Dr. Svoboda tells the story of Prahlada in this episode of Storytime.

Om Sri Ganesha Namaha Vakratunda Mahakaya Surya Koti Sama Prabha Nirvighnam Kuru Me Deva Sarva Karyesu Sarvada Sarva Mangala Mangalye Shive Sarvartha Sadhike Sharanye Tryambake Gauri.

Narayani Namostute Om Namah Shivaya Tasmai Sri Gurave Namaha Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya Om Sri Narasimhaya Namaha.

Greetings. And it’s a great pleasure to be back talking about Prahlada who is has ever since I found out about him has been a great favorite of mine. Before I begin, I would just like to note that today is Cinco de Mayo, so I don’t know if we have any Mexicanos or Mexicanos out there, but if we do, feliz Cinco de.

Mayo to everyone. and viva la comida Mexicana. which is something that is very dear to the hearts of those of us who live in this part of Texas.

Prahlada is very dear to the hearts of many people living in many places. And the one interesting thing about India, which I have noted since a long time is that certain devatas.

Seem to be more at home in certain locations. In Maharashtra, for example, where I have spent most of my time, it is of course Ganesha. in Gujarat, of course, there are many gods and goddesses, but we have to think that Krishna is probably predominant. He was the king of Dwarka, which is on the coast of Gujarat.

And different different locations have different in in Calcutta, for example, it would definitely be Kali. in the area that used to be called Andhra Pradesh and has now been split into Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, that deity that is most popular is Narasimha.

And Narasimha means the man-lion. He was part human being and part lion. And there are many many temples of Narasimha in the Telangana Andhra area. I’ve been to several of them. Yada Giri Gutta.

Ponnur Narasimha near Guntur. but my favorite, of course, will is and will always be Simhachalam, which is just outside the city of Visakhapatnam, because that’s where Vimalananda’s junior Guru Maharaj Jaddul Sadhu Ram Bishamber Das Ji made his home for many decades.

He was he lived in an ashram that was just a a couple of minutes’ walk from the temple, and he is now has a a samadhi that is beyond the temple, but not that much further beyond. Simhachalam uphill is not a very large place.

And Simhachalam plays an important part in this story, so we will come to that soon, but of course, Guru Maharaj is very dear to my own heart, and so that it it’s it’s always a pleasure to remember Prahlada because, of course, then I remember Narasimha, and then of course, I remember Guru Maharaj.

There’s another reason that I’m particularly fond of Prahlada, and it has to do with a saint who is very famous in certain parts of India, mostly in Karnataka and Andhra Telangana. His name is Raghavendra Swami.

And there was a time when I was the synchronicity with Raghavendra Swami was very pronounced in my life, and Raghavendra Swami is kind of like Jnaneshwar Maharaj. He took a vow to remain in his samadhi called a brindavan.

For several centuries to assist people. And his samadhi is in a is in a place called Mantralayam, which is just a few kilometers from a railway station called Mantralayam Road, which is very close to the border between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. I’ve only been there once, and that was 35.

Years ago, so I have no idea what it’s like now. I’m sure it’s 10 times as big as it was, but Raghavendra Swami’s samadhi, I’m sure, has not changed because he was a very very great saint, and in fact, he was regarded by many people as being an incarnation of Prahlada. So.

Prahlada has always been has always been a very important character for me. And I think we should begin with his name. and his name, the that pra means greatly or in all directions.

And that word hlada originally came from the word hrada, which originally came from the root hrit. And hrit means heart.

So, hrit means something that is very closely connected to the heart. And that word hrada, which eventually became hlada, that word hrad or hlad means to rejoice, to shout for joy, to be exhilarated, to be gladdened, to delight.

It can also mean to make a very loud noise, to thunder. to to reverberate and resonate, which is something that you might do if you were very happy.

And it’s something you might do if you were very egotistical, which means you’d be happy in a selfish kind of asuric or demonic sort of way, and that’s that’s where the the dichotomy in this particular case comes, because Prahlada’s father was a very powerful character who.

Believed in thundering with his own voice and identifying himself as the king of the universe, and Prahlada was extremely overwhelmed with gladness, but he was glad because he was a devotee of Lord Vishnu, and it was not all about him. It was all about the supreme Vishnu.

And that’s that’s where the dramatic tension comes, and that’s the essence of the denouement of the of the of the catharsis that that resolves this particular tension in the story.

So, joy can be materialistic, or it can be spiritual. It can be tied down to possession, or it can be the feeling of being possessed by the supreme.

It’s still joy, but how it’s experienced, how you obtain it, and its results can be very different. Shakti is Shakti. It can give you a good result, it can give you a bad result. It’s just energy. So, joy is an important emotion, it’s an important energy. It can move you in a good direction for you, or it can move you in a not-so-good direction for you.

So, it’s we our desire is always to move in a good direction. So, it’s very interesting to me lots of things are interesting to me, and this is interesting to me that Prahlada is mentioned even in the Vedas.

But he’s mentioned in several different ways, and in several versions of his myth in the Vedas, he’s regarded as being either killed by Indra, Indra is the king of the celestials, or subdued by Vishnu, or pushed down into the nether world by.

Vishnu’s foot. And actually, being pushed down into the nether world by Vishnu’s foot is something that in the more modern myth, in the myths of the Puranas, so the Vedas and the Puranas often have similar stories, but those stories often have very different outcomes, and very.

And they’re they have different threads because they have been organized according to a different inspiration. The inspiration shifted at a point somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 years ago. There was a long period when inspiration was shifting.

