descripción de la escritura, la cual podíamos utilizar como referencia a la hora de esculpir la Deidad. No obstante, me hizo la aclaración de que él no iba a tallar el murti. Se dilató una semana para completar el bosquejo, pero cuando lo terminó lucía muy impresionante. Regresé a Mayapur y mostré el bosquejo a las autoridades del templo. Todos querían que este mismo sthapati esculpiera la Deidad. Una vez más me enviaron de vuelta al sur de la India para tratar de convencerlo.

Encaminé mis pasos directo a la casa del sthapati. Me sentía muy ansioso. ¿Qué otra cosa podía hacer sino orar al Señor Nrisimhadeva y pedirle que fuera misericordioso y accediera a manifestarse en nuestro templo en Sri Mayapur Dhama? No había pronunciado ni dos oraciones cuando el hombre me interrumpió y resueltamente me aseguró que no iba a tallar la Deidad. La historia de cómo llegó a esta conclusión es interesante.

El sthapati se había abocado a su gurú, el Sankaracharya de Kanchipuram, y le había preguntado sobre la petición que le hicimos. Su gurú le respondió en el acto: “No lo hagas. Tu familia va a ser destruida”. Pero tras reflexionar unos momentos, el gurú preguntó: “¿Quién te ha pedido que esculpas esta Deidad?” Cuando escuchó que era el colectivo Hare Krishna de Navadvip, se mostró muy preocupado. “¿Quieren ellos un Ugra-Nrsimha? ¿Están conscientes de las implicaciones de esculpir e instalar un Ugra-Nrisimha? Deidades de este tipo eran talladas hace aproximadamente 3000 años por sthapatis muy elevados. Hay un poblado camino a Mysore donde se instaló un Ugra-Nrisimha con rasgos muy feroces. El demonio Hiranyakashipú yace en Su regazo con el vientre partido en dos, y sus intestinos están desparramados por todo el altar. En un tiempo el estándar de adoración era muy alto. Pero gradualmente dicho estándar declinó. Hoy dicho lugar es un pueblo fantasma. Toda la aldea está despoblada. Nadie puede vivir en paz ahí. ¿Es acaso esto lo que quieren para su proyecto?”

El sthapati contestó: “Están insistiendo mucho. Vienen constantemente para hablarme sobre la Deidad. Aparentemente ellos tienen problemas con dacoites”. Mientras le mostraba a su gurú el bosquejo de la Deidad, el sthapati dijo: “Esta es la Deidad que quieren”. El gurú tomó el bosquejo y lo observó atentamente.

“¡Ah!, esto pertenece a la categoría ugra” —dijo—, “pero una Deidad con este humor en particular se llama Sthanu-Nrisimha. No las hay en este planeta. Incluso los semidioses en los planetas celestiales no adoran una forma como ésta. Sí, esta Deidad pertenece a la categoría ugra. Ugra significa “feroz”, muy iracundo. Hay nueve formas dentro de esta categoría. Todas lucen muy feroces. No. No esculpas esta Deidad. No será auspicioso para ti. Te hablaré sobre este asunto más adelante”.

Unas pocas noches después el sthapati tuvo un sueño. En el sueño su gurú se presentó ante él y le dijo: “Para ellos, puede esculpir Sthanu-Nrsimha”. A la mañana siguiente recibió una carta procedente de Kanchipuram que le entregaron a mano. La carta era del Sankaracarya y en ella daba unas instrucciones relacionadas con restauraciones de templos. En la parte inferior había una nota que decía: “Para ISKCON puedes esculpir Sthanu-Nrisimha”.

El sthapati me enseñó la carta y me dijo: “Tengo las bendiciones de mi gurú. Esculpiré la Deidad”. La noticia me dejó rebosante de gozo. Le di un pago inicial y le pregunté cuánto tiempo le tomaría esculpir la Deidad. Me repuso que la Deidad estaría lista para ser instalada en un período de seis meses. Acto seguido regresé a Mayapur.

Tras pasar cuatro pacíficos meses en el Santo Dhama, decidí ir al sur de la India para comprar la pesada parafernalia de latón que requería la adoración de Nrisimhadeva, y posteriormente ir a recoger la Deidad. El viaje estuvo bien organizado y sin problemas hasta que visité al sthapati. Le expliqué que ya había comprado toda la parafernalia necesaria para la adoración, y que había llegado para llevarme la Deidad. Me miró como si yo hubiera perdido la razón y exclamó: “¡¿Qué Deidad?! ¡Ni siquiera he podido encontrar la piedra idónea!” No daba crédito a mis oídos.

“¡Pero usted me dijo que la Deidad estaría lista en seis meses! —respondí anonadado—.

“Mantendré mi promesa” —me contestó—. “Seis meses después de que encuentre la piedra, la Deidad estará lista para ser instalada”. Fue muy enfático, pero yo me resistía a comprender o a aceptar la demora. Frustrado, lo desafié: “Hay enormes lajas de piedra por todo el sur de la India. ¿Cuál es el problema?” Me vio de la misma manera que un maestro miraría a un alumno torpe, y muy deliberadamente me dijo: “No estoy haciendo un mortero para moler. Estoy haciendo una Deidad. Las escrituras nos dicen que únicamente una piedra con vida se puede utilizar para fabricar una Deidad de Vishnu. Cuando golpeas siete puntos diferentes de ese bloque de piedra, y cada uno produce el sonido descrito en las escrituras, entonces puede que ese bloque sea el apropiado. Con todo, hay una segunda prueba adicional que determina si la piedra está viva o no. Hay una oruga que come granito. Si lo come de un extremo a otro y tras él deja un surco visible y terminado, entonces se ha superado el segundo examen al que tiene que someterse la piedra. Esa piedra es una piedra viviente, y una expresión estética puede surgir de ella. Solamente con un bloque así puedo esculpir tu Nrisimhadeva. ¡Esa piedra declama poesía! Todos los rasgos de una Deidad que se tallan en una piedra con tales características, serán completamente expresivos y hermosos. Por favor se paciente. He estado buscando asiduamente tu bloque de seis pies cúbicos”.

La explicación me dejó asombrado pero un poco ansioso. Los devotos de Mayapur estaban aguardando la pronta llegada de la Deidad. ¿Cómo les iba a explicar la búsqueda de la “piedra viviente”? Quizás tomarían la decisión de usar mármol para fabricar a Nrishimhadeva. A fin de aligerar el tema me puse a hablar con el sthapati sobre el murti de Prahlada Maharaja. “Por favor perdóneme, pero la última vez que vine me olvide decirle que también queremos un murti de Prahlada. Queremos adorar a Prahlada-Nrishimhadeva. ¿Qué opina?

“No creo que sea posible” —respondió tajantemente el sthapati—. Sin saber qué decir, me quede viéndolo con incredulidad. Él se sonrió y dijo a continuación: “Tú quieres que todo se haga exactamente de acuerdo con las escrituras. Tu Nrisimhadeva medirá cuatro pies de altura. Hablando comparativamente, ello significa que Prahlada Maharaja sería del tamaño de una ameba”.

“Pero queremos que Prahlada Maharajá tenga un pie de altura” —repuse—.

“Muy bien,” —contestó el sthapati— “pero eso significa que tu Nrisimhadeva debe medir 120 pies de alto”. Comenzamos a argumentar alternadamente sobre la forma de Prahlada Maharaja. Finalmente dio un suspiro en señal de resignación y accedió a esculpir un Prahlada Maharaja de un pie de altura. Por lo menos ahora tenía una noticia positiva para transmitir cuando regresase a Mayapur.

Al cabo de dos meses de nuevo volví al sur de la India. No había ningún progreso. Viajaba entre Mayapur y el sur de la India cada treinta o cuarenta días. Y en uno de tales viajes por fin hallamos la piedra. El sthapati se transformó en otra persona. Por un período de más de una semana prácticamente no fue a su casa. Hora tras hora, día tras día, el sthapati simplemente se quedó sentado contemplando el bloque de piedra. Tenía una tiza en la mano, pero no había dibujado un solo trazo. No permitió que sus ayudantes hicieran nada excepto limar las aristas y protuberancias de la piedra para que quedara como un bloque rectangular. En mi siguiente viaje solamente había delineado una figura en la piedra. Eso era todo. Me sentí preocupado. Lo administradores de Mayapur se estaban poniendo impacientes.

“¿Está seguro de que esta Deidad va estar terminada en seis meses?” —le pregunté desesperado—.

“No te preocupes. El trabajo estará terminado” —me respondió—.

Regresé a Mayapur, pero solamente para ser enviado de vuelta al sur de la India para ratificar unos detalles de la Deidad. Encontré al sthapati solo esculpiendo la figura con mucho cuidado y dedicación. A estas alturas la simetría de la piedra había desaparecido y una forma comenzaba a emerger. El sthapati recién comenzaba a tallar los brazaletes. Se demoró dos semanas en terminarlos. Todos los rasgos eran sumamente refinados y delicados. Yo no sólo estaba impresionado sino muy feliz.

