SB 7.9.38 – Nrsimha-caturdasi

Giriraj Swami: We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Seven, Chapter Nine: “Prahlāda Pacifies Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva with Prayers.”

TEXT 38

itthaṁ nṛ-tiryag-ṛṣi-deva-jhaṣāvatārair

lokān vibhāvayasi haṁsi jagat pratīpān

dharmaṁ mahā-puruṣa pāsi yugānuvṛttaṁ

channaḥ kalau yad abhavas tri-yugo ‘tha sa tvam

TRANSLATION

In this way, my Lord, You appear in various incarnations as a human being, an animal, a great saint, a demigod, a fish or a tortoise, thus maintaining the entire creation in different planetary systems and killing the demoniac principles. According to the age, O my Lord, You protect the principles of religion. In the Age of Kali, however, You do not assert Yourself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore You are known as Triyuga, or the Lord who appears in three yugas.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

As the Lord appeared just to maintain Lord Brahmā from the attack of Madhu and Kaiṭabha, He also appeared to protect the great devotee Prahlāda Mahārāja. Similarly, Lord Caitanya appeared in order to protect the fallen souls of Kali-yuga. There are four yugas, or millenniums — Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali. In all the yugas but Kali-yuga, the Lord appears in various incarnations and asserts Himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but although Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who appears in Kali-yuga, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He never asserted Himself as such. On the contrary, whenever Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was addressed as being as good as Kṛṣṇa, He blocked His ears with His hands, denying His identity with Kṛṣṇa, because He was playing the part of a devotee. Lord Caitanya knew that in Kali-yuga there would be many bogus incarnations pretending to be God, and therefore He avoided asserting Himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, however, in many Vedic literatures, especially in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.5.32):

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ

sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam

yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair

yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ

In Kali-yuga, intelligent men worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the form of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is always accompanied by His associates such as Nityānanda, Advaita, Gadādhara and Śrīvāsa. The entire Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is based on the principles of the saṅkīrtana movement inaugurated by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Therefore one who tries to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the medium of the saṅkīrtana movement knows everything perfectly. He is sumedhas, a person with substantial intelligence.

COMMENT

We have gathered on the auspicious occasion of Sri Nṛsiṁha-caturdaśi to celebrate the appearance of Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva. In his Dasavatara-stotra (4) Srila Jayadeva Gosvami sings,

tava kara-kamala-vare nakham adbhuta-srngam
Dalita-hiranyakasipu-tanu-bhrngam
kesava dhrta-narahari-rupa jaya jagadisa hare

“O Kesava! O Lord of the universe! O Lord Hari, who have assumed the form of half-man, half-lion! All glories to You! Just as one can easily crush a wasp between one’s fingernails, so in the same way the body of the wasplike demon Hiranyakasipu has been ripped apart by the wonderful pointed nails on Your beautiful lotus hands.”

In every verse of his poem, Jayadeva glorifies Kesava, Krishna, who appears as different avatars, including the avatar of Nṛsiṁhadeva. This means that Kesava, or Krishna, is the origin and that all the other incarnations expand from Him.

In fact, Krishna is the origin of everything, as He states in the Bhagavad-gītā (10.8),

ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate: “I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me.” Spiritually, He is the origin not only of the various expansions on the spiritual planets but also of the Lord within the hearts of the living entities (Paramātmā) and of Brahman, the impersonal brahmajyoti, the spiritual light that pervades the spiritual sky.

vadanti tat tattva-vidas

tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam

brahmeti paramātmeti

bhagavān iti śabdyate

“Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān.” (SB 1.2.11)

Different categories of transcendentalists aspire to realize different features of the Absolute Truth: the jnanis try to realize the Brahman feature; the yogis, the Paramātmā feature; and the devotees, Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Most people are not transcendentalists at all. They are materialists, fruitive workers, called karmis, who engage in fruitive activities with the desire to enjoy the material world. They are very attached to the body. They identify with the body, and they work to gratify the senses of the body. Prahlada Maharaja’s father, Hiranyakasipu, was such a materialist, very attached to the body and to household life. His very name, Hiranyakasipu, suggests the two goals of materialistic people. Hiranya means “gold”—wealth. Everybody wants wealth. And kasipu means “soft cushion” or “bed.” Everybody wants to enjoy sense gratification. That is why they work so hard—to enjoy material comforts and sense gratification, which for them culminates in sex enjoyment.

