For the purpose of being elevated, he bows down.For the sake of his life, he parts with it altogether.For the sake of happiness, he subjects himself to misery.
Alankar Sastra
Let us become the servants of our Lord !
Or, let us become strange. Both are the same!
For we find people of this world strange, and people find devotees to be strange.
When such a phenomenon begins to happen,then be sure you are advancing in devotion and becoming dear to your strange Lord!
Lord Nṛsiṁha is the fourth of the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu. He is known as the protector of the devotees. Therefore, devotees always glorify Him with various glorification and prayers.
The Source of Nṛsiṁha Prayers
In scriptures, there are many prayers about Nṛsiṁha Bhagavan. While traveling through South India, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went to a lot of Nṛsiṁha temples among which Ahobilam, Jiyad Nṛsiṁha, and Siṁhācalam were just a few of them.
He recited many prayers about Nṛsiṁha Bhagavan.From those, Srila Prabhupada picked only three verses.
Scriptural Reference
The Nṛsiṁha prayers comes from two separate sources.
The first two verses are from Nṛsiṁha Purāṇa, which are also stated in Chaitanya Charitamrita, Antya-lila 16.52-53.
namas te nara-siṁhāya, prahlādāhlāda-dāyine
hiraṇyakaśipor vakṣaḥ, śilā-ṭaṅka-nakhālaye ||
ito nṛsiṁhaḥ parato nṛsiṁho, yato yato yāmi tato nṛsiṁhaḥ
bahir nṛsiṁho hṛdaye nṛsiṁho, nṛsiṁhamādiṁ śaraṇaṁ prapadye||
Mahāprabhu used to every day recite the above first two verses while offering namaskār to Nṛsiṁha Bhagavān when He entered the Jagannath temple.
The third verse is from Daśāvatāra stotra of Jayedeva Gosvāmī.
tava kara-kamala-vare nakham adbhuta-śṛṅgaṁ
dalita-hiraṇyakaśipu-tanu-bhṛṅgam,
keśava dhṛta-narahari-rūpa, jaya jagadīśa hare (repeated 3 times)||
Meaning of the above Three Verses
The first verse talks about the mood and mission of Lord Nṛsiṁha Bhagavān.
The second verse reveals His greatness (aishvarya bhava).
The third verse is about seeing sweetness (madhurya bhāva) in Nṛsiṁha Bhagavān’s form.
Why and When did ŚrīlaPrabhupāda introduce Nṛsiṁha prayers in ISKCON ?
After an incident in San Francisco in 1970, Śrīla Prabhupāda introduced Nṛsiṁha prayers in ISKCON. ŚrīlaPrabhupāda gave this mantra to his disciples for protection of the mission before the San Francisco RathaYātra. He also instructed individual disciples to chant these prayers for their protection.
For the first time in the Ratha Yātra of San Francisco, Nṛsiṁha prayers in the form of kīrtana was sung. Later Śrīla Prabhupāda introduced Nṛsiṁha arati, worship, along with the singing Nṛsiṁha prayers in all the temples for the protection of the movement.
Why we recite Nṛsiṁha prayers?
(1) to protect of the preaching mission
(2) to protect our devotion
(3) to get into Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa’s mādhurya līla
(4) to understand the purports of scriptures and live that way.
Functions of Nṛsiṁha Bhagavān
In the third verse sung by Jayadeva Gosvāmī, jaya jagadīśa hare is repeated three times to indicate three secret functions of Lord Nṛsiṁha.
1. Nṛsiṁha Bhagavān is the controller of this world who makes everyone happy by purifying the sins of this world.
2. He takes away the troubles of His devotees.
3. He steal the minds of His sincere and advanced devotees and places them at the lotus feet of Rādhā-Mādhava.
Having heard about Lord Nrsimha, always honor and praise Lord Nṛsiṁha, the powerful and kind half-man, half-lion figure who protects and helps his devotees.
“Those who read the scriptures but do not understand their purport are certainly the destroyer of religious principles”.
Brihad Smriti
Don’t be a donkey simply carrying the load of scriptures.Understand the purport. Imbibe the essence. And practice the message.
Devotion means enthusiasm. Donkey is lazy and foolish. But a genuine devotee is agile and wise.
Those who are like donkeys are called Bharavahi. Bhara means burden, while vahi means carrying. While genuine devotees are Sargrahi. Sar means essence and grahi means to absorb.