Al sthapati le tomó un poco más de doce meses terminar la Deidad. Cuando concluyó la obra no me informó de inmediato sino que decidió visitar a unos amigos por unos pocos días. Era la estación del monzón, y como los visitantes eran escasos, creyó que era seguro encerrar al Señor Nrisimhadeva en un cobertizo con techo de palmas. Dos días después sus vecinos corrieron para informarle que el cobertizo estaba ardiendo. Las lluvias torrenciales no cesaban y todo estaba húmedo, pero el techo de palmas de cocotero había prendido fuego. El sthapati corrió al lugar del siniestro y pudo comprobar que lo único que quedaba del cobertizo era una pila de cenizas, mas Nrisimhadeva estaba intacto. De inmediato tomó el teléfono y me llamó: “Por favor ven a recoger tu Deidad. ¡Está quemando todo! ¡Ha hecho saber claramente que quiere irse YA!

Lleno de entusiasmo viajé al sur de la India, renté un camión, y llenamos con arena la mitad de la carrocería. Luego me dirigí al taller del sthapati con la idea de que esta última operación sería relativamente fácil. Tontamente había olvidado que el Señor Nrisimhadeva es una personalidad muy pesada: ¡una tonelada! Tras dos o tres horas de trabajo logramos trasladar sin ningún percance la Deidad desde el cobertizo hasta el camión. Para cruzar sin incidentes las fronteras estatales también necesitábamos un permiso de la policía, así como documentos firmados y sellados del Departamento Central de Impuestos sobre Ventas, del Director de Arqueología y del Consejo de Administración del Emporio de Arte de Tamil Nadu.

Todos los funcionarios exigieron ver la Deidad antes de firmar los documentos referidos. Una vez tuvieron darshana del Señor Nrisimhadeva, todos fueron muy serviciales y eficientes. Pudimos reunir todos los documentos necesarios en un lapso de veinticuatro horas —todo un milagro dado el consabido atolladero burocrático que caracteriza a las dependencias gubernamentales de India—. El viaje a Mayapur también fue sorprendentemente pacífico y contratiempos. Nuestro protector definitivamente estaba presente con nosotros.

Normalmente el sthapati llega el día que se va a efectuar la ceremonia de instalación, entra en el aposento de la Deidad, y seguidamente talla los ojos de la Deidad. A este ritual se lo llama netra-nimilanam (abrimiento de los ojos). Fue un caso excepcional que el sthapati de nuestro Nrishimhadeva ya hubiera tallado los ojos. No sólo había tallado los ojos, sino que había celebrado el prana-prathistha (la ceremonia para infundir la fuerza vital) y ofrecido un breve arati y puja. Estoy seguro de que esa fue la razón por la que los documentos fueron tramitados tan diligentemente, y también por la que el traslado del Señor Supremo fue tan fácil. Él ya estaba presente. ¿Quién se iba atrever a negarle algo al Señor Nrisimhadeva?

La instalación del Señor Nrisimhadeva fue muy sencilla y duró tres días: del 28 al 30 de julio de 1986. Recuerdo haberme sentido aprensivo por pensar que quizás la instalación fue demasiado simple. Las graves advertencias del Sankaracharya de Kanchipuram me habían impresionado profundamente. No obstante, mi mente pronto se calmó tras reparar en el estruendoso y dinámico kirtana. Sankirtana-yajña, la única opulencia de Kali-yuga, estaba dominando la escena. Me sentí animado y satisfecho. El Señor Nrisimhadeva, el protector del movimiento de sankirtana, finalmente tomó la decisión de manifestarse en Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir.

[Traducción: Aniruddha das.]

Jayapataka swami Narasimhadev Pastimes Kathmandu, May 22,2008.(transcribed by HG Neelangani Devi Dasi mataji & HG Neela Madhava krsna Das prabhu)

Jayapataka swami

Narasimhadev Pastimes Kathmandu, May 22,2008.(transcribed by HG Neelangani Devi Dasi mataji & HG Neela Madhava krsna Das prabhu)


Nrsimhadev Pastimes -22 May 2008 - Kathmandu – Nepal




Jaya Radha Madhava…

Mukam karoti vacalam Pamghum langhayate girim

Yat krpa tamaham vande Sri Gurum din Madhavam

Sri Caitanya Iswaram



Hari Om Tat sat

Thank you for your wonderful reception.

Everyone knows English? Or do they need translation in nepali?



So hearing the vibrations going through the buildings of the kirtan and we heard so much about the preaching centre here and the cultural centre. Prabha Vishnu Maharaj suggested that I come here first today, be with you today then we go Boroneal Kant for the remaining days. So last time I was here we had another centre a smaller one, (to a devotee - you still have? , a gurukul? ) . We just celebrated Narasimha Dev, Prahald Narasimha. So you probably also were celebrating the Narasimha Chaturdasi here with abhishek. So you all got Narasimha oil.

So we are discussing about how, in the different Puranas there is different histories about Narasimha Dev. In the Bhagwatan we have the most recent Narasimha avatar, but in Padma Purana also mentions about Narasimha Dev having appeared in previous Kalpas for slightly different pastimes. At one time Hiranyakashipu appeared and he was worshipping Shiva and to get the blessings. So he told his son Prahlad that you should accept me as Supreme. He said I can’t do that. I always accept Siva……Shiva is the greatest divine devotee but Krsna is Supreme Vishnu. So some other times also Hiranyakashipu worshipped Brahma. If I remember, he has slightly different boons. One time he did not in this yuga, he has in this kalpa, he has what that I won’t be killed inside or outside, but in one pastime he didn’t ask for that. So instead what he did is, he told Prahlad that you have to accept me as Supreme by 6’o clock. Tonight. If you don’t do that then I will kill you. So like that it is slightly different.

But before that happened,he also sent his soldiers to kill Prahlad. So they went with different kinds of arms. They hit with a sword but the sword, it turned into a blue lotus flower. Someone came with a spear and threw it at him, as soon as it hit him; it became a blue lotus flower. So someone came with a Trishul and tried to stab him, it became a blue lotus flower. Everything, someone came with arrows, throwing arrows, but as soon as they hit him, it became a blue lotus flower. He is covered with blue lotus flowers. Like probably sometimes we do here pushpa abhishek. They are trying to kill him; instead they giving him pushpa abhishek, showering him with flowers. So like this, Prahlad was,like they were not able to kill him. He sent a wild elephant with a big tusk. The elephant came and then jabbed Prahlad with his tusk, the tusks fell off and then he was without tusks, he was embarrassed, he ran away.

He tried so many ways, more or less other ways, more or less same but one time ,Hiranyakashipu, he thought that he can’t kill this guy, can’t kill him, and let us just get him out of the way. So he put him in the bottom of the ocean and covered him with mountains of stones, of boulders. Have you heard about that one…? He was just like piled up with one whole mountain may be 500 or 1000 meters or more maybe- a stone mountain. He thought OK now at least he won’t bother us anymore, he won’t tell us about Vishnu. So then because Prahlad became heavier than the heaviest and lighter than the lightest. So he became very light, he became so light that he was coming up through the boulders and pushing them aside and finally he is floating on the sea tub. So then he swam to the shore and went in to see his father again who was like ‘Why is it that you don’t die, why don’t you die’. He said I don’t die for the same reason I am also protected by Vishnu. So finally so many things like this happened.

Of course in the Bhagwatam it explains that they thought to give Prahlad another chance. So they said go in to the school again. Some Vaishnava must be going into the school and teaching him. So we will put the secret police, the top army- anti terrorists around the school. If any Vaishnava comes near the school, shoot! kill outside. Then he won’t be contaminated anymore but ofcourse he was the Viashnava himself. He was trained. ‘When was he trained’? In the womb of his mother. (The students don’t know that?). Narada Muni was teaching his mother, he was in the womb and so he got trained up before birth. So like that. he got all the other students to chant Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Finally, so many things like this happened. The Padma Purana says this time Hiranyakasipu had built a big stadium, like a huge pavilion, so huge that it was more than a 100 kms long and 50 wide and very high, even there could be aeroplanes inside. It was climate controlled. So you will always feel comfortable inside. Never too hot and never too cold. If anyone felt sick and they go inside the pavilion they will feel healthy. There was a nice buffet of all kinds of edibles. So if you are hungry you go and eat. So all of these facilities for nice sense gratification

On one side there was big dais like a high raised place and there was a gigantic throne for Hiranyakashipu. People would come there. So much sense gratification from him and they would worship him.

Glories to Hiranyakashipu! We love you. Give us more sense gratification! (laughter) ‘true love’. Right? He was popular amongst many people. So there was little Prahlad up next to the throne on the huge dais and he said he got till 6’o clock and then I finish you. He asked if the Lord is going to come. He said ‘Of course He will come’.

This time there was no pillar. So then Lord Narasimha Dev went to the city and he was walking, walking and flying. People were seeing him. All the demons living in the capital city of Hiranyakashipu. They were very afraid. Who is this half man and half lion? They were running. Then he went into the pavilion. Then he was flying in his gigantic form on the back. Then Hiranyakashipu told his air force to go and tell this beast to get out. We don’t allow beasts in here and if he does not leave just kill him. So jets went over there to stop him, but he did not stop. Suddenly he spread his hair, his kesha, his mane. One of those jets hit the hair of Narasimha Dev. Swishhhhhhhhhhhhhh….the jet became ashes. So the whole air force of Hiranyakahipu was turned into ashes. Then Hiranyakashipu sent missiles, many missiles. So some of them hit his hair, it got twisted, some he caught and threw it down…swishhhhhh…but nothing was harming Narasimha Dev and finally all the weapons, all the air force, everything was finished. So then he went to Hiranyakashipu and said you all have to attack. Then they had this arial fight and everyone was watching Hiranyakashipu fighting with Narasimha Dev. So then one time Narasimha caught him and let him go waiting for just the right moment not during the day or night. So when the right moment came Narasimhadev picked him up and he sat down on his throne and swishhhhhhhh…..bifurcated him. So like this slightly different. Ultimate result is the same. Prahlad was offering him prayers.

