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A Tribute to Sri Lakshmi Nrusimhan on His Jayanthi

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sadagopan • April 29, 1999 


Dear Nrusimha BhakthAs :

Srimans MaadhavakkaNNan , Murali Rangaswami ,
Parthasaarathy Dileepan and Gerald Surya have already 
paid their tributes to Sri Nrusimhan on this day of 
His Jayanthi . Today also happens to be the Thirunakshathram 
Of Madhura Kavi AzhwAr and the revered 29th pattam Jeeyar 
of AhObila Matam , Sri ParAnkusa RaamAnuja YathIndhra
MahA Desikan , who ascended to Parama Padhaam from 
ThiruppARkkadal , a village on the banks of PaalARu 
in South Arcott district in TamilnAdu . I am so
glad to learn that the revered Jeeyar of AhObila Matam
will be speaking next about the Prabhandham of 
Madhura Kavi AzhwAr in his tele-upanyAsam scheduled
for Saturday , May 1 , 99 . 

On this Nrusimha Jayanthi day , please visit the lovely ,
and informative home pages on Ahobilam created by 
Sriman ParthasArathy Dileepan and the delightful home pages
created by Sri VenakatEsh Elayavalli for Thirukkadigai
(ShOLingar ) and ThiruvallikkENi ( TeLLiya Singham )
divya desams 

I missed the opportunity to listen to the special
Tele-UpanyAsam of the revered Prakrutham Jeeyar of 
Ahobila Matam on April 24 on his AarAdhana mUrthy ,
MaalOlan , and from what I read from sri Dileepan's 
posting , it must have been a most illuminating 
and blessed occasion as it always is . 

I will now take this opportunity to pay my humble 
tribute to Sri Lakshmi Nrusimhan , who has been saluted 
by VyAsA as :" Naarasimha Vapu: SrimAn Kesava:
PURUSHOTTHAMA: " .

He is indeed SrimAn , He is MaalOlan ,He is 
Lakshmi Narasimhan . He is Nara Hari , Nara Simham ,
He is Vaikunta KantIravan and He is the Adhbhutha Kesari . 
He is the TaapanIya Rahasya Saaran and He is the KaamAsikA Hari
of ThiruvELukkai kshEthram .He is the Adhi Purushan and 
the akhila bhuvana bhandhu for all the Janthus residing here .

He is the Yoga Narasimhan at ThiruvallikkENi , 
Naamagiri and ShoLingar ( ChOlasimha Puram ).
He is the akkArakkani and the YadhrucchA Hari ,
who responded to the asura kumAran, PrahlAdhan and 
acquired the name of PrahlAdha Varadhan at AhObila
KshEthram .He shows His avathAra rahasyam at Naamakkal,
where we have the darsanam of a huge fearsome Narasimhan
and below Him another small sized Saantha Narasimhan .

He is the PurushOtthaman described in the fifteenth
chapter of Sri Bhagavadh Gita( 15.18) :

athOsmi lOkE vedhE cha prathitha : PURUSHOTTHAMA:

( I am in the world/smruthi and in the VedhA /sruthi
celebrated as the PurushOtthaman or the most supreme One )

AchArya RaamAnujA quotes the passage of ChAndhOgya
Upanishad (8.12.3) to define the PurushOtthaman 
( Utthama Purushan/Sri Narasimhan ) :

param jyOthi rUpam sampadhya svEna rUpENa
abhinishpadhyathE sa Uthama purusha: 

(reaching the supreme light , it appears in its own 
 nature . He is the Supreme Person -- Sriman NaarAyaNAvathAra
 Narasimhan , who came to the rescue of His dear bhakthan,
 PrahlAdhan ).

As the PurushOtthaman saluted by the Vishnu 
Sahasra Naamam , He Himself explains why that
name has been assigned to Him by the BhakthAs 
like PrahlAdhA :

sarvasya chAham hrudhi sannivishtO 
  mattha: smruthir jn~Anam apOhanam cha
vedhaisccha sarvair ahamEva vEdhyO
  vedAntha kruth vEda vidhEva chAham ( GitA :15.15)

(Meaning ):  I am the One , who is seated in the heart 
lotuses of All .I am the One from whom all memories ,
knowledge and their removal arise . I am indeed the One
to be known as the essence of all VedAs .I am the One , 
who grants the phalans of the rituals of VedAs ; I alone am 
the knower of the VedAs .I am the saarabhUthan/
SaaranAthan of all the VedAs .