Most people are karmis. They want to enjoy the material world. And even if they perform pious activities, their ultimate goal is to enjoy material facilities, either in this life or the next. They have no idea of the actual goal of life, as Prahlada Maharaja explained to his father: na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ—people do not know that the goal of life is to serve Vishnu, or Krishna, and go back home, back to Godhead. Rather, they pursue material happiness in what is compared to a blind well (andha-kūpam). People are trying to find happiness in the material world. In their pursuit of happiness, they stumble and fall into a blind well where there is no water but there are often snakes and scorpions.

And they cannot get out on their own. When Hiranyakasipu asked Prahlada how he had become Krishna conscious even though his father and teachers had raised him to be a materialist, Prahlada replied that one cannot become Krishna conscious by one’s own endeavor, by the endeavors of others, or by the combined efforts of oneself and others, by having big meetings and passing resolutions.

śrī-prahrāda uvāca

matir na kṛṣṇe parataḥ svato vā

mitho ‘bhipadyeta gṛha-vratānām

adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisraṁ

punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām

“Because of their uncontrolled senses, persons too addicted to materialistic life make progress toward hellish conditions and repeatedly chew that which has already been chewed. Their inclinations toward Kṛṣṇa are never aroused, either by the instructions of others, by their own efforts, or by a combination of both.” (SB 7.5.30)

We are in a most precarious position in the andha-kūpam, the blind well of material existence, and have almost no hope of deliverance. Still, there is one hope, as Prahlada says: mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo-’bhiṣekaṁ niṣkiñcanānāṁ na vṛṇīta yāvat—unless one takes the dust of the lotus feet of a pure devotee of the Lord upon his head, he cannot become freed from the unwanted miseries of material existence.

naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghriṁ

spṛśaty anarthāpagamo yad-arthaḥ

mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo-’bhiṣekaṁ

niṣkiñcanānāṁ na vṛṇīta yāvat

“Unless they smear upon their bodies the dust of the lotus feet of a Vaiṣṇava completely freed from material contamination, persons very much inclined toward materialistic life cannot be attached to the lotus feet of the Lord, who is glorified for His uncommon activities. Only by becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious and taking shelter at the lotus feet of the Lord in this way can one be freed from material contamination.” (SB 7.5.32)

Anartha. Artha means “that which is desired,” and anartha means “that which is not wanted.” The basic principle of anartha is this body, which is called asad-grahāt, a temporary dwelling for the spirit soul, and as long as we identify with the body we are filled with anxiety (samudvigna). The actual goal of human life, of Vedic civilization, is to become free from this body and all its concomitant miseries—janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. The Bhagavad-gītā says that these miseries—birth, death, old age, and disease—come with the body and that we cannot escape them as long as we are confined within the body.

In this body, this asad-grahāt, this andha-kūpaṁ, we suffer. We desperately want to enjoy, but mainly we suffer. Although there is some enjoyment—some, but not much—there is a lot of suffering and anxiety. And the only way to get out is to become Krishna conscious and go back home, back to Godhead. And to become Krishna conscious, we must take the dust from the lotus feet of a pure devotee upon our heads (mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo-’bhiṣekaṁ). That means that we must learn the science of bhakti-yoga, Krishna consciousness, from a pure devotee. Because the world was so much in need of this knowledge—people were suffering so much without it (and still are suffering without it)—His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, at an advanced age, just before his seventieth birthday, left India and came to New York City and began the Krishna consciousness movement.

