A True Bhakta — Bhagavan’s weakness

ViBha Class Notes | March 15, 2020

As we think, so we develop. The Gopis thought about God out of kama or lust. Kamsa, out of bhaya or fear, thought about God. The Nripas or the wicked kings thought about God out of dvesha or hatred. The Vrshnis or family of Bhagavan Krishna were connected to God through sambandhah or respect. Raja Yudhishthira and the other Pandavas had a relationship of sneha or love with God. Rishi Narada out of reverence or prema thought about God. Whether we think of someone out of hatred or love, we develop into that person. Our Vedanta in Bhagavata course is a training in thinking, helping us to re become God as we flow with it.

Last time, we were introduced to the Navalakshana of Bhakti, one of the most important aspects of Shrimad Bhagavata. These nine rungs take us from being separate from God to being one with God. These rungs take us deeper rather than higher -

1. Shravana — to input shastra — to read, write, reflect.
2. Kirtana — to output shloka — to chant more in order to develop concentration.
3. Smarana — to input sankalpa — what is the intention behind everything we do?
4. Sevana — to output sangraha — to create welfare and well-being without conditions
5. Archana — to input sadhana — all that we do becomes joyous so that seva is no more limited by space and time
6. Vandana — to output sheela — Sheela means character, behaviour, conduct, manners, civic responsibility. It should manifest in all that we do. We should be satvik not just in satsanga or in mandirs, but everywhere, all the time
7. Dasya — to input shushkah — to let go of one’s identification with the body and give it the minimum possible as it doesn’t belong to us
8. Sakhya — to output smriti — to be a friend of God rather than His servant which shows that Sanatana Dharma is not fear-based, to let go of past regrets and future anxieties, likes and dislikes
9. Atma — to input svarupa — this rung brings us face to face with our Creator as we contemplate on our svarupa, to feel that we are not the intellect, to feel that the creation and the Creator are one, to feel that we are divine.

All of the above is training in Nivedana which is to give, to renounce, to surrender and it has to be done rung by rung, not simultaneously. Prahlada, the divine boy, concludes by saying that by following the Navalakshana of Bhakti, a human can give up his ego. If one does this for God, this is the best way anyone can live — a message from a mere 5-year old!

Prahlada shared with his friends in the gurukula that what their teachers were teaching them was wrong and their knowledge would not make them complete. His teachers, Shanda and Amarka, when summoned and questioned by Hiranyakashipu, said that this knowledge was natural to Prahlada and was not taught to him by them. This connects us to the focus of Skanda 7 which is Uti, meaning nature. We have all come to this world with our own nature, irrespective of context. That is why we should not depend on context. We should not let disease make us fearful. We should not let other people’s compliments and criticisms shake us.

Once when Prahlada came home from the gurukula, his father asked him to share with him what he had been learning until then. Prahlada shared, “Anyone who is an extrovert will never feel humility, will never feel divinity. Such a person will always feel that they are the best, that they are the Creator and that there is no one higher than them.” Hiranyakashipu, hearing this from his 5-year old son, was furious as it seemed that Prahlada was referring to him. He could not tolerate this insult and being a true extrovert who never felt close to Prahlada as a father, never felt one with his son. Hiranyakashipu tried to have Prahlada killed in various ways — his guards poked Prahlada with their spears and swords, elephants were brought in to trample on Prahlada, snakes were brought to bite Prahlada, black magic was used on the little boy, Prahlada was thrown down from a mountain, he was put in prison, he was poisoned, he was starved with no food and water, he was exposed to raging weather, they tried to then drown him, and finally they tried to burn him alive with the help of Holika, Hiranyakashipu’s sister. But, all in vain! Nothing, no one could harm Prahlada!

Vedanta: Hiranyakashipu was an asura and such a person is always engaged in wrong thinking as he has darkness in his mind. Even we have darkness in our minds when we are tamasik, when we are tired, unenthusiastic. An asura is one who believes that the body is real and the Spirit is an illusion. So aren’t we all asuras too as we think alike? However, don’t we tend to externalize an asura? An asura is someone who wants this body to live forever, and that’s what Hiranyakashipu did tapas for, to remain immortal. Relating this to us, people who want to live forever become escapists. They do not embrace the fact that they are going to die. So when they are escaping, they feel more fear. Today, if we have lived a full life, with lots of service, lots of studying, and lots of cheer, then we would probably embrace death if it were our last day, but if we haven’t led such a life and have been only trying to escape from reality, then we would be very scared to face death today. This is a reality check for us.

Prahlada told his father that people who escape from their responsibilities, from death, are like cows. When a cow chews grass, it masticates its food, chewing it many times. Someone who is dependent on pleasure, possession and position is like a cow chewing its food because we keep trying different combinations of pleasure, possession and position to gain peace, but do we ever feel that peace? So what are we supposed to do now that we know who an asura is and what our dependencies are?

The message for us is that we have to reduce our body identification and one way to achieve this is to choose discomfort. Whenever we have the option of making our body comfortable or uncomfortable, choose the uncomfortable. If we know that we are a deva, not an asura, and we can make our minds cheerful with this message, then while we are experiencing the discomfort, we will still be cheerful. Then we will realize that we are not this body. If we are happy in spite of our body not wearing nice clothes, and not eating tasty food, then doesn’t that show that we are not this body?

