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WHAT HAPPENED?

I love this kirtan. This video has been a really popular download on the web for a while and we are adding it to our collection here. One note right at the top here, His Holiness Radhanath Swami is the one who directed this whole mad, mad, mad affair. All credit goes to his divine vision.

When my family and I were visiting India in 2007 we traveled to Pune for the annual festival there with His Holiness Radhanath Swami. 3000 people had gathered and on the second evening we all came together for an amazing kirtan. There were two other very special souls present for that kirtan as well, Jananivas Prabhu and Pankajangari Prabhu. Twin brothers, they are life-long priests of the huge temple complex in Mayapur, West Bengal and are well know for their intensely focused puja or worship for the deities of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and his associates, Radha Madhava and their eight gopis and an extremely fierce and powerful black stone deity of SRI NRISINGHA. As you can see they eagerly took part in the fun, so much so that my daughter Revati, who was only two and half at the time, was really worried for her daddy.

SRI NRISINGA DEVA

Wikipedia about Narasimha

Nrisingha is the divine anomaly. A form of the divine - impossible in every way. Love in it’s fiercest and most intense form. Half man/half lion, he appeared to protect his 5 year-old devotee name Prahlad from the angry and violent rampage of his father the evil demon king, Hiranya Kashipu.

This driven and ambitious sycophant had brought so much fear to the whole material universe that even the demi-gods like Brahma were forced to cooperate with his plans. Brahma the four headed creator-god of all things material agreed to bless Hiranya Kashipu with powers unimaginable. He wanted immortality, but Brahma, himself a mortal being, is eventually forced to leave his own body at death. This didn’t deter the evil king and he asked for a series of boons he considered as good as immortality. He wanted immunity from death at the hands of the gods, men or beasts. Granted. Immunity from death during the day or night. Granted. From death in the land, sea or air. Inside or outside. By anything living or dead. All granted. He then traveled the universe without any fear forcing everyone under his iron rule. In a bit of divine irony, his 5 year-old son Prahlad became naturally attracted to worshipping Krishna, which of course enraged his dad (Prahlad is the original hard-core, straight-edge kid. LOL). The demon requested his most viscious warriors to begin systematic abuse of his son who was always rescued and protected by Krishna. Finally in desparation, the king took his own sword and threatened to kill Prahlad. The little boy stood strong in his faith and told his father, “You do not realize that your power to threaten, me comes from the same source as my power to resist you…from God.”

“Where is your God, Prahlad. Is he here now, hiding from my strength?”

“Yes. He is everywhere - in everything, father.”

“Then I will kill him.” Hiranya Kashipu struck a huge stone column with his sword and the column began to crack. From within the stone (IMPOSSIBLE!!) burst forth a huge, hulking body of a half-man, half-lion beast. This form of god, Narasingha, rushed the demon king and grabbed him, throwing him onto his lap. He then proceeded to disembowel the demon with his razor-sharp nails. Nails! A weapon that is neither living nor dead. The time of day was twilight - neither day nor night. Every stipulation of the boon of Brahma followed to the letter, but the demon had met the end of his cruel days. In his great anger and mood of protection - like a mother lion protects her cubs - Narasingha gathered the demon’s intestines and garlanded himself with them. His yellow and white-ish form looked like a lotus sprinkled with red kumkum powder. He then gathered the young boy Prahlad on his lap and began to lick him on his cheek like a mother lion.

This is God!?!?!?! Wow. Jaya Narasingha-deva!

Score? Demons: 0 Krishna: 1