After that ,in another kalpa, Laxmi couldn’t approach him, but in this one she approached and sat on the lap of Narasimha Dev. The Brahmans were calling over because the effulgence from Narasimha Dev was so intense that it was burning everyone, like millions of suns, thousands of suns. So they are all burning. So they communicate with Laxmi, ‘Can we switch his effulgence to something cooling’. She has sunlight effulgence and moonlight effulgence. So then he had moonlight effulgence, cooling. So then everyone could offer their Prayers to Narasimha Dev.

Narasimhadev is removing the obstacles of the devotees in the path of devotion. Some of the obstacles have been removed. When you need help you can always pray to Narasimha Dev. He also has a planet in the spiritual world one of those Vishnu’s called Narasimha and some devotees like to be with Narasimhadev, some like to be with some other Vishnu, some they like to be with Lord Ramachandra in Ayodhya or Supreme planet there is Goloka Vrindavan. How many here like to be with Krsna in Goloka Vrindavan. Hari Bol……

Lord Caitanya had a devotee Narasinga Brahmachari. He was very devoted to Narasimha Dev, so he was always worshipping Narasimhadev every day. So one day he was meditating that Lord Caitanya was going to Vrindavan. He was making a jeweled road, a beautiful road to Vrindavan. But when he got up to Kanhainatshala, then he couldn’t go any further. So then he said that it seems Lord Caitanya is not going to Vrindavan but to Kanhainatshala. Anyone here went to Kanhainatshala? Did you like it? and on the bank of Ganges just opposite from Malda, southern most North Bengal city, the Superindentent of Police in Badrapur, he was asking me if I lived in Siliguri. No I live mostly in Mayapur sometimes in Siliguri. But he hadn’t been further south of Islampur. We go there sometime. A hill where there is a footprint of Radha and Krsna.Lord Caitanya went there after he got initiated and there Krsna came up to him, playing on a flute ,with peacock feathers on his hair, yellow dhoti and colored sash and chadhar. He was playing on the flute and coming close and coming close right up to Lord Caitanya. He put his arms around Lord Caitanya and gave him a hug. Lord Caitanya was put into supreme ecstasy. Then Krsna ran off and Lord Caitanya ran after him, but then Krsna disappeared. He could not find him. So this was the first place He had darshan. So this is where He had his Vipralambha. Vipralambha is a separation mood awakened. So He got back to Navadip. He was in ecstasy, falling on the ground, rolling calling “ Krsna! Krsna! “ . He told his devotees, that He had got Krsna. Krsna left him. Don’t know how wonderful it is to get Krsna and loose Him. You feel so much longing to be with Krsna. Probably none of you got Krsna here, but trying to get Krsna.So Krsna was got by Lord Caitanya and his ecstasy became more intense and more ecstatic. So sometime you can visit Kanhainatshala. It’s not so far, its half way between Mayapur and Nepal border. May be less than that, say half an hour.

How are youth students, everyone’s Blissful?…you have some questions for me...

GLORIES OF NRSIMHADEV! 18 MAY 2008, Sridham Mayapur.(transcribed by HG Jayaraseshwari mataji)

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HH JAYAPATAKA SWAMI GURU MAHARAJ’S CLASS ON:

GLORIES OF NRSIMHADEV! SPOKEN ON 18 MAY 2008

Shloka from Srimad Bhagavatam, 7.8.17:

Satyam vidhaatum nijay-bhrtya-bhaashitam

Vyaaptim ca bhuuteshv akhileshu caatmanah

Adrshyataayadbhuta-ruupam udvahan

Stambhe sabhaayaam na mrgam na maanusam

TRANSLATION: To prove that the statement of His servant Prahlada Maharaja was substantial – in other words, to prove that the Supreme Lord is present everywhere, even within the pillar of an assembly hall – the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, exhibited a wonderful form never before seen. The form was neither that of a man nor that of a lion. Thus the Lord appeared in His wonderful form in the assembly hall.

PURPORT BY HDG: AC BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI PRABHUPADA!

When Hiranyakashipu asked Prahalada Maharaja, Where is your Lord? Is He present in this pillar?” Prahlada Maharaja fearlessly replied, “Yes, my Lord is present everywhere.” Therefore, to convince Hiranyakashipu that the statement of Prahlada Maharaja was unmistakably true, the Lord appeared from the pillar. The Lord appeared as half lion and half man so that Hiranyakashipu could not understand whether the great giant was a lion or a human being. To substantiate Prahlada’s statement, the Lord proved that His devotee, as declared in Bhagavad-gita, is nevery vanquished (kaunteya pratijaaniihi na me bhatah pranashyati Bg 9.31). Prahlada Maharaja’s demonic father had repeatedly threatened to kill Prahlada, but Prahlada was confident that he could be killed, since he was protected by the Supreme Lord. By appearing from the pillar, the Lord encouraged His devotee, saying in effect, “Don’t worry. I am present here.” By manifesting His form as Nrsimhadeva, the Lord also preserved the truth of Lord Brahma’s promise that Hiranyakashipu was not to be killed by any animal or any man. The Lord appeared in a form that could not be said to be fully a man or a lion.

Hari hi Om tatsat!

So Srimad Bhagavatam describes the appearance of Nrsinghadev to fulfill the statements of his devotee , nitya pritya bhaashitam, the words spoken by His servant, his devotee were proven to be true. The Lord is present everywhere. Also He promised that His devotee would not perish, so he was protected by Lord Nrsinghadev. Hiranyakashipu tried so many ways to kill Prahlad but they were not successful and when he finally he could not kill him he decided to at least get rid of him. He had him put in the bottom of the ocean, and had piled a mountain of rocks, stones. He thought this would keep him out of sight and prevent him from causing trouble. Then he was under hundreds of thousands of tons of millions of tons stones. Then Prahlad became light. He had mystical powers to be heavier than the heaviest and lighter than the lightest. So he became so light that he floated to the top of the ocean and popped out from the pile of boulders. So, these things were frustrating Hiranyakashipu. So he decided I will kill him myself. That is when he asked if Nrsinghadev is in the column and Prahlad said He is everywhere. So just at the right time the Lord appeared out of the column. Hiranyakashipu fought with Him and Hiranyakashipu was defeated. In the Padma Purana it mentions that Prahlad, Hiranyakashipu, Nsringhadev they appear many times, it is not only this one time. At least two different incarnations in other days of Brahma are described in the Padma Purana. One of those times he worshipped Siva and he got the blessing. Another time he worshipped Brahma again. When he was worshipping Siva he wanted Prahlad to admit that he was supreme and when Prahlad did not he said that well at least admit Siva is supreme if not me. And that he is higher above Lord Vishnu. Prahlad did not accept that either. Prahlad was a very fixed up Vaishnava. He knew very clearly who the Supreme was. He got prenatal instructions in the womb of his mother Kayadu. He was instructed by Narada Muni. When Narada went to save Prahlad from the devas and took Kayadu to his ashram she was carrying Prahlad and then instructed her. Later she forgot about the things but Prahlad remembered everything. So that is why before he was born he was already trained up. Teachers of Prahlad were amazed where he was getting all this information from. They were not teaching him all this Vishnu tattva. So they were surprised. His mother - I can’t remember whether it was the Siva time or Brahma time, One time Padma Purana says that when Bhakta Prahlad was preaching about Vishnu bhakti and everything then Hiranyakashipu got really angry and sent his soldiers to kill him. First they tried to – struck him with the sword. No sooner the weapon would hit Prahlad it turned into a blue lotus neel kamal. Another soldier came with a spear and went to stab Prahlad in the heart, and kill him, but as soon as it touched Prahlad it turned into a blue lotus. Someone came with a spear and ah…………. More blue lotus! Whatever they tried, the weapons turned into blue lotuses. So there was a pile of blue lotuses next to Prahlad. They were not able to hurt him. Rather they were doing pushpanjali! Ha Ha! Like that so many other things they tried to kill him. They sent one big tusker, an elephant , the elephant went running to Prahlad and tried to jab him with his tusk. When the tusk hit Prahlad it broke out and then without any tusk he was demoralized and ran away. Whereas in the Bhagavatam it says that Hiranyakashipu says that maybe this boy is being contaminated by the preaching of some Vaishnava. So he told his elite soldiers to guard the school and make sure that no Vaishnava goes in. If they see any Vaishnava going to the gurukul, kill him he said. They were guarding with their weapons. Little did they know that the Vaishnava Prahlad was already inside, Bhakta Prahlad and teaching the students to chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare!

So like this so many exchanges between Prahlad, Hiranyakashipu actually Hiranyakashipu was a child abuser. Right? In the worst way. He wanted, to get rid of him in so many ways. He was a demon of the child abusers. But Prahlad was protected by Nrsinghadev. Strangely, Padma Puran mentions that in another kalpa Hiranyakashipu had the boon not to be killed by the devas animals, or by man but he did not mention in or out but in this leela he mentioned neither inside or out, but in that leela he did not mention. So that he had to be killed in the door way and twilight he did not mention. So there is little difference in each of the pastimes. So Hiranyakashipu told Prahlad I will give you time till 6 in the evening till sun down. Like in America the cowboy bullies they say you have time till sundown. So Hiranyakashipu gave Prahlad time till sundown and if your Lord does not come by that time you will be finished.