And so what happened in this particular case is Vishnu still presses and Asura the Asuras and the Devatas are two different they’re they’re cousin I mean they’re half siblings basically. The Devatas come from the goddess they’re the.

Children of the goddess Aditi and the Asuras are the children of the goddess Diti. And there’s a whole celestial star-based mythology involving this that is very interesting but is not to the point right at this moment. And the Asu- the word Asura originally.

Simply meant a very powerful ethereal being and then things shifted and originally the Asura was simply very important and that word Asura in Iranian ancient Iranian ancient Persian is Akura and still the supreme being over there but in India we started having Devatas ruled by Indra and.

And with the guru being Brihaspati or Jupiter and we have Asuras ruled by various kings in particular the kings in this lineage this lineage of Prahlada and who are whose guru is the planet Venus Shukracharya.

So there wa- there’s for thousands of years been this sort of tension between the these half-brothers the Asuras and the Devas and so in the Vedas Prahlada who was an Asura was either killed by Indra or subdued by Vishnu. In the Puranas it’s Prahlada.

Prala- who is a devotee of Vishnu who assists Vishnu greatly and it’s Prahlada’s grandson Bali Verba- or Mahabali or Baliraja who is still greatly revered in the southwest Indian state of Kerala who is pressed down into the earth by.

Vishnu and who is still ruling the Asuras under the earth. So things change. and it’s also the case that it has been said that there have been many many kalpas and many yugas and in each one there is a Prahlada or a Pralada and who knows what happened in some past.

Yuga. We may have Prahlada may have been killed or Prahlada may have gone on a long pilgrimage to a different galaxy or who knows. What we’re interested in is what’s happening currently and currently we have Prahlada.

We don’t need more than one. We only need one and fortunately for us the one that we have is really good one. He’s a keeper Prahlada. So Prahlada means excessive joy. His father as we’re about to find out his father’s name was Hiranyakashipu.

And it we’ll get to Hiranyakashipu in a moment and Prahlada’s sons name was Virochana and Virochana was also a very spiritual person. Virochana’s sons name was Mahabali who supposedly is still ruling beneath the earth and Bali’s sons name was Bana who was a great devotee of.

Shiva though eventually got the big head as we say here in Texas and Krishna had to arrange to clip his wings and subdue him seriously.

So even in this current story of Prahlada Prahlada and his family are responsible for the manifestation in the world of not one not two but three of the 10 major incarnations of Vishnu those being the Varaha the sacrificial boar boar meaning a wild pig.

Narasimha the man-lion and Vamana the dwarf who begs the universe from Prahlada’s grandson Bali and who though he shows himself first as a dwarf eventually becomes giganto- sized and becomes Trivikrama who covers the entire heavens with one.

Step the entire earth with another step and with his third step puts his foot on Bali’s head thereby giving him a tremendous blessing but also pressing him down into his kingdom under the earth.

So the genesis of this entire situation was an event that happened a long time ago.

And what happened was you may have heard that in Indian mythology things get created by a character named Brahma. Not to be confused with Brahman. Brahman is the supreme reality. Brahma is always creating things and often those things that he creates.

Create problems or get complicated or are not always successful. In this particular case they were successful according to their own definition of success because they were created directly from Brahma’s mind he sometimes creates by other methods but they were created from Brahma’s mind.

And he wanted them to generate you know be in charge of controlling the universe and they said what is the use in being in char- in charge of controlling the universe and thinking we’re really great when in fact everything is transitory including us.

It’s better we move in the spiritual direction whether you like it or not. Goodbye dad. And they started roaming about the universe at will. and enjoying life much better there. They were not concerned about having a home or not having a home they simply moved around.

One day according to the law of Karma they showed up at Vaikuntha. Vaikuntha being the abode of Vishnu. And of course it’s in a different dimension than this earth dimension.

But it’s still it’s it it it’s it can be perceived as an abode an ayathana a loka and there was Vishnu and he was in a city with seven circular walls very similar to the city of Srirangam which has seven all right square walls.

And seven gates of entry and so they passed easily through the first six gates but when they got to the seventh gate they were stopped by the Dwarapalas. Dwarapala means a the doorkeepers.

And the doorkeepers’ names were Jaya and Vijaya. Jaya means victory and Vijaya means special victory. And Jaya and Vijaya were had been up to this point doing a good job as the doorkeepers of Vishnu.

The problem of course is sometimes when you do a good job especially if it goes on for a long time and you never have any problems you will start to think a little more of yourself than you really should be thinking. You will get the big head and Jaya and Vijaya both had the big head and so these two.

These four Kumaras these were called the Kumaras. The four Kumaras came up to Jaya and Vijaya thinking they would simply be let in because it was pretty obvious they were the mind-born sons of Brahma and they had been wandering around the universe and they were connected to the universe and they were on the universal wavelength and it was pretty obvious that they were not who they looked to be and who they.

Looked to be were naked five-year-old boys. So Jaya and Vijaya unfortunately probably had to do with Saturn. Jaya and Vijaya unfortunately got it into their heads that in fact they were four five-year-old boys who had randomly found their way into Vaikuntha. Now that in itself suggests that their minds.

Had been obscured by somebody like Saturn because how else would how would four naked five-year-old boys have got into the seventh gate of Vaikuntha without something anyway.

Jaya and Vijaya started to laugh at them and said go away go away you naked five-year-old boys. The blessed Vishnu is very busy. He has lot He’s managing the universe and Lakshmi G is massaging his legs and he’s lying on the thousand-headed snake snake Shesha and he’s too busy for little children like you.”.

