Miscellaneous - Religion   

Act of benediction

CHENNAI : Sage Suka while narrating the Bhagavata Purana to King Pareekshit often went into raptures describing the manifestations of the Supreme Being, the divine deeds of Lord Krishna being his favourite subject for elaboration. Even he could not resist using superlatives while describing His incarnation in the unique man-lion form, Narasimha. Taking the cue from this saints and preceptors have extolled this advent of the Lord as His compassionate nature came to the fore in this manifestation for the sake of a small child.

The Purana states the rationale of His descent, "In order to substantiate the utterance of His servant and His presence in all objects, the Lord appeared in the pillar (that Hiranyakasipu struck) of the court, assuming an astonishing form, which was neither a beast nor a human being."

The kind of harassment Prahlada underwent, that too, at the hands of his father must be remembered for the tyrant tried in vain repeatedly to kill his own son for not acknowledging his supremacy.

The Almighty took this odd form to fulfil the boon the creator, Brahma, had granted Hiranyakasipu when he performed intense penance to become invincible in order to avenge the death of his brother Hiranyaksha.

Little did he realise then that the Supreme Being would outwit all the conditions he had laid, said Sri M.V.Ananthapadmanabhachariar in his discourse.

Another reason for this incarnation was to fulfil the promise He had given His attendants Jaya and Vijaya to redeem them from the curse they had incurred for preventing the sages Sanandana and his brothers from entering the Lord's divine abode. They were given the choice to be born 100 times as His devotees or undergo three births as haters of God. They chose the latter as they did not want to be separated from Him and the Almighty promised that they would meet their end at His hands.

Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipu were one of their births. For having sired a devoted son like Prahlada, Narasimha graced Hiranyakasipu by placing him on His lap, a privilege that only His consort, Sri, enjoyed before tearing open his body with His nails to kill him.

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