Holika, Hiranyakashipu’s sister, had a boon that she would never be burned, only out of self-defense. She was not allowed to use this to harm others. However when one is riled up, one forgets to follow the rules. Though Prahlada is supposed to have sat in Holika’s lap when she was set on fire, he was actually sitting in Bhagavan’s lap. So he was never burned, and she was.

Thinking more deeply, Holika was not supposed to be burned, but was burned because she was holding on to a bhakta or a devotee. For us, the only way we can burn our vasanas is by holding on to the feet or hands of a bhakta. Our nature is vasanas right now, thinking that we are the body and the mind and our vasanas can be burned only when we hold on to a bhakta. Even in Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavan says that the Self cannot be burned by fire and Prahlada knows he is the Self so he cannot be burned. Holika doesn’t know she is the Self so she can be burned.

Another insight that Prahlada shared was that a typical human lived for 100 years. When man doesn’t have divinity as his purpose, then he succumbs to indiscipline and becomes casual. So out of these 100 years, 50 years were wasted in sleep. 25 years were wasted in ignorance as man thinks that everything he is experiencing is real and does not think about it more. 20 years were spent in pain and the 5 remaining years were lost in attachment to the people around him. This is a real accurate description of how we live today. So Prahlada was teaching his fellow students in the gurukula to live for the Divine. The Divine is most easily pleased as the Divine is closest to us. The one closest to us is our Creator, and the closer someone is, the easier they are to please. The farther they are, the harder they are to please. So Prahlada told them to be kind to everyone and everything as the Divine lives in all beings, not just in us. Being kind is doing someone else’s work so that they don’t have to. It is actually selflessness as we are not concerned about our tiredness and moods, but only of the other person’s tiredness and moods.

One day, Prahlada’s peers asked him where he had learned all this knowledge. Bhakta Prahlada told them that he had learned all this knowledge from Rishi Narada while he was in his mother’s womb. This is so important as it tells us that these nine rungs of devotion are so easy to learn and practice that even an infant can follow them. This is most universal, in order to be able to appreciate bhakti, to appreciate Bhagavata. Then his shishyas asked him where they should begin? Prahlada replied, “With Guruseva”. Satsanga is powerful, but how powerful we are depends on whose sanga we are in. How powerful Hanumanji was depended on whether he was in satsanga with King Sugreeva or Bhagavan Rama. So the company we keep determines how strong or weak we are. That is why Prahlada told his peers to engage in Guruseva.

Prahlada comes home again and this time Hiranyakashipu chides him by asking whether he had learned more about his enemy. The asuras never said the name of God, neither Ravana nor Hiranyakashipu. Prahlada replied, “There is no enemy other than the mind”. This is so true as a lusty, greedy or jealous person is always suspicious of the people around them, but if we have no enemies inside, then we do not externalize enemies either. Ravana saw Bhagavan Rama as an enemy, but Bhagavan Rama did not consider Ravana an enemy. How can we practice this? — Let us expose our minds to quietude. With the mind quiet, we will realize that there are no enemies outside. We will also realize that there are enemies inside, but we will then try to fight them. There is a lot of recuperation and healing when the mind is exposed to quietude.

This time, listening to Prahlada, Hiranyakashipu started fearing his own son. Even we tend to feel uneasy, fearful around people who are more satvik than us. Hiranyakashipu now started to feel how pure, how powerful little Prahlada was. There came a point when out of frustration he took out his sword and hacked the pillar, mocking Prahlada and asking him whether his Jagadeeshvara was in the pillar. The pillar then exploded and out came a being that had never been experienced in the past and will never be experienced in the future. A lot of details are shared in Bhagavata about the appearance of Bhagavan Narasimha, who appeared ensuring that the boon granted to Hiranyakashipu by Bhagavan Brahma was held true in every way, like it was neither day, nor night, neither inside nor outside, neither on the ground nor in the air. Bhagavan Narasimha then placed Hiranyakashipu on his lap and tore him open. Then Bhagavan started growing in size and became so enormous that his head went through the palace roof and everyone was fearful of Him and just helpless. Everyone turned to Devi Lakshmi to calm Him down, but She was helpless Herself. Then they looked to Bhakta Prahlada to appease Him. Prahlada approached Bhagavan Narasimha Who picked him up and put him on His lap. Then Bhagavan asked Prahlada for forgiveness. He asked him to forgive Him for coming so late to save him and that Prahlada had to endure all the torture because of Him. As Bhagavan was talking to Him, He kept checking to see if Prahlada was left with any scars on his body. That’s how loving Bhagavan was towards His bhakta.

Vedanta: It is said that Prahlada became the successor of Hiranyakashipu, but after Hiranyakashipu’s death, it was Bhagavan Narasimha who sat on the throne. So Prahlada was rightfully Bhagavan’s successor. This shows how much love Bhagavan and His bhakta had for each other.

When Hiranyakashipu said mockingly that he could not see Prahlada’s God in the pillar, Prahlada ensured him that He was there. And Bhagavan was in the pillar! Bhagavan will do anything, anything at all to support a bhakta, even manifest in an inert pillar! He did it just to make sure His bhakta’s words were held true. God always succumbs to the love of His bhakta. Do we love Bhagavan more now? Do we love Bhakta Prahlada more now?

Discussion: What is the practice to cure fear?

Vivekji’s thoughts: The cure is Self-knowledge. When we know our Nature is Existence-Awareness-Joy, then we no longer fear death, unknown and sorrow. In a more relative sense, what helps one to be less afraid is to know that fear is tiring. People tend to think that fear makes them careful, but how long can one have that emotion? Why entertain that which will eventually make us weaker?