There was elaborate arrangement for worshiping Hiranyakashipu. They built a big air conditioned facility which was very like a over a 100 km long and 50 km wide and very high and even air planes to fly inside it. It was air conditioned and was quite cold. Also very pleasant. There was special buffet if you were hungry. Eat whatever you want. But even then you do not feel hungry but still if you felt hungry you could eat. There was a big high like altar with a big throne and Hiranyakashipu would sit and 100 million people would sit and do Hiranyakashipu kirtan. Did not say what was in the kirtan. We love you ..Hiranyakashipu. You give us sense gratification! You are a great guy! Something like that. So they had big gatherings, fountains and beautiful… Hiranyakashipu would get worshipped, not as a representative of Lord Vishnu but as the supreme himself. Then Prahlad would still not accept it. Mutiny was imminent. Hiranyakashipu told him you have until sunset and I will kill you. Then Nrsinghadev appeared outside of this big facility and He was walking thru the town. All the people the demons living in Hiranyakashipu’s city they saw Him and he climbed the ramp and entered into the stadium or whatever you call it. The facility and He was roaring with His gigantic form. Hiranyakashipu said what is this? Call the air force commander. Tell this whatever he is we do not allow beasts into the stadium. He should go out otherwise he will be killed. So they went there to tell Nrsinghadev to leave. He did not leave. Then they went to attack Him. His mane was spread out. When any airplane or missile hit His mane they would be pulverized into ashes. Psh…Would fall as ash down on the people below. Sometime in the airport we see some light bugs which touch the light and get burnt and fall down psh…Hiranyakashipu had special missiles and he told them to release the missiles. All kinds of missiles to destroy and so one after another he was throwing missiles at Nrsinghadev. Some would get burnt, and some Nrsinghadev would catch look at and throw it back. Nothing was happening to Nrsinghadev. All the military and all the airport place was destroyed. Then Hiranyakashipu himself went to attack Nrsinghadev. Fight was very similar. Catching, releasing, flying in the air, fighting with each other and when it was the right time, then Nrsinghadev grabbed Hiranyakashipu like a big bug but this time he sat on his throne took him and bifurcated him into two took out the intestine and everything. He sat down. Laxmi devi could approach. In the Bhagavatam leela she could not, He was too angry, but in this one she could. Some differences in the leelas. She sat on Nrsinghdev’s lap. The devas wanted to approach and offer prayers but the it was so intense the effulgence of Nrsinghadev that they communicated, like they told, whispered to Laxmi – effulgence, cooling please! Lord had different kinds of jyothi, the intense hot jyothi and also the cooling jyothi like the moon rays and he switched the jyothi to cooling mode. Then everyone came and offered prayers and Prahlad came and offered prayers. It is very interesting that Nrsinghadev does not come only one time.

Last year 2007 we went to South India divya desham parikrama not parikrama, well, safari. We went to different temples. In Vishakapatm there is Varaha Nrsimha temple, Nrsimhachalam. How many of you have gone to Nrsihachalam? You were there in the yatra? Not the yatra. One time Radhanath Swami took his yatra 2500 devotees and went to I met them there. From there he went to Tirupathi.

So Prahlad said you pray to Nrsinghadev that I saw your form delivered my father. When you came in the form of Varahadev you delivered my uncle I did not see that . Will you show that reveal that to me? Lord Nrsinghadev appeared then He assumed the form of Varaha Nrsimha where his head became like the boar, lion and man all the three. He assumed that form after He killed Hiranyaksha. They say, the local pujaris say that that is the place of Prahlad’s gurukul. Any way Prahlad made this appeal to Nsinghadev and that is history and He took that form to show that form to Prahlad the Varaha Nrsimha form. The deity is there since the time of P and millions of years old. They put sandalwood pulp on him every three months, 45 kilos every three months. So one day they take it all out that is on Akshaya Trithiya and people have a darshan of Him without sandalwood. The next day they again apply sandalwood for the rest of the year. Like a big egg of sandalwood pulp or sandalwood paste. With a big tilak on the sandalwood covering the face. Three four times they put take it off for one day and then put again. You saw? One year I got special permission, someone let me go to Vishakapatnam he said the EO , the Executive Officer has given permission and you can go directly to see the deity. Normally there is an 8 hour wait, 300,000 people queuing up for days and nights. Once a year the deity opens for 12 hours. Everybody wants to see. I had to go thru the exit and show my pass. They allowed 5 people. Finally got into the main temple thru the exit. Everything was thru the exit. The policeman came and looked at us and I cannot handle it there are too many people. Tough luck. I am sorry! We were feeling so much … it was special to get this darshan. Somehow the person climbed over the fence and saw the EC and police guy came and they came and took us in whoosh….. let us in. There was a huge queue of people coming in and they let me go behind the volunteers and I went behind them and got right up, let me into the deity room I was at a distance…. as far away as that video, the head of Varahadev, beautiful deity. So then somehow they forgot about me. I was there for like 10 minutes. Everyone was getting like 2 seconds darshan! And then finally this person shooed me. If you don’t get to see the deity there is a drawing to see how the Lord looks. But you can feel the deity’s presence in the middle of the chandan.

There is Mangalagiri in Vijayawada, Lord Caitanya visited there. You have to climb this hill some 200 odd steps. You go to the top and there is a special queue. There is a face of the deity into the stone and you may bring some gur water and give it to the pujari and he puts in a conch shell and pours init to the mouth of deity and it goes down and we can hear it go down gonu gonu gonu… like he is drinking or something. And somehow half the conchshell gets filled with prasadam this gur water, panak, one of the names of the deity is Panaka Nrsimha. Everybody was drinking litres of charanamrita. They say that deity they offer in the satya yuga they offer soma ras, in the dwapara yuga they offer milk, in treta yuga ghee and in kali yuga these people are poor so they offer panakam. Gur water with spices. Like a lemonade with gur. So we had the darshan there and we go down there is a new temple at the base recently built in the dwapara yuga by Yudhisthir maharaj. Mangalagir is there since yugas. This is only 5000 years old! Modern temple. This is Lakshmi Nrsimha temple built by Yudhisthir maharaj of the Pandavas.

Few years ago we went on Nrsimha Safari all the Nrsingha temples.We went to Ahobilam. Last year we went, where we climbed all sorts of mountains and stuff. Some of the youth went there by the side and we put the footprints of Lord Caitanya there. Lord Caitanya had visited Ahobilam. There are 10 deities, 9 are ancient deities and one is like even more modern like 2000 or 1000 years old. We saw 7 of them and one of them we had to go deep in the jungle. So we could not see two of them. There was one Hanuman temple. That Nrsinghadev appeared before Hanuman. Hanuman said You know my Lord is Ramachandra, ki jai! Nsringhadev said I am Ramachandra. But Hanuman said you don’t look like Ramachandra you look like a lion, prove it! So then Nrsinghadev manifested Rama’s bow and arrow in His Hands. So then Hanuman said you are my prabhu and paid His obeisances. They still have the bow and arrows carved on to the stone. There are so many pastimes there I can’t remember where. We went six years ago. But beautiful temples. We can see the lotus foot prints of Lord Caitanya there.

We also went to Karnatka, to Melkottai where there is a Narasinghadev where Prahlad he tried to meditate on Nrsinghadev and Nrsinghadev said you don’t know how to meditate. Then Nsinghadev showed him how to meditate. N took the yoga asana showing P how to meditate on Him. Even the Lord is teaching his devotee how to do the pastime. That is Yoga Nrsimha. How many of you have seen Yoga Nrsimha? There are many different Nrsinghadev temples especially in South India. We have the Nrsimhapalli where Nrsinghadev was flying over Navadweep and he landed in Nrsimhapally and He was not approachable. After killing Hiranyakashipu here He became more approachable. So the devas built cottages around and built Him a cottage and started serving Him bhoga and fanning and doing all kinds of personal services. So here in Navadweep dham the Lord is accessible and of course when Murari Gupta was chanting the Vishnu Sahasranam and got to Nrsinghadev, Lord Caitanya got into the mood of Nrsinghadev and lifted His stick and shouted Where are the demons? Where are the demons? I will kill them all! People were seeing the huge form of Lord Caitanya with a stick saying I will kill all the demons. They all started running and when Lord Caitanya when he saw them running he came back to His original form and He told Murari Gupta that I scared all those people. He said that by just seeing You in that form they got liberated. So Lord Caitanya manifested in Mayapur this mood of looking for the demons and somehow Nrsinghadev, sthanu Nrsimha when He comes out of the column and He looking for the demons … I am just reading the new book they published about Nsinghadev lilas in Mayapur – everybody got their copy. There was one pujari who was afraid of worshipping Lord Nrsinghadev appeared in his bedroom and told him don’t worry you can worship Me and don’t have to feel afraid of Me. How many of you have come here to worship Nrsinghadev? How many plan to worship Lord Nsinghadev today? Whoever is worshipping Nrsinghadev there is nothing to fear. There are some beautiful pastimes there. One lady was praying to Nrsinghadev for some service. She turned around and Pankajangri prabhu asked her if she would help with some service for Nrsinghadev? She got the Nrsinghdev chararanamrita for the ladies. He gives instant blessings. Somebody was going blind - two people, one person had an accident, one eye was already damaged and other doctor said you will lose it. The man prayed to Nrsinghadev and he got full eye sight. And the other lady also gradually got her sight. He is very merciful. Since we have Nrsighadev we have no more dacoits and He protects us here must be by His mercy. Somebody was saying why are we worshipping Nrsinghadev why cant just worship Madhav ? Some day Madhav came in his dream and said Madhav is non different from Nrsinghadev. Every time the devotee looked up at the face of N and saw Madhav. That is why the guru or the stapathi agreed to let us have this Nrsinghadev deity who is ferocious. But he said the Krishna devotees they worship Him like Krishna and He will be very merciful. But if you try to cheat Krishna or Nrsinghadev when in Mayapur try to sneak and do something you are not supposed to do He knows everything.