Now, as you can imagine, well, or if you can imagine, start imagining now. Here are four infinitely aged sages who just happened to like the idea of wandering around looking like naked five- year-old boys cuz it was convenient for them and they liked the look.

And here are these two hired hirelings, two doorkeepers, who are insulting them because they’re too stupid to know what they’re looking at. So, the four Kumaras start to become irate and of course irate in a being who is extraordinarily.

Aged and filled with shakti is not good because they were thinking very seriously about issuing a curse that would have incinerated the two of them for the next several yugas. Vishnu, who was busy getting massaged and lying on Shesha and thinking celestial thoughts, suddenly detected.

The current of tamas outside. he probably had arranged all this himself, but whether he’d had or had not, suddenly he jumped off of Shesha, rushed to the door, and said, “Oh, you four Kumaras, it’s great to see you again. I’m giving you my darshan. I’m taking your darshan.

It’s a mutual moment here. it’s a kumbaya moment and it’s great to see you. Glad you’ve come. I will deal with these two rapscallions. Don’t worry. No No need to use up any of your energy and shakti by cursing them. I will handle them.” And the four Kumaras immediately lost all their.

Rage, fury, and otherwise anger and decided that better to let Vishnu deal with them because even if you curse somebody, you’re creating a connection between them and the four Kumaras definitely didn’t want to have to deal with these two morons anymore than they had to. So, they bowed down to Vishnu.

Vishnu blessed them. They blessed Vishnu. Everybody was mutually blessed. They left. Vishnu turned to the doorkeepers and said, “What? What?

You I have employed you to be able to figure out who needs to come and see me and who does not need to come and see me. If you cannot tell the difference between immeasurably aged sages who have been around since nearly the beginning of the universe and four five-year- old boys, number one, you’re not you’re not fitting the job.

Description anymore. And number two, the only reason that’s happening because you actually were competent at one point is you must have been taken over by ahankara, by your ego, by abhimana, by pride. You must have the big head. We’re going to solve that right now. I’m going to issue you a nice curse and that nice curse is going to tell you that you’re going to go down and be born on the.

Earth repeatedly until you come back to normal. And now there was great paschat tapa.

Paschat tapa means regret. Paschat means after and tapa means burning. So, now these two idiots were burning with regret. Oh my god, how could how could we have been such imbeciles? We were We were We were idiots. We could We We were fools. Oh, and of course they started banging their heads against the floor and clutching the feet of Vishnu and saying.

“Please please please please save us save us save us.” And Vishnu, who I’m sure was smiling on the inside, was looking very harsh on the outside and letting them stew until an appropriate moment came. They had to stop whining in order to catch their breaths and then Vishnu said, “Enough.

That’s That’s cut off the waterworks now. You can quell the drama. What I will do is I will arrange to be born as an avatara and you will be born as Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha and I will kill you and you’ll be born as Ravana and Kumbhakarna and I will kill you and during the time of Krishna you’ll be born as two demons and I will kill you and I don’t know, in.

The future you may be born again I’ll kill you again, but at some point you’ll eventually get your job back, but with a reduction in pay postdated to the beginning of the universe.”.

And they said, “Oh yes yes yes yes yes.” and that’s what happened. the sage Kashyapa, who was the husband of both Aditi and Diti, had from his wife Diti these two asuras or daityas or danavas. They’re all the similar kind of thing. Their names were Hiranyakashipu.

And Hiranyaksha. And Hiranyaksha, aksha means many things including a die, you know, a pair of dice that you throw dice. It can also mean an eye or an organ of sense.

So, I prefer preferred to think of him as golden eye because he he was a after all he was a great celestial being who happened to be being born as an asura because of a curse.

What he did was he stole the entire earth and he took it down underneath the ocean. So, Vishnu in the form of the sacrificial boar, Varaha, went down under the ocean, killed the demon, and brought the earth back up out of the waters so there would be dry land so things could grow on the dry land and evolution could continue.

Shri Vishnave Namah. and that was great and things moved forward. That was great except Hiranyakashipu was mightily annoyed. Mighty mighty mightily disturbed and he vowed revenge. He said, “No, who does this Vishnu think he is? Vishnu is nobody. I am somebody. My brother was somebody, but he is now in the past.

Tense. And I must I must revenge myself against him.” Kon ka badla kon. I’m going to get badla means revenge. So, Hiranyakashipu decided to do some serious penance.

Now, Hiranyakashipu, Hiranya means gold just like Hiranyaksha. And Kashipu has many meanings. It can mean a pillow. It can mean a soft cushion. It can mean clothing.

Sometimes people interpret that word to mean fond of wealth. sometimes people think that that what that means is he be seated on a golden throne.

Whatever it was, gold was important to him meaning the material world was important to him. He held the material world, the cosmos, and objects in general, external objects, he held them to be supreme and he was not concerned about the internal world. And this is of course is what Vishnu was.

Trying to teach these two doorkeepers that you’ve been confused by the external appearance. You need to look inside and then you will know what’s going on outside, not by trying to figure out by looking outside what’s going on outside.

So, in order for them to be re-educated, they had to be stuck in that attitude they had and then be for fl- sliced into pieces as it were.

So, Hiranyakashipu decided that he was going to conquer the universe and show Vishnu who was boss. So, according to one account, he stood on one toe for 10,000 long years.

And the only food that he took in was the smoke from sacrificial fires. So, he was still the king. So, he would he was ordering people to keep doing yagyas and homas and so on so that he could be getting all of this smoke. And he was focused only on one thing. And he was focused so strongly in that one thing, his attention was so strong that the.

