Why does the Lakshmi Narasimha karavalambam stotra focus more on misery of material existence than the glory of Narasimhadeva?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you question why is the Narasimha Karavalambha Stotra filled with so much negative imagery about samsara rather than about positive glorification of lord Narasimha answer actually there is positive glorification also of lord Narasimha Shreemad Payonidinike Chakrapani, the first verses at least they describe the glory of the lord as the master of the goddess of fortune as the resident of the ocean of milk as transcendental and at the conclusion also how he is the god of all the gods how it is he who restores power upon others all that is described but yes it is true that the central body of the verses focuses more on many metaphors of how material existence is a place of misery so for example there is the verse about how samsara that the samsara is like a terrible multi fanged poisonous snake or that how samsara is like a pit which is bottomless and is terrible or again there are many that samsara that samsara is like a ocean with terrible crocodiles which are ripping us apart so like that there are several metaphors in the Lakshmi Naya Simha Karnarastotra that depict our condition often graphically in negative ways now these prayers of Karnarastotra are attributed to Shankaracharya and now why Shankaracharya is speaking like this now there are multiple reasons first is that the contrast between the lord’s appearance and his benevolence or his his compassionate nature is nowhere as striking he is actually the greatest well wisher of all and Prahlad Maharaj says in his prayer although you are extremely fearful but I have no fear of you and then next verse he says samsara so next verse he says that actually I am afraid of samsara chakra of the cycle of material existence so what is he saying that actually we don’t have to be fearful of the lord, we have to be fearful of the dangerous material existence now normally material existence appears quite attractive to us so and in normal vision Narasimhadeva appears fearful so in the Lakshmi Narasimha Karnarastotra or it is also called Karavalamastotra so the metaphors which describe the miserable nature of material existence they are meant to educate us about the true nature of material existence to change our perception and to recognize how actually we are miserable and by this recognition of our misery we feel the urgency of taking shelter of the lord so then we understand that although the material world may look beautiful but it is dangerous the lord may look dangerous but he is beautiful so thus we will take Karavalambam, we ask for the shelter of his hand we ask him to bless us and lift us out of our material existence and this sutra also by speaking to the lord about how we are miserable meditating how we are miserable and how we are helpless without him we can invoke his karuna and that way we can attract his mercy so these verses were chanted by Shankaracharya when he was when Devi god worshipper wanted to offer him as a human sacrifice to Kali and he was about to be sacrificed when lord Narasimhadev appeared and delivered him so we saw how the lord had had mercy and come upon him and because he was also on the verge of being killed alive sacrificed so he describes that since now I saw the true face of material existence my dear lord and you are the redeemer of this material existence so please bless me please redeem me also and that is the mood of this prayer so we can also actually meditate more seriously and steadily on the lord when we are become free from the misconception that we can be happy in this world and by driving home the miserable nature of the material world it helps us to take more seriously and substantially shelter in the glories of lord Narasimhadev. Thank you Jai Krishna