Any questions, comments?

I was supposed to talk for 45 minutes. You can all do a Nrsinghadev lion roar. ROAR…………………………….

There is another pastime. Nrsinghadev between Hyderabad and Warangal few times we went there. Some Jahnu muni or Juna muni or someone you know that pastime. There is a deity inside the cave. You go inside. The cave is above the ground. There was like a self manifested deity there. …

I asked in Shantipur where the shaligram was it in the Advaita temple but the sevite of the Advaita temple he said that as far as he knows another of his relatives one of the descendants of Advaita acarya had the shaligram in Shantipur town. I wanted to go and see, may be Bhakti Siddhanta Maharaj He is a shaligram devotee…

(comments by some devotees which is not audible)

There is a book called the Advaita Prakash I don’t know how bonafide it is. But that gives the details of the pastimes of Advaita Acharya.

Once I was doing Gaura Mandal Bhoomi parikrama. Went to a place called Raghunath Ganj near the Ganges and there is an old temple from the time of Lord Caitanya and he , pujari, came out and brought a shaligram Nrsinghadev shaligram, mouth open, chakra, like Ugra Nrsimha and he said will you please take this Nrsinghadev. I am a grihastha pujari and I don’t feel qualified to worship this Ugra Nrsimha. I am not so strict. You can take it to Mayapur and worship it. Some pujaris do not want to worship Ugra Nrsimha.

Question:What is the significance of Adivas?

Reply by Gurumaharaj: It is like a preparatory worship a very important puja before Janamashtami or Gaura Purnima or some big function is going to happen the following day, then you offer various auspicious articles to the deity with mantras and it is to get you meditating and understanding that you are preparing for a very important function or spiritual festival. This is prescribed in the Rupa Goswami’s Janamashtami vidhi that one should do Adivas before Janamashtami. Also in the deity installation book it says that you can also do this kind of adivas. But for deity installation there are a number of adivas – jal adivas, dhanya adivas, shayan advias, there are a number of them, rice paddy, water, putting to sleep, etc. we do these things which are kind of purifying before the function. We purify the pujari, the uninstalled deity is also purified, the bimba, purify the reflection, so that the Lord will come in and stay there.

(Comment by a devotee which is inaudible)

Since He appeared a number of times, don’t know which kalpa. In Ahobilam there they have the column from which He came out. But in some places it seems like He is in Indra loka.

Thank you all very much ! Hare Krishna! Happy Nrsingha Chaturdasi ki jai!

Jayapataka Maharaj ki jai!

