Placid and Undaunted Devotion

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham Parikrama, Day Two
Evening class, 24 March 2021, part 8
Translated from Bengali

Under the influence of his demoniac nature, Hiranyakasipu did not even see his own son as his son—he decided to kill him. Yet "Marabi rakhabi, yo ichchha tohara (মারবি রাখবি—যো ইচ্ছা তোহার): If He wants to kill you, He will kill you, and if He wants to keep you alive, He will keep you alive." When the Lord protects somebody, who can kill them? Hiranyakasipu tried in so many ways—he tied Prahlad Maharaj to an elephant's leg, he tied him to a stone and threw him into water, he threw him from a mountain. Hiranyakasipu tried in every possible way to kill him because he was a devotee of Lord Vishnu, Hiranyakasipu's