Universe started to get hot because it friction was being created. Things were not flowing properly. And after it got hot, it started to smoke because yatra yatra dhumaha tatra tatra vanhi. Wherever there is smoke, there is fire.

And in this particular case, there was fire and fire was about to come and it was it was inside Hiranyakashipu but it was moving outward. So Brahma thought, “Oh my goodness, if if he catches fire, then the universe is going to catch fire and that’s going to screw everything up. Nope, we we’ve got to give him a boon.” So Brahma.

Showed up and said, “What am Bruhi? Please let me know what you would like.” And Hiranyakashipu said, “I would like to become immortal.” And Brahma said, “Sorry, I’m just the creator. I am not in charge of eliminating death, so can’t do that.

Think of something else.” So Hiranyakashipu said, “Huh, what sort of creator are you if you can’t tell me give me the boon you told me to ask for a boon and anyway anyway, you’re just the creator.”.

Here’s the deal. I do not want to die by an animal or by a human or by a deva. Deva means sura and deva, a celestial. Not an animal, not a human, and not a celestial.

“Okay,” said Brahma. I don’t want to die inside a building or outside a building. I don’t want to die during the daytime or at night. Not in the ground not on the ground and not in the sky.

And not about not by any weapon or not by any non-weapon. and I think that’s probably enough. And Brahma said, “Okay.” Because what else could Brahma say? He wanted to preserve the universe.

So now Hiranyakashipu was feeling like even though he was not technically immortal, he was pretty close to it because I mean that really reduces the number of things that can kill him. So Hiranyakashipu goes out of his way to conquer the universe.

And after conquering the universe he was really impressed with himself. and he was mightily strong. I mean, he was so strong that everybody had to bow down to him. It is even said that Ravana once tried to lift Hiranyakashipu’s earrings and Ravana was very powerful.

But supposedly, they were so heavy Ravana himself could not lift them. So that’s tells you something about Hiranyakashipu. So he ruled for many years. I mean, who knows how many years. Some people some let’s just say 100 million years.

Long time. And he was very impressed by this whole situation of him being who he was. The thing is, of course, that Vishnu wanted to make sure that that he Vishnu was able to slaughter Hiranyakashipu.

So what he did was arrange for his great devotee Narada who is often called the celestial troublemaker who wanders around the universe with an ektara which means a thing that looks looks kind of like a kind kind of well, it has a gourd and a neck on it. So it’s kind of like a.

Tanpura and sort of kind of vaguely like what a sitar looks like but with one string only which is why it’s called an ektara. Tara means string. And he just sang Narayana Narayana Narayana. He just wanders around the universe causing trouble and singing the name of Vishnu Narayana.

Narayana. So while Hiranya while Hiranyakashipu was off conquering the universe Narada showed up at Hiranyakashipu’s house to protect Hiranyakashipu’s pregnant wife because while Hiranyakashipu was over here, Indra and the other gods.

Decided to attack Hiranyakashipu’s capital city. Of course, that didn’t do them any good because once he figured Hiranyakashipu figured out what was going on, he came back and drove them away. But meanwhile, Narada had protected Kayadhu who was Prahlada’s mother.

And while he was protecting her, he naturally he was only he could he he’s dedicated to Vishnu, so he started telling her about Vishnu and Prahlada was listening even while in the womb.

And even while in the womb, Prahlada realized that wait, Vishnu is the supreme reality. It’s better I know this now. It’s better I simply align myself to this evident self-evident fact from the very beginning here in the womb so that as soon as I get born I will not be confused. I’m going to be on the right path wherever that takes me.

So he was born. And as he grew as a child his father, of course, tried to tutor him in what it meant to because Prahlada was the prince, he was going to become the king eventually after some tens of millions of years.

And but Hiranyakashipu wanted Prahlada to understand the reality and the reality is that since Hiranyakashipu had conquered the universe, he was the most important being in the universe and therefore he should be worshipped as God. And again, he’s confused with I’ve conquered the external universe but I haven’t conquered myself. So the job is only half done and that.

Doesn’t make you very much of a deity if you’re only ruling the outside and you’re not ruling on the inside. So Prahlada’s tutors tried to get him to worship his father’s God and Prahlada said, “How insane and ridiculous is that? There is only one supreme being and his name is Vishnu. I will always worship Vishnu. You can.

Say whatever you want to but but the reality is my father is nobody compared to Vishnu.” Now this was extremely annoying when the king started to hear this. Not only because his own son was rebelling against him but also because Prahlada was corrupting the other children.

Prahlada was causing the other children to get confused about who was according to Hiranyakashipu really in charge of things. So the king of the cosmos Hiranyakashipu tried to scare his son by various methods tried to scare him again and again.

To change his mind. But Prahlada was a clever boy and for example, once Hiranyakashipu said, “If you don’t give up Vishnu, you must embrace that red hot pillar over there.” And the asuras are very good at making things seem externally a certain way when internally they’re not that way. So.

Prahlada saw this pillar and it looked red hot and it felt red hot. But he looked more closely and he saw a line of ants walking along it and he he knew, “Wait a minute, if the ants are walking on it, it can’t be red hot.” So he immediately embraced it and then his father was depressed and had to think of more things. Eventually, his father decided you know it’s unfortunate.

That my son is a devotee of my mortal enemy. And the good news is I still have a wife and I’m still a virile character. I can have more children. I think I’d better just kill Prahlada and that would be the end of this problem and I’ll start all over again.

