“This boy Prahlada is the killer of my brother, for he has given up his family to engage in the devotional service of the enemy, Lord Vishnu, like a menial servant.” (Hiranyakashipu, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 7.5.35)

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अयं मे भ्रातृहा सोऽयं हित्वा स्वान् सुहृदोऽधम:
पितृव्यहन्तु: पादौ यो विष्णोर्दासवदर्चति

ayaṁ me bhrātṛ-hā so ’yaṁ
hitvā svān suhṛdo ’dhamaḥ
pitṛvya-hantuḥ pādau yo
viṣṇor dāsavad arcati

“Is anyone else aghast at the response they receive from supposedly open-minded and intelligent people after sharing some of the basics of the science of self-realization with them? I only originally chose to share because that is what friendly people are known to do. Friendships form off common interests. Students attending the same school. Colleagues at the place of business. Participants in a recreational sports league.

“As I have been reading works like Bhagavad-gita and Bhagavata Purana lately, with a rapidly ascending level of interest, I naturally share some of what I have learned with others. This is not to offer instruction. It is merely going over what I have been doing, in the manner of responding to someone asking how your weekend was or to where you went on a recent vacation.

“Well, after I share, after I tell the truth, the most common response I get relates to false gods. You see, these people will not listen to anything that I have to say. I am accused of showing sympathy to the demonic. I am getting tricked by traditions that have no grounding in reality. If I want to really reach heaven, I have to accept the path of these other people. I have to surrender or else.

“I find their lack of logic and reasoning so ridiculous that I fail to muster an appropriate response. I get it that you should not talk politics and religion with others, as these lead to conflict, but I don’t think any of the pillars of the sanatana-dharma culture count as religion. It is indeed a culture. How are we supposed to respond to this false-god criticism, when it is rooted in ignorance?”

In the game of professional American football, there is a famous incident of a defending player taking possession of the ball and then running the wrong way. They got turned around due to a collision of some sort and in the process lost their proper orientation. They thought they were heading for the goal to score, but they were actually going in the wrong direction. They did not realize their blunder until the play was over.

In the same way, a person who is entirely in illusion has lost their orientation in understanding right and wrong. They have no good sense left, and so it is understandable that when they come across a saintly person, they are unhappy. They think that wrong is right, and so they are naturally skeptical of the person discussing eternally relevant principles such as the difference between matter and spirit, action and consequence, the different units of time, and the relationship of the highest being of all relative to everything else.

Bhagavata Purana provides the historical example of Prahlada Maharaja. This child overcame all the obstacles. He was the greatest underdog, if trying to predict success in receiving real knowledge. The boy not only received knowledge, but retained it to the extent of sharing it with others.

The problem was that the entire kingdom was disoriented. They viewed things the wrong way. Prahlada therefore became the oddball. He stuck out like a sore thumb. The father was the leader of the disoriented, and so there was no forgiveness applied to the child.

Hiranyakashipu thought that Prahlada was something like a devil’s child. Prahlada was sent to bring down the entire community. This was true, in a sense, but not in the way the father understood it. Rather, the mere presence of Prahlada, in the exhibition of unflinching devotion to Vishnu, who is anything but a false god, triggered the necessary response in the atheistic father to bring about the demise of the reign of terror.

What did Prahlada really do wrong? He shared that the source of strength is the same in everyone. How can this principle be considered demonic? He asked that the father merely acknowledge this truth, that the source of men is one person.

श्री-प्रह्राद उवाच
न केवलं मे भवतश् च राजन्
स वै बलं बलिनां चापरेषाम्
परे ’वरे ’मी स्थिर-जङ्गमा ये
ब्रह्मादयो येन वशं प्रणीताः

śrī-prahrāda uvāca
na kevalaṁ me bhavataś ca rājan
sa vai balaṁ balināṁ cāpareṣām
pare ’vare ’mī sthira-jaṅgamā ye
brahmādayo yena vaśaṁ praṇītāḥ

“Prahlada Maharaja said: My dear King, the source of my strength, of which you are asking, is also the source of yours. Indeed, the original source of all kinds of strength is one. He is not only your strength or mine, but the only strength for everyone. Without Him, no one can get any strength. Whether moving or not moving, superior or inferior, everyone, including Lord Brahma, is controlled by the strength of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 7.8.7)

Another universal principle is that we are not the doer. We can make the choice in action, but nature has to give consent. There must be cooperation. Otherwise, even a powerful king like Hiranyakashipu cannot overcome an innocent five-year old boy, who is otherwise helpless in defense against aggressors of formidable might.

प्रकृतेः क्रियमाणानि
गुणैः कर्माणि सर्वशः
अहङ्कार-विमूढात्मा
कर्ताहम् इति मन्यते

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate

“The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 3.27)

To the sober and rational person, do any of these concepts sound demonic? Only to the disoriented. Hiranyakashipu was a lost cause whose days were numbered. He thought that the idea of Vishnu standing supreme was so false that even the pillar could be abused. He would soon see Vishnu come to life out of that very pillar, to show the world that there was nothing false to the allegiance shown by Prahlada.

In Closing:

For allegiance to Vishnu known,
The staunchest devotion shown.

The father could not tolerate,
Asked in pillar to demonstrate.

That Vishnu everywhere to be found,
And single source of strength profound.

That fate too dangerous to tempt,
From wrath of Narasimha not exempt.

Categories: questions

Tags: dailyprompt, hinduism, poem, poems, poetry, religion