In the previous episode, we had concluded the discussion on how Hiranya Kashibu was neutralized by Bhagawan Vishnu, as He incarnated as Bhagawan Narasimha. In order to honour the ardent devotion and prayers of Little Prahlaada, Bhagawan Vishnu couldn’t tolerate the atrocities of Hiranya Kashibu after the threshold limit had been breached. He burst out of the pillar which Hiranya Kashibu broke open with his weapon, quickly advanced towards him and neutralized him within minutes. With this, the treacherous Hiranya Kashibu was put to an end, and “Dharma” was restored again in the world. We also witnessed in the yesterday’s episode as to how Bhagawan Narasimha’s anger was brought down by none other than Little Prahlaada himself. As Bhagawan Narasimha was looking around with extreme anger, the Devas, Sage Naarada, etc. were starting to shake with fear. They were scared if Bhagawan would take this anger forward to destroy the entire world. However, thanks to Little Prahlaada, Bhagawan’s anger started coming down gradually. With this, Bhagawan Vishnu protected Little Prahlaada with all His divine love and grace.
As we move on with the next set of events from here, we should witness two important lessons that we can learn from this “Prahlaada-Charitra”. First lesson that we can infer is that, Bhagawan always honours the sincere and focused prayers of His devotees, no matter who we are, where we are and what we are. We can see here that Prahlaada was afterall the child of a Raakshasa. Bhagawan could have easily discarded him because he was in a Raakshasa family. But He didn’t! He honoured Little Prahlaada’s ardent devotion by appearing in front of him at the most crucial time. Thus, we should understand here that Bhagawan Vishnu would always honour our prayers, if done sincerely. Second lesson here is that, age doesn’t matter when it comes to exhibiting Bhakti towards Bhagawan. Many of us have this “theory” in our mind that Bhakti and spiritual path is to be undertaken only by people who are above the age of 60 and after retirement! This is a wrong concept. Bhakti can be exhibited by anybody at any age. We can see here how Prahlaada exhibited Bhakti at such a tender age and thereby attained the highest Moksha. Similarly, we’ve previously witnessed the “Dhruva-Charitra”, wherein Little Dhruva too attained Moksha at such a young age. Thus, age is not a criteria for exhibiting Bhakti, and for undertaking spiritual practices.
As I say this, on one side, it is very heart-warming to see that youngsters of today are getting into spirituality more and more. This is a good sign and I take this opportunity hereby to appreciate and applaud all the efforts taken by youngsters to promote and propagate our Sanaatana Dharma in a worldwide way. Many young and talented carnatic musicians are taking to the online space nowadays, owing to the CoVID-19 pandemic situation and their sole aim is to take our music to more and more people across the world. Similarly, I’m very happy to see many “Upanyaasams” (Spiritual Discourses) being done by youngsters and that too in the social media space such as Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, etc.. These are definitely some important ways through which the internet and social media space can be used in a constructive way. These youngsters are definitely setting a benchmark as to how technology can constructively be employed to reach more and more people and involve them into our Sanaatana Dharma.
All these are thus, definitely signs that the younger generation is very much interested in our Sanaatana Dharma and are very eager to follow and propagate it to the world. We should always remember that our Bhaarata Desha is the land of Sanaatana Dharma and we should never ever leave our rich tradition and culture behind for anything. This is the way forward, and I’m sure that in the coming days, months and years, more and more youngsters would take part in this spiritual journey and attain high levels in this life, as well as at Vaikunta, with our beloved Bhagawan’s grace. The most important thing here is that, just because we’ve achieved this much, we shouldn’t become complacent. We should continue this good work and take this forward to reach more and more people across the world. My request to all of you, youngsters, is to keep putting the right effort and channelize it in the right way.
So with this note, we shall conclude today’s episode, and from the next episode, we shall move on with what Sage Paraashara has to say from this point onwards. Many more interesting “Charitras” are yet to come! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 