నరసింహావతారం (Narasimhavataram)

"satyam vidathum nija britya bhashitham
vyapthim cha bhudeshu akhileshu chatmanaha
adrusyathatyalbuda roopam udvahan
stampe sabayam na mrugam na manusham "

Any living being ,who lives in its mortal body made of these Panchaboothas, has to leave it's body one day ,is clearly said in the Bhagawath Geetha . That is to say that one is not the body and the soul is not perishable at any time. We all know this very well,yet we are afraid of our Death,and surely Hiranyakashipu, the demon, also knew that. But why did he think that he can become immortal just by getting a boon from Brahma?

It's said in Bhagawath Geetha that Bhagawan takes Avatarams to safe guard the Sadhus , to demolish the evil-doers and to save the Dharmam when it gets weakened ................But the purpose of Narasimha avataram seems to be to prove His Bhakthas correct and to show that Vishnu means the Lord pervades the whole universe. And to Prove Prahlada right, the Lord had to appear from the pillar spontaneously,showing the urgency to help his Bhaktha.

That is why Bhagwan calls Himself ........Aham bhaktha paradheenaha.
Hiranyakashipu gets the Varam he wanted from Brahmadeva....... that he can not be killed by any living creature created by Brahma,can not be killed in the morning,evening or night,can not be killed in the land, ocean or sky and the list goes on and on ....... Brahma wondered how he can be killed at all..... gave the boon,though, leaving his samharam or immortality ,to lord Vishnu to think about.......

Armed with this boon, he started ruling all the universe,ruling over the Devas and asuras .He wanted to take revenge of Vishnu for the killing of his Brother Hiranyaksha by Him,ordered his people to remove Vishnu's images from their houses and instead asked them to install Hiranyakashipu's images and to worship and do pujas for his statues. All started chanting "Om namo Hiranyakshaya namaha" .He succeeded in imposing this rule in his kingdom except on his own son Prahlada who was a great believer in the God and worshiped Vishnu even before he was born, through the Bhajans of Narada Maharshi. This made Hiranyakashipu angry and he sent Prahlada to the school of Shanda and Amarkha , the sons of Sukracharya the Asura Guru.

When on vacation from the school, Hiranyakashipu asked Prahlada,what did he learn at the school, Prahlada said that not from the school,but from the life itself he learned that one should SERVE the God Krishna at all the times forgetting all from the materialistic world which are not true at all and that the only truth is the God Himself. He further said that this can be done in many ways like..
"Shravanam,Keerthanam,Vishnoho,Smaranam,Padasevanam,
Archanam,Vandanam,Dasyam,Sakhyam,Aatmanivedanam."

This constitutes the Nava Vidha Bhakthi,of which the first three are very much within our reach. We can listen to Bhajans and Keerthans if we cant chant them ourselves or at least we can do the Nama Japas within our minds or at least do the Smaranams of the Lord and His Kathas in the minds.

Hiranyakshipu became angry rather than knowing the Tatwas told by Prahlada and asked his men to somehow get rid of him. All the attempts to kill Prahlada failed because, Krishna takes the responsibility of saving His Bhaktha's lives. Then Hiranyakashipu thought he should himself finish the child ,he called Prahlada and asked him to forget the name Vishnu. Prahlada said that even his father also should serve the Lord Vishnu. Then Hiransykashipu asked where the Vishnu was,Prahlada said he's everywhere. Then why he was not visible in this pillar,asked Hiranyakashipu.Prahlada said he can see Vishnu in all the materials of the world including this Stampa. Then Hiranyakashipu split the pillar with his gadha and alas.... the Bhakthavatsala Bhagawan appeared from the broken pillar as NARASIMHADEVA. And the Narasimha then completed the Avatara Lakshya,i.e. killing the Demon Hiranyaksha,thereby giving Sapa-Moksha to his Dwarapalaka Jaya-Vijaya.And only Prahlada,not any of the Devatas or any one else present there, could calm down the enraged, Bhaktha-jana-priya, Narasimha.

The Seventh Skandam of Bhagawatham ends with the Karma Panchadhyayam wherein different Karmas are explained. Is it not our duty to do the karmas as prescribed in the Vedas and Puranas like Bhagawatham? In fact Bhagawatham is said to be the Fifth Veda available to Mankind