So now Hiranyakashipu became serious. So first he told the other daityas, danavas, asuras to strike Prahlada with sharp weapons. But the weapons could not penetrate his skin and he didn’t even feel any pain.

Then he ordered the boy to be trampled by elephants. But the elephants, even though they trampled on him, could not crush him. Then he they ordered that he ordered the boy to be thrown over a precipice.

But he came down onto the earth just as gently as a flower drops down onto grass. Then he put Prahlada into a room with an abundance of venomous snakes.

But the snakes all became extremely fond of Prahlada and they made a bed for him with their bodies. So nothing could hurt Prahlada because in his heart, there was nothing but Vishnu.

One of the big attempts that Hiranyakashipu made to kill Prahlada was to turn him over to his, meaning Hiranyakashipu’s sister, Holika.

And Holika had a special shawl that had this important property, which made it special, that if you were wearing it and you jumped into the fire, you would not be burned. So, Hiranyakashipu and Holika created a plot.

And they built a big bonfire for some reason, some excuse. And Holika was standing with her nephew and she had the shawl around her shoulders and at a certain moment she grabbed the nephew and jumped into the fire.

But as she jumped, a wind, possibly sent by Vishnu, took the shawl off of Holika’s shoulders and they landed on Prahlada’s shoulders. And Prahlada was saved and Holika was incinerated.

So, this event is re-celebrated every year in Bharatavarsha, Hindustan, India, as Hutashani or Holika Dahana, a better known as Holi.

And so that word Holi comes from Holika Dahana. And still, when I’m whenever I’m in India, especially Bombay because I’m often in Bombay around Holi, there will be in the different areas in the city bonfires and you will go with your offerings.

And put them in the bonfire and request Holika to accept your offerings. It’s a very interesting situation. Holi is a harvest festival. And so it’s of course the killing of the of the of the crops and it’s it’s it’s all it’s all very complex symbolic.

Sym- symbology and meaning etc., but right at the moment we’re interested in this particular story. So, that failed, too. That failed, too, and finally, Hiranyakashipu was getting tired of this whole thing. So, he thought, “Okay, now I’m really going to I I’m going to solve this problem once and for all.” And so, what he did.

He went to Nagaloka, which is where all the great serpents, the great reptiles, divine reptiles live. And because he was king of the universe, he summoned mighty reptiles from below.

And he tied Prahlada up with those mighty snakes. And then he cast them down, but all of them to the bottom of the ocean. And then he piled huge mountains on top of them.

And he he felt like tied tied down by divine serpents and smashed down by huge mountains at the bottom of the ocean, no way he can get out of this.

But way, way, he could get out of this because of the blessed Vishnu. And one account says that in this condition, Prahlada started to he was praying to Vishnu, worshiping Vishnu, and one account, one version of the story says, he started to feel like he had dissolved and had become Vishnu.

And he was everywhere. He was not limited by being Prahlada anymore. And as soon as he felt that, the snakes immediately let go of him and the mountains were pulverized into pieces and the ocean heaved up. There was an upheaval in the ocean. And he was gently lifted above the waves and gently carried to the shore and deposited there.

And while he was there, he had still had forgotten that he was an asura and that he had a body. He was simply connected to the universe and he felt like he was the universe and the universe was he. So, his father was the conqueror of the universe, but Prahlada was realizing that, “Wait, I’m not the How could I conquer something that that I am? I am the universe.”.

And there is nothing for me to do, there’s nothing for me to be, there’s simply all I have to do is is rest in this reality and it’s the reality of Vishnu, it’s the reality of what I am most dedicated to.

And who knows how long he remained in that state of samadhi, but at some point he started to remember he had a body and he came back to being Prahlada again. And even though he was back to being Prahlada, he could still remember that everything in the universe, inside and outside, was nothing but Vishnu.

But he was Prahlada and Prahlada, remember, means extreme joy and he was feeling that extreme joy of being everything, but also being this individual whose job it was to do something for Vishnu.

So, now he was wondering, “What, I wonder, should I do for Vishnu because I would like very much to know so I can do it.” And about that time, there came a voice, an akashvani, voice from the sky, and it said, “Prahlada, I am the blessed Vishnu.

You’ve been saved again by me and you’ve now had this experience of transcendent undifferentiated reality thanks to me. And now you’re going to do something good for me and I’m going to explain to you what that is.”.

What is that? What that is is that your father, who has been a very, very naughty asura for a long, long time, has come to the end of his rope. His karmas have matured and it’s about time for me to slaughter him. I shall slay him. It will be the end of your dad.

So, I’m going to do this very, very soon. And according to the way that he has to be killed, I’m going to have to come in an at yugra rupa. Rupa means form, yugra means terrible.

Ati yugra, atyugra means however terrible you can imagine it is, it was a gazillion times more terrible. So, terrible plus multiplied by a gazillion. So, ridiculously terrible.

Black hole level magnitude terrible. And Vishnu said, “When this happens, when I come and kill your dad, I am not going to be able to calm myself down because I’m going to have to be in killer mode.

And nobody, not even none of the gods, none of the goddesses, not even my own wife is going to be able to calm me down because I’m going to have transcended all of them. The only person in the cosmos who’s going to be able to calm me down is you.

And so, I’m going to give you this stuti, this song, and you’re going to sing it to me and when I hear that, I’m going to remember who you are and then I’m going to remember who I am related to you and then I’m going to calm down and we’re going to continue moving forward and the universe will be saved and everything will be great.”.