Due to the blessings of Naaradha Muni , 
PrahlAdhAn became the garbha SrimAn/Bhaagavathan
and had dhruva smruthi (Memory ) of the Lord
even as a foetus in the womb of his mother .
His angry and deluded father did not recognize
that the Lord was inside his heart cavity 
and went on searching for Him with the shouts of
KvAsaou, KvAsou ( where is He ? Where is He , 
where is my enemy , who killed my brother ?). 

As a direct result of the NaarayaNa smruthi ,
the child PrahlAdhA responded brilliantly to his 
father's query :PrahlAdha! anUchyathAm ThAtha svadhItham
kimchith uttamam ?( My dear son! among all the lessons
received from your teachers today , what is the best ?).

Bhaktha PrahlAdhA's response was : 

sravaNam keerthanam VishNO: smaaraNam paadha sEvanam
archanam vandhanam dhAsyam sakhyam aatma nivEdhanam
tanmanyE adhItham uttamam 

He refers to the nine ways of the worship of the Lord
to attain Moksham : (1) Listening to the wonderous 
deeds of the Lord as Parikshith Chakravarthi did 
(2) Singing about the Lord's glory just as SukhAchAryA
did (3) Having ceaseless memory of the Lord as
PrahlAdha  did (4)Worshipping the Lord's feet  
(5)offering salutations to the Lord just as 
AkrUrar did (6)serving the Lord as AnjanEya did 
(7)saluting the Lord through mithra bhAvam ,
just as ArjunA did (8)Bhagavadh archanam just as 
the emperor Pruthu did and (9) total surrender
at the Lord's feet and giving unto Him all
possessions and returning to Him , what is His 
(Aathman ) just as AzhwArs and AchAryAs did and do 
and help us perform Bhara samarpaNam . 

This sarvAntharyAmi  blesses the bhakthAs of Andhra dEsam 
at AnanathavAdi as one of the nine NarasimhAs
at the confluence of the rivers VasishtA and GodhAvari .
He is sitting on top of MangaLagiri ( auspicous hill )
as Sri Lakshmi Narasimhan with great thirst for Paanakam .
At SimhAchalam , He presides over as Sri varAha Lakshmi-
Nrusimhan and gives us His nijarUpa sEvai for one day 
in the year ( akshaya Thritheeyai ).He sheds His sandal
paste to give us His darsanam on that sacred day .It is said
that His Ugra NarsimhA form after the destruction of 
HiraNyan had to be cooled under many layers of sandal paste.
At the hill of Yadagiriguttaah ,He appears as JwAlA 
and YogAnandha narasimhan and cures "incurable " diseases .

At the KshEthram known as ThirunArAyaNapuram in
TamilnAdu ( near ThiruveLLarai divya desam ) ,
He shed His fearsome Nrusimha SvarUpam and 
assumed the soumya NaarAyaNa rUpam to give darsanam to
PrahlAdhan . He sits in the Yogic posture at 
ThirunArAyaNapuram (Melkote) in KarnAtakA . 
Elsewhre Sri Lakshmi Nrusimhan offers us His
sEvai at Thiruneermalai as Saantha Narasimhan ,
as guhai Narasimhan inside Atthigiri ( Kaanchipuram ) ,
as Yoga Narasimhan at the southern prAkAram of
Thiruvanathapuram , as HiraNyasamhAran at 
ThirukkOttiyUr , as Lakshmi Narasimhan at
ThiruvAli , Thirunagari and TanjayALi Koil on 
the banks of VeNNaaRRankarai near Tanjore 
and finally as Mettu Azahgiyasinghar at 
Srirangam and blessed the poet Kambhan and
sanctified the arangERRam of Kambha RaamAyaNam .

This bhakthavathsala PerumAL, Sri Nrusimhan
appeared before HiraNyan to prove the truthfulness
(sathyam ) of His BhakthA's word that He is inside
the blade of grass as well as in the sthampam in 
the HiraNyan's court and that He is everywhere .

