“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)

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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

You have to hand it to him. At least he tried. All that austerity did not totally remove his thinking ability. He was still quick on his feet. The problem was at the foundation. The heart of the matter, the reason for his initial approach, with the dive into extended austerity – Hiranyakashipu was looking for the wrong thing in the right place. The answer was right underneath him, in the person literally dependent on him. The five-year-old son named Prahlada did not have to take the circuitous route, fraught with peril. Rather, he remained faithful to the truth, as he had initially heard it, and that strong determination, dridha-vratah, was noteworthy enough to bring the unmanifest to light.

To help us understand what the Daitya leader named Hiranyakashipu went through, in his ascent to heights rarely achieved and barely conceived, we take the hypothetical situation of dining out at a restaurant. You are with your friends. The group is celebrating an occasion. It could be a birthday, an anniversary, or just the opportunity to have everyone back together, after many years apart. You were more accustomed to these outings in the past. It has now been a while. There is always the dreaded dietary restriction. The strange looks in response when you ask the server if they have something not listed on the menu.

At least the other people in the party are okay with it. They sit patiently as you ask your questions. They are almost amused by it, as if it is a local showing of a theatrical production. They take bets as to the potential response of the server.

“No, sir, I have no idea what you are talking about. We do not carry that dish. Umm, I have never heard of that. I will go in the back and ask the chef. Oh, sorry, that is only for children. You will have to choose from the adult menu. If you only order sides, then there will be an upcharge. Would you like that brought out immediately or with the rest of the meals that everyone else ordered from the actual menu?”

In this case, you keep the request simple. You want to eat pizza. You want to know if the restaurant can make it. They assure you that they cannot. Nothing else on the menu is to your liking. Ah, but a moment of brilliance puts a hold on the dejection. Thinking of how pizza is made, you ask about individual ingredients. Does the restaurant have dough? Do they have mozzarella cheese? Is there tomato sauce? What about oregano? Do they have an oven? The server answers in the affirmative. Okay, then. That is what you will have. You are going to order the individual components. You will make the pizza yourself. You have outsmarted the establishment, you think.

Hiranyakashipu had a similar approach. He went to the trouble of austerity and penance. It was beyond the realm of belief. Imagine starving yourself for longer than a week. This wasn’t a juice cleanse to be followed by a feast. This wasn’t a cold plunge in the morning to be followed by lounging in front of the warm fireplace in the living room. Hiranyakashipu wanted to get the attention of someone important. That person happened to be paying attention.

Hiranyakashipu went to all that trouble to get immortality. We are applying a strict definition to this case. Immortality in the sense of eternally remaining within the body, after a specific point in time. Hiranyakashipu failed to consider the changing body, in how he had already developed from boyhood to youth to adulthood. He did not seek a return to a previous body. Rather, just keep everything the same, for now, like freezing time. The real purpose was to prevent any sort of interference. Immortality not only means living forever, it means that no one can take you out.

देहिनो ऽस्मिन् यथा देहे
कौमारं यौवनं जरा
तथा देहान्तर-प्राप्तिर्
धीरस् तत्र न मुह्यति

dehino ‘smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati

“As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.13)

The benefactor in this case was pleased, but he had his own limitations. He could not grant immortality. Lord Brahma is the creator, but even he has an origin. He is known as svayambhu, since he emerges from the lotus flower originating in the lotus-like navel of Vishnu, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As Brahma is not immortal, he cannot very well grant that benediction to anyone else, no matter how much austerity they have undergone.

The clever Hiranyakashipu thought of a way around the limitation. Just ask for the individual components. Take the ingredients off the shelf, so to speak. He proceeded to list off various conditions and vulnerabilities. Hiranyakashipu wanted to be immune from any sort of external attack. He was specific in identifying the potential aggressors. Brahma granted every wish. In this way, there was a kind of de facto immortality.

नान्तर्बहिर्दिवा नक्तमन्यस्मादपि चायुधै:
न भूमौ नाम्बरे मृत्युर्न नरैर्न मृगैरपि

nāntar bahir divā naktam
anyasmād api cāyudhaiḥ
na bhūmau nāmbare mṛtyur
na narair na mṛgair api

“Grant me that I not die within any residence or outside any residence, during the daytime or at night, nor on the ground or in the sky. Grant me that my death not be brought by any being other than those created by you, nor by any weapon, nor by any human being or animal.” (Hiranyakashipu praying to Lord Brahma, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 7.3.36)

The problem is that even a one percent deficiency is enough to nullify the entire proposal. Meanwhile, Hiranyakashipu’s own son had a Houdini-like showing of survival, but without the penance, the austerity, or the meeting with Brahma. Rather, Prahlada was fixed in meditation, always thinking of Vishnu, in a mood of devotion. The connection was so strong that Prahlada could not speak of anything else. Even when pressed about what he learned in school, Prahlada could only mention devotion to Vishnu and how that is the way to fulfilling the real mission of life.

Hiranyakashipu asked for the ingredients, but that was insufficient. The object of worship of Prahlada found a way around the protections. Vishnu appeared as Narasimha not to make Hiranyakashipu look bad or to highlight the folly of the pursuit of immortality. Rather, intoxicated by his powers, in the haughty state the father persecuted Prahlada for the devotion to Vishnu. Hiranyakashipu did not understand that there was someone protecting the innocent five-year old boy. Hiranyakashipu saw the continued survival of Prahlada, but he refused to believe. It was not until Vishnu Himself appeared from the pillar, ripping apart the evil leader, using only nails, that the skeptics had their proof.

In Closing:

Finally the proof showing,
Who son entire time knowing.

That those protections fully intact,
Built on specifications exact.

But at slightest opening to stumble,
Entire proposal to crumble.

Whereas Prahlada never to request,
Comfortable by devotion blessed.

Categories: bhagavan

Tags: dailyprompt, hare krishna, immortality, poem, poems, poetry, prayer