21. Nārasiṁhavapuḥ
नारसिंहवपुः
The one with the body of a man-lion.
Nārasimha-vapu is one who has a body, wherein some parts are those of a simha, a lion and some parts are those of a nara, a human being. This is a saguṇa and sākāra form. This is the name of the Lord based on His avatāra. In an avatāra, the Lord assumes a particular form, to serve a particular purpose.
Lord Viṣṇu in His role as the sthiti-kartā, as the one who sustains dharma and so on, has to assume particular forms as an answer to the prayers of the people and this is called avatārā. Avatārā is līlā. One of His avatāras is Nārasimha-avatāra. Prahlāda is the son of Hiraṇyakśipu an asura, who won all the worlds and took himself to be the Lord. In his kingdom, everybody had to repeat only his name and nobody was to repeat the name of Lord Nārāyaṇa. His son Prahlāda, along with few other people went on repeating the name of Hari and singing the glories of the Lord. The father came to know about this, chastised him and forbade him to utter the name of the Lord. Prahlāda refused to listen to him and went on repeating the name of the Lord. The father tried many ways to punish and also to kill his son, but he could not do so. One day, the father confronted his son, asking him, ‘where is the Lord Hari that you sing of?’ Prahlāda replied that He is all-pervasive, He is everywhere. He is even in the pillar.
Hiraṇyakaśipu had a special boon granted to him. It was, that he should die neither inside nor outside the house, neither during the day nor in the night, neither on the earth nor in space, neither at the hands of a human being nor an animal, neither by a wet nor a dry weapon. These were all his conditions and when the boon was granted to him, he thought he was invincible.
Now, Hiraṇyakaśipu asked his son, ‘Is your Lord Hari in this pillar?’ and thus asking, he kicked the pillar. The pillar burst open and the Lord came out in the form which was neither that of an animal nor that of a human being. He had the head of a lion and the body of a human being. The time was neither day nor night, but twilight, just before night sets in. He sat on the threshold of the door, which was neither inside nor outside, and placed Hiraṇyakaśipu on his lap because he should not die in space or on the ground. He should not use any weapons, and therefore He used His nails to kill him. Again the finger-nails cannot be said as wet or dry. This is an avatāra. This story just tells us that the Lord blesses His devotees. The Lord is presented in this story as Nārasimha. So, it has the features of both the lion and the human being obtain in this form, this form as Nārasimhavapu.
A jīva is an individual, born due to his own karma, with a particular body. When that
karma is exhausted, he naturally dies. Rather, he quits this body to take another body which is in keeping with another set of karma. The cycle of repeated births and deaths is samsara and the one who is subject to samsāra, is a samsārī. To get out of this samsāra, knowledge is necessary. By understanding the names of the Lord, and knowing that the Lord and the individual jīva are essentially one and the same, one becomes free from samsāra. The mere repetition of the names of the Lord is only a ritual and while it will give some puṇya as the karma-phala, it may not be enough to get one out of the cycle of birth and death.
Even though essentially, Īśvara is not subject to birth, and is also all-pervasive manifesting as the entire world, how is it that He is born with a single body? Further, Īśvara is akartā, a non-doer, He has no karma and therefore can have no karma-phala of His own. If so, how then is birth possible without karma?
Here, Prahlāda was praying to the Lord and in order to save him, the Lord took a form as Narasimha. It is in answer to the prayers of all the devotees, that the Lord takes birth. When the prayers of the devotees reach a critical point and when it is time for their karma-phala to fructify, then the Lord comes into being.
The Lord is not born out of His own karma. As a result of the punya created by the prayers of all the devotees, and keeping the puṇya as the material cause, the Lord takes a particular form which is suitable to the situation and which will serve the purpose. While a jīva is born subject to māyā, the Lord is, as though born, keeping māyā under His control. This is His divya-janma.
Is it only the devotees or any ārta jīvas including Indrādi devatas? Also, is this puṇya of only devotees or maybe puṇya of hiraṇyakaśyapu, rāvanādi virodha bhaktas (those who constantly think of viṣṇu due to dveṣa or fear)? Essentially, I mean to ask that logically, it should be sum total of puṇyas of all the jīvas in jagat at the timeof avatāra as per their prārabdha. Otherwise, wouldn't lord be dependent on puṇya of jīvas to do avatāra līlā which will compromise the omnipotence of Bhagavān? Bhagavān can't be dependent on jīva's karma for avatāra līlā. Also, what constitutes a prayer for Bhagavān to take avatāra? ārta nāstik jīvas might also be invoking lord indirectly.
Ramāvatāra had curse from nārada, prayers from brahma as the foundation, but the curse was also arranged by bhagāvān through nārada's ahaṁkara alone. So, bhagavān ṢriHari was always akartā. I would love to hear more clarification on Bhagavān's divya janma
Reply - Referring to BG 4.7-9
Avatāra happens for three fold purposes.
1.For protection of those who are committed to life of dharma, for protection of dharmī is equal to protection of dharma.(परित्राणायसाधूनां)
2. To destroy those who follow adharma. Destruction here means, converting, chastising and disciplining adhārmic people, thereby protecting dharma. (विनाशायचदुष्कृताम्)
3. The third reason, and the real reason for avatāra is reestablishment of dharma. (धर्मसंस्थापनार्थायसंभवामि)
The collective prayer of everyone including devas, becomes the material cause, upādāna kāraṇa, for Īśvara’s physical body.
Given the above, the idea of dependence on jīva’s karmas does not arise. By the power of MāyāĪśvara has a birth, divya janma. The whole creation is Īśvara’s form, but when he assumes a particular form for a particular purpose, we call that form an avatāra. The concept of avatāra is not mentioned in the Vedas, though devas are referred to. Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata are itihāsas, meaning ‘this is how it was’. There are historical elements in them, but they are also poetry, and have the poetic license for creating the rasas, the aesthetic values, and all kinds of situations at will.
Though Kṛṣṇa’s birth, body and actions are divyam, divine, it is to be understood as mithyā. If divyam is understood as something extraordinary, then we can get into difficulties about what liberation is. Pujya Swamiji clarifies that “tattvataḥ vetti”, means knowing the reality of that divya janma. Reality means sat, and there is only one sat, and therefore, knowing sat can only mean knowing aikyam between jīva and Īśvara. This is a very important point to note. Else, we can become the Kṛṣṇa bhaktas and not jñāni-bhakta.
It is important for seekers to note that this concept of avatāra is not very important in the understanding of Vedānta.
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Excerpted by Swāmini Brahmaprajñānanda ji based on Pūjya
