“’You said that He is indeed everywhere, so why can He not be seen in this pillar? If I do see that Vishnu right now in the middle of the pillar, then I will not kill you. Otherwise, you will be divided into two.’ Having seen (his father) in that way, Prahlada began to meditate on that Supreme Lord.” (Narasimha Purana, 44.10-11)

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त्वयोक्तं स हि सर्वत्र कस्मात् स्तम्भे न दृश्यते
यदि पश्यामि तं विष्णुम् अधुना स्तम्भमध्यगम्

तर्हि त्वां न वधिष्यामि भविष्यसि द्विधान्यथा
प्रह्लादो ऽपि तथा दृष्ट्वा दध्यौ तं परमेश्वरम्

tvayoktaṃ sa hi sarvatra kasmāt stambhe na dṛśyate
yadi paśyāmi taṃ viṣṇum adhunā stambhamadhyagam

tarhi tvāṃ na vadhiṣyāmi bhaviṣyasi dvidhānyathā
prahlādo ‘pi tathā dṛṣṭvā dadhyau taṃ parameśvaram

“Have you ever considered just how difficult it is to practice bhakti-yoga in the modern day? Think about it. Really contemplate. Pretend that you are super interested in this stuff, in the reading, in the hearing, in the chanting of the holy names: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Imagine that you want to go someplace to practice, to serve as a field of play, kshetra. Similar to how people attend sporting events, sit in a cinema hall to watch a major motion picture, or visit a tavern to consume a few adult beverages, you want to find like-minded people, who share your interest.

“I believe there is even a modern term for this. It is called ‘the third place.’ In this paradigm, the first place is the home. The second place would be the office or the school. You travel between the two on a regular basis. The third place is where you go for fun. It is needed, for most people. We like being around other people, at least some of the time. That is why those lockdowns from several years back were so tragic. They forced people into depression and isolation. The whole thing was unnatural.

“What if I want my third place to be somewhere to think about Krishna, increase my consciousness of Him, and build what His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada refers to as ‘numerical strength’? Where am I going to go? It is not so easy to maintain a routine while in my first place, which is the home. The bedroom is there. The bed calls my name. I am more prone to doing nothing, in fact. I need a place to revive my spirits, where I am forced to remain awake. I need a place where I can feel alive.

“Let me tell you that the current landscape for such practice is not pretty. These temples are so corrupt nowadays it is not even funny. You arrive there all excited, ready to chant, worship, and pray, only to find a ghost town. The professionals, so to speak, who run the place have to be encouraged to commence the proceedings. They then sing with lethargy, using the worst possible melodies.

“They are apparently not competent enough to speak from the heart on important passages from Bhagavad-gita. Instead, they have to invite an esteemed guest, who is more like a high administrator within the institution. This guest is always the most arrogant person you have met in your life, proven by their lack of punctuality and blatant disregard for the time of the patrons. The guest then flips through a slide deck that was obviously prepared by someone else. Good luck trying to get through the entire presentation without falling asleep.

“Not to mention that these places will go along with whatever farce the corrupt government has cooking at the time. What are the rest of us supposed to do? What if these places suddenly started serving cow flesh as part of their feasts? What if they converted one of the rooms in the temple to a slaughterhouse? Are we supposed to go along with the fraud? Are we supposed to stay polite and not voice objections? What option do we have, since they will kick us out if we dare give voice to our objections?”

The sad reality is that the hypothetical descension has already occurred. In the poison injections that were practically forced upon the population of the world a few years back, one of the key ingredients is fetal bovine serum. Some of the temples described above even converted their rooms to temporary health facilities, which would pump this product into patients through an injection. If a hamburger were fed directly, through the mouth, then at least the body would have an instant reaction to a foreign substance. The digestive system might reject the food, since the person was not accustomed to consuming it. These injections bypass that line of protection entirely.

In some areas of the world, the manufacturers of the product will object to the accusation. They say that the fetal bovine serum is only used in the beginning of the process. At the end, all of the remaining substance is washed away. Therefore, the potion being injected is free of the remains of dead cows. Of course, that is like saying there is no violence involved when multiple people are killed in order to manufacture a product, all because the blood of the victims is washed off prior to the product being shipped to market. The proposal is absurd, on its face. Without the violence, there would be no product.

This is the material world, after all. The individuals populating this world carry a revolutionary spirit. They think they can go against God and somehow find a permanent situation that provides regular and repeated enjoyment. They think they can live entirely independent of higher forces. They think they can fool others, who are not as up to speed, and exploit their vulnerabilities, all without consequence. They think they can abuse, chastise, and illegally dominate, all with impunity.

एतां दृष्टिमवष्टभ्य नष्टात्मानोऽल्पबुद्धय:
प्रभवन्त्युग्रकर्माण: क्षयाय जगतोऽहिता:

etāṁ dṛṣṭim avaṣṭabhya
naṣṭātmāno ’lpa-buddhayaḥ
prabhavanty ugra-karmāṇaḥ
kṣayāya jagato ’hitāḥ

“Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 16.9)

The modern landscape is not really anything new. We have the historical example of the Daitya leader known as Hiranyakashipu. He fed actual poison to his own son, the five-year old prince named Prahlada. The intention was to kill Prahlada. The same applied for the attack from the palace guards, the association with a pit of fire, and the forced drop from high atop a mountain. Hiranyakashipu wanted Prahlada gone. This is because Prahlada was considered a smug whistleblower, who was speaking the truth about the folly of the Daitya way of living. Prahlada was fearless and without hesitation in proclaiming that the purpose of the human life is to worship Hari, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

In that case, Prahlada had nowhere to turn. He could not meet with like-minded individuals. He would speak about Vishnu to his classmates in school. Prahlada was essentially creating peers, making new devotees through his influence. The father was alarmed at this potential conversion, and so he decided that the final blow would have to be administered directly. Hiranyakashipu would take care of Prahlada once and for all. Before that, there was one last opportunity. If Vishnu could show Himself in the nearby pillar, then the child would be spared.

Narasimha Purana explains what Prahlada did. The Sanskrit words are “dadhyau taṃ parameśvaram”. Prahlada meditated on the one who is the greatest Lord. We are all ishvara in the sense that we rule over the temporary playing field that is the body. There is also a parama ishvara, who is monitoring every single field of play.

क्षेत्रज्ञं चापि मां विद्धि सर्वक्षेत्रेषु भारत
क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोर्ज्ञानं यत्तज्ज्ञानं मतं मम

kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi
sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata
kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor jñānaṁ
yat taj jñānaṁ mataṁ mama

“O scion of Bharata, you should understand that I am also the knower in all bodies, and to understand this body and its owner is called knowledge. That is My opinion.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 13.3)

Parameshvara is thus another name for Vishnu. Prahlada decided to meditate on that highest being of all. There was nothing else to be done. A five-year-old boy is helpless in a test of strength against an adult man, what to speak of someone so frightening as the protected Hiranyakashipu. In essence, this turned out to be a test of who had the better protection. The subsequent and unexpected emergence of Vishnu as Narahari revealed the outcome.

In Closing:

Absolute power projected,
Since sufficiently protected.

By boons that Brahma brought,
Equal to immortality thought.

Prahlada in his own special way,
By eternal wisdom to pray.

Such that meditating at the end,
Seen Narahari from pillar then.

Categories: chandrahasa, questions

Tags: dailyprompt, hare krishna, poem, poems, poetry, prahlada