Prahlad Prayers 2 The damsel in distress redefines distress

Narasimha Chaturdashi meditation on Srimad Bhagavatam 7.9.16

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Continuing our discussion on the prayers of Prahlad Maharaj, let us now look at the origin of fear and understand what it is that we should be afraid of and what we should not be afraid of so text 26 text 16 rather text 16 I am afflicted text 16 text 16 Ogra, Ahamayan Krupana Vatsala, O Lord, you are merciful even to the fallen, the selfish to the miserly this Ogra, intolerable fears Samsara Chakra this material existence Kadanad this is a very miserable condition, Grasatam Praneetah Grasatam while being bound among other living beings, pranitah, I have been thrown into this, baddhah svakarmabhir, I have been bound here, not only I have been thrown here, I am bound here, svakarmabhir, by my own karma, ushatam, ushatam, ushatam, ushatam is, oh, this is a huge, it is an insurmountable material existence, and you, oh, lord, are also insurmountable, teangri moolam, shatpam teangri moolam, angri moolam is lotus feet, pritho apavarga sharanam, oh, lord, pritho, please be pleased with me, apavarga sharanam, you are the shelter of liberation, vayase kadhanu, vayase, you call me, kadhanu, when indeed, so, here priladh maharaj is praying, my dear lord, I am afflicted in material existence, trastosmyam prapanavatsala dusyodhra, is intolerable, it is fierce, it is ghastly, and I have been thrown into this by my own karma, and not only I have been thrown here, I am bound here, and there is no hope for me, my dear lord, it is you who have to rescue me, it is you who can call me out of this material existence, when, oh, lord, will you call me out, vayase kadhanu, trastosmyam, I am afflicted, I am distressed, bhakti is a relationship of inequality, it is a relationship of delightful inequality, now when we pray to Krishna, we focus on, when we pray to Krishna, narsimha, any of the manifestations of the lord, at that time we focus on our smallness and Krishna’s greatness, and thus we seek his generousness, thus we invoke his generousness, when we are trying in this way to invoke Krishna, to seek Krishna’s generosity, at that time, why should Krishna help us, after all, we have got ourselves into the mess that we are in, svakarma bheer, by our own karma we are bound, but Krishna is apavarga sharanam, he is the bestower of liberation, and he is also the krupada vatsala, he is merciful even to the fallen, this is the beauty, the glory of Krishna, that he doesn’t let us stay bound even when we deserve to be bound, that is the nature of love, now love offers to others that which they deserve and it also offers them more than they deserve, if they are just willing to reciprocate, they are just willing to reciprocate, now here the context is that, if you look at, to understand the context of this verse, to appreciate how love is being offered and reciprocated over here, through this expression of fear, the previous verse was, here Prahlad is speaking about how the form, O Lord, which you are glorifying, which you have manifested is ferocious and describes how your tongue is moving around like a deadly sword, your ears are high up like a stone person, you are frowning and your eyes are flaming like the celestial objects in the sky and you are roaring and your roaring is so scary that even elephants are running away in fear, so when all this is happening, at that time, even the devatas become fearful, even Lakshmi Devi becomes fearful, thinking, I have not seen my Lord in such a situation, so therefore, what should I do, so everybody is fearful of the Lord in such a ferocious way and at that time, what happens? Prahlad Maharaj says, I am not afraid of you, O Lord, I am not afraid of you, Shri Dharam Swami says in a beautiful prayer that the lioness is death personified, is extremely fearsome for an animal of prey, for a deer or someone, but for her own cult, she is the embodiment of love, similarly, for those who love the Lord, even when he manifests in a ferocious form as Narasimhadev, the Lord remains appealing, looks lovable, that is the nature of Prahlad, so for Prahlad, he is not afraid of the Lord, in fact, he is garlanded the Lord, he is offering prayers to the Lord and his heart is overflowing with devotion for the Lord, so he is totally devoted to the Lord in such a situation, so he says, I am not afraid of you, unlike everyone else who seems to be afraid of you here, I am not afraid, now does that mean that I am fully free from fear, he says, no, I am also afraid, I am afraid of this material existence, Oh Lord, I am extremely afraid of this material existence, then he is saying, fools rush in where angels fear to tread, in this world we often want to explore newer and newer things, thinking that these things will give us pleasure, that something new, something new I want to explore and the world always beckons us with new things, promising us pleasure in some other object that we have not yet experienced, however, no matter how many objects we experience, how many say TV programs we watch, how many websites we surf, how many new apps for titillation we get, how many books we read, whatever we do, we actually will not get