There are three types of Bharavahi:
1) Kapti (Hypocrites): People who externally present themselves as saints but within their aim is to enjoy and fulfill their selfish desires . These are further categorized into three types.
i.Puran khand: They read scriptures but have their own agendas. Khand means to divide.Such people divide the scriptures into arbitrary divisions and miss the entire point that the goal of scriptures is self realization. These are the religious materialists.
ii.Ardh Khand: Ardh means half. They divide the scriptures into half by accepting only the gyan kand part and not the karma kand part of the Vedas. Thus they only accept the impersonal aspect of God. Finally they want to become one with God. These are the Mayavadis.
iii.Arth Khand:They divide meaning of the text from the text itself. For them the meaning of the text is not important. Repetition of the mantras are more important than the meaning of the mantras.These are the Karma Kandis who believe in ritualistic actions.
2) Sampradaya Dveshi (The liberalists):
They hate to be part of any sampradaya. They do want to associate with any institution. For them the concept of spiritual institution and guru is disgusting. Even if they hear from saints and read scriptures but do so with an independent mind. Their philosophy is hear everyone but do what intellect says.
3) Sampradaya Asakt (The Fanatic)
These people are fanatically attached to their own sampradaya and demean other sampradaya.
In essence, if you wish to understand God, guard yourself from becoming a Bharavahi. Do not carry the burden of scriptures! Understand and serve God
We don’t value austerity in the world where we live. Most of us don’t know what it is or why it’s important, which is unfortunate. The main goal of modern society is to let people enjoy and use all kinds of sensory pleasures without limits.
Well, what’s wrong with enjoyment? You might think.
First it’s a waste of time and energy which can be used in some constructive work. And second, you miss higher bliss and enjoyment in connection with divine.
The path of Yoga is on the other extreme. They recommend bizarre and impractical austerities like standing in icy cold water in the winter and sit around a fire in the summer, eat less, and live lonely life.
This kind of thing… Forget it!
Real austerity, according to Bhagavad Gita, is giving up of bad habits and refusing to give in to temptations of the mind, body, and senses.
You might wonder, why it’s important to do austerity?
I will answer it clearly and bluntly: we are not animals, we are humans!
We have the power to stop manifesting up in our actions of what we see, speak, and think. This is something exclusive to us as humans which animals do not possess.
We have been bestowed with these gifts by God and it is our responsibility to use them wisely.
We need to live a life of austerity to make sure that our lives have meaning and purpose and that we can spend our energy and time in what we value.
Also, the main purpose of austerities is to connect with God and experience eternal peace and happiness.
Let me explain what austerity means!
The first step in giving up bad habits is to do something good instead of something bad. By good habits we can give up bad habits.
Good habits must be cultured at physical, verbal, and mental level.
But to develop good habits there can be some discomfort to begin with and you might have to apply some energy. And that’s why getting free of bad habits by developing good habits is an austerity.
Now, what are the necessary austerity measures we should take on these three levels.
Austerity at Physical level
Austerity of speech
Austerity of mind
If you practice austerity of body, speech, and mind, you will be peaceful, completely satisfied and come close to God. And above all become a better human being. Is it not what everyone wants deep within his or her heart?
Do you have a problem that is very hard to bear?
Do not wrestle with it; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Eldred Herbert
Consider it, an opportunity that God has given you. But why would He even give us any struggles in the first place? Well, it turns out that difficulties can actually help us grow spiritually, according to God’s plans.
I will list the five main reasons for this below.
1. For developing God like qualities .
God often puts obstacles in the way of those who are attempting to pursue a righteous path, for the purpose of developing divine qualities within them.
For example, to demonstrate tolerance, one must actually go through the experience of tolerating someone who is difficult to deal with. God often puts you in situations where you have to deal with difficult people or tough situations so that you can learn to be tolerant.
If you choose to take this without getting angry and keep being tolerant, your own tolerance will grow over time.
2. For generating Enthusiasm .
Instead of seeing problems as something that discourages you, perceive them as opportunities to get enthusiastic. When you look at challenges in the right way, they can bring out the best in you.
On the other hand, if you see the problems as real problems,you will end up feeling hopeless and frustrated.
3. For Protecting from Lust .
God gives you problems to distract your mind from lust. Problems make you feel tense, which keeps our minds from thinking about lustful thoughts. Unlike material anxiety, which is related to our own welfare, this anxiety coming from hardships is spiritual in nature as it revolves around God.
4. For Teaching us lessons.
God will put hard things in your way so that you can grow both mentally and spiritually. Every problem helps you move in the right direction and has a reason for being there, even if it’s hard to understand why God lets it happen . He will grant you the intelligence to face the challenge and understand its value eventually.
