7.9.36 – The sweet fruit of austerity makes all the trouble more than worthwhile

Krishna will reciprocate and reveal Himself and attract our heart to Him. So, here, the sequence of the events that happened at the start of creation, the events that are so much of a standard of how the subsequent souls who seek illumination will lead to follow those footsteps, those are symbolic of the process of creation, they are being described by Prahlad Maharaj.
So, now interesting, when Prahlad Maharaj is offering these prayers, Brahmaji is also present. In fact, it is Brahmaji who told Prahlad Maharaj to go and pacify Narasimhadev. So, Prahlad Maharaj is remembering Narada Muni, his spiritual master by whose grace he practiced devotional service and Prahlad Maharaj is also remembering Brahmaji who actually directed him to go forward and approach Lord Narasimhadev.
And he is remembering how from the beginning of creation, Brahmaji got the mercy by a particular process, that process was the process of devotional austerity. So, the ripe fruit of that process, the nectar, as it is said, mudam virinchah, muda is joy, great joy. So, virinchah is Brahmaji.
So, Brahmaji became joyful on seeing, evam sahasra vadanangri shirah karor. This description is similar description of the Vishwaroopa where there are hundreds of hands and hundreds of legs. So, like that, sahasra vadanangri.
So, thousands of mouths, legs, head, hands, nose, ears, everything like that. And similarly, there are weapons also, ornaments and weapons. Abharana and ayudham.
Maya mayam. So, maya mayam means, this is not actually maha maya, this is yoga maya. So, the Lord is manifesting all these opulences by his internal potency.
These are the upalakshita. These are his lakshana, sannivesham and they are all combined together. So, by seeing this, Brahmaji is feeling completely fulfilled to have the direct darshan of the Supreme Lord, for which sake he had performed such long austerities.
So, Pilhadarana is remembering that Brahmaji had darshan of the Lord and similarly, now I am having darshan of the Lord. And just as Brahmaji had to perform austerity, now Brahmaji’s austerity was, he had to fight against his own environment. We know that he had to fast and turn inwards for a long time.
At that time, the storm started blowing and it seemed as if the whole lotus flower on which Brahmaji was seated, that may itself topple off because of the storms or he may be toppled off, he may be thrown off from the top of the lotus and he became fearful, but somehow Brahmaji persevered in the austerities. So, similarly, Prahlad Maharaj was also threatened. So, he was threatened by Hiranyakashyapu and Hiranyakashyapu’s associates who actually tortured and tried to kill him.
So, both, before they could actually get darshan of the Lord, had to go through enormous troubles. Prahlad Maharaj’s troubles were even worse in one sense because he knew from whom they were coming. It was coming from his father directly.
For Brahmaji, the troubles were coming from the forces of nature. He did not know who was the source. So, when we know that somebody who is meant to love us is causing us trouble, then the suffering that comes is far greater than it would be otherwise.
When somebody slanders us, we feel bad. But if a friend whom we trusted slanders us, we feel even worse. So, now when Prahlad Maharaj has darshan of the Lord, he is thinking that just as Brahmaji was feeling blissful, Prahlad Maharaj is also feeling blissful.
So, when one beholds the beauty of the Lord, actually all one’s miseries, all resentments, all frustrations, they all go away. And soon we will see in the next birth, Prahlad Maharaj will ask that let my father be forgiven. Now, Prahlad Maharaj always had a saintly disposition and he never desired harm for his father.
He always wanted the ultimate good and that’s why he tried to give good instruction to his father also. Now, in this case, we see that actually the fruit of austerity is sweet. And by meditating on that sweet fruit, we can get the motivation to tolerate and penetrate through the initial poison that is there in austerity.
The same applies to our cultivation of remembrance of Krishna while chanting, while studying, while following the process of Krishna consciousness and the regular principles therein. By meditating on how there is a supremely sweet fruit waiting and Brahmaji has seen it, Prahlad Maharaj has seen it and we will all relish that fruit, that darshan of the Lord. By meditating on that sweet fruit that awaits us at the end of our journey, we can get the strength to perceive it in our journey no matter how great the difficulties.