॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
Monday, 16 January 2023 VII.05 - Hiranyakashipu hates Prahlada's devotion to Maha Vishnu and tries his best to kill him.
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I cannot describe the joy I am experiencing today, reading about Prahlada. He has absorbed the highest truth of all spirituality - to see God in everyone, and accept all equally, and cultivate single-minded devotion to the Lord - here it is Sri Hari, Bhagavan Maha Vishnu. When he is challenged to disclose who has poisoned his mind thus, he speaks calmly and explains that Bhagavan Maha Vishnu, who through Maya has made everyone live in the mind map of duality - separateness of I and mine vs. others and theirs, is the same Lord who has instilled in Prahlada the sense of unity and devotion! He does not stop praying to the Lord and singing his praises. Hiranyakashipu is so distraught by his son's love for his enemy that he does not stop for a second before ordering him killed. But Hiranyakashipu does not succeed!
I have scanned for the blog the complete translation from Swami Tapasyanandaji. I do not want to restate in my words what is so precious and so well written by a great Sadhu.
This portion has the most famous shloka on Bhakti called Navavidha Bhakti!
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Skandha VII : Chapter 5 PERSECUTION OF PRAHLADA
Hiranya examines his Son (1-7)
Narada said: 1. It is well known that the Asuras had chosen the sage Shukra as their chief priest. Shukra's two sons, Shanda and Amarka, had their residence near the palace of Hiranyakashipu, the king of the Daityas.
2. The Asura king put his son Prahlada of acute intelligence under these teachers for instruction in what he considered fit for him to learn along with the other Asura children.
3. Whatever the teachers taught, he heard and learnt. but he did not accept the soundness of much of their teachings. which were based on the sense of the difference between oneself and one's interests on the one hand, and others and their interests on the other.
4. One day, the Asura king took his son on his lap and asked him: 'O dear one! Tell me what you consider to be true and good.'
Prahlada said: 5. “O Lord of the Asuras! All embodied beings are overpowered by body consciousness and are consequently subject to sorrow and suffering. I, therefore, deem that their ultimate good lies in abandoning their homes, which have caused their spiritual downfall by imprisoning them in the darkness of infatuation, like a discarded and dried-up well. Let them, therefore, abandon it and resort to some sequestered forest where they could take complete shelter in Sri Hari, the destroyer of all the sufferings of life.'
Narada said: 6. When he heard these words Of the boy conveying his unbounded faith in Sri Hari, his (Hiranya's) inveterate enemy, Hiranya laughed at first, thinking that the boy's mind had been perverted by the persuasions of some undesirable persons.
7. And he warned the teachers to see particularly that devotees of Vishnu did not come incognito to their home and pervert the boy's mind.
Efforts to reform Prahlada (8-18)
8. When Prahlada was brought back to their home, the teachers, Shanda and Amarka, called him to their side, and patting and praising him, asked him gently:
9. 'Dear boy Prahlada! May you be happy! Tell us the truth: How did you get this outlook, which is quite alien to boys generally?
10. Is this contrary way of thought inducted into you by someone or is it natural to you? O the delight of your tribe! Tell the truth about it to us, your teachers, who are keen to know the facts.' Prahlada replied:
11. Salutation to the worshipful Lord, by the working of whose Yogamaya men get the ignorance-born distinction between oneself and another—a distinction which only minds perverted by ignorance would make.
12. When the Lord is propitious to you, then this vain, brutish distinction felt between one's interest and another's interest will disappear.
13. It is He alone, the Supreme Being of inscrutable ways, that is distinguished by ignorant men as I and he, as friend and foe. There is nothing to wonder at in it. For, in trying to understand Him even Brahma and the knowers of the Veda fall into utter confusion, It is His grace that has erased in me this outlook of seeing a difference between myself and another
14. Just as before a magnet, iron pieces are naturally moved and attracted, so in the presence of the discus-armed Lord, my mind automatically runs to Him abandoning everything else.