In the present age of Kali, there is a special process to become Krishna conscious and go back home, back to Godhead. Each age has a specific process suitable for the people of that age, and in Kali-yuga the recommended process is hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana (yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair). In Kali-yuga those who are intelligent (su-medhasaḥ) will worship the incarnation of Krishna for the age, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, by performance of the saṅkīrtana-yajña.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself quoted the Bṛhan-nāradīya Purāṇa (38.126):

harer nāma harer nāma

harer nāmaiva kevalam

kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva

nāsty eva gatir anyathā

“One should chant the holy names, chant the holy names, chant the holy names of Lord Hari. There is no other way, no other way, no other way for success in this age.” That one should chant is repeated three times for emphasis. And that there is not other way is repeated three times to suggest “not by karma, not by jnana, and not by yoga.”

When we chant we should do so with attention, with devotion, with love. Then we can get the full benefit. There are various instructions on how to chant the holy name, and we are advised to avoid the ten offenses against the holy name in order to quickly achieve the desired results.

The same Lord who came out of the pillar as Nṛsiṁhadeva to protect Prahlada has appeared in Kali-yuga as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to protect the fallen souls. And Prahlada, although he was only five years old when Nṛsiṁhadeva appeared, knew that the Lord appears in different incarnations in different ages and that He would appear in Kali-yuga as a channa-avatāra. Channa means “covered.” In Kali-yuga the Lord does not assert Himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as He does in other ages, but appears and acts as a devotee to show us how to be devotees, practice Krishna consciousness, and develop love for Krishna. He knew that people in Kali-yuga are so fallen that if He were to openly express Himself as God there would be so many pretenders who would falsely claim to be God, to be Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So whenever He was addressed as God He would block His ears and exclaim, “Vishnu! Vishnu! I am not God.” Otherwise, we can only imagine how burdened the world would be with false incarnations. Now there is one, with a big place in Texas, who claims to be Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but there are not many, fortunately. The channa-avatāra covers His identity as Krishna so that only confidential devotees, who receive knowledge through paramparā, from niṣkiñcana, will understand who the incarnation for this age is and worship Him by performance of the saṅkīrtana-yajña, chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Since we can easily achieve the highest success just by chanting the holy names of the Lord, one may question why we need temples and temple worship. Why take so much trouble to build temples and worship Deities? The answer is that although hari-nāma is sufficient, most people cannot appreciate the full value of the holy name of the Lord. They are do not have sufficient intelligence or faith to appreciate the potency of hari-nāma alone, and they feel that they need some more elaborate procedure, or they want some gorgeous ceremony. For them we construct temples, and when they come to the temple they hear pure devotees speak about Krishna, about Krishna consciousness, about the holy name of Krishna—and they begin to chant as well. By such chanting, their consciousness is cleared (ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ), and as their consciousness becomes purified they are able to understand more and more about Krishna and the process of Krishna consciousness.

For devotees too, especially neophytes and householders, Deity worship is also recommended. It serves to keep them regulated and clean in their habits. Further, householders are always busy earning and spending money (divā cārthehayā rājan
kuṭumba-bharaṇena vā), and at least some of that money, which they earn by various means, should be purified by being engaged in the service of the Lord. Therefore householders are advised to keep Deities and spend their money on the worship of the Deity, or to go to the temple and participate in the worship there and support the worship in the temple. That will purify their grihastha ashram and enhance their Krishna consciousness.

Still, the real essence of spiritual advancement, especially in the age of Kali, is to hear and chant the glories of the Lord. Such chanting and hearing, especially of the holy names, should precede and follow—and if possible accompany—the Deity worship. Prahlada Maharaja, as we see throughout Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, always engaged in chanting and hearing the glories of the Lord. Although he was born in a demonic family, his low birth was no impediment to his Krishna consciousness. Of course, he did pray to the Lord to purify his heart. Generally a person born in a demonic family—and in Kali-yuga, practically everyone—is controlled by the lower modes of nature—tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa—and as long as he is covered by these lower modes, he cannot properly appreciate or glorify the Lord. Prahlada prayed to Nṛsiṁhadeva to enter his heart and cleanse it of all desires for fruitive work and material enjoyment; thus he would be freed from the fears and anxieties of embodied souls.

oṁ namo bhagavate narasiṁhāya namas tejas-tejase āvir-āvirbhava vajra-nakha vajra-daṁṣṭra karmāśayān randhaya randhaya tamo grasa grasa om svāhā; abhayam abhayam ātmani bhūyiṣṭhā oṁ kṣraum.