pleasure, and the wisdom means to not be allured by the new, but to beware of the new, because actually there is nothing new in this world, as Prahlad Maharaj will say in a later prayer, chewing the chewed again and again and again, so chewing the chewed again and again means that in this world whatever pleasure is promised, essentially the pleasure within it boils down to eating, sleeping, mating and defending, and that is no pleasure at all, that is actually very meager pleasure, that is not a very satisfying pleasure, and so when we get caught, consumed by the obsession for that pleasure, then we are left pursuing again and again something new and getting nothing new, and the promises of pleasure of this world are something we should be afraid of, now if we see what Prahlad Maharaj describes, I am bound in material existence, O Lord, please rescue me from it, so now if we see, Prahlad Maharaj was in a fearful condition, even if we say that he is not afraid of Narasimhadev, because he sees the love and care that Narasimhadev is manifesting by appearing to deliver him, but still Prahlad Maharaj was in a fearful condition because he was subjected to multiple assassination attempts, by the most powerful tyrant in the universe, who was his own father turned against him, and suppose a person is on a death row, supposed to be executed, and then at the last moment somebody comes up, just before they are to be executed, somebody comes in and saves them at that time, that was actually Prahlad’s situation, Hiranyakashipu was bent on killing him at that time, Narasimhadev appeared and saved him, so now in many movies there is a theme of the damsel in distress and the knight in shining armor, the damsel in distress is about to be violated or killed by some demon, by a villain, and as in the nick of time a knight in shining armor comes, so now that is a theme which is often, the primary point of this is male-female romance, but the underlying theme that attracts people is love, and that same love is demonstrated over here, that same theme of Prahlad Maharaj is not a damsel, but he is a child, he is in great distress, and Narasimhadev is not wearing any armor, he doesn’t need any armor, he doesn’t need any arms also, but he has come to rescue Prahlad, and when he has come to rescue Prahlad, what happens at that time, he destroys the person who was going to destroy Prahlad, and after that, Prahlad Maharaj is normally a person who is rescued, they are gushing with gratitude, and they say how terrible the condition of incarceration was, and how you have rescued me, that’s the normal way, but Prahlad Maharaj doesn’t even mention that, oh my lord, because of Hiranyakashipu’s persecutions, I was in great trouble, because of, they tried to put me in fire, they tried to pierce me with weapons, they tried to poison me, and in the whole prayers of Prahlad, not even once does he mention all the kind of tortures, that Hiranyakashipu’s stooges tried to subject him to, Hiranyakashipu’s rogues, they tried to subject him to, it’s amazing, he has just survived a horrendous experience, a series of assassination attempts, and then to his rescue, he does not even once mention, oh, all this I went through, because Prahlad Maharaj is seeing things from not just relative material perspective, but from absolute philosophical spiritual perspective, so in the relative material perspective, some things are materially comfortable, some things are materially uncomfortable, and when somebody rescues us from materially uncomfortable, and brings us to spiritually comfortable situation, we feel very grateful to them, and we tell how terrible the materially uncomfortable situation was, but Prahlad is seeing from the spiritual perspective, and he knows that, actually to be bound in material existence itself is terrible, whether we are in a comfortable situation materially, or whether we are in an uncomfortable situation materially, being in material existence itself is a terrible condition, and therefore, while being in this terrible condition, it really doesn’t matter, if I was in a very uncomfortable condition, or very comfortable condition, what is important is, I have to come out of this vulnerable condition of material existence, and coming out of that vulnerable condition of material existence requires, becoming liberated from material existence, and that can be done by the grace of the Lord, so he is not thanking the Lord for having rescued me, he is asking the Lord, oh my Lord, when will you rescue me, when will you call me to your lotus feet, when will you liberate me from material existence, and yes, when we have terrible problems at the material level, we can and should pray to Krishna for help, but we should know that the real help is not just relief from problems within material existence, the real help is the relief and release from material existence itself, and Radha Maharaj is asking, beseeching the Lord for that release, and again in his humility he is saying, that my dear Lord, I am not qualified for liberation, nor do I have the qualification of devotion, I am a Kripana, I am miserly, but still you are merciful, oh Lord, and therefore, Kripana Vatsala, please rescue me from material existence. Thank you.