Narasimha Swamy at ISKCON Temple
Narasimha Mahatmyam.. We can keep on telling about the significance of Lord Narasimha, day and night and for all the 365 days in a year. The Meaning for the word Narasimha is half lion with human body. Since Lord Narasimha had appeared in this form, even some Vishnu devotees are also getting afraid to worship him. But, the main purpose of the Narasimha avatar is to destroy the evil forces and to maintain proper law and order position in the earth.
The great Sri Krishna Bhagavathas, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda also famously known as Nitai, had the darshan of Lord Krishna in the form of Lord Narasimha. Once while worshipping Lord Krishna in the Krishna Temple, Krishna has appeared in the form of Narasimha to both of them. Both of the great saints were astonished, and began to ask, “KrishnaOh! My dear Krishna, where is your wonderful flute,and where is your Peacock feathers, and instead of seeing you in your soft face, we are able to see your face in the form of lion, Oh! Krishna, please kindly show your original appearance, in order to remove our fear”.
On hearing this, Lord Krishna had revealed his true form, blessed them and also told about the significance of Lord Narasimha to them. After hearing about this, the two saints wanted to see Lord Krishna in the form of Narasimha, and due to their humble request, once again, Lord Krishna had appeared in the form of Narasimha, and this time, the two saints worshipped Narasimha with full of happiness and enthusiasm and they also shed joyful tears.
Actually though the form of Lord Narasimha appears in a fierce form, but for his staunch devotees, he used to appear only in a beautiful form. Still Narasimha punishes the evil minded people, protects the innocent from arrogant people, and promotes the bhakti on to the souls of the pious people. In the Narasimha Mahatma Purana, it was mentioned that the great Prahalada was kindly treated by Lord Narasimha among the other Bhagavathas. Even if anyone speak bad about Lord Narasimha, he might forgive them, but if anyone speak bad about his first and foremost devotee, Sri Prahalada, then Lord Narasimha would never forgive them, but would punish them very badly.
Our great Sri Bhakta Prahalada has acquired the status of Deva, when he was crowned by his beloved deity Lord Brahma Deva, and when he was touched by him, he felt great happiness and attained more spiritual powers. Lord Brahma Dev crowned Prahalada into the king for his kingdom as per the orders of Lord Narasimha. Prahalada is a combination of Deva-Demon, and still he is considered to be the head of the ghosts, demons and spirits. He contains the powers to pacify the souls of those who have attained unnatural death, like occurrence of death due to suicides, accidents and murders. Prahalada must be mainly worshipped by those who have been suffering due to the influence of bad spirits, problems from black magic, poor health etc. All these details are mentioned in the ancient text, “SRI PRAHALADA MAHATMYA”, and since it is very difficult to get a copy of the book, that’s why I am writing about the details in a short manner, for the welfare of the readers.
Nowadays people began to commit lot of crimes for the purpose of gaining wealth easily. Some time back, we might have read a bad news in a newspaper, and in that, it was mentioned that a person has killed his close friend, since he has not returned the hand loan of Rs.100/- to him. Crimes are being done even for small, small silly things. Due to the influence of Kali Purusha, for every minute, many murders, rapes and accidents occur daily in the world. Some Hindus are getting confused to worship which deity during the times of troubles. We can worship any deity at any time, and even if we worship Lord Indra, the great merciful deity, he would readily come to rescue us from troubles, but while calling the deities, we must have adopt sincere faith and devotion on them.
According to me, I am chanting the mantra, ”OM SRI PRAHALADAYA NAMAHA”, for more than twenty years, and that’s why I am able to easily breath for each and every moment in my life. Without the blessings of Prahalada, we could not develop bhakti on him. Hence Prahalada can be worshipped by Hindus as their beloved deity, by considering him to be the manifestation of Lord Vishnu. If we keep the great Prahalada on our soul, then there is no need to worry about anything in this world. Prahalada would always protect us in the form of SRI GURU RAGHAVENDRA, since Prahalada had taken the birth of Guru Raghavendra in this difficult Kali Yuga, in order to still serve both the Bhagavan and the Bhagavathas.
“OM SRI PRAHALADA NARASIMHAYA NAMAHA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR