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Re: Lord Narasimha

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elayavalli • March 17, 2003 


Sri:
SrimathE Ramanujaya Namaha:
AzhwAr emperumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigalE Saranam

Dear Sri Srinath and group

I have not followed all the posts on this thread, please forgive me
for any repetion or errors. 

I may not have a direct answer to the question about the 'intestine',
but...

There are 15 different puranas that talk about the Narasimha avataram
with varying degrees of details. One thing that is common is the way
Hiranyakasipu and his sons (except Sri Prahalad) is destroyed. What is
not that obvious is the quality and the power of destruction Narasimha
avatara brings when compared to the other avataras. I cannot reproduce
the exact translation, but the entire army of Hiranyakashibu is
destroyed within seconds. This scene is completely uniqe to this
avatara only. 

If you read the myths of Lord Shiva and others, none of their
destructions would come close to the speed, power and the enormity of
the the Narasimha avatara. 

This avatar, in my opinion, brings out two important qualities of
Sriman Narayana, which were not completely brought out in the earlier
 avataras. 

1. Given the speed and enormity, our Lord here shows that only HE has
the power the destroy evil, in an nano-second (so to speak)

2. We see in this avatara the concept of total surrender by a Vishnu
bhakta (Sri Prahalad ) who is a normal person (at that time). This
quality gets more pronounced in subsequent avataras.

One could take this avatara as a bridge between the stage where Lord
protected the devas and thier properties (such as Vedas or Potion) and
where HE showers HIS protection to his bhaktas. 

On the topic of wearing the 'intestine' as a garland, can there be any
connection between the Ahamkara and the body part? Could it be that it
refer to the destruction of the Ahamkara of HiranyaKasibu or the
unequivocal establishment of the LOrd's Ahamkara or both?

Just some of my thoughts on the topic. 

adiyEn 
Venkatesh Elayavilli





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