“I offer my respectful obeisances unto Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, the source of all power. O my Lord who possess nails and teeth just like thunderbolts, kindly vanquish our demonlike desires for fruitive activity in this material world. Please appear in our hearts and drive away our ignorance so that by Your mercy we may become fearless in the struggle for existence in this material world.” (SB 5.18.8)

On the auspicious occasion of Nṛsiṁha-caturdaśi, we pray to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva that just as He saved Prahlada from the demon Hiranyakasipu, He will appear in our hearts and save us from the demonlike desires for fruitive activity in this world—and from the desire to escape the world by merging into the existence of God, by becoming one with God. He should free us from every desire or tendency other than to serve and please Krishna, which we can best accomplish, especially in this age, by chanting His holy names: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Are there any questions or comments?

Devotee: You mentioned mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo-’bhiṣekaṁ. How can one recognize a pure devotee? What are the symptoms?

Giriraj Swami: How can we recognize mahīyasāṁ, great souls? A great soul, mahat or mahatma, is one who has served another great soul, through paramparā, and thus come under the shelter of the divine energy (mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ). He is niṣkiñcana. He has nothing to do with this material world; he is freed from material contamination and attachment. The real process of Krishna consciousness is to become attached to Krishna, and the result of becoming attached to Krishna is that one becomes free from material attachments.

Pure devotees, because their principle is to serve Krishna, follow yukta-vairāgya, which means that they use everything in Krishna’s service. Unlike impersonalists, they do not reject so-called material things but accept them and engage them in Krishna’s service.

anāsaktasya viṣayān
yathārham upayuñjataḥ
nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe
yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate

prāpañcikatayā buddhyā

hari-sambandhi-vastunaḥ

mumukṣubhiḥ parityāgo

vairāgyaṁ phalgu kathyate

“When one is not attached to anything, but at the same time accepts everything in relation to Kṛṣṇa, one is rightly situated above possessiveness. On the other hand, one who rejects everything without knowledge of its relationship to Kṛṣṇa is not as complete in his renunciation.” (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.2.255–256)

Prahlada is an example. Nṛsiṁhadeva wanted him to accept the throne, and at first Prahlada declined, because he had seen how his father had been deluded by material opulence and attachment, and did not want the same to happen to him. But he realized, by Nṛsiṁhadeva’s grace, that if he were free from material desires, he could use his position and opulence in Krishna consciousness. He prayed,

yadi dāsyasi me kāmān

varāṁs tvaṁ varadarṣabha

kāmānāṁ hṛdy asaṁrohaṁ

bhavatas tu vṛṇe varam

“O my Lord, best of the givers of benediction, if You at all want to bestow a desirable benediction upon me, then I pray from Your Lordship that within the core of my heart there be no material desires.”

indriyāṇi manaḥ prāṇa

ātmā dharmo dhṛtir matiḥ

hrīḥ śrīs tejaḥ smṛtiḥ satyaṁ

yasya naśyanti janmanā

“O my Lord, because of lusty desires from the very beginning of one’s birth, the functions of one’s senses, mind, life, body, religion, patience, intelligence, shyness, opulence, strength, memory and truthfulness are vanquished.”

vimuñcati yadā kāmān

mānavo manasi sthitān

tarhy eva puṇḍarīkākṣa

bhagavattvāya kalpate

“O my Lord, when a human being is able to give up all the material desires in his mind, he becomes eligible to possess wealth and opulence like Yours.” (SB 7.10.7–9)

And Nṛsiṁhadeva accepted his prayer and blessed him.