Narasimha caturdasi lecture 26 May 2010, Jayapataka swami LA

Narasimha caturdasi lecture 26 May 2010, LA.Today here in LA is the auspicious appearance day of Lord Narasimhadev. This is the Narasimha Caturdasi. Somehow here it’s on 26th and in Mayapur it is on the 27th. So you can see the ceremonies on the internet on Mayapur.tv tomorrow and tonight. We saw this morning the Adivas.
That’s a very big festival for us in Mayapur, because we have the Narasimha Dev deity. The Narasimha deity is dear to the devotees. Since, I do not know the year but when Prabhupad fell ill at that time we started to chant in the late 60's I think, Narasimha prayers for the health of the spiritual master. Since that time we have been chanting the Narasimha Dev prayers after every arati. At least the main aratis and in few temples we have the deity of Narasimha Dev, in Mayapur, let c...where else in Germany and in New vrindavan any where else ...in Hungary also ok. Few places I havent visited. This Narasimha Dev is also worshipped by Narasimha nanda das brahmachari. Some devotees they take Narasimha Dev as their primary deity. Of course we take him as a form of Krishna/Visnu and the lord has unlimited forms ananta-rupam. He has unlimited forms. But that form especially is very dear to the devotees because he gives the protection and removes all the obstacles form the path of the devotional service of the devotees.
In Mayapur, we have the Narasimha Dev, and a deity at Narasimha palli, when he was at there having liberated Hiranyakasipu. When Lord Narasimha Dev was flying over the earth and that time he looked down and he saw the Navadwip Dham. So he remembered that he took birth in the kali yuga as the most merciful GAURANGA...(devotees repeat)and he decided to stop and visit this holy dham. Just like when some head of the state of some one comes they tend to visit their embassies, sometimes they stay in the embassies because that is considered to be that country's domain. And in the Kiev, I forgot, there was a situation where some refugees they took shelter of some embassy, in Russia or German some where I forget where right now but the embassy is considered the domain of that country. If you can get somehow into the embassy they are considered protected. Like that, the holy dhams are like the embassies of the lord, on this earth and these temples are like consulates. You can say that they are also like , of course you walk out...across the road u got coloured city you got LA, in the temple don’t you feel a different atmosphere. This temple is also under the domain of the lord. Now when the lord goes thru his own dham that has a very special significance. So when Lord Narasimha Dev crossed the Navadwip Dham, he decided to stay there for sometime and there he was approached by all the devas and they served him like the deities and they cooked for him. How would you like to cook for Narasimha Dev. So like that he had his pastime there, where he was very approachable. Now the deity in Mayapur, he is a bit angry, normally we wont.. the stapathi he did not want to make that deity. he said, No, No..that deity is just put at the doorway… he is for demons. No deity for Sthanu Narasimha Dev …such a worshipable diety is not made. But then his guru said that since they are devotees of Krishna and since they are in the dham of Navadwip they can have Sthana Narasimha.
Lord Chaitanya, one time Murari Gupta he was reading out the 1000 names of Lord Visnu, and when he heard of the name of Narasimha Dev, Lord Chaitanya he became in the mood of Narasimha Dev, so he said where is the demons, where is the demons and he ran out with a stick where is the demons, where is the demons...and he ran and so Lord Narasimha Dev to protect his devotees he is ready to fight with the demons. So we have that mood where he is looking he came out of the pillar he is looking where is Hiranyakasipu how dare he is trying to abuse my dear 5 year old devotee Prahlad. Haribol...(devotees repeat). So people misunderstand why you worship such a ferocious form but he is not ferocious for the devotees he is ferocious for the enemies of the devotees. the devotees like Prahlad maharaj they were protected by Narasimha Dev. when Prahlad saw Narasimha Dev he was not at all afraid he was very much releaved.
When Narasimha Dev comes at diffrent kalpas and some devotees take the role of some demon or devotee or someone takes the role of Hiranyakasipu. Srimad Bhagvatam that has its said Jai & Vijaya they were cursed by the Four Kumaras, and they descended into the material world and they took up different births as demons, so one of them took up Hiranyaksha and the other took up Hiranyakasipu. They are two brothers. So Hiranyaksa was killed by the boar incarnation - varaha dev, and Hiranyakasipu was killed by Narasimha Dev. Narasimha Dev is much more worshipped than the boar incarnation, of course the boar incarnation he has some temples, but there are literally ten thousand temples in Andhra Pradesh, in South India, in Tamil nadu, in Karnataka, in Kerala of Lord Narasimha Dev. In one temple of Narasimha Dev which is at the Visakapatanam, there Prahlad he told Narasimha Dev I want to see the form that killed my uncle Hiranyaksa. I saw you, but I did not see the boar incarnation. So Lord Narasimha Dev he took on the boar plus his form, so he is called the Varaha-Narasimha murti. The Lord he is worshipped by the devotee to remove the obstacles. he removes many obstacles for the devotees.
Since we have the Narasimha Dev in Mayapur, we have not been attacked by any dacoits or any robbers. So Narasimha Dev of course you cant play with Narasimha Dev . If you are not following strictly you'll be exposed or somehow he'll take some action on you. So you have to be very careful.
One time one pujari in a place called Jayanagar, he had Ugra Narasimha Saligram, and he said please take it. WHY? Well we are Grhasthas, I am a grhastha, and I dont follow so strictly. I am afraid to worship Ugra Narasimha Dev. So please take the deities. You are a Brahmachari, you are a Sanyasi you can worship. If Grhastha want to worship Narasimha Dev usually they worship Laxmi Narasimha Dev and they very strictly worship otherwise they dont worship. So this, Narasimha Dev is very strict and is very proper at the same time he is very merciful for the devotee.
In the different puranas, it has different incarnations of Narasimha Dev. In the Bhagavat-puran, danvir maharaj he read this morning, so I do not want to repeat too much, but just glance over, his father asked Prahlad, whats the best thing u learnt. So he said, the best thing we learnt was that we should remember we should hear chant rememeber in the 9 processes of devotional service. visnu. Visnu...Visnu my enemy he killed my lder brother. Who has taught him? So he told the teachers, I want you to fairly train him in all the material sciences, in the diplomacy, so he can be a proper demon. But you see, shot on sight order. no devotees, no Hare Krishna's no vaishnavas dare to go near the school.I do not want anyone to pollute his consciousness. How he got this devotional consciousness? This is intolerable.....This is intolerable. So all the teachers tried to induce into Prahlad, nice politics, nice demon tattva, but they didnt know that Prahlad in the womb of his mother was taught by Narad muni, so he was born with full knowledge of Visnu tattva, about Lord Narasimha Dev, of Lord Krishna. So he was Krishna conscious from birth. But his father thought may be someone has come in and taught him. So afterward Prahlad he got all his school mates to chant...(Hare Krishna mahamantra chanting by Guru Maharaj).So somehow the teachers found out that he was teaching about Visnu bhakti and they referred him to Hiranyakasipu. So Hiranyakasipu called Prahlad and Prahlad told him, Why you are so proud? Your power comes from Visnu. you get your power from Brahma, and Brahma gets its from Visnu. So he told the demons to kill and he tried in various ways to kill him but he was not able to kill Prahlad. Then he told Prahlad, you say Visnu is all pervasive, these are a bunch of lies. No No sir, its not a lie. Visnu is all pervasive. Ok I'm going to knock down this pillar, if he is there let him come out and let him show himself and defend you and if he doesnt come I'm going to kill you. So he knocked the pillar and he is ready to kill Prahlad and out came Narasimha Dev, so there is a big fight. So that in the Bhagvatam lila there Hiranyakasipu was bifurcated by the nails of Lord Narasimha Dev.
In the Padma Purana there are two different incarnations of Narasimha Dev mentioned. One is that Hiranyakasipu he worshipped Lord Siva and that time he got similar powers, that he could not be killed in the day and night, in the Sun, by persons by demons by animals, by humans. He thought he was immortal because he could not be killed by anything. But somehow Narasimha Dev he is half man half lion, he killed with his nails which is not a weapon. So he met all of the conditions that Hiranyakashipu had given. So at that time, when he bested his son was a Visnu devotee, he told all the demons to kill him, , Kill him now I cannot extend. So they all threw arrows and spheres and swords but as soon as it hit the body of Prahlad it turned into blue lotuses. So he was covered with a big covering of blue lotuses. And all the demons were frustrated. He sent poisonous snakes, Vasuki and others but when they went to bite Prahlad their fangs fell off and their poison was turned to nectar. So they also ran out Oh Oh oooo...what is a snake without poisonous fang. Then he sent wild elephants. Big tuskers. So when they went to stab Prahlad with the tusk, the tusks ell off. no teeth no tusks, they ran off. Like this he tried in so many ways to kill Prahlad. He fed him poison so the poison was changed to nectar. And then he said ok , i'm coming personally to kill you. If you dont worship me atleast worship Siva. he put the Siva linga here and you worship Siva. And this way i'l be happy. Because by Siva's blessings I cannot be killed by anyone. He said Siva, Brahma there r not there only Narayana is there. And later Then siva and Brahma came. So I Cannot excpet Siva is the greatest, rather Siva is the greatest devotee. Vaisnavanam yatha shambho. But he is not the original person, he is not the parama purusha. So in the same way then, Lord Narasimha Dev he appeared also from the kall, and he was attacked by the demons and his, he started to emit a very fierce effulgence, and he killed all the demons that came attacked him, they all turned to ashes. So in this way finally there was a big fight between Hiranyakashipu and Narasimha Dev and Hiranyakashipu was again bifurcated by Narasimha Dev. At that time in the Bhagvatam, no one could approach Nrsgna Dev as he was so angry. So they pushed Prahlad forward, and he approached, he gave some prayers. In this second leela, Lakshmi she came she bowed down and she was seated on the seat of Lord Narasimha Dev, and then the devas said we cant approach you because your effulgence is still burning. So then on the request of Lakshmi he changed his burning effulgence to a coooling effulgence like a million moons. Very cooooling, cooooling and soothing. So then they could offer their prayers and then they could see Narasimha Dev.
Narasimha Dev also appeared, his leela was given in the Padma Puran, that he was that time he worshipped Brahma. He wanted immortality and did not get immortality as Brahma doesnt have it. So he got these boons. I cannot be killed in the day in the night, and so on. So he had all kinds of boons. that time he had errected a very large stadium. Atleast our modern stadiums look, it was a big stadium, millions of people could be accomodated. And if we went, it was air conditioned, if you had illness, your illness would get better. There was food around the side. Everybody could enjoy and they all did Hiranyakashipu pooja. Big aratis, kirtans for Hiranyakashipu, and they exchanged they could all kinds of material facilities. To make the long story short, since I dont have much time, He told Prahlad, Well if your God, if your Visnu comes here by 6'o clock, then i'll spare you. Otherwise I will kill you. Some how its said the lord Narasimha Dev, he entered into this big, he travelled through the town surrounding the stadium, and the people would see him they were frightened. Who is this half man half lion. And he entered into the stadium, and he took a big form. And Hiranyakashipu siad, we dont allow any beasts here. Please send his airforce and told him to go away otherwise shoot him down. They told Narasimha Dev to go away and he didnt listen. And they try to, and he went close, and he spread out his main, like a lions main and whenever a ship would touch a aero plane, a jet, it turned to ashes. So the whole aero navy was reduced to ashes. he had all kinds of missiles. So he started firing missiles at Narasimha Dev. Narasimha Dev caught the missiles, threw it down. go off. So one after another then finally Lord Narasimha Dev dev destroyed all his missiles. So Hiranyakashipu went personally flying in the sky, because he had a mystic power and he started fighting with Narasimha Dev. this fight was going on for a while. Untill the twilight came. In the twilight, as he cannot be killed in the day and in the night. So Narasimha Dev sat down on the royal thrown of Hiranyakashipu and bifurcated him with his nails which are not weapons and which are not living and are not dead. So like that different lila's are mentioned in different sastras. We dont take it that there is any contradiction rather there is different incarnations of Narasimha Dev through out history. Narasimha Dev, we worship him as Lord Krishna's form especially to protect the devotee. So with this we on the day we do the abhishek, we do the yagya, we do arati. So here they are going to do arati to Narasimha Dev. So please ….this is your opportunity. You can also pray to Narasimha Dev to remove the obstacles form your devotional service. There was a....Hari Bol.....conch blowing tumultuously...

KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS – THE NEXT HIGHER LEVEL BG 02-14 – 1 NOVEMBER 2005, ATLANTA, USA

transcribed by HG Jayaraseswari mataji )



JPS_BG_02-14_-_Krishna_Consciousness_-_the_next_higher_level_-_01-11-05_Atlanta-USA.mp3

HH JAYAPATAKA SWAMI GURU MAHARAJ:

KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS – THE NEXT HIGHER LEVEL BG 02-14 – 1 NOVEMBER 2005, ATLANTA, USA



Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

Narayanam Namaskrityam Naram chaiva Narottamam

Devim sarasvatim vyaasam tatho jayam udirayeth



Mookam karoti vaachalam

panghum langhayate girim,

Yat kripa tamaham vande

Sri gurum dina taarinam

Paramananada Madhavam,

Sri Caitanya Ishwaram



Hari hi om tatsat!



Matrasparshas to kaunteya sitoshna sukha dukha dha

Aagama paayino nityaas taams titikshashva bharata.



Translation by HDG AC Bhaktivdenta Swami Prabhupad!

Oh son of Kunti, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress and their disappearance in due course are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer season. They arise from sense perception of scion of Bharata and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

Purport by Srila Prabhupad: Jai Srila Prabhupad!



In the proper discharge of duty, one has to learn to tolerate nonpermanent appearances and disappearances of happiness and distress. According to Vedic injunction, one has to take his bath early in the morning even during the month of Magha (January/February).



( Guru Maharaj added here: Here in America you have heated homes, usually the water is heated. But this includes like going to Kumbha Mela in the month of Magha and the Triveni - Ganga, Yamuna Saraswati being not heated. We went there this year when the temperature was like 3 C which is like 39-40 deg F. We went down to the river and river water was quite cold. ).

It is very cold at that time, but in spite of that a man who abides by the religious principles does not hesitate to take his batch. Similarly, a woman does not hesitate to cook in the kitchen in the months of May and June, the hottest part of the summer season. One has to execute his duty in spite of climatic inconveniences. Similarly, to fight is the religious principle of the ksatriyas, and although one has to fight with some friend or relative, one should not deviate from his prescribed duty. One has to follow the prescribed rules and regulations of religious principles in order to rise up to the platform of knowledge, because by knowledge and devotion only can one liberate himself from the clutches of maya (illusion).



The two different names of address given to Arjuna are also significant. To address him as Kaunteya signifies his great blood relations from his mother’s side; and to address him as Bharata signifies his greatness from his father’s side. From both sides he is supposed to have a great heritage. A great heritage brings responsibility in the matter of proper discharge of duties; therefore, he cannot avoid fighting.



Thus ends the purport to the BG As It Is in the Chapter two Text 14 entitled Contents of the Bhagavad Gita Summarized.



