Hiranyakashipu’s Penance
Now continuing the story from where Varaha Avatar ended...
Hiranyakashipu was sad after the death of Hiranyaksh. He wanted to avenge the death of his brother. He thought that the influence of the gods have made LORD VISHNU partial and HE used his magical charms to assume different appearances. So, Hiranyakashipu took a vow to kill VISHNU with his trishul (spear/trident). He also thought, with the end of Shri Vishnu, the power of the gods will also vanish as their power completely depends on the Lord. Thus, he decided to destroy all the people who are in the path of Dharma by following penance, charity, piety to make the gods powerless. He was determined to spread terror on earth, to make people afraid of following the Path of Dharma.
Hiranyakashipu knew that Penance is the Source from which all the Powers are born. So Hiranyakashipu decided to do arduous Penance without food and water to become the most Powerful King in the universe.
Here we have a song- ‘Hiranyakashipu hathyogi…’. And the way he started his Penance is very nicely shown by RSji. The lyrics of the song is also very good, it shows how he forgot everything about his body to obtain the Power he wanted to posses. In this scene we can find that he had the Potential/Perseverance of a great person but decided to waste it by using his power against the Lord (!!!) which became the reason of his downfall .
Now coming back to the story ….- Gradually his terrible penance brought him Great Power(‘Tej’), a fiercely radiant Flame leapt up from his body and rose to all directions.
All the Gods became aware of this power, felt insecure and came to Brahma for a solution as they could not forbear such fierce penance. The fire of his penance Terrified all the three worlds… so Gods wanted Brahma to subdue him somehow (i.e.- by granting a boon).
Boon by Brahmaji
Brahmaji knew that-
a) may be Hiranyakashipu will ask for a boon to Destroy all the Gods. On the other hand,
b) if he continues to do Penance, he could even Supplant Brahma by Divine Law of Karma, which will be a Calamity for the Creation.
So, Gods requested Brahma to stop him in some way or the other.
At last, Brahma appeared in front of Hiranyakashipu, who was very eager to get the fruits of his Penence… Firstly, Brahmaji made his body go back to its Original Shape (young and strong), and told Hiranyakashipu to ask for any boon according to his heart’s desire. Now Hiranyakashipu asked for such a boon that- ‘Nothing created by Brahma would be able to destroy him. Neither man, nor beast, neither God, nor Demon, neither indoor, nor outside, neither by day, nor night, neither by weapons, neither on earth, nor in heaven- could anyone face him in battle. He will have the Sole Ruler over All the Beings created by Brahma. He wanted the same respect/status as Indra’.
Brahma said that such a boon is impossible to grant for a living being!! But as he has done such arduous Penance already (unseen and unheard before Hiranyakashipu and in future also, no one will be able to do so much penance again), so Brahma granted the boon to Hiranyakashipu.
[One thing to remember:- We are hearing the story of Narsimha Avataar from Shukdevji (who is telling the story to Maharaj Parikshit, as mentioned in my earlier posts.]. Now Coming back to Shukdevji’s comments on Hiranyakashipu:- Here Shukdevji naarated that Hiranyakashipu received/acquired immense strength by such Unique boon. Using it in righteous or saintly deeds, would have made him the Most Powerful Being except the Lord Himself. A good person bows in humility, but a base person grows mad/intoxicated by successs. Thus Hiranyakashipu misused his power to spread terror and misery over the world.
Introduction of Prahlad
Hiranyakashipu attacked Indra’s heaven, triumphed over the gods and took Heaven in his possession. He declared himself to be the God and wanted all the subjects to worship him only if they wanted to remain alive!! Thus, gods and all the beings of the three worlds bowed their heads before the great demon!
But at that time only a small boy existed in the whole creation, who chanted the name of the Lord, day and night. He was Hiranyakashipu’s own son Prahlad. At the tender age of five he would be lost in a trance while chanting Shri Vishnu’s name in ecstasy: “Om Namoh Bhagavate Vaasudevay”.
Hiranyakashipu thought that he is the 'ONLY God' in the Universe, the whole world worships him, trembles in his fear, people of all the three worlds chant his name, but he was unable to understand why Prahlad was refusing to worship him!!! This made him very angry ... Following Hiranyakashipu’s instructions, Prahlad was cajoled , persuaded, and threatened but he would never swerve from his devotion to the Lord.
Prahlad explained to his father that:- “the world does not worship you out of devotion, but out of Fear, which increases your arrogance and will ultimately lead you to astray. But as your son, I want to reclaim you from evil. It is my duty to lead you to the right path. That’s why I do not worship you. In all the three worlds, only One is worthy of worship- the Eternal, Imperishable, Supreme Godhead Vishnu, So I worship Him only.
Hiranyakashipu said- “But being afraid of me, Vishnu has already fled from the Heaven, which means he can’t even face the fire of my wrath? Vishnu is my enemy. He killed my brother and it is your (Prahlad’s) duty to hate Vishnu since he is the enemy of the Asuras/Demons”.