And Prahlada said, “Whatever you say because absolutely, this is I’ve I’m overjoyed. In fact, my name means Mr. Overjoyed, so I’m whatever you say, I’m overjoyed about it.”.

And so, Vishnu said, “Okay. So, what we’re going to do is I’m going to show you this form so you’re not going to be you know, shocked when you see it.” And he showed him the Narasimha form and of course, because it was atyugra, because it was ridiculously terrible and terrifying and intense, Prahlada was shaken there for a moment.

But then then he looked carefully and he could see Vishnu inside this ridiculously violent form and then he connected to Vishnu and then he was fine. And so, Vishnu said, “Good. You’ve done the You You’re You’re You did exactly what I expected you to do.

And now, because you’ve been such a good student, I’m going to give you a special bonus, special extra credit, and I’m going to show you what I looked like when I killed your uncle Hiran Yaksha.” And so, at that same moment, after displaying the Narasimha form, he then displayed the Varaha form, the sacrificial boar form.

Of so, Prahlada got darshan of two avatars, which is pretty unusual. he got darshan of two avatars and Prahlada was even more overjoyed because how great was that? Which brings us back to Simhachalam because at Simhachalam, the image there.

Is a combination image of Varaha and Narasimha. And it’s that Simhachalam was the place, supposedly, where where this all happened. And that’s why this image of Varaha and Narasimha is there. Where this happened just before Hiranyakashipu was killed by Narasimha on Narasimha.

Jayanti, which is today. It is the 14th day, the Chaturdashi of the bright half of the lunar month of Vaishakha. so when that day came back then when that day came and the.

Narasimha Jayanti of course is an interesting day. It’s not on the full moon. It’s just before the full moon. So it’s it’s a it’s it’s very strong in that in it in its own kind of way. So finally that day came and Hiranyakashipu was his usual irritable self and he was even more irritable than normal because.

He had thought that the serpents, the mountains, and the ocean would be enough to do away with his son, but no, that was not enough. And so he was looking at his son and thinking, “Oh my god, what am I going to do next?”.

You would have thought that he would have possibly said to himself, “Huh, maybe the fact that he I’ve not been able to kill him suggests that the blessed Vishnu is somebody I should pay attention to and bow down to.” But he had been promised that he would be slaughtered and in order to be slaughtered he had to maintain that ego up to the point that he was slaughtered.

So he was maintaining his ego. He was growling. He was irritable. So he said, “Prahlada, you have always, as long as I’ve known you, which is quite a long time now, you’ve always said, ‘Other than me, the king of the universe, there is a supreme being.’.

And that supreme being is all-pervading. Is that correct?” Prahlada said, “Absolutely.” and then Hiranyakashipu said, “Okay. Then now you have to explain to me, where is this supreme being? I’ve conquered the universe. I haven’t found him anywhere. Where is he? If he is everywhere, why does he not come in front of me? If he is everywhere.

He should be absolutely everywhere.” And then he pointed to a pillar a pillar holding up the roof of the palace, wherever they were. He said, “Is he in this pillar also?” And Prahlada said “He was.

He is. And he will be. He is in pillars. He is in the least. He is in the greatest. He is everywhere.” And then Hiranyakashipu said “If he is in the pillar, let him defend you because I am going to smash you to pieces with my mace.”.

Big heavy club. So the king rushed at Prahlada with the mace and before hitting Prahlada, just to make a point, he hit the pillar with his mace.

And then as soon as he hit the pillar with the mace, and he was a very he had conquered the universe, so he was very powerful and he expected the pillar to fall into a zillion pieces. But in fact, the pillar started to reverberate and there was a tremendous sound. Remember Karada means tremendous sound. There was a tremendous sound like like 10 million bolts of lightning, the thunder from 10.

Million bolts of lightning going off all at once. Intense, ridiculously intense, a Ugra sound. And all of a sudden the pillar splits into two and out jumps the man-lion.

Narasimha, the man-lion. And the man-lion of course has all the qualities that are required to take care of Hiranyakashipu.

Because Hiranyakashipu cannot be killed by a human or a Deva, a god, or an animal. But Narasimha is not any of these because he is part Deva, that would be Vishnu, part human, and part animal.

Oops. and he has appeared at twilight. So it’s twilight. That means the sun has gone down, but it’s not dark yet. Sun has gone down, but it’s not dark It could be twilight at dawn also, but this is the twilight at dusk.

Because dusk is when you kill things. Dawn is when there’s new life. Dusk is when the sun goes down. It’s the death of the day. That’s a good time to kill things if you’re Vishnu.

And so it was twilight, which is not day cuz the sun is not up and not night because it’s not dark yet. And so he dragged Hiranyakashipu to the threshold of the courtyard. So the threshold is in the door. It’s not on the inside. It’s not on the outside. It is not indoors.

It’s not outdoors. He put Hiranyakashipu on his thighs which are not on space and not on the earth. And he used his nails which were not animate and not inanimate. They were not alive and not dead. They were not weapons and they were not not weapons.

And he took his claws and he dug them deep into the belly of Hiranyakashipu and he tore open that belly and he dragged out the intestines and he put the intestines around his neck and wore them as a garland.

Whoa. Now, various gods and goddesses had come to see this and they were astonished is too mild a word. That’s an understatement. They were overwhelmed by seeing this happen. Now, as Vimalananda used to say, of course, there is definitely a an important.

Meaning, subtle esoteric meaning behind this, and what that was, according to Vimalananda, was that by tearing open his belly Narasimha removed all the obstructions in Narasimha in Hiranyakashipu’s Manipura Chakra purified Hiranyakashipu’s.

