||Om Namo Bhagavathe Vasudevaya||

Chapter – 74 – The legend of Prahladha – 4

The legend of Prahladha shed light on the ignorance and death of Hiranyakashipu, the excellence of five-year-old Prahlada.  The characteristics of Prahlada symbolizes intelligence, enthusiasm, courage, humility, happiness, brightness, devotion, and knowledge, clarity of mind, contentment, and faith.  The human mind and intellect are mysterious, it is a marvelous instrument that can shrink due to jealousy, pride, ego, anger, selfishness, and wickedness.   It can also expand with supreme knowledge and the knowledge of oneness in All.   It can spread happiness, selfless love, care, humility, etc.  The character of Hiranyakashipu represents utter ignorance which could provide only sorrow, grief, jealousy, pride, ego, anger,  and pain.  It could augment crimes, brutal murder, massacre, and burglary.   The root cause of the entire problem is the restlessness of mind/ignorance due to insecurity, dependency, doubtfulness due to lack of knowledge, lack of potency, inabilities, fear of illnesses and aging.  An agitated mind cannot bring peace or serenity of mind.  The knowledge of self could remove ignorance, doubtfulness, restlessness, insecurities, fear, and anxieties.  Hiranyakashipu ordered his men to create an obstacle for all the religious and spiritual rites in his Kingdom.  He wanted to tear off the chest of Lord Hari who manifested as wild boar and killed his brother Hiranyaksha.  He pacified his mother with supreme knowledge and elevated her soul from extreme grief of the loss of her son.

Hiranyakshipu decided to conduct an extreme penance in Mandharachala to become immortal and win over his enemies.  He undertook severe penance standing on the fingertip of the leg, fixing the gaze on the sky, both the hands folded above the head.  The deities experienced utter heat witnessing the penance of Hiranyakashipu with the destructive thought.  The deities assembled in Sathyaloka and appealed to Lord Bhrama that they could not live peacefully with the extreme heat of the penance of Hiranyakashipu.  Lord Bhrama mounted on his celestial vehicle was accompanied by Sapatharishis and arrived in Mandharachala.   They could not witness Hiranyakashipu whose body was fully covered in the anthill, his body was deteriorated, his flesh was consumed by the ants inside the mud, Hiranyakashipu was not conscious of his body.  The Rishis removed Hiranyakashipu's skeleton-like body out of the anthill.   Lord Bhrama spoke “Oh! Wake up! Wake Up! Be all the auspiciousness with you,  I am pleased with your devotion, ask for a boon.” Lord Bhrama sprinkled water on him from his Kamandalu/vessel, Hiranyakashipu instantly retrieved all those powers, health, enthusiasm and energy of him.  He reverentially prostrated before Lord Bhrama and said “ Oh! Lord, you are the creator of Kalpa, and preserve it, ultimately destroy it. You are omnipresent, I shall prostrate on your lotus feet.  You are Adibeeja/prime seed, you represent intellect and knowledge, you are witnessing the deeds of Prana, senses/Indriya, intellect, and mind.  Oh! Anantha,  I shall prostrate before all-pervading Bhagavan, Oh! Prabho, I shall prostrate before your compassion, Oh! Lord, you have instructed me to ask for a boon, kindly bless me not  to have fear from any of your creation,  I should not face death inside or outside, I should not face death with any of the weapons, I should not face death during day or night, I should not face death from Earth or Sky, I should not face death from humans, or animals or deities or demons, I should not face death from living or non-living things, I should not have enemies.  I need not bow before any ascetics to get splendor, kindly bless me with the above boons.”  Thus, Hiranyakashipu attained unique and numerous boons from Lord Bhrama.  Later, with the boons he took control of the entire Earth and abode of deities, he created extreme trepidation among the living beings and deities as well.  He cultivated immense enmity towards Lord Hari who killed his brother Hiranyaksha.