Prahlad's explanations
Prahlad said- “Shri Vishnu cannot be an enemey of anyone as He is the Protector of all of us” (Paalankarta). It is his (Hiranyakashipu’s) illusion that Vishnu wants to destroy him. All the creatures of the Creation are His children, in the same way Hiranyakashipu is also His child, He will only destroy the unrighteous acts and Evil in him (Hiranyakashipu)”.
But Hiranyakashipu became so angry that he wanted to destroy Prahlad. But Prahlad said that without Lord’s will no one can destroy another person. Until Lord’s will, no force in the universe can destoy Prahlad. The arrogance of Hiranyakashipu blinds him to the truth (i.e.- realizing about the Lord). He needs to cast out the arrogance and egoism to surrender to the Lord with a true/pure heart. Only then Hiranayakashipu will come to know about the Lord that He is Omnipotent. Again and again Prahlad requested his father to listen to him and surrender to Lord Vishnu. As He is very merciful, He will at once forgive him and all his evil deeds, He will also make him free of all his sins.
(Here we have such a nice exchange of Dialogues!!! I just Love the way Prahlad tries to coinvince his father! His voice has the Faith, Innocence and Sincerity. Same we can notice in the case of Vibhishan and Mandodari- their sincere, earnest attempt to make Raavan aware of the True Identity of Shri Ram also become futile, like Prahlad.)
Hiranyakashipu commanded his demons to kill Prahlad in anyway, as he thought Prahlad is a traitor for his kingdom. But surprisingly they could not kill the child!! All their weapons fail to kill him or do any harm to him. Then Hiranyakashipu ordered to throw him from a cliff, but Prahlad didn’t die even when thrown down from the cliff!! Then Hiranyakashipu thought that his son must be doing some magic (‘mayavi vaalak’).
More explanation by Prahlad
Then Hiranyakashipu’s sister Holika comes and asks him to to give Prahlad in her charge as she has got a boon from Brahma that fire cannot burn her. So she will seat on a pyre and take Prahlad on her lap, But surprisingly Holika got burnt/ destroyed in the fire and Prahlad came out unhurt. When she asked whether the boon was a lie, Brahmaji answered that the boon was not a false one but she has put it into wrong use, which caused for her destruction. She used it not to protect herself, but to destroy others, that is the misuse and so she got the destroyed.
The demon soldiers returned to Hiranyakashipu and told him that they have tried all the ways to kill Prahlad but some invincible power saves him every time. All these events challenged the ego Hiranyakashipu and he decided to put an end to Prahlad with his own hands. He asked his son about the Source of the power which is saved Prahlad each time. Prahlad answered that it is the Strength of Him Who is the strength of all. The child again tried to explain that even his father also gets his power from that very source (Bhagwan/ Shri Hari). He alone gives strength to all the beings in the world. Shri Hari is most merciful, there is still time yet to cast out the pride and surrender to Him. He will forgive all the sins committed by him.
End of Hiranyakashipu
Hiranyakashipu was surprised that how could Prahlad know all these Knowledge in such a young age? But Prahlad said that young age is of that particular body only. Prahlad dwells in this body in the form of soul, the Soul’s age is limitless, this body is illusory and the soul is also not the Ultimate truth, the Soul is merely a reflection of the Absolute (Paramatyma). In this way the Absolute dwells in every being (in Prahlad’s body as well as in the body of Hiranyakashipu), and in every atom of the universe. This Knowledge lets you see the Absolute in all, after this knowledge, those wise persons does not see the bodies, they observe only the Spirit Everywhere, in the whole Creation! Paramatyma is present everywhere. In the sky, on the earth, in saints and also in the demons…Prahlad could see Him everywhere in the palace also, he wanted his father to believe him but due to his ignorance, Hiranyakashipu could not realize all this truth. Then he showed a particular pillar and asked Prahlad whether the Lord is there or not. As Prahlad answered that Lord is present there, his father decided to destroy that particular pillar and also asked Prahlad to tell his Lord to save himself from the hand of Hiranyakashipu.
As he attaked the pillar with mace, Lord Shri Hari in Narsimha Avataar came out from the pillar.
Then Aakashvaani explained it to Hiranyakashipu that Bhagwan Narsimha is not a creation of Brahma, He is not a man, nor a beast, neither God, nor Demon, the time is neither day nor night, it is twilight, He is killing Hiranyakashipu not with any weapons, but with his claws/nails.
After killing Hiranyakashipu, the Lord came to Prahlad to Bless him and lovingly made him sit on the throne.
Here we have the song –'Jai Narahari Narayana… Narasimha roop hare...' at the end of the episode.
I just Love to watch the story of Prahlad again and again! We haver Sooo Much to learn from this story of Prahlad!! These are one of my Most Favourite episodes from Shri Krishna Serial, so wrote it in details.
Watch it here-
(from 2 min of this video)-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV9aEJY6aOo
And then, continue with all these parts, as this is a long story, shown in detailes, by Ramanand Saagar ji-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srXGB1kHj9U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2sMd5hDoI4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh8v0xk5xHY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxg03tnVIlI
(upto 1 min of this last part.)
Will try come back with the next part of the story soon , where we will have the story about the composition of 'Shrimad Bhaagwat Mahapuraan'.
Jai Shri Krishna.
Next Post-
Comments
Post a Comment