Arjuna was in a state of probably what would today be considered as of depression. He did not see any happiness ahead of him by fighting. Therefore he did not want to fight. But he did not feel right about it either because his occupation - he was the general and chief of the army and they were all assembled to fight so it was a contradiction. So then he asked Krishna to please emulate him what he should do, to become his guru his spiritual master. So then Krishna admonished him and told him that he was talking like a very learned person about peace and about so many things but actually no learned person would speak to him your words. So indirectly He called him foolish. And then after that Krishna is explaining, what should be Arjuna’s duty. So this is a very pivotal verse. He is also discussing between the differences between the body and soul but this particular verse is about the nature of the material world. If we get depressed or unhappy because of our distressful situation and we therefore decide to be a coward and not to do our duty that is a very weak thing to do and if we want to get back to Krishna ultimately we have to do our duty, the things based on what is pleasing to Krishna when we don’t do that ultimately although we may do it for some immediate apparent happiness, that happiness is also very fluctuating. So we may have happiness for a little while then it goes away also. So ultimately we should make decisions based on what is good for our Krishna consciousness the right thing to do in relation to dharma, our religious principles. So there are some higher principles that are to be considered here more than just a temporary happiness and distress that you may see coming or maybe experience.



Somebody may get an inheritance and think now I have enough money I don’t need to chant Hare Krishna anymore, I was chanting because I was in distress, now I have money so I can enjoy. After some time they spend all their money and then they are suffering again. On the other hand we have someone like Vipra Sudama. He was very poor but he always performed his religious duties. He never wavered in his duties. His wife was saying you are the friend of Krishna who is the richest person in existence. Why don’t you go and ask him to give us some money because we are so poor. It is not good that a friend of Krishna is so poor. So the husband was preaching to his wife it does not matter. But the wife kept pushing him to go. So then he thought any way it would be good to go to Krishna maybe it will be a break but especially because he was going to meet Krishna. He took some chira with him. He did not have anything with him to give Krishna so begged some flat rice from his neighbor and went see Krishna.



When he arrived at Dwaraka all the doors were opening for him as though he was a well known ambassador coming to see the ruler and this was his first visit to Dwaraka and he was amazed to see him, Oh, Vipra Sudama, come in, Krishna is waiting for you! So he finally gets thru all the different security doors right into the inner sanctum of Krishna and Krishna greets His friend and although they were god brothers but now Krishna is playing the leela the pastime that as if He is a Kshatriya and Vipra Sudama is a Brahmana, so He wants to offer His friend a royal reception, a brahminical reception. He bathes his feet and Rukmini is fanning him and they are talking about the old time in gurukul together.



What happened was one time when they were in gurukul gathering wood when they were young boys, they were gathering wood and were caught in a storm and they took shelter under a tree in the rain storm and the guru, Sandipani Muni was very worried because they did not come back with the other boys. So he went out looking for them with torches. Finally they found them and brought them back. So they had all these intimate pastimes when they were together and remember everything. Krishna was so happy to see his old friend and was having loving exchange of memories, nostalgia and friendship. When He saw that there was something tied to his dhoti to give to Krishna. Why don’t you give me what you brought? Vipra Sudama said No No, I did not bring anything. This is not good enough for you. Krishna said what do you mean, not good enough for Me? Whatever My devotee brings is good enough for Me. But Krishna is living in this fabulous palace and columns are studded with diamonds, different gems and everything is so opulent so what is a bunch of flat rice begged from his neighbor. He was very embarrassed to give this to Krishna when Krishna can have the best of anything He wants, why should I give this to Him? Krishna was insisting and said no, no whatever you brought Me, whatever My devotee brings is very dear to Me.



So then Krishna practically opened up the knot and took out the flat rice and took a bite and then another bite. He was going to take a third bite when Lakshmi, Rukmini devi stopped him. Don’t take three bites, you will put me in big difficulty. Because whatever Krishna does it starts from His devotee, then He reciprocates and gives blessings accordingly. She was saying that since he has begged, he did not have anything of his own, he had to beg, he is giving from beyond his resources, so by taking once from him he should get super opulence from the world, twice should be like equal to Krishna and three times should be exactly equal that He has given more than his capacity so then she should give more than Krishna’s capacity to give so that is not possible because there is nothing beyond Krishna. So if Krishna takes three times then she does not know how to reciprocate with that. So she said to Krishna give me a break. I don’t know how to bless him! I have already given him two times and if take three times then there will be a problem.



You know when Vipra Sudama went back home he did not see his cottage any more. He saw in place was a big palace and a beautiful woman and a maid servant came to greet him. And he thought, who is this? and his wife was not skinny any more as she had enough food now. “See what Krishna gave us. Thank you for asking.” He said, “ I did not ask”.



He could not get himself to ask because how could he ask? He was just there to see his friend. He was very happy with the love and affection that Krishna gave him. He never asked Krsna anything. His relationship was on a loving level. Although he did not ask but Krishna decided and gave him so many blessings. When he got all these material facilities, he was tolerant when he was poor and he was tolerant when he was rich. He did not say, Okay now I am rich I can forget Krishna– no! He said Krishna has given me all these facilities and so he used them in Krishna’s service. Let me worship Krishna in this nice palace and establish a nice temple home and worship and preach.



So that is what it means to be equal in happiness and distress. In difficult time we do not give up our devotional service, we stick to it and in good times we also do not give up our devotional service, now it is okay and I will make hay while the sun shines kind of attitude and I will enjoy life now and worry about death later. But if we know that death can come at any time, someone who has always been engaged in Krishna’s service 12 months a year, 365 days, does not matter whether there is life or death doesn’t matter, all are auspicious, because everything is in Krishna consciousness.

So the devotees, they always remain moderate, in distress or when they are in opulence. They are moderate in their existence and keep Krishna as their top priority in their life. Now in the world we ..were you know . things were a little bit looking difficult economically, but not that bad but like now there is war and so many people who are senselessly killed in terrorist attacks. This could make somebody very much down or depressed about the whole future of things. Whether there is some difficulty or there is something good we need to do our duties, we need to do our proper Krishna conscious thing.



I was thinking about the present war in relation to the Vedic culture and it does say that if somebody can defend from arson against an attacker, an aggressor and in the Bhagavatam - …Dhruva’s court one of the devotees of the Lord, his brother was killed by a yaksha. He demanded that the yaksha …Later the battle got out of control that some higher personality had to intervene and say that it was getting too much. But they never criticized that he had initially attacked, they criticized that what was happening was becoming like a whole interplanetary war between yaksha and earth planet because one person was killed. Ultimately the person who did that, the responsible people should be punished but not like the whole yaksha race should be annihilated because a yaksha did a crime. ….So I was thinking of that.



Since that’s what the authorities are ..at least they are saying that is what they are trying to do is to focus on the perpetrators and their supporters which would seem to be according to the courts that Dhruva was following when he was rightly situated the thing escalated out of control and started to really involve many innocent people then it was getting too far. But if the focus is somewhere what seems to be in the court of Manu and example of great devotees to take such steps. Whether this is the right thing or not … it is not against religious principles to do such things.



What would we do if you were in the government in a Krishna conscious government under the circumstances ? ….. Is it correct and then you of course think well it is quite a heavy situation. So what you find from the Mahabharata in all the difficult situations the Pandavas were put into Yudhishtira always made decisions based on religious principles and the Pandavas were always based on what was the right thing to do and what was beneficial for the greatest truth and proper and which was for the good. On the other hand we had Duryodhana who always would decide what was immediately better for his own selfish interest. He was expert manager and a good leader, he was an able politician, he was a deft cheater, manipulator, but he was considered to be a demon because he would go to any end to achieve his own interest. Sometime he would do some things which would happen to be good happen to be a religious principle he would do it. But if it happened to be against the religious principle but was good for him then he would do it too. Maybe all things being equal he would do something religious but if it was not in his interest he would not hesitate to sacrifice the religious principle. He thought that the Pandavas were weak because they followed the religious principles. They would not lie, they would not cheat they would not harm innocent people while he would not hesitate to do those things. So that is why it became a classic battle between good and evil.



Sometimes evil is very subtle evil, kind of looks good from certain perspective. If you are in the mode of passion, some people think that even evil is good. What is really important in our own daily lives when we make our decisions we should consider what is the correct thing or what will be pleasing to guru and Krishna – what the sadhu sastra and guru’s reaction will be under the circumstances, we try to do as best as we can, maybe some details we are not able to do everything perfectly all the time and Prabhupada he got .. the GBC to resolve this and this year in the resolution brought this to light to formulate some principles where devotees should not get depressed or lose their enthusiasm if they are not able to follow something exactly perfectly but they should still maintain their endeavours to come up to the higher standards of Krishna consciousness. Some things may be detailed but some things may be very nature.


Even the time when someday considers what’s the right thing to do it is a very big step, so many people do not think about it right or wrong, whatever appears to be in their interest is there. So because of that the world is facing so many… other people have adharma, apadharma, they have irreligion, they have covered religion, they have……………. Religion, they have different kinds of appearic religious principles which are actually misinterpretations and this takes people away from religion. Because sometimes in the name of religion people do so many bad things. But it is like saying there are some doctors who are quacks, who are not practicing medicine properly, therefore we should give up medicine. Does not make any sense. Even if there are some doctors who are doing malpractices does not mean every doctor is doing malpractice and the whole science of medicine should be given up. Rather we should weed out the bad doctors and facilitate the good doctors to do their service. So religion is like that, originally in the Vedic times the kings had a duty that to maintain that, people followed whatever the religion was.



Prabhupada was talking about that what to do if Krishna consciousness was in the government with different religions would KC be tolerant. And Prabhupad was saying that Krishna conscious government would not enforce that … we would rather facilitate that people practice their own religion but what to do if the government should enforce that anybody preaching a particular religion should practice what they preach. If somebody is preaching Christianity they should be preaching according to the Christian scriptures and not in the name of Christianity they are preaching something which is against the Bible. Or someone is preaching from the Vedas and claiming to be an avatar or something which is not condoned by the Vedas to say that you are incarnation of God.