5. Punishment.
God often uses your devotional struggles to teach you a powerful lesson when you make a mistake. His ‘punishment’ is really beautiful in the sense that it helps us learn and grow as spiritual individuals. Ultimately, it helps reinforce the idea of personal responsibility for our actions.
When God chastises us, it’s to open our eyes to our mistakes. Those who strive to amend their wrongdoings are quickly granted God’s mercy and relieved of their worries.
So the conclusion is: Take problems in right stride.
Accept that happiness doesn’t mean you won’t have any problems; rather , embrace them and learn from the experience. To be truly happy, welcome the problems and use them to help you grow as a person – they will in turn help you become better than before.
If any time in your life you’re facing problems physical ,mental or spiritual problems be sure that God is planning for you so that you come back to Him as soon as possible. Saint Teresa of Avila
“Suicide doesn’t solve your problems. It only makes them infinitely, un-countably worse.”
Sinead O’Connor
Suicide is a major public health concern and the leading cause of death. Unfortunately, a large number of teens, students and young adults are taking their own life due to relationship issues, feeling overwhelmed with their studies, or having dreams that don’t come true.
Do you know this?
Taking one’s own life is the worst sin according to many religious scriptures. It is said that those who opt for suicide are subject to suffer ten thousand years in hell, followed by an even longer period as a ghost.
Have a look at these figures:
There are a lot of people who have taken their own lives. Sadly, the living are unable to interact with them; they can only sense their presence and observe them. This can be a very frustrating experience because even if they can see you, they can’t talk to you.
You have no right to take your own Life!
Taking your life is a sin in many religious scriptures because it goes against God’s will. Life is a precious, priceless gift that is given by God to us to understand and reach our ultimate goal of attaining Him.
We should never think about killing ourselves, no matter how hard things are or how sad we are. We have the right to try to find a solution, but we don’t have the right to take away this precious gift of life. Taking your own life is never logical or justified .
“The bravest thing I ever did was continuing my life when I wanted to die.” – Juliette Lewis
Cowards kill themselves, but brave and heroic men don’t give up when things get hard. Instead, they work hard to find solutions. According to scriptures, God created solutions before He created problems – this proves that every problem has an solution.
However,The best solution is not to try and fix the problem as it will eventually pass; instead, stopping someone from taking their own life is what’s important.
How about Spiritual Suicide?
According to scriptures people who are disconnected from God are already in a state of spiritual suicide because they are killing their our own souls .
Let me tell you who all are committing spiritual suicide
I bet you did not know this!
Around 99% of people who are not interested in God are already dead ,their soul is deactivated and have already committed suicide before they were born .
Instead of killing ourselves mentally or physically, we should try to live a joyful, God-centered life. Let’s promise to live the best lives we can while following the right path of righteousness.
Connect to Him before you are Dead.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a Swiss-American psychiatrist, a pioneer in near-death studies and author of the internationally best-selling book, On Death and Dying, states:
Oh my Lord! Where are You? Where am I? Yet, I yearn to be Your humble servant. I know, becoming Your slave seems impossible! But within me resides a tiny drop of hope, a drop that submerges in an overwhelming ocean of separation. And in that state, my soul trembles with fear!
Jiva Goswami
Purport: You may wonder, why does the soul shiver in fear? The soul quivers due to the apprehension of God’s unwillingness to accept it. How can the all-merciful God not accept a servant who experiences profound separation from Him?
A pure devotee, however, contemplates, “Why would God ever accept me? Mere feelings of separation do not render me worthy of His acceptance.” Advanced devotees always perceive themselves as sinful and wretched.
This fear is a spiritual fear, born out of a profound sense of separation from God. Mundane fear breeds self-absorption, while spiritual fear invokes deep remembrance of God’s form, qualities, and pastimes.
Now, let’s understand how a drop of hope sinks in an ocean of separation.
When the hope of attaining God remains unfulfilled, it intensifies the feelings of separation. These emotions surge, creating an insurmountable ocean of separation that engulfs even that tiny drop of hope, leaving the devotee seemingly hopeless.
One might fear that hopelessness would lead to depression and a loss of enthusiasm to serve God. However, paradoxically, this hopelessness actually inspires profound sentiments of God’s causeless mercy.
Through daily darshan, partaking in prasadam, receiving realizations, and associating with fellow devotees, these feelings keep the devotee’s enthusiasm alive.