Narada said: 15. The high-minded Prahlada, having said this much to the teacher, remained silent. That pitiable teacher—pitiable because he had no freedom of thought as a servant of Hiranyakashipu scolded the boy angrily and said
16. “Who is there? Bring the cane! This boy is going to bring us disrepute. A dangerous fire-brand to our tribe, and evil-minded to the core. nothing but corporal punishment can do for him!” In the sandalwood forest of this Asura tribe, this boy is a thorny tree. For Maha Vishnu, the axe that cuts down the trees of the forest, this boy has become the veritable handle".
18. Brandishing threats of this kind, he taught Prahlada only subjects dealing with the three ends of life namely, Dharma, Artha and Kama.
Hiranya's second Examination 19-32
19. Sometime after, when the teacher was sure that the boy had mastered the four divisions of diplomacy—conciliation, subsidy. internal dissension, and force— he took him to Hiranyakashipu, bathed, well-dressed, and well-decorated by his mother.
20. The Asura lifted the boy who prostrated himself at his feet, embraced him for long, and enjoyed the highest bliss thereby.
21. O Yudhishthira! Seating the boy on his lap, kissing him on the crown of the head, and shedding tears over him, the Asura said with a blooming face. Hiranyakashipu said:
22. 'O Prahlada, dear boy! May you be long-lived! Please tell me about the best lessons from the vast body of instructions you must have been receiving from your teachers during these days. ' Prahlada replied:
श्रीप्रह्राद उवाच
श्रवणं कीर्तनं विष्णो: स्मरणं पादसेवनम् । अर्चनं वन्दनं दास्यं सख्यमात्मनिवेदनम् ॥
इति पुंसार्पिता विष्णौ भक्तिश्चेन्नवलक्षणा । क्रियेत भगवत्यद्धा तन्मन्येऽधीतमुत्तमम् ॥
23-24. Hearing about Vishnu, singing about Him, remembering Him, serving Him, worshipping Him, acting as his close friend/buddy, and surrendering oneself and everything that is one's own to Him: these are the nine aspects of Bhakti or God-love.
If man could be trained to practise devotion characterised by these nine features, that indeed would be the highest education he could have. That is what I have understood.
25. Hearing these words of his son, Hiranyakashipu said to his teacher's son in great anger, his lips trembling in emotion. Hiranyakashipu said:
26. 'You un-worthy and perverse teacher! How is it that taking the side of an enemy, you have totally discarded me and put absurd ideas into my boy's head?
27. There are wicked men in this world who approach you in the disguise of friends. Just as the disease takes time to afflict sinners as the wages of their sins, the evil wrought by enemies in the disguise of friends (like you) will take time to manifest clearly.' The Preceptor's son said:
28. 'O Thou antagonist of Indra! What your son is saying has not been taught to him by me or anyone else. This bent of his mind, O King, is natural to him. Please be good enough to control your anger and not charge us with this offence.’
Narada said: 29. When the teacher said like this. the Asura asked his son again, ‘O evil fellow! it is not Crom the Guru's instruction, how did you come to have this perverse outlook?'
Prahlada replied: 30. 'For lack of control over the senses Jivas go round and round in the wheel of Samsara, chewing the cud of the same enjoyments and sufferings again and again without satiation. Their thoughts are ever confined to their homes, property and other domestic concerns. They can never develop this devotional proclivity of mind towards Krishna, the Supreme Being, either naturally, or through the teachings of others, or from mutual influence.
31. People of impure nature, whose minds are always outward-going because of their domination by the notion that what is true and what is enjoyable lies outside, are never able to know Maha Vishnu, who is apprehended only by the inward-going, introspective vision. Those extroverts immersed in Vedic ritualism are like a group of blind men led by another such group by a rope. This is the thick rope of Vedic ritualism to which these extroverts are bound by the several thin strings of practices, rituals, and beliefs for the fulfilment of desires here and hereafter, as cattle are to the mam rope of several tethers
32. So long as one cannot bathe his head with the dust of feet of His great devotees, who have no possession of any kind except Him, the mind of man does not take a serious turn towards the feet of the Lord. And the cessation of Samsara does not come about until the mind is thus turned towards Him.'
Persecution of Prahlada ( 33-47)
33. Saying thus, Prahlada stopped. Hiranyakashipu was mad with terrible anger on hearing these words of his Immediately he pushed him from his lap to the floor.