Prabhupada cited how Bhakti Vinod Thakur, how he had taken steps to disclose the Phalgu baba, the bhogi yogi who claimed to be an avatar of Krishna. There are so many bhogi incarnations, always one or two around in India especially. Three years ago when I was in Northern Orissa there was one who was claiming to be an incarnation of Jagannath in the flesh of Krishna. He had people come and take darshan and then he would close the temple doors and then come back after about an hour and the whole temple will be filled with mahaprasad which would be distributed to the people. They said that he would meditate and because he did not go to Jagannath, the whole Jagannath prasadam would come. And because he was also Krishna he would dance with their wives as Krishna used to dance with the gopis.



Some husbands were not happy about this and they got the police on him. Some police inspector was investigating and found smoke coming from the ground about 100 m away from the temple in the forest. So it was not very usual like there was cooking going on dal, sabzi, rice, etc. Next time when he did this meditation, the door was raised and they found a trap door on the floor under the carpet of the temple floor. There was a tunnel to an underground kitchen and they are cooking up the Jagannath bhoga the so called Jagannath prasad and putting it in the temple. So he took all the villagers who were hoodwinked by the guy, that he was a bonafide incarnation of Lord Jagannath and provided them hot mahaprasad even though he was 200 miles away from Jagannath Puri.



When they saw how he was cheating them and misusing their wives they said, “ Just give him to us for two hours and we will take care of him”. He had lot of hair. They pulled out his hair one by one.



So, in South India there is someone who claims to be Kalki avatar, came a little early. Kalki expected about 427,000 years from now! Like this so many people are claiming so many things and different people accept. So Krishna consciousness is trying to project the teachings of Krishna as it is. Lord Caitanya came to give everybody the opportunity to practice Krishna consciousness, practicising Krishna bhakti and chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. The mantra achieved all success in their spiritual lives in this age of Kali.



This came from them 25th anniversary Ratha yatra in Mexico and it was very well attended. In the 25th anniversary of Krishna Consciousness in Lima, Peru and this was also a very nice festival. And annual festival in Russia about 3000 devotees attended there. There was an Indian. I was in touch with the devotee’s there to check if he was alright. It seems wherever people are practicing Krishna consciousness it is working very well. I mentioned earlier of the festival in Russia where the young people came to attend and were chanting for about 5-6 hours. The next day a couple came to see me and told me that they have never felt happier in their entire life. But they wanted to know what was it they were singing.



So this chanting of Hare Krishna even if someone does not know what it is, it still works. Once in Hyderabad in South India one man came up to me and said: “Every religious sect have blind faith, blind faith, this is true of any religion without any faith it will still work”. This is a post office. This is India you know. People are always asking philosophical questions. Never happened in an American post office. But I was thinking, wow what a question! But I remember I said, no, there is a process, even if you chant without faith the names of God, even if you don’t know what it means it still works. Just like Ratnakar he was chanting murder! Murder! Murder! Kill kill kill in Sanskrit which was Mara! Mara! Mara! Chanting a word which, he was a murderer, he was a robber. When you chant it in sequence mara mara mara it becomes Rama Rama Rama. Chanting Rama even when he was thinking something else it still worked. So the chanting like Prabhupada said it is like fire when you put your hand in the fire whether you believe it or not you get affected, somebody does chant somehow with an open mind if they just chant they will feel some difference from the chanting. So I hope that the devotees here they know about the chanting. If you know about chanting take advantage of chanting. If we know and we don’t chant then that is a very great failure on our part to take this opportunity to perfect our human form of life.



I don’t know if you want to see some slides …. It should not take too long! If you want …

I can answer questions until then…

Very nice let us have the question

(Question not audible)

Reasonable question. It is like a science if you are talking about water in different countries somebody says H2O or whatever the quality, you get information, some call it aqua, some call it water, some jal, pani, thani, they are talking about the same thing. So what is the definition? If the definition in Krishna consciousness of the Supreme Personality of Godhead of God is basically the same as in Christianity, they are talking about the same person.

We are saying that Krishna is the original person He is like the origin of everything, from Him everything is coming, He pervades through everything and He revealed that. My mum she is a Christian she chants Hare Krishna but she is also very active in the church and she read this verse 21 – 25 of Chapter 5, verse 21 maybe that is the number that comes to mind but I have to look it up. And He is telling his apostles don’t think you are my only followers, I have many flags of different kinds in many parts of the world and you are one of them but you are not the only one. There are other flags. And when she wrote she said from the USA to Krishna consciousness you are the other flag.



I just saw yesterday somebody had a poster of Jesus wearing a big tilak. Somebody said that if Jesus were on this planet He would be a Hare Krishna! I was attracted to Krishna consciousness you know from Buddhism because with my Christian background I was a Buddhist and I also heard that they asked what about the Kingdom of God … you cannot understand what I am telling you about this world, how will you understand about the Kingdom of my Father? But how much he revealed… whatever is in the Bible could be a lot more than he revealed. So you find that there he invites everybody to love God and here … Lord Caitanya taught how to love God by chanting His holy names by engaging our bodies and minds and souls in His service. Prabhupada said that to be Krishna consciousness you don’t have to give up Christianity, you don’t have to give up Islam, you don’t have to give the basic beliefs of any religion. This is like postgraduate study. It takes you to the next higher level.



This religion existed before Christianity - called Sanatan Dharma has no beginning no end, has always been and the scriptures it was written, according to our calculations 5000 years ago according to the even most negative anthropologists 3500, so it is much older than Christianity. But the point is what Krishna consciousness is that it explains that it is handed down revealed by God. It was His incarnation, Vyasadev who wrote it down. So it is not that somebody just made it up.



Everywhere they accept Krishna. Krishna is accepted as God by all Hindus. Similarly Rama, Narayana. They may have different ways or different traditions how they worship them. But they have Krishna’s appearance day as a national holiday in the federal government of India as the appearance of Lord Rama. It is not that He is not respected by everybody and these holidays like Holi, Janamasthami, and the biggest holiday Deepawali when Lord Rama came back to Ayodhya are the biggest holidays in India. So Rama is one of the incarnations of Krishna. So Krishna is universally accepted but the process we follow as far as chanting the names of Krishna the process is generally respected by everyone but they may not practice it the way we do.



Lord Caitanya taught how to perform pure devotion. But once people do religious work for pious results, just like in any religion for the fear of God more than love of God. So Lord Caitanya taught that we should love God. For most people - like Jesus did – but most people kind of do religion because if we do religion we get good material situation. But what Lord Caitanya taught was we have to tolerate the material situation in religion because you want to please God. So it is a higher perspective. So that higher perspective not everybody accepts straight away, some people do. That is something that we had to explain. I lived in India and met Christian Indians and I had plenty of preaching to do to them. I see there a lot of them here! They accept - all Indians are here because they accept Krishna. When we have our big festivals we also open our doors to people from different ethnic backgrounds. We do not only restrict it to Indians. We have Nepalis also. In Nepal they also worship Krishna and Janamashtami is a big festival.



The scientific technology and religion - I think some scientists think it is and that is what they complain that it is not a religion. It is a science empirical science. It is .. what they call epistemology to get the knowledge by experimentation but by definition it can never give you the absolute truth. Say that somebody sees ten million swans and they are always white. So they have come with the swan hypothesis. The swan theory like the Darwin theory. All swans are white. They have somebody comes across a black swan, in Germany they have black swans. So then that theory is out of the window because one black swan, the whole theory is out. It is all based on what they are observing. You may observe just like they don’t know which letter has…..which it does not. … they may have to experiment and find a new thing – so empirical scientific studies can never give you 100% surety. Before they put medicines in the market in America they test extensively maybe 10,000 to 50,000 people are tested. Finally they put them in the market and then after 10 years they withdraw it because they find that it causes epilepsy, etc. Water, many more people cook it then they find the problems that did not come up when they did in smaller test tubes.



So science is like that . You test with something and come up with some idea and you are not sure so ultimately for the religion to be valid it has to be revealed by God. Because He is beyond its effect. So just like the scientists when they say there is no God, or no life and that life comes from some chemicals but they cannot to produce life from a chemical. We can put the DNA, all the things together and you can shake them up with electricity but still light does not come because in the Vedas say that light is an antimaterial spiritual particle which is consciousness and that comes only under certain circumstances. Without the light being there you may have all the chemicals. So we have the living force in the body and without it the body is dead. The Christians call the soul, the Vedas call atma. I have a nun who is a disciple. I told her to chant the names of God so she was chanting Yesu Christo, and then after a while she thought it was like chanting chant Hare Krishna, so why not chant Hare Krishna and she started chanting Hare Krishna then she realized that whatever she was feeling by chanting Hail Mary or Yesu Christo she felt the same way by chanting Hare Krishna. Actually Hare Krishna was more strong. Then she started reading the Bhagavad Gita and everything. Finally she ….. she still believes in Jesus and is very faithful to Jesus but believes that the father is Krishna.. She has taken initiation and chants Hare Krishna. I don’t want to reveal her name because I don’t want to create a controversy.



In Bolivia, there is a priest who is my disciple. He is a priest in the Catholic church and is a Hare Krishna. I think in the future there will be much more influx of people from different religions into Krishna Consciousness.