Fire element, which means his sight so that he was no longer only seeing external things, but so he could see everything from the pro the correct perspective. And this transformed Hiranyakashipu of his destruction.

So that was good for Hiranyakashipu because he needed to be killed anyway. That was He was being blessed by him killed. and so on the one hand everybody was happy about that. On the other hand, Narasimha was still the bloodlust was on him. So he was thinking about what he could destroy next. Why not the cosmos?

And this was the point where Prahlada stepped in because he had been trained for he had been he was been practicing this moment. He stepped in and started to sing the Stuti to Narasimha.

And as Narasimha listened, little by little, he reconnected with this map of reality. He reconnected to this story. He reconnected to his devotee Prahlada. He reconnected to himself as being mirrored by Prahlada.

And he calmed down. And all of a sudden everybody was in a great mood again. And then maybe it was Narasimha, maybe it was Akashavani, a divine voice from the sky.

Somebody said “Prahlada, you’ve done a great job here today. Ask for anything you desire.” And Prahlada, who was now if he had been excessively joyful before, he was now 10 million times more joyful because what a great experience that had been and great darshan and great everything. And finally he was rid of his dad, so he didn’t have to worry about who was going to try to kill him next.

And so he said “Lord, I’ve seen your Varaha form. I’ve seen your Narasimha form. I have seen your universal form. that’s all I want. Don’t tempt me with anything else. Please Please my my the boon I want is stop tempting me.

I don’t want anything. I only want you.” And the voice said, “Please ask for something. Just ask for something. That’s what we have to do. You’ve done something good for me. I have to do something good for you. That’s the way things work. There has to be mutuality.

Or as Vimalananda said, a fair exchange is no robbery. So there’s no there things will be nice and tidy.” And so Prahlada said “Lord, my father had an intense love for worldly things.

And ignorant people in this world have an intense love for worldly things. Whatever the intensity of that love is for worldly things, I would like that same intensity multiplied by as much as possible to be directed at you for no purpose other than the sake of love itself.

So Vishnu, who I’m sure was smiling behind all this said Tathastu, so be it. And then said Prahlada by my command you may enjoy the blessings of this world until the end of this present manifestation of creation.

And at the time of the pralaya, when things dissolve and go back to undifferentiated reality you will then come to me.

And Prahlada then became the king of the Asuras and everybody was very happy and they had a big party and then everybody went back to where they belonged. So it was Donagacha.

And that’s the end. So I’m going to give you a link to an interesting It’s you’re going to find difficulty understanding it if you don’t have some familiarity with Sanskrit and the Vedas etc. already.

But it is definitely it’s definitely interesting. And if the story of Prahlada is especially it’s told in in various stories and Puranas, but especially in the Srimad Bhagavatam which is really the best place to go to learn about all forms of Vishnu, but especially.

Krishna himself. So I see there are a couple of questions. Hiranyakashipu was the doorkeeper, correct. Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha, they were both the doorkeepers.

And after they died then Hiranyakashipu became Ravana and Hiranyaksha became Kumbhakarna. And then then they became brothers or or cousins or something during Krishna’s time, but different people have different opinions of who they were.

Some say Kamsa, some say Jarasandha. So we don’t know. Is it fair to say that Prahlada was the target of a narcissist? Absolutely. Hiranyakashipu was the definition of a narcissist. Everything is all about me.

Except that some narcissists are boastful and projecting because they’re so they’re so what’s the word? unconfident. They They’re inside they they lack confidence completely and that’s why they try to project.

Outside. Hiranyakashipu was extremely capable. He had complete confidence. He was a he was a stable genius, but he was a hyper narcissist. What did he sing? well, it’s a good question. I mean, in the Srimad Bhagavatam they say one thing and other people say another thing. So in this point in this in this.

Perspective it’s less important what he sang and more important what you sing provided that you feel like whatever it is you’re singing is connecting you to Narasimha. So Namaste Narasimhaya is a excellent thing to say but to sing because it is.

Connecting you to Narasimha. It’s so you and you can in fact you can be of the opinion that that’s what Prahlada is saying because I mean who knows what language Prahlada was speaking? Who knows what what singing sounded like in that dimension of reality? Who knows any of that? So we can take something and we can say this is what I’m going to.

Believe is that song that will connect me to Narasimha and then faith will move you forward. May I please ask for a summary that may have meaning to this time in our history? Well we see people like Hiranyakashipu, but of course nowhere near so powerful, but we see them all around and they all around they are.

They are saying I am the king of the universe. I am the president of this powerful country. I am the premier for life or the president for life of this powerful country. I am most important. I am most important. Everybody is trying to say that and the reality is none of them are anybody.

It’s just like Shelley, I think it was. My name is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. This alone. And then all around there was just sands. It was a ruined city because whoever Ozymandias was was dead, d e a d.

So it’s happening all the time. It’s happening on the inside. Hiranyakashipu is our own ego, just like Ravana, who is thinks it’s somebody and needs to be brought down to understanding it is just the servant of Vishnu.

How can you resist temptations? Is it only with the grace of Narasimha? It is only with the grace of the supreme reality. And if you would like to connect to the supreme reality in the form of Narasimha, then it is in the form of Narasimha. It’s very important, said Vimalananda, to select one form of supreme reality to connect to.

Narasimha, Ganesha, Jesus whoever it may be. But one form of supreme reality, connect to that and no matter what happens to you, no matter who drops binds you up with giant divine serpents or puts throws mountains on you or tries to incinerate you with the help of your aunt all of this doesn’t matter.