34. Moved by irresistible he exclaimed with blood-shot eyes: ‘O you Rakshasa guards! He deserves to be executed. Take him away from here Kill him without any delay.
35. This fellow, who has rejected all of us, his own friends and well-wishers, and seeks a servant attending on Vishnu, the killer of his own uncle, must himself be considered that killer.
36. Such an untrustworthy fellow like him, who. even at the age of five, could break and throw overboard the natural and unbreakable affection for parents—of what good can he be even for Vishnu? 37. Even an unrelated person can be considered as one's own son so if like medicine, he serves your interests well. One who does the opposite must be considered a disease. even if he be one's son, born of one's own body; and he has to be eradicated like a disease. When a limb of a body is diseased and becomes a threat to the whole body, that limb has to be cut off for the safety of the rest of the body.
38. Therefore he deserves to be killed somehow or other—through poisoned food, or while sleeping, or while awake. For, as an attractive sensuous object is a danger to an ascetic, so is an enemy in the disguise of a friend. '
39-40. When the master ordered them thus. the Rakshasa guards, with sharp things, fierce faces and copper-coloured beards and hair, began to shout, 'Pierce, etc., and struck Prahlada on his vital parts with their tridents.
41. Just as all the pious rites done by unbelieving persons are fruitless, so were all the efforts of these Asuras to kill Prahlada, whose mind was ever immersed in the Supreme Lord, the centre of all power and excellences, the soul of all, the Indefinable Absolute.
42. O Yudhishthira! When all their efforts to kill Prahlada failed, Hiranyakashipu grew extremely anxious. and seriously began to think of some extraordinary means of killing him.
43-44. He tried various measures such as having him trampled by elephants, bitten by serpents, attacked through black magic, rolled along the mountainside, imprisoned, poisoned- starved, and exposed to severely inclement weather and to fire, storm and water. When all these failed to kill his sinless son, Hiranyakashipu became extremely worried and perplexed.
45. He thought: ‘I have heaped abuses on him, and I have tried in many ways to kill him. All these persecutions and even the magical arts I tried, have all been set at nought by him by his own puissance.’
46. Though a mere boy though standing in my presence, he is without the least fear or nervousness. This powerful chap, like Sunahshepa, is not likely to forget the atrocities I have committed against him. 47. He seems to be of inscrutable nature, fearless and deathless. Am I likely to meet with my death because of my enmity towards him? In no other way can I die.'
Further Efforts to reform him (48-57)
48. To Hiranyakashipu who sat brooding with his lack-lustre race turned down because of these depressing thoughts, Shanda and Amarka, the sons of Acharya Shukra, said as follows in private:
49. ‘By your own prowess, unaided by anyone else, you have conquered these three worlds. A mere quivering of your brow is enough to strike terror even into the hearts of the guardian deities of the quarters. O Master! To one such as you, we do not find anything to worry about. And as for Prahlada, he is yet a boy who has not reached the age of discretion.’
50. To prevent this Prahlada from running away out of fear, let us keep him tied up with Varuna's noose until the return of our teacher, Rishi Shukra. As one's age advances, and as one gets more chances of association with and instruction from the wise, men gradually change in their character and outlook. 51. Agreeing with the advice of his teacher's son, Hiranyakashipu said to them: ‘Instruct the boy in the Dharma of Kings and of householders.'
52. O King! Accordingly, they Instructed the humble and obedient Prahlada in matters concerned with the pursuit of morality (Dharma), power (Artha), and pleasure (Kama).
53. The Instruction given to him by the teachers on the three ends of life, Dharma, Artha and Kama, was not considered by him as sound; for they were the teachings given by worldly-minded people for others of similar outlook.
54. Whenever the teachers went out for their own household purposes, Prahiada’s classmates, then got time for play. would call him to Join them.
55. On one such occasion, this enlightened Prahlada spoke to them lovingly for their instruction, depicting the very pitiable condition of men steeped in worldly life.
56-57. The boys, whose minds had not yet been corrupted by the words and examples of the extremely worldly-minded fellow Asuras, was powerfully attracted by the seriousness of Prahlada's words. threw away their playthings. and gathered around him, concentrating their looks and their hearts on him. To them the great devotee Prahlada spoke as follows with a mind full of love and pity.
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॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