śrī-bhagavān uvāca

naikāntino me mayi jātv ihāśiṣa

āśāsate ‘mutra ca ye bhavad-vidhāḥ

tathāpi manvantaram etad atra

daityeśvarāṇām anubhuṅkṣva bhogān

“The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Prahlāda, a devotee like you never desires any kind of material opulences, either in this life or in the next. Nonetheless, I order you to enjoy the opulences of the demons in this material world, acting as their king until the end of the duration of time occupied by Manu.”

kathā madīyā juṣamāṇaḥ priyās tvam
āveśya mām ātmani santam ekam
sarveṣu bhūteṣv adhiyajñam īśaṁ
yajasva yogena ca karma hinvan

“It does not matter that you are in the material world. You should always, continuously, hear the instructions and messages given by Me and always be absorbed in thought of Me, for I am the Supersoul existing in the core of everyone’s heart. Therefore, give up fruitive activities and worship Me” (SB 7.10.11–12)

Nṛsiṁhadeva wanted Prahlada to accept the position of king for the benefit of the people and at the same time remain absorbed in Krishna consciousness.

In more recent times we have the examples of Srila Prabhupada and his followers. Srila Prabhupada expanded the conception of yukta-vairāgya and used things in devotional service that had not been used by acharyas before—airplanes, tape recorders, Dictaphones, and, through his disciples, computers. He used anything and everything to preach the glories of the Lord. Using so-called material things in the service of the Lord, to broadcast the glories of the Lord and His holy name, is also kirtan.

idaṁ hi puṁsas tapasaḥ śrutasya vā

sviṣṭasya sūktasya ca buddhi-dattayoḥ

avicyuto ‘rthaḥ kavibhir nirūpito

yad-uttamaśloka-guṇānuvarṇanam

“Learned circles have positively concluded that the infallible purpose of the advancement of knowledge, namely austerities, study of the Vedas, sacrifice, chanting of hymns and charity, culminates in the transcendental descriptions of the Lord, who is defined in choice poetry.” (SB 1.5.22)

In his purport to this verse, Srila Prabhupada concludes, “Scientific knowledge engaged in the service of the Lord, and all similar activities, are all factually hari-kirtana.” In the same vein, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Srila Prabhupada’s guru maharaja, referred to the printing press as the bṛhad-mṛdaṅga, the great drum used in the great kirtan of glorifying the Lord through transcendental literature.

So a sign of pure devotees who have no material attachments (mahīyasāṁ niṣkiñcanānāṁ) is that whatever facility they get they use in the service of the Lord—not for sense gratification.

Devotee: Prahlada Maharaja was a devotee from childhood. He must have been a great devotee in his previous life. Could you shed some light on his previous life, what he did?

Giriraj Swami: It is true that Prahlada was a devotee from his previous life, but there is another reason why he was a devotee from childhood: when he was in the womb of his mother he was graced by the merciful instructions of a great soul. While Hiranyakasipu was at Mandaracala Mountain executing severe austerities, there was intense fighting between the demigods and the demons, and when the demigods became successful, they captured Prahlada’s mother, Kayadhu. Because she was carrying the seed of Hiranyakasipu in her womb, the demigods, led by Indra, apprehended that the child would be another great demon and disturb the universe. So they planned to keep her in their custody until her child was born, at which time they would kill the child and release her. But Narada Muni intervened and told them, “No, the child in the womb is a great devotee.” He took Prahlada’s mother to his ashram and instructed her—and Prahlada in the womb—in devotional service. Within the womb Prahlada received transcendental knowledge from Narada Muni and accepted him as his spiritual master. Thus the Bhāgavatam (7.4.42) says, sa uttama-śloka-padāravindayor niṣevayākiñcana-saṅga-labdhayā: “Because of his association with a perfect, unalloyed devotee who has nothing to do with anything material, Prahlada constantly engaged in the service of the Lord’s lotus feet.”

