“Others will also ridicule and scorn saying, ‘This child is an asura but prays to the gods. It is like a cat offering prayers to a mouse or a peacock to a snake.’ This is indeed a bad omen, behavior resembling an enemy, as even after obtaining great wealth and power, an unintelligent person can fall down.” (Hiranyakashipu speaking to Prahlada, Narasimha Purana, 41.59-60)

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अन्येपि त्वां हनिष्यन्ति वदिष्यन्ति जनास्त्विदम्
असुरोयं सुरांस्तौति मार्जार इव मूषकान्
द्वेष्यान् शिखीव फणिनो दुर्निमित्तमिदं ध्रुवम्
लब्ध्वापि महदैश्वर्यं लाघवं यान्त्यबुद्धयः

anyepi tvāṃ haniṣyanti vadiṣyanti janāstvidam
asuroyaṃ surāṃstauti mārjāra iva mūṣakān
dveṣyān śikhīva phaṇino durnimittamidaṃ dhruvam
labdhvāpi mahadaiśvaryaṃ lāghavaṃ yāntyabuddhayaḥ

Losing in an argument? Acknowledge that you lack a winning hand and feel like the deck is stacked against you? Facing a tenacious, stubborn, and knowledgeable adversary and running out of tools in the shed? Wondering just what might turn the tables, flip the script, place the odds in your favor? There is nothing like the time-tested trick of manipulation through applying peer pressure. The Daitya leader named Hiranyakashipu once tried such a maneuver, in drawing a potential scene at school. The move did not work, since the person he was trying to persuade already had his mind made up. That person was following a certain path through a vow that was fixed, dridha-vrata.

सततं कीर्तयन्तो मां
यतन्तश् च दृढ-व्रताः
नमस्यन्तश् च मां भक्त्या
नित्य-युक्ता उपासते

satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ
yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ
namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā
nitya-yuktā upāsate

“Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.14)

Vedic culture describes four principal means of diplomacy. Sāma, dāna, bheda, and danda. Sāma is pacification; something like sending a minister to a foreign country to appease a hostile force. Talking things out; allowing cooler heads to prevail. Dāna is giving in charity, like buying someone off. Danda is using force, and it is usually the last resort. The weaker party in a potential conflict tries everything except danda, since they know they lack the means to enforce an order.

In a casual discussion, we might say that applying peer pressure resembles bheda. The literal translation to the word is “division.” In diplomacy, it is like divide and conquer. Sow dissension amongst the enemy ranks. Make the people doubt their faith to a particular cause. Have them turn against one another, like in recent times where a homeowner turns in their neighbor for the offense of wandering outside of their home. Another neighbor gets nabbed for failing to cover their face during a government-created fear-campaign against a seasonal respiratory illness.

Peer pressure might also resemble danda, since there is fear at the surface. Hiranyakashipu tried to scare Prahlada into ceasing worship of Vishnu. Hiranyakashipu was the father. Prahlada was the son. Prahlada was five years old and beginning school. Prahlada was worshiping Vishnu without prior approval or suggestion. No one else in the kingdom worshiped Vishnu. In fact, it was well understood that Hiranyakashipu hated Vishnu. Hiranyakashipu was the leader of the Daitya kingdom. Therefore, no one dared to even mention Vishnu’s name.

Except that Prahlada did. Hiranyakashipu was alarmed, at first. He could not believe what was happening. He tried to scare Prahlada by dialing up the pressure from peers. You see, the other children in school would make fun of Prahlada. They knew that Prahlada came from an asura family. The asuras do not worship the devas, who are the gods. Vishnu is the deva of the devas. Prahlada was following the way of the cat praising the mouse or the peacock honoring the snake. These things just do not happen. Nature works off of, well, nature. Absent a compelling physical presentation, the roles remain where they are. The strong do not supplicate the weak.

Prahlada was kind, gentle, and thoughtful, and so he did not retaliate with insulting words. For the purposes of a thought exercise, we can think of different responses to the Daitya leader. If faced with a similar circumstance, as a child, no less, inserted into that time period with a good memory of the recent past, we can flip the script and apply peer pressure on the agitator. Hiranyakashipu could easily be mocked for his glaring omission.

1. Umm, didn’t you go through austerities?

“Hold on, you are up in arms about Prahlada worshiping Vishnu? You are worried that the praise is going to someone the child believes to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But weren’t you in a similar position, quite recently? Didn’t you go through these crazy austerities, like starving yourself? You are puffed up now, living high and mighty, but where were you before? Weren’t you prepared to push it to the limit, if necessary, in order to complete the austerities?”

2. Umm, didn’t you say nice things about Brahma?

“Hold on, you think the children will make fun of Prahlada for acting like a crazy person, but didn’t you recently do the same thing? Didn’t you say the nicest things about Lord Brahma, who is the creator? Didn’t you treat him kindly? Wasn’t that the purpose to your austerities to begin with?”

3. Umm, didn’t you offer the highest praise to Brahma?

उत्थाय प्राञ्जलि: प्रह्व ईक्षमाणो द‍ृशा विभुम्
हर्षाश्रुपुलकोद्भ‍ेदो गिरा गद्गदयागृणात्

utthāya prāñjaliḥ prahva
īkṣamāṇo dṛśā vibhum
harṣāśru-pulakodbhedo
girā gadgadayāgṛṇāt

“Then, getting up from the ground and seeing Lord Brahma before him, the head of the Daityas was overwhelmed by jubilation. With tears in his eyes, his whole body shivering, he began praying in a humble mood, with folded hands and a faltering voice, to satisfy Lord Brahma.” (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 7.3.25)

“You didn’t just pray to Brahma. You referred to him as the Supreme, as the source of everything. Literally, people could use your words to publish a prayer book. They could recite those prayers day after day. No one would suspect the source of being an asura. You have young Prahlada here writing the name of Krishna and suddenly that throws you over the edge. Makes no sense.”

4. Umm, didn’t you ask for boons from Brahma?

“After shamelessly humbling yourself in front of Brahma, you asked for boons. You asked for boons that were not ordinary, either. How can you ever make fun of anyone else for praying? Why do you suddenly feel that you are better than everyone else? At least Prahlada has some dignity. He is not praying to get something in return. He is not saying anything that he doesn’t mean.”

5. Umm, did you suddenly forget all of that?

ततो जगाम भगवानमोघानुग्रहो विभु:
पूजितोऽसुरवर्येण स्तूयमान: प्रजेश्वरै:

tato jagāma bhagavān
amoghānugraho vibhuḥ
pūjito ’sura-varyeṇa
stūyamānaḥ prajeśvaraiḥ

“Then Lord Brahma, who awards infallible benedictions, departed, being worshiped by the best of the demons, Hiranyakashipu, and being praised by great sages and saintly persons.” (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 7.4.3)

“Dude, did you forget all of this? Should we remind the class how you got to where you are? Should we draw pictures of your begging boons from Brahma? Should all the students refer to you from now on as the best of the beggars? That would be pretty funny. Because you are a beggar, in a sense. You are the worst kind, since you have no gratitude. You just took. You exploited a situation. Thankfully, your son is nothing like you. He understands who Vishnu is. Vishnu will always protect him. Let’s see how those boons work out for you.”

In Closing:

Beggar of the worst kind,
Failure of gratitude in mind.

After shamelessly to request,
By the creator then blessed.

And now your own son to scare,
Since of highest truth aware.

That worship to Vishnu the best,
To share with children the rest.

Categories: supplicating the inferior, the five

Tags: dailyprompt, life, parenting, poem, poems, poetry