“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

The wise person takes assessments. It is because of intelligence that they can conduct an analysis. They have intelligence because it is one of the first principles of Vedanta study. Vedanta is the end or conclusion of knowledge. It is the final word in terms of understanding the world in which we live. As only the human being can even stumble upon a field of study known as Vedanta, they have the best chance at understanding this world.

The Sanskrit words to describe first principles are sat-chid-ananda. These words say that someone is eternal, knowledgeable, and blissful. These terms describe the individual, but there is a gulf of difference between the conditions at present and the properties which supposedly never leave that individual. It is for this reason that a collection of disciplinary measures exists, a kind of system for applying transformation. Follow certain steps, in a systematic way, to go from the starting point to the destination. Such a system is often described as religion, but in the sense of implementation, for the person who has recovered some of their inherent intelligence, the better term to use is dharma.

The individual can make an assessment of their current trajectory in life, on the basis of the end-goal in dharma. The relationship, sambandha, between the principles and the individual is that the individual should always be prominent in their sach-chid-ananda. Since they are currently so fallen that they sometimes doubt their true nature, even after the truth is expressly revealed to them, they require a systematic implementation of dharma. It is only through such a path, in following dharma, that they can stop at different checkpoints to see how things are going.

They can make assessments because they have intelligence. That intelligence is always there; only sometimes it might be covered. That intelligence always belongs to the individual, and it does so because of their relationship, sambandha, to the origin of everything. He declares in Bhagavad-gita to be the source of both knowledge and forgetfulness.

सर्वस्य चाहं हृदि सन्निविष्टो
मत्तः स्मृतिर् ज्ञानम् अपोहनं च
वेदैश् च सर्वैर् अहम् एव वेद्यो
वेदान्त-कृद् वेद-विद् एव चाहम्

sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo
mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca
vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham

“I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 15.15)

The same person, when appearing in this world in the personal form, svayam-rupa, in the visual of a small child once asked the question that encompasses the struggle of life for every being. That question is “kim phalam.” What is the use? Why are you doing that? What are you looking to gain? The question was directed at a father, who happened to also be a leader in the community, while he was preparing for a ritual sacrifice, yajna, in honor of the proprietor of heaven, Indra. But the same question from Krishna can be asked by every individual, at any point in their journey through life.

कथ्यतां मे पित: कोऽयं सम्भ्रमो व उपागत:
किं फलं कस्य वोद्देश: केन वा साध्यते मख:

kathyatāṁ me pitaḥ ko ’yaṁ
sambhramo va upāgataḥ
kiṁ phalaṁ kasya voddeśaḥ
kena vā sādhyate makhaḥ

“My dear father, I am very respectfully and humbly inquiring. What is this arrangement? Why you are busy in making some sacrificial ceremony, what is the reason, and what is the result? For whose benefit is it and by what means will it be accomplished?” (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 10.24.3)

What if we don’t know why we are doing what we are doing? What if we lack direction? What if we seek assistance? What if we want someone to help us? Like in that classic television gameshow, where you can choose to take the prizes revealed behind door number one or take a chance with what lies behind door number two, just how many doors are there? How many options do we have? Just what exactly is the potential we can reach? If the sky is truly the limit, how far into the sky can our ambition penetrate?

1. Limited by what you can think

The principles presented in Vedanta can be understood through story. We don’t have to make up a narrative, either. History is ripe with potential for understanding, through instances of prominent figures struggling through the life experience. Their experiences show the field, kshetra, upon which the knower of the field, kshetrajna, can act.

श्रीभगवानुवाच
इदं शरीरं कौन्तेय क्षेत्रमित्यभिधीयते
एतद्यो वेत्ति तं प्राहु: क्षेत्रज्ञ इति तद्विद:

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya
kṣetram ity abhidhīyate
etad yo vetti taṁ prāhuḥ
kṣetra-jña iti tad-vidaḥ

“The Blessed Lord then said: This body, O son of Kunti, is called the field, and one who knows this body is called the knower of the field.” (Bhagavad-gita, 13.2)

There is the case of the Daitya leader named Hiranyakashipu. His target was the goal of immortality. He lacked the understanding of sat, which says that the individual is already eternal. He did not know that the individual can never be killed. It never takes birth, either. As infinite as time in reverse and forward directions, and as space can never be sliced, cut-off, or tossed aside, so the individual always remains viable, whether they are visible to us or not.

