Tattva-viveka
narsingha deva and south india
Vivek - April 30, 2007 7:26 pm
As syamsundar said that a south indian feast for narsingha deva, I just had the question about appearance of narsingha deva, was hiranyakasyapa in south india, i thought he was not on earthly planet when he was killed. It doesnt seem like prahlada was born in south india. Though there are places like the pillar from which narsingha deva appeared in south india. Prabhupada was cautious about the pillar being the same from which lord narsingha appeared.
Can somebody shed light on this subject? I only knew that their were dieties of narisingha deva in south india not that prahlad himself was living in south india. A reason BVT said that bhagavata was in written in south was the opinion of scholars of that time.
Syamasundara - April 30, 2007 11:53 pm
My understanding is that the earth the Bhagavata talks about is not just the planet as we know it, but it also corresponds to a stratum of the universe, and ultimately a type of consciousness.
Myself I was wondering how Hiranyakasipu could reside in South India, as beautiful as it may have been back then, if he had conquered heaven.
Put it that way, it's like when a naturopathic doctor looks at your footsoles, lips, ears and iris, and says here is your liver, your bladder, the colon... those organs are not actually there, but somehow represented in those points, so much so that if you act on them (in the case of foot and ear) you may actually change the health status of those organs.
Vivek - May 1, 2007 5:21 am
Actually interstingly in C.C prabhupada mentions prahlad being born in multan, punjab(present day punjab). I can really imagine that it is extremly hard to get the correct history about just about anything! Only thing you can be sure of is about selfless devotion to krsna!
C.C Antya 9.10
prahlāda, bali, vyāsa, śuka ādi muni-gaṇa
āsi' prabhu dekhi' preme haya acetana
SYNONYMS
prahlāda — Prahlāda Mahārāja; bali — Bali Mahārāja; vyāsa — Vyāsadeva; śuka — Śukadeva Gosvāmī; ādi — and so on; muni-gaṇa — great sages; āsi' — coming; prabhu dekhi' — by seeing Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu; preme — in ecstatic love of Kṛṣṇa; haya acetana — became unconscious.
TRANSLATION
Prahlāda Mahārāja, Bali Mahārāja, Vyāsadeva, Śukadeva Gosvāmī and other great sages came to visit Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Upon seeing Him, they became unconscious in ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa.
PURPORT
According to the opinion of some historians, Prahlāda Mahārāja was born in Tretā-yuga in the city of Multan, in the state of Punjab. He was born of Hiraṇyakaśipu, a king of the dynasty of Kaśyapa. Prahlāda Mahārāja was a great devotee of Lord Viṣṇu, but his father was very much against Viṣṇu. Because the father and son thus differed in their consciousness, the demon father inflicted all kinds of bodily pain upon Prahlāda. When this torture became intolerable, the Supreme Lord appeared as Nṛsiḿhadeva and killed the great demon Hiraṇyakaśipu
Swami - May 3, 2007 12:24 pm
Ahovalam is said to be the place where Narasimhadeva appeared. It is very remote, about 300km south of Hyderabad.
Ahovalam is the only place in India where all nine forms of Narasimhadeva, Nava Narasimha, are worshiped. The nine (nava) forms of Narasimha are: (1) Prahlada-varada Narasimha or Lakshmi Narasimha, (2) Chatravata Narasimha, (3) Yogananda Narasimha, (4) Karanda Narasimha, (5) Krodha Narasimha, (6) Guha Narasimha, (7) Jwala Narasimha, (8) Malola Narasimha, and (9) Pavana Narasimha.
The Narasimhadeva Deity in the Ugra Narasimha Temple in Upper Ahovalam is said to be self-manifested (swayambhu). Sri Chaitanya visited this pilgrimage place.
Pictures from recent festival at Sri Narasimha Caitanya Ashram
Vivek - May 3, 2007 2:56 pm
Thank you Maharaja, for the information. So it means that hiranyakasyapa was residing in south india when narsimha deva appeared. It is hard to decipher from the S.B that he was residing on earth(but even ravana was on earth so it is possible). The place in pakistan,multan(more towards northmost india) marks the birth place of prahlad according to C.C. Then it means narada muni's ashram was also there.
Or maybe as syamsundara said, they are earthly representations of things occuring on higher dimensions.