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Re: Lord Narasimha

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elayavalli • March 24, 2003 


Sri:
SrimathE Ramanujaya Nama:
AzhwAr emperumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigalE Saranam

--- In bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com, V Kamban  wrote:
> respectd bhagavathas
> the question raised by sriman srinath in not on the
> fearful avatar. he questions why lord narasimha
> adonrned the intestines (not liver)which appears to
> barbaric.  


It appears that the part of the the Narasimha Avatar where 
Hiranyakasibu's intestine is ripped out and worn as a garland by our 
Lord  is referred to only in Vishnu puranam as a path for
Hiranyakasibu's moksham (based on BG?). This is based on the request
made by  Prahalad after Hiranyakasibu is killed. Experts who have read
the vishnu purana can shed more light on this.

However, other puranas such as Kurma, Padma, Vayu, Matsaya do not
seem to refer to this particular act when dealing with the avatara.
Infact, I think Kurma (or is it Brahmanda?) purana gives a different
account about Prahalad's nature. It says that Prahalad (who is the
eldest son of Hirnyakasibu and much older) lead an army to fight Lord
Narasimha, but chages his mind once he realises that the man-lion form
is none other than Lord Vishnu and becomes a bhakta. Also, Vishnu
purana is the only one sort of implies that Prahalad gets mokasham
when he is pushed from a cliff. Other puranas do not refer to this.

In addition, kurma purana connects the dots between Narasimha avatar
and Vamana avatar, saying Bali is the grandson of Prahalad and is
cursed by the later when Bali boasts to him, after defeating Indra,
his army can defeat Lord Vishnu.  The curse was that His rule will
colapse at the hands of Lord Vishnu.

Now comming to the nature of Hirnyakasibu, looks like he is the only
asura who actually tried to become Lord Narayana (i.e. trying to gain
HIS power for destruction). Hence this ferocioius nature of the
avatara, unlike the others. In fact there are lot of common aspects to
Bali and Hirnyakasibu, in that they both ruled all 3 worlds, but thats
where the common thread stops. Bali was much more benevolent ruler and
all the puranas generally praise his rule, unlike that of
Hiranyakasibu. Also, when Lord Thiruvikrama reaches Bali and requests
the three steps of land, he acknowledges even after objections by Sage
Sukran (?).  It appears that Bali was prepared for his end. However,
in the case of Hirnyakasibu he was in denial. 

So one has to take the reason for Narasimha avatara for what it is:

1. HE is the only one who can become the destroyer, not, Siva, not
Indra or any other Asura.

2. HE will protect HIS bhaktas at any cost.

To specifically answer the question on the reason for the removal of
intestine and the scene following, it is probably a puranic
demonstration of the development of the Lords qualities: Starting from
RgVeda where Lord Vishnu is generally identified as the One who comes
to the rescue of Indra, to the early puranas where Lord's avataras are
brought out in details, culminating with the Vishnu Purana which bring
out qualities including the extreme compasion the Lord showers on
bhaktas (as well as the asuras who surrender to HIM).

This is based on some basic/limited understanding of the puranas on my
part.

adiyEn
Venkatesh Elayavilli
http://www.srivaishnava.org



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