Srimadh Bhaagavatham's famous slOkam about the Lord 
making PrahlAdhA's word as sathyam is as follows :

sathyam vidhAthum nija bhruthya bhAshitham
  vyApthinja bhUthEshvakhilEshu chAthmana:
adhrusyathAthyadhbhutha rUpam udhvahan sthambE
  sabhAyAm NA MRUGAM NA MAANUSHAM (Bhagavatham:7.8.18)

To prove the truthfulnes sof His bhakthan"s
word , He jumped out of the gem-studded Vijaya
sthambham in a wonderous (adhbhutha rUpam )
form and punished the tormentor of His dear 
Bhakthan. HiraNyan was not a naasthikan ; he
did not say that there is no BhagavAn VishNu .
His problem ws much worse.He believed that
the Lord was subordinate to him and everyone 
should therefore worship him as the supreme
being .This loss of memory about the truth
(apOhanam ) led to his demise .The nishkAma 
Bhakthi of PrahlAdhan led to the Lord to place
His hand on the head of His bhakthan and look at
him with the most merciful eyes .In SridharIyam ,
the commentator of Srimadh Bhaagavatham , Sri Sridharar ,
composes a slOkam about the juxtaposition of the fierce
anger of the Lord at the offending HiraNyan and the parama
KaaruNyam displayed at His parama bhakthan PrahlAdhan :

ugrOpyanugra yEvAyam svabhakthAnAm NRUKESAREE
kEsarIva svapOthAnAm anyEsham ugra vigraha: 

(Meaning ): However fearsome the Lord looked 
during NrusimhAvathAram , He looked with the most
merciful glances at His Bhakthan. The fearsome 
lion may terrify all the other animals of the forest ,
but to its own cub , it displays the most tender
feelings . 

When MahA Lakshmi was afraid to go near the Ugra 
Narasimhan , BrahmA askd PrahlAdhan to approach
the Lord to pacify the Lord's anger ( PrahlAdham
prEkshayAmAsa BrahmAvasthithamanthikE ). PrahlAdhan
eulogized the Lord with 42 beautiful slOkams housed
in Srimadh BhAgavatham . The Lord became Saantha 
Narasimhan and asked His Bhakthan as to what boon 
he would like to have . PrahlAdhan asked for the boon
that would banish any thought of seeking a boon from
the Lord and just stay as a Bhakthan for Bhakthi's sake .
After that , PrahlAdhan got worried whether he might have 
offended the Lord and asked for the boon for the Moksham 
for his father , who had offended the Lord . Sri Narasimhan
said : Oh PrahlAdhA ! You are My MahA Bhakthan . 
Because of yourself being born in HiraNyan's 
vamsam ,for 21 generations , every one in your lineage
will reach sathgathi. Your father is also assured
of that Moksham .I  will not kill anyone , who 
is a descendant of your kulam .

Bhaktha PrahlAdhan at that time revealed to us 
the mystery of the Lord's rUpa Mahimai :

rUpam Nrusimha vibhayAya janaa: smaranthi 

(Meaning ): The people of the world meditate
on the Narasimha rUpam to banish their fears .

That is the greatness of the roudhra chEshtitha 
Lord ( who performed the abhinayam of roudhra
leelai by taking the fierce form for a few 
seconds ) , who is the PurushOtthaman 
celebrated by the Sri Nrusimha Taapaneeya 
Upanishad ( Sri TaapaneeyAbhidha sruthyantha
sphuta geetha Sarva Mahiman ).

We will conclude this special posting 
on Nrusimha Jayanthi day with the Mangala 
krithi of PrahlAdha Bhaktha Vijayam :

nee naama rUpa mulaku nithya Jaya MangaLam

PrahlAdha NaaradhAthi Bhakthulu pogadu chuNDE 
RaajIva Nayana ThyagarAja Vinuthamaina ( nee naama
rUpa mulaku Nithya Jaya manGalam ).

Sri Lakshmi Nrusimha ParabrahamaNE nama:
Sri NaarAyaNa YathIndhara MahA DesikAya nama:

Daasan , Oppiliappan Kovil VaradAchAri Sadagopan