Another reason why Lord Nrsimha killed Hiranyakashipu

Most of you may have read and heard why Lord Nrsimha Deva killed the great demon Hiranyakashipu. The well known reason is, the demon was torturing his own child, Bhakta Prahlad, who was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu, who Hiranyakashipu considered his greatest enemy. So Lord Vishnu appeared as Nrsimha Deva and killed Hiranyakashipu.

Correct. But the Supreme Lord is known for doing multiple things in one go. One of the unique things about the Lord is, His actions are easily understood by His close devotees but they leave non-devotees baffled and speculating. And when such non-devotees who are proud of their material accomplishments, which also includes mere academic knowledge of Vedic scriptures, cannot find a reason for Lord’s unique activity they try to rationalize it from their mundane point of views.

For example, you may find hundreds of explanations by scholars and ill-informed religious leaders why Lord Rama killed Vali, why Mother Sita was told to walk through fire, why Lord Krishna played with the Gopis, why Lord Krishna told Arjun to kill Karna when Karna had no weapon, why Pitmaha Bhishma did not protest Queen Draupadi’s insult, and so on. Sorry but people should simply shut up their mouth when they don’t know the answer based on Vedic scripture because it makes no sense to take an incident from the Vedic scripture and explain it leaving aside the same scripture, especially when there are bona fide explanations for such events available in authentic Vedic texts.

Lord Nrsimha Deva is an eternal form of Lord Vishnu. In other words, He was always there, is still there and will always be there. Similarly Lord Rama and Lord Krishna and other forms of the Supreme Lord are also eternally existing. They appear and disappear in different universes just as the sun appears and disappears from our vision although it is always there.

In Vaikuntha there are no enemies of Lord Vishnu. When Lord Vishnu desires to fight, His confidential devotees take on the role of His enemies and descend in the material world. They appear as big time demons like Hiranyakashipu, Hiranyaksha, Ravana and  Kumbhakarna. This is clearly explained in Srimad Bhagavatam.

Once when the Lord of Vaikuntha desired to fight, the doorkeepers of Vaikuntha, Jaya and Vijaya (also spelt Jay and Vijay) understood their master’s desire. On the other side, the four boy-sages known as Chatukshana, who have chosen to remain children all their life and are known as Sanat kumaras, came to Vaikuntha loka in the spiritual sky. But at the gate they were stopped by the two doorkeepers Jay and Vijay. This made the sages angry as they were otherwise free to roam around at their own will.

This is how they reacted:

“Who are these two persons who have developed such a discordant mentality even though they are posted in the service of the Lord in the highest position and are expected to have developed the same qualities as the Lord? How are these two persons living in Vaikuṇṭha? Where is the possibility of an enemy’s coming into this kingdom of God? The Supreme Personality of Godhead has no enemy. Who could be envious of Him? Probably these two persons are imposters; therefore they suspect others to be like themselves. In the Vaikuṇṭha world there is complete harmony between the residents and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, just as there is complete harmony within space between the big and the small skies. Why then is there a seed of fear in this field of harmony? These two persons are dressed like inhabitants of Vaikuṇṭha, but wherefrom can their disharmony come into existence?

Therefore let us consider how these two contaminated persons should be punished. The punishment should be apt, for thus benefit can eventually be bestowed upon them. Since they find duality in the existence of Vaikuṇṭha life, they are contaminated and should be removed from this place to the material world, where the living entities have three kinds of enemies.” (SB 3.15.32-34)

Hearing this from the sages the doormen of Vaikuṇṭha loka, who were certainly great devotees, fell down at the feet of the sages and said they accept the punishment for having disrespected them but prayed that the illusion of forgetting the Supreme Personality of Godhead in their asura bodies will not come upon them.  This is the beauty of Lord’s devotees; they don’t mind going even to hell so far they don’t forget the Lord.

Lord Vishnu immediately understood what had transpired and, accompanied by His eternal consort, Lakshmi Devi, rushed to the spot on those very lotus feet which are sought for by great sages. Seeing Lord Vishnu, when the four sages bowed down before Him, the aroma of the Tulasi leaves, mixed with saffron, entered their nostrils and immediately attracted their minds. Quoting from this incident from Srimad Bhagavatam, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada says:

“Although these four saintly persons were always absorbed in the thought of impersonal Brahman, from association with the Lord and from smelling the tulasī leaves, the hairs on their bodies immediately stood up. This shows that even a person who is situated in Brahman realization, if he is put into association with devotees in pure devotional service, will immediately become attracted to the personal feature of the Lord.” (Nector of Devotion, 35)

Now see the beautiful part of Lord Vishnu’s dealings with the sages who had just cursed Lord’s own confidential servants. It shows His superexcellent humility, despite being the Supreme Lord. He said: