20210411 Virtual Spiritual Safari Day 3 (Śrī Narasiṁha Safari)

So I would like to offer my obeisances to all the Vaiṣṇavas. Vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca/ patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ

You have visited many sacred places of Lord Narasiṁhadeva in Māyāpur, in Visakhapatnam, in Siṁhācalam and also Maṅgalagiri, at the base of Maṅgalagiri there is a new temple, that was constructed by Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja, new temple, 5000 years ago!  Maṅgalari is yugas old! So at the base the Lakṣmī Narasiṁhadeva is relatively new, only 5000 years old! And there is, I think His Holiness Bhakti Dhīra Dāmodara Mahārāja mentioned, you see although in Kali-yuga, they give mixture of gur and water, there are no flies! Normally if you have gur, lots of flies come but there are no flies.

Anyway, we heard recently about the story of Melkote and we heard about Ahobilam. Actually, I established the lotus foot print of Lord Caitanya in Ahobilam. Our previous ācārya, he wanted to establish 108 lotus feet of Lord Caitanya, so he did about eight and then some were done by his followers. So at least I did two – one in Ahobilam and one in Thiruvanantapuram, so we visited the Ananta Padmanābha Swami Deity there. Anyway, we would like to have the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya in all the different temples He visited.

Each avatāra of the Lord has a certain mood. Lord Narasiṁhadeva as you heard from His Holiness Bhakti Vighna Vināśana Narasiṁha Mahārāja, He would take away all the obstacles in the path of bhakti. He is very ferocious like a lion to non-devotees. But just like a lioness is very kind to her cubs, so she would carry the cubs by the neck and keep them very affectionately. Similarly, Lord Narasiṁhadeva, He is very kind to His devotees, He is bhakta-vatsala. But at the same time, He is ferocious to the demons. So, it is interesting because when Lord Narasiṁhadeva appeared at that time, He liberated Hiraṇyakaśipu, that time Lakṣmī, no one could approach Lord Narasiṁhadeva, because He was so angry. So, Lord Brahmā asked Prahlāda Mahārāja, “Because of you Lord Narasiṁhadeva came, so you should go to Him and compose your prayers to Him.” So Lord Narasiṁhadeva was unapproachable by everyone except Prahlāda mahārāja.

When He was flying over the earth, He saw Navadvīpa dhāma and then He knew that that this is His eternal abode. So He came down, that place is known as Narasiṁhapallī. There is a deity of Narasiṁhadeva there and there Lord Narasiṁhadeva was very peaceful. So all the devas, the demigods, they built cottages and lived there. The place is called Devapallī. And they would everyday worship the Lord, their wives would cook prasāda for the Lord.

So when Murāri Gupta was reading the thousand names of Lord Viṣṇu, he came up to the name of Lord Narasiṁhadeva, Lord Caitanya became in the mood of Lord Narasiṁhadeva, He grabbed a stick and ran out into the street and cried, “WHERE ARE THE DEMONS? WHERE ARE THE DEMONS?!” All the people seeing Lord Caitanya with a stick, crying where are the demons, they started to run! Then Lord Caitanya, He thought, “Oh, I made all the people fearful, I shouldn’t have done that.” Then Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura said, “By seeing Your form, by seeing You in this angry mood, people all of them will become liberated.” Hare Kṛṣṇa!

So like that the Chand Kazi obstructed the saṅkīrtana movement, Lord Narasiṁhadeva came to him in his dream and told him that, “If you again stop My kīrtana, I will kill you.” And He scratched his chest. And of course, the Chand Kazi did not know who Narasiṁhadeva was. He said, “This person with a head of a lion and body of a man, He came!” And the Chand Kazi showed his chest he had claw marks. So like this, every avatāra has a particular mood. And Lord Caitanya’s avatāra is mercy. He wants to see how the people all over the world become devotees. That is His mood.

Now, in Māyāpur, in that mood of mercy, even Narasiṁhadeva is very easy to be approached. We heard from His Holiness Bhakti Vighna Vināśana Narasiṁha Mahārāja, how we can pray to Lord Narasiṁhadeva to remove any kind of demoniac nature in us. The demons want to enjoy they want to lord over the material energy and the devotees want to serve the Lord. Prahlāda Mahārāja was especially a ghoṣṭhy-ānandī, he wanted to increase the devotees. He even preached to the children of the demons. He got them all to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. So we want also to have the mercy of Prahlāda Mahārāja to be a preacher, and similarly to care about the people. And although Prahlāda Mahārāja, he faced various obstacles, he was determined to continue his chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa. Sometimes people ask me, “What do you do, when you know that something, thinks I want to harm you, I want to do something bad to you?” The person asked if they feel that negative sentiments. Prahlāda Mahārāja, what to speak of feeling, his father was trying to kill him – put him in a pit of snakes, put him in boiling oil, threw him off the mountain, giving him poison, so m any things! Finally, he said, “I am going to kill you at sunset.” And the different pastimes that happened. And all pastimes are mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Lord Narasiṁhadeva came out of a pillar.

I think in the Padma Purāṇa, they mentioned that different avatāras in the different yugas, Lord Narasiṁhadeva came and Hiraṇyakaśipu, was there, he had a huge air conditioned like auditorium. This is like 50 km wide and 100 km long and anyone who entered there will have all their material desires satisfies. Big feast, all kinds of facility. So hundreds of thousands of people gathered together and singing, “Jaya Hiraṇyakaśipu!” and he had his throne from where he would see all his people. See in the Narasiṁha-līlā we have in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there is some different features. So this pastime he would say that at 6’O clock, if your Lord does not show up I will kill you. So to the city, surrounding the hall, Lord Narasiṁhadeva was flying and when the people saw Him they were amazed. Then He went into this hall with a gigantic form and started to fly. Then Hiraṇyakaśipu said, “No animals allowed here!” But Nṛsiṁhadeva became careless to whatever Hiraṇyakaśipu said. And then Hiraṇyakaśipu sent his air force to attack Narasiṁhadeva. And then Narasiṁhadeva, His maze stands out and as the planes hit the tips of His hair, they would be like sshhh!!! burnt to ashes. Then Hiraṇyakaśipu, he sent missiles at Narasiṁhadeva. Narasiṁhadeva caught the missiles and threw them down. Then finally, Hiraṇyakaśipu he pulled up and had a fight with Narasiṁhadeva and then Narasiṁhadeva at the right time, He took Hiraṇyakaśipu on His lap, sat down on Hiraṇyakaśipu’s throne and He bifurcated him. Apparently at that time He did not say in or out. He said day or night. At twilight, Narasiṁhadeva bifurcated Hiraṇyakaśipu. So like that there are different līlās.

I think it is very important that I want to thank Nitāi Sevinī devī dāsī for the great expaln she gave on the temple in Siṁhācalam. I would  like to thank Revatī Ramaṇa dāsa, for having greeted all the people, and would like to thank all the speakers – His Grace Paṅkajāṅghrī Prabhu, His Holiness Bhakti Vighna Vināśana Narasiṁha Mahārāja, His Holiness Bhakti Dhīra Dāmodara Swami and His Grace Jagāt-sākṣī Prabhu from Thiruvanantapuram.

So everyone is requested to pray to Lord Narasiṁhadeva:

śrī nṛsimaha jaya nṛsiṁha jaya jaya nṛsiṁha!

We see how Lord Narasiṁhadeva, He gives out His mercy so that we can approach Lord Caitanya. Actually, Lord Caitanya has different saḍ-bhuja forms. We know the Rāma, Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya. He also has a form of Lord Narasiṁhadeva, Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya. So by the mercy of Lord Caitanya, we hope to achieve the pure love of Kṛṣṇa. So, next to the Guṇḍicā temple in Jagannātha Purī there is a temple of Narasiṁhadeva, it is called Sānta-Narasiṁha, and there Narasiṁhadeva has two images. One external and one internal.

Now Lord Narasiṁhadeva is so merciful, we can enter that temple. We are not allowed to enter the Jagannātha Purī temple yet. Or the Guṇḍicā temple. Of course, Indians are allowed. But we are allowed into the Narasiṁhadeva temple. So by the mercy of Lord Narasiṁhadeva, we can worship Lord Caitanya. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Expecting all the devotees to join the safari next week! Hare Kṛṣṇa!