न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्
नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः
अजो नित्यः शाश्वतो ऽयं पुराणो
न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin
nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato ‘yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre

“For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.20)

Hiranyakashipu proceeded with the desire to remain immortal in the sense of the body-spirit combination. In other words, keep that which lacks endurance in a fixed state. Give endurance to something which does not have it. Somehow turn the asat into sat.

नासतो विद्यते भावो नाभावो विद्यते सतः
उभयोरपि दृष्टोऽन्तस्त्वनयोस्तत्त्वदर्शिभिः

nāsato vidyate bhāvo
nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ
ubhayor api dṛṣṭo ’ntas
tv anayos tattva-darśibhiḥ

“Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent there is no endurance, and of the existent there is no cessation. This seers have concluded by studying the nature of both.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.16)

We might be surprised to learn that Hiranyakashipu made significant progress in satisfying this objective. He was not casually dismissed as having the intelligence of a child. Rather, through rigid austerity, with dedication over a lengthy period of time, he managed to get the attention of Lord Brahma, who is the creator. Setting aside the position for a moment, it was more important what Brahma could offer. Hiranyakashipu essentially got a meeting with a prominent person, after waiting outside their office for years and years. This prominent person would be in a charitable mood; they could bestow gifts upon the supporter.

The problem here is that Hiranyakashipu was limited by what he could think of. He was stuck in this mindset of immortality, and so his first request was on that topic. Brahma could not turn asat into sat, and so immortality was off the table. Again, there was no progressing beyond this immature state of thinking for the leader of the Daityas. Hiranyakashipu was stuck in his quest, and so he continued to pursue immortality. This time, it was through component parts. In other words, assemble the same objective of immortality, but through individual, modular units.

Take the common vulnerabilities, the points of failure that lead to mortality, and ask for protection. Safeguard the home, so to speak, in various ways. An alarm system. Something like a doorbell that records video. A shield against weapons. Vigilance during both the daytime and the night. Hiranyakashipu got everything he asked for. Brahma agreed to the individual components. The problem was the very limitation in thinking.

2. Unlimited by what Vishnu can think

On the other side, in the same story, we have the son of Hiranyakashipu. Named Prahlada, the boy heard the science of self-realization while still in the womb. He understood the sat nature of the individual. Prahlada had no interest in the temporary. He was not after remaining in a position of perpetual misery, where the individual only thinks they are happy. They can only find relief while in that dreaded condition. Relief is not true happiness. Happiness is ananda tied to realization of the self, in connection with the origin of everything.

While Hiranyakashipu had to tax his brain to figure out ways to create the impossible of immortality, Prahlada did not have to work hard at all. He was protected in his devotion. He would innocently draw the sign of Vishnu on a slate. The vision of the chakra at the top of the slate was as good as having the protection of that same chakra. Prahlada would write the name of Krishna, which is another way to describe the same Vishnu. The child could not comprehend fear of losing a temporary situation, since he understood all situations were temporary to begin with.

Hiranyakashipu did not approve of any of this. He tolerated a little at the beginning, but the continued refusal of Prahlada to abandon worship of Vishnu was like the greatest offense to the father. That offense had to be punished, and severely with might. While the father was limited by his own mind, which was in a diseased state in tied to the material world, Prahlada was unlimited in the protection he could receive. This is because Vishnu was the one thinking of ways to protect the devotee. Vishnu is so creative that He eventually did the unthinkable. He emerged from a pillar in a dreadful and awesome form of a half-man/half-lion. No one asked Vishnu to do this, but for His devotees He never ceases to amaze.

In Closing:

Never ceasing to amaze,
Always thinking of ways.

Because never limited so,
Like atheist mind to go.

Which trapped by visual seeing,
Never into eternal freeing.

Narasimha just another protection kind,
For Prahlada of pure and innocent mind.

Categories: prahlada and his slate, the two

Tags: dailyprompt, karma, life, poem, poems, poetry, work