“One time, that wicked king of the Daityas saw his son of lotus-like face and beautiful eyes, surrounded by women, having returned from the home of the guru. In his hand, that boy was holding a slate which had the mark of a chakra at the top and the name of Krishna written with great adoration.” (Narasimha Purana, 41.35-36)

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तं पद्मवक्त्रं दैत्येन्द्रः कदाचित् स्त्रीवृतः खलः
बालं गुरुगृहायातं ददर्श स्वायतेक्षणम्
गृहीत्वा तु करे पुत्रं पट्टिका या सुशोभना
मूर्ध्नि चक्राङ्किता पट्टी कृष्णनामाङ्कितादरात्

taṃ padmavaktraṃ daityendraḥ kadācit strīvṛtaḥ khalaḥ
bālaṃ gurugṛhāyātaṃ dadarśa svāyatekṣaṇam
gṛhītvā tu kare putraṃ paṭṭikā yā suśobhanā
mūrdhni cakrāṅkitā paṭṭī kṛṣṇanāmāṅkitādarāt

For the person well-versed in the science of self-realization, who has heard the important verses [shlokas] and committed many to memory, for the purposes of both retention and explanation, it is sometimes a challenge to get across the proper meaning to the Sanskrit term “maya”. The most common translation is “illusion” or “illusory energy”. The idea is to not be in maya, which is a state of illusion. It is sort of like sitting down as a member of the audience for the upcoming production of a famous screenplay. The audience understands that the entire affair has been planned well in advance, that there is a writer, a script, a director, and a cast of characters set to take the stage. The audience essentially volunteers to be in illusion in order to enjoy the upcoming experience.

It appears that mankind requires a similar kind of enlistment to forget the onslaught of time and how countless people of the past helplessly perished at the brutal assault of that very time. We need to be in illusion in order to enjoy, but the wise person understands that the compact with illusion can spread across many lifetimes, into different kinds of species, such as those that are moving and those that are not moving.

The endeavor to thus define maya is both necessary and challenging. A revision to the initial definition says that maya is “that which is not.” We can use the dream as a comparison. The objects are real, in that the dream is only based on that which we know. The creation of the objects during the dreamlike state is illusion, but we accept them as real. Maya has a similar effect; we take that which is only temporarily manifest and consider that everything will remain the same. We desperately try to hold on to the temporary, and we thus become another of the many victims to maya’s influence.

At the same time, maya is really an energy. It has potency. It has an origin. It is not like some independent rival to transcendence, goodness, religiosity, or the power of good. Just like everything else in this world, maya is an energy associated with the origin of everything. In one sense, we can define God by saying He is the controller of maya.

Under the influence of maya, we take something to be that which it is not. This was especially evident in the case of a famous Daitya king dealing with his five-year old son. The son returned home from school one day and had something like a formal meeting with his father. The father was the leader of the Daitya kingdom. He wielded tremendous influence across the world, to the point of causing good people to hide in fear. Hiranyakashipu was pleased to have this meeting; he was happy to see his young son.

Prahlada happened to be holding a slate in his hand. Based on the strict definition, the slate was maya. It was taken to be something that it really wasn’t. At least in the general sense, but in the case of the father, he took the images drawn on the slate to be something completely different from what they were. Prahlada saw the same images properly; he had created those images, in fact.

1. A challenge to the father’s authority

Narasimha Purana says that the slate had the mark of the chakra at the top. This is a wheel or discus commonly associated with Lord Vishnu. A child had drawn the chakra of Vishnu on a slate. This did not mean that the authority of the father was being challenged. Prahlada was not trying to overthrow the leader of the kingdom.

2. A dog-whistle to trigger a rebellion

The symbol of the chakra was not a secret message to the palace guards to revolt. It was not a call to rebellion, as Prahlada had no enmity with the father. Though the father thought a certain way, though he was the best of the asuras, Prahlada was not against him.

3. A bad word

Prahlada had also written a name on the slate. The name was written in a reverential manner, adarat. The name was Krishna. This is another way to describe the same Vishnu. Though the chakra is one of the items shown in the common depiction of Vishnu, that object can also be associated with Krishna. Anything associated with Vishnu in this way is auspicious. It is like the peacock feather, which Goswami Tulsidas says has become something so beloved that people refer to it as “mine”, all due to its association with Krishna.

तनु बिचित्र कायर बचन अहि अहार मन घोर
तुलसी हरि भए पच्धर ताते कह सब मोर

tanu bicitra kāyara bacana ahi ahāra mana ghora
tulasī hari bhae pacdhara tāte kaha saba mora

“The peacock has a strange body, speaks in a cowardly way, eats snakes for food, and has a ghastly mind. Tulsi says that Shri Hari still uses its feathers to adorn the head, and therefore everyone now says, ‘mine.’” (Dohavali, 107)

Children are known to be rebellious, on occasion. They like to stretch the boundaries of propriety. They want to see exactly where that line is, the one crossing which will lead to stern rebuke from the elders. Prahlada was not conducting such a test. He was not trying to get in trouble with the teachers or stoke the ire of the father by writing the name of Krishna.

4. A weapon

The slate was not going to come to life. The chakra was not going to suddenly appear to attack the father. Prahlada was not violent in this way. He was not in a position to attack, either. There is a reason that the symbol at the top of the slate is known as the sudarshana-chakra. Its appearance is an auspicious vision. There was no reason for the father to fear.

5. A poison formula

Within the Sanskrit culture, sound is potent. Just by repeating a sequence of words, amazing things can happen. There is a reason the genuine science of self-realization is known as shabda-brahman. It is the truth in the form of sound. It is above maya, or illusion, and it is so subtle in nature that no one can destroy it. Shabda-brahman withstands the test of time. It flows through the time and space continuums without obstruction, in the manner of the avadhuta.

“The word avadhuta means ‘most free.’ A person is not under the rules and regulations of any injunction when he has attained the stage of avadhuta. In other words, he can act as he likes. This avadhuta stage is exactly like air, which does not care for any obstruction.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 4.29.11 Purport)

The name of Krishna was not set to act as some sort of magic spell. At least that was not the intention of Prahlada, but just see the response in the father. He was triggered by simple allegiance shown in a child who was not against anyone. That is the position of the devotee; they are wishing well to everyone. They inherit this characteristic from their object of worship, who is the well-wisher of all living entities. This is confirmed by Sita Devi, the wife of Shri Rama.

रामेति प्रथितो लोके गुणवान्सत्यवान्शुचिः
विशालाक्षो महाबाहुस्सर्वभूतहिते रतः

rāmeti prathito loke guṇavānsatyavānśuciḥ
viśālākṣo mahābāhussarvabhūtahite rataḥ

“My husband Rama is famous throughout the world. He is pure, truthful, and very gentle. He is mighty-armed, has wide eyes, and is always busy working for the welfare of all living beings [sarva-bhuta-hite-ratah].” (Sita Devi speaking to Ravana, Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kand, 47.11)

In Closing:

Perturbed by vision was he,
Wrong way that slate to see.

The father as affront taking,
That son rebellion making.

With the greatest enemy aligned,
Poison in own family to find.

But shabda-brahman lasting and true,
Revealed by innocent Prahlada who.

Categories: prahlada and his slate, the five

Tags: children, dailyprompt, education, poem, poems, poetry, teaching