In the previous episode, we had witnessed Little Prahlaada being assertive with his stance, and is not seeming to buckle down under pressure from his father, Hiranya Kashibu. He stands firm on his ground with regards to his devotion towards Bhagawan Narayana, and he is nowhere close to chanting his father’s name even once. This makes Hiranya Kashibu feel a bit jittery, as he was challenged for the first time in his life, and that too by his own son, and nobody else. After a “rapid-fire” round of interrogation with Little Prahlaada, Hiranya Kashibu decides to send him back to Chanda and Amarka for another round of lessons. The agenda of Hiranya Kashibu is clear – To somehow make Prahlaada forget Bhagawan Vishnu and turn his attention towards his father. With firm instructions from Hiranya Kashibu, Chanda and Amarka have another “go” at Prahlaada, this time changing their strategy a little bit. Gone are those days wherein the teachers were going soft at the little child. Now they’ve decided to take the harsher route by threatening little Prahlaada!
However, what happened next was something remarkable, funny and mind-blowing, which the teachers never expected to happen! Little Prahlaada was as usual, unmoved with whatever “gimmicks” and “heroics” that the teachers showed in front of him. As the other students were looking upon, Little Prahlaada was steadfast in his approach, which made a great deal of difference – Something that Prahlaada’s classmates haven’t seen till date! As the students were astonished with Prahlaada’s strong and deep-rooted devotion towards Bhagawan Vishnu, they center around him and ask thus, “Oh Prahlaada! You’re always chanting Narayana’s name isn’t it? Who is that Narayana? Can you please show him to all of us? Can you please explain his features? How would he look like? Can we see him?” As the children ask thus with innocence, Little Prahlaada starts explaining about Bhagawan Vishnu, and he does that so emotionally and lovingly, which moves the children to tears of joy!
We’ve to understand here that all these children at the Gurukula were born to Raakshasas, and they hadn’t even seen a trace of Bhagawad Bhakti till today. Once Prahlaada came up with this moving narrative, all the children joined hands with him to chant Bhagawan Narayana’s divine names, rather than the name of the wretched Hiranya Kashibu! The scenario starts to take a complete “U-turn” here at the Gurukula, overnight! Thus, when Chanda and Amarka woke up next morning, they were surprised to open their eyes to sweet-sounding music and chants of Bhagawan Narayana’s divine names – Courtesy, Little Prahlaada! 🙂 Upon hearing this, both Chanda and Amarka were carried away by the devotion and sweetness of the chant, but suddenly they realized what was happening here! They were totally being overpowered by Little Prahlaada! Not only is he following the teachers’ words and instructions, he’s now influencing other students also to stray away from the teacher! This is exactly what we call “Political Behavior” in modern-day organizations today! 🙂 Prahlaada was clearly playing politics here – Neither is he following the teachers’ instructions, nor is he letting others to follow as well!
Seeing this, Chanda and Amarka confront little Prahlaada harshly thus, “Oh Prahlaada! What do you think about yourself? Are you superior than your teacher? Who is the teacher and who is the student here? Your arrogance is knowing no bounds these days and with this, we’re going to launch a heavy complaint against you to your father! Do you realize that you’re not only spoiling yourself, but you’re putting all our lives at great danger in front of your father?” As Chanda and Amarka confront thus, Little Prahlaada calmly replies, “Oh my dear teachers! What have I done? I’ve just propagated Dharma in the Gurukula! Is that my fault? I’m no way superior than you. I bow down to both of you for your great knowledge and dedication towards teaching all of us. If Bhagawan Narayana is there with all of us to protect us, why should we fear for anything else in this world? Even if someone threatens us in some dangerous way, Bhagawan Narayana would take care of the threat, isn’t it? Why should we be worried about it? Our job here is to follow Bhagawan Narayana and chant His divine names! It is for Him to take care of all of us!”
As Prahlaada replies firmly thus, both Chanda and Amarka were raging with anger and frustration. Prahlaada has firmly conveyed his stance here. He’s not going to give into any sort of gimmicks and is completely steadfast in his approach! These are certain important characteristics of a great “Mahatma”. No matter what obstacle comes by the way, a “Mahatma” would never deviate from the path of Bhakti, and here, Prahlaada is illustrating this important characteristic of a “Mahatma” for all of us to understand. Of course, we’re going to witness more such instances in the future, but these are clear signs of Little Prahlaada being a great “Mahatma” of all times! So for today, let us enjoy and experience Little Prahlaada – The Mahatma in the making! We shall wait till the next episode to find out how Hiranya Kashibu handled Prahlaada henceforth. Is he going to be soft again, or is he going to be harsh from now? An absorbing episode awaits us tomorrow! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 