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...
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