What really matters is that you have faith in the supreme and you move forward. Would be wonderful if you could tell us about Raghavendra Swami. I I don’t know that much about Raghavendra Swami. I just you know, it’s so I I wish I could tell you more. apparently he was a great scholar also.

I mean, I know what I read on the Wikipedia. He didn’t really want to be a a a renunciate, but he became one and then once he did that he just he just went ahead. I mean, it’s I don’t know what Mantralayam is like now, but I have to say it was you know, it was an okay town, but Raghavendra Swami’s samadhi was was something really.

Really great. Did Prahlada suffer greatly? Seemed like he breezed through this drama. I expect that Prahlada there were moments where he was unsure whether he was going to suffer I mean, you know, succeed or not. How could he.

Not be? But he was Prahlada. It’s just like Dhruva. You can read the story of Dhruva. I’m sure there’s a Wikipedia page about him and Dhruva means firm. So when he was worshipping Vishnu and Vimalananda used to say, you know there are all kinds of mantras for Vishnu, Om Namo Narayanaya, for example. But Om.

Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya, that’s Dhruva’s mantra and only use that if you’re Dhruva. If you are absolutely firm and you are not going to be swayed in any way because it’s a really strong mantra and it’s going to bring all kinds of stuff that you’re going to have to try to cope with and you may not be able to. So stick with simpler things.

Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram, and move more slowly unless you’re sure you can handle it. Prahlada, we’re pretty sure he could handle it. He started studying in the womb. I’m sure there were some moments like when he saw the burning pillar and he thought, “Oh, what do I do now?” And then he saw the ants. So I’m sure there were several moments when he was thinking, And then he realized, “Wait, I don’t have to freak out. There’s still hope.”.

How do we get access to these other dimensions of reality, say where the saints like Sri Raghavendra Swami are from the earth plane? Well, I mean the nice thing is Raghavendra Swami, for example, is accessible from anywhere. I mean, it’s it’s I I had a great experience at at his Brundavan in Mantralayam, but even before that I had felt a connection.

It’s you won’t feel connected to everybody, but if you were and you should not project, “Oh, I’ve you it’s very much a matter of being very calm and very quiet and allowing yourself to perceive what’s going on and if you do that and you are very calm and very quiet then little by little you’ll start to feel which direction you.

Should look for the supreme and then you will go to it. The story takes place on the day before the full moon of Vishakha. Does it have any relevance to Vishak Buchaya or I think of it as Vaisakh but.

Yes I think it does. I mean I I don’t I don’t think Vaisakh by the way is the Buddhist celebrate as the birth and or death and or enlightenment day of the Buddha.

And I definitely think there’s a connection. What that connection is I can’t say I honestly know but it you know it’s definitely something having to do with this time of year and remember that in the previous month we had Ram Rama being born on the ninth day of the bright.

Fortnight of Chaitra and Hanuman being born on the full moon and then we had this month Vaisakh we had Akshaya Tritiya when the image of Varaha Narasimha is they had removed the sandalwood paste and they cover it back again at Simhachalam and then the 14th there is Narasimha Jayanti and then the.

15th there is Buddha so definitely there’s something but I don’t I haven’t been able to make that connection exactly yet. How difficult is it to purify Manipura? I would say to get to that extent that where it is completely purified I would say that’s pretty difficult because then what happened is you have to get to the point where you’re you’re using your.

Your Bhuta Agni almost exclusively and your Jathara Agni for actually you know sending things moving around in your organism tiny tiny amount.

Like Vish Ram Vishram Das Ji did Guru Maharaj you know he would eat tobacco and transform it internally so he could he only needed a tiny amount of his digestive fire to do that and otherwise he could spend the rest of his Bhuta Agni experiencing the reality and he was always in some reality I mean goodness who knows what reality he was in.

What’s the deal with the Shiva Vishnu debate and Ramanuja? oh my goodness that’s unfortunately too big to even think about because I mean Ramanuja was very great and there was just I mean I I I couldn’t I’m not qualified to even have an opinion about that but it I mean it’s honestly it’s it’s the ongoing.

Ongoing debate and Ramanuja had one variety of it and different people have have weighed in on it different times. the city of Visakhapatnam I don’t know if it is named after the month of Vishak which is not the month of Vishak it’s Vaishak or whether it was named after because it comes from the Nakshatra Vishakha and.

Vishakha relates to it’s the Nakshatra that relates to Virabhadra who killed Daksha so probably probably there’s a difference of opinion about people. That’s interest I’ve always wondered about that and I’ve never really heard never really heard a definitive answer.

And last question what text say that Prahlada had advanced notice of the Narasimha form? I have not seen that to be honest I have not seen that in a text. This is what Vimalananda told me.

And definitely if you look in the Srimad Bhagavatam it does it just says that it was only his faith that prompted everything. so absolutely I have not seen this in the Bhagavatam or in any other text. This is just what Vimalananda told me and I don’t know where he came up with that but my suspicion is given that Guru Maharaj was at Simhachalam is that Guru.

Maharaj told him and that’s my suspicion but in any event Jaya Narasimha my request is that in this moment where we have this virus who for just a moment we will envision as being a giant narcissistic.

Danava who is afflicting the entire universe at the moment may Narasimha come and destroy this particular virus and open up its Manipura Chakra and convert it into a virus that makes everybody move in the right direction all the time. Om Namah Shivaya.

Jaya Narasimha Om Namo Narayanaya Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya Om Narasimhaya Namah Om Namah.