Nrsimhadeva Festival coming this Sunday

Jump to Comments

Malola-Narasimha, a mediaeval form of Nrsimha in Ahobilam, southern India

Sri Nrsimhadeva’s Appearance Day this week. I’ll be off to the German farm on Wednesday afternoon for three days of festivities before Nrsimha Caturdasi. Its been 20 years since I went there last, so I’m looking forward to it very much.

Tomorrow I’m going up to Cambridge to give a talk on Sita Devi and Jahnava Thakurani for the devotees there. Next morning over to Stanstead to fly to Linz in Austria, then by train to Passau where hopefully I’ll be able to catch a lift to Jandelsbrun, the village where the farm is. Now named Simhacalam, the farm is the location for the only Nrsimhadeva temple in Europe. Sri Prahlada-Nrsimha have been offering their protection to the devotees for many years, and the annual festival there is well known.

Vaishnavas have a special fondness for Prahlada, since the Lord protected him through all his troubles. He was innocent of all wrongdoing yet was put into many horrific situations by the cruelty of others. Throughout it all he remembered his Lord, Who came to save him in a way that is still discussed today. By this astonishing act of saving grace, God reveals that He has no limits, and that no matter someone may try to outwit Him, he perpetually remains the most intelligent- and always the most powerful.

In 1977, during the Gaura Purnima Festival in Mayapura, India, I sat close to Srila Prabhupada as he gave class about Lord Nrsimhadeva. He explained that the Lord’s hands are adbhuta - wonderful - since His pink palms are as soft as a lotus flower, yet the nails of those hands are as sharp as steel chisels. He can bless the devotee with the palms, and despatch the miscreant with the nails.

One Vaishnava acarya has commented that normally the lotus flower gives shelter to the bhringa - the bee or wasp - and the tips of the lotus petals are normally the softest, most gentle part of the flower. But in this case the tips of this particular flower are devastating. The wasp-like Hiranyakashipu, who was prepared to sting everyone, was beaten by the tips of this particular lotus flower.

Vedanta Deshika (1269-1370) said that, under normal circumstances, a person cannot display two separate emotions with his two eyes. Either he is angry and his eyes show it, or loving, but not both. But Sri Nrsimha is adbhuta and does display both emotions. One eye is fixed on Sri Prahlada and is filled with love for His devotee; the other manifests His perfect anger towards Hiranyakashipu.

Vaishnavas everywhere ask the Lord to protect them in all circumstances.

2 Comments

Filed under Journal, Narasimha