Still, it is said that Prahlada was already advanced when he came to earth. Thus in one sense he was nitya-siddha, eternally perfect, but at the same time he was sadhana-siddha, because he attained perfection by executing the instructions of his spiritual master, Narada Muni. He is considered both nitya-siddha and sadhana-siddha.

Nitya-siddha is one who is always perfect, who was never conditioned. He does not have to practice bhakti-yoga to become perfect. And the sadhana-siddha becomes perfect by spiritual practice, by sadhana. Then too there is the kṛpā-siddha, who becomes perfect by mercy, even without sadhana. Of course, everyone needs mercy. Even the sadhana-siddha requires mercy to be successful. But the kṛpā-siddha becomes perfect even without sadhana—just by kṛpā.

When Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva offered him material benedictions, Prahlada said to the Lord, “Why do You want to tempt me? You have sent me to this world to show the example of a pure devotee, so why do You want to tempt me with material things?”

śrī-prahrāda uvāca

mā māṁ pralobhayotpattyā

saktaṁ kāmeṣu tair varaiḥ

tat-saṅga-bhīto nirviṇṇo

mumukṣus tvām upāśritaḥ

“My dear Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, because I was born in an atheistic family I am naturally attached to material enjoyment. Therefore, kindly do not tempt me with these illusions. I am very much afraid of material conditions, and I desire to be liberated from materialistic life. It is for this reason that I have taken shelter of Your lotus feet.”

bhṛtya-lakṣaṇa-jijñāsur

bhaktaṁ kāmeṣv acodayat

bhavān saṁsāra-bījeṣu

hṛdaya-granthiṣu prabho

“O my worshipable Lord, because the seed of lusty desires, which is the root cause of material existence, is within the core of everyone’s heart, You have sent me to this material world to exhibit the symptoms of a pure devotee.” (SB 7.10.2–3)

The statement that “You sent me to the material world to show the example of a pure devotee” suggests that Prahlada was a nitya-siddha devotee, already perfect before he took birth. Yet He also accepted a spiritual master, Narada Muni, and followed his instructions. And he presented himself as someone influenced by the lower modes of nature, by the demonic association into which he was born, who could become freed by engaging in devotional service.

tasmād ahaṁ vigata-viklava īśvarasya

sarvātmanā mahi gṛṇāmi yathā manīṣam

nīco ‘jayā guṇa-visargam anupraviṣṭaḥ

pūyeta yena hi pumān anuvarṇitena

“Although I was born in a demoniac family, I may without a doubt offer prayers to the Lord with full endeavor, as far as my intelligence allows. Anyone who has been forced by ignorance to enter the material world may be purified of material life if he offers prayers to the Lord and hears the Lord’s glories.” (SB 7.9.12)

By sadhana, by śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ—especially by smaraṇaṁ—Prahlada achieved perfection. When Prahlada was being tortured by his father, he had no chance to hear and chant or worship the Lord. But he remembered the Lord always. And thus it is said that Prahlada achieved success by smaraṇaṁ. Śrī-viṣṇoḥ śravaṇe parīkṣid abhavad vaiyāsakiḥ kīrtane prahlādaḥ smaraṇe, kṛṣṇāptir eṣāṁ parā:

“‘Mahārāja Parīkṣit attained the highest perfection, shelter at Lord Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet, simply by hearing, and Śukadeva Gosvāmī attained perfection simply by chanting. Prahlāda Mahārāja attained perfection by remembering the Lord.” Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.2.265)

Prahlada set a perfect example of Krishna consciousness. He showed and taught us how to serve the Lord under the guidance of the Lord’s pure devotees. We pray that we may serve Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu under the guidance of Srila Prabhupada and his paramparā, without material motives, and thus please the Lord and His pure devotees. By their mercy, param vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam: “Let there be all victory for the chanting of the holy name of Lord Krishna.”

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.

Nṛsiṁha Bhagavān ki jaya!

Prahlada Maharaja ki jaya!

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ki jaya!

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Gaura-bhakta-vṛnda ki jaya!