“Shri Hari, who is the Lord of the demigods, who is worshiped by the people of the world, for benefiting the moving and nonmoving beings of the world took that dreadful form through His own energy and tore apart Hiranyakashipu, who caused suffering to so many, with His nails.” (Narasimha Purana, 44.43)

Download as podcast episode (right click and save)

हरिः सुरेशो नरलोकपूजितो हिताय लोकस्य चराचरस्य
कृत्वा विरूपं च पुरात्ममायया हिरण्यकं दुःखकरं नखैश् छिनत्

hariḥ sureśo naralokapūjito hitāya lokasya carācarasya
kṛtvā virūpaṃ ca purātmamāyayā hiraṇyakaṃ duḥkhakaraṃ nakhaiś chinat

“Listen, for those of us growing up in the Vedic tradition, we are all too familiar with the cases of the infamous villains that are Hiranyakashipu and Ravana. Though their circumstances are different, the flaw at the foundation is the same. Hiranyakashipu is a Daitya. Ravana is a Rakshasa. They both carry the asura mentality. Asura is a negation of sura. Everything that is good in life, that is dependable, that is helpful, that is uplifting, falls on the sura side. Everything that is bad, that is dishonest, that is debilitating, that brings people down, is on the asura side.

“We should be like the sura. We should not be like the asura. Another similarity shared by Hiranyakashipu and Ravana is this mechanical attempt at immortality. They try to skirt the rules, so to speak. They want to succeed where others have failed. They want to control nature instead of working under it. They want to exploit nature such that there is no personal harm inflicted. Let the suckers and the losers succumb to the miseries sourced in the heavens, in other living beings, and within. Hiranyakashipu and Ravana will be different; they will be immune.

“Ironically, the course chartered for meeting this objective involves supplication. At least in the beginning. Hiranyakashipu prays. He follows austerity. He is like the best of the asuras, in this regard. He plays by the rules. He honors the system. If someone tells him that demigods can grant benedictions, Hiranyakashipu will work the hardest to please those demigods. No one will surpass his austerities. Hiranyakashipu will forever be known as a legendary worshiper of Lord Brahma, who is the creator.

“Herein lies the vulnerability. Hiranyakashipu tries to create immortality through benedictions. I believe Ravana attempted something similar. Instead of getting something that is impossible, they try to go around the limitations by thinking of conditions, situations, and counterparts. In other words, use the possible to create the impossible. In an objective assessment, Hiranyakashipu is pretty creative. He appears to have all sides covered. He thinks of angles of intrusion that would typically go unnoticed.

“Of course, the end is never as expected. There is always some vulnerability. The asura forgets to think of a situation or condition. Shri Hari, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, later exploits that vulnerability. I am wondering if someone were to try the same today, would they not do a better job? What if AI helped them to think of a list of benedictions? If a person were in front of Lord Brahma today, they could cover all the gaps. Where Hiranyakashipu and Ravana failed, a person today could succeed at building protection. They have computers to help them. They have learning models that have the entirety of history to scour through. Do you see what I am saying?”

This is the real flaw with the atheistic model. Not that they necessarily disavow religion. Not that they condemn God and His followers. Not that they think everything comes together through randomness. No, it is their hope that they can somehow do the impossible, that what they achieve, what they build, what they acquire in this lifetime will somehow make a lasting impression. They will somehow be able to skirt the laws of nature. With just a little more advancement, the fate which awaited the countless individuals who previously met their end through all-devouring time will not occur going forward. The atheist will figure out a way. You just wait and see.

The lesson we take from Hiranyakashipu should be that even one percent mortality is enough to nullify the entire proposal. Moreover, immortality should work in both directions of time. The CEO rises to the top of a billion dollar corporation today, but in the past they were a student in school. This means that there was a moment in time devoid of stature, prestige, honor, and opulence. If there was a time in the past with that standard of living, then the same can occur moving forward. The vulnerability is always there, no matter the picture painted by the current situation.

An AI model might be able to enhance the prayer experience, to ask for better protections, to think of more conditions, and the like, but just see the end-result of Hiranyakashipu’s terror. That leader of the Daityas met a specific manifestation of kāla that no one had seen before. No one could ever dream of that situation, either. It was a man. It was a lion. It was a terrifying beast. It was a strike occurring in between day and night. It was death without the use of a weapon. It was an attack occurring neither on land nor in the air.

Hiranyakashipu tried to use the help of Brahma to escape death, but he was not able to free himself from Narasimha. Meanwhile, Hiranyakashipu’s own son was on the other side. Prahlada never considered building a fortress of immortality. He was set on worshiping God as Vishnu. Prahlada was the only one not afraid of Narasimha. He was prepared to offer a garland to the Supreme Lord as the work was being carried out. That kind of steadiness, devotion, and full reliance on the highest being of all is more valuable than any fake immortality any asura could ever imagine.

स्वपादमूले पतितं तमर्भकं
विलोक्य देव: कृपया परिप्लुत:
उत्थाप्य तच्छीर्ष्ण्यदधात्कराम्बुजं
कालाहिवित्रस्तधियां कृताभयम्

sva-pāda-mūle patitaṁ tam arbhakaṁ
vilokya devaḥ kṛpayā pariplutaḥ
utthāpya tac-chīrṣṇy adadhāt karāmbujaṁ
kālāhi-vitrasta-dhiyāṁ kṛtābhayam

“When Lord Narasimhadeva saw the small boy Prahlada Maharaja prostrated at the soles of His lotus feet, He became most ecstatic in affection toward His devotee. Raising Prahlada, the Lord placed His lotus hand upon the boy’s head because His hand is always ready to create fearlessness in all of His devotees.” (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 7.9.5)

In Closing:

More than any could conceive,
Something better to receive.

In devotion of Prahlada who,
To Vishnu through and through.

While father of paranoid the best,
With boons of protection blessed.

Still that dreaded time to arrive,
Narasimha through fortress to drive.

Categories: questions

Tags: ai, dailyprompt, life, poem, poems, poetry, prayer, prompt engineering