My favourite avatar is the Narasimha avatar.
A beautiful story
integrated with moral teachings.
The child Prahlada;
though the son of the evil Hiranyakasipu stayed with the sage Narada for a
short time hence gained divine attributes.
The teaching here
is that the company of the good is always benefiting.
He was always
guided and protected.
Meanwhile Hiranyakasipu
after completing many years of great austerity and penance asked the gods to
grant him the boom:
“Let me not meet
death from human or animal,
the one who comes
to kill me does not come from ground or sky,
I not die within
any residence or outside any residence,
during the day or
at night,
nor on the ground or in the sky,
and further my
death not be brought about by any weapon or by hand.”
The Gods said “So
be it---granted”
Hiranyakasipu was happy; thinking that he had
won over death.
when Prahlada proclaimed that the protector lord Vishnu is all-pervading and omnipresent.
Hiranyakasipu was very angry, and stooped down to
negative behaviour.
He demanded to
know where this protector is and in a fit of rage smashed a pillar and asks
Prahlada is he inside this pillar; and he himself invited his own destruction.
Moral of this is;
full of ego and with bad behavior one himself invites his fall.
And from the
pillar emerged the Narasimha avatar---half man—half lion.
And the voice was heard from the skies :
“Hiranyakasipu---look
where are you standing ---
nor in a residence
or outside, you are in a courtyard,
look at the time
it is nether day or night ,it is twilight,
look who is in
front of you, neither man or animal,
look from where
he has emerged, nether ground or sky, but from in-between a pillar.”
And Narasimha
picked Hiranyakasipu and took him on his lap---now Hiranyakasipu was neither on
the ground or sky.
Then Narasimha put an end to his life using his claws---neither weapon nor hands.
Prahlada and the
Gods watch this with hands folded and then offered flowers to the avatar that had fulfilled the eternal teaching ---when evil flourishes in society; someone is
created to re-establish righteous order.
Now I will write
about one of my favorite places.
It is the Narasimha
temple in joshimath on the way to Badrinath,A very simple structure
Here a famous feature of the ancient black stone idol of Narasimha is that its left wrist is getting thinner by the day.
Legend has it
that when the wrist breaks off, there the current Badri vishal temple at
Badrinath will become inaccessible and new temple will be bhavishya badri.
In the early
morning puja this wrist is shown to the people and then covered up throughout
the day
There is the badri
kedar temple committee rest house adjoining this temple, in the silence of late
evening I sit alone in the temple compound and experience peace---vibrations
which cannot be expressed.
There is also a
seat believed to be that of the Adi Shankaracharya kept in the same premises.
seat of Adi Shankaracharya. |
There are many
small temples in the surrounding area most of them with ancient idols.
A short distance
from here is the math established by Adi Shankaracharya; and the cave where he meditated.
cave where Adi Shankaracharya meditated |
Giving shelter to
the cave is the 2500 year old “Amar Kalpavriksha” ---the evergreen mulberry
tree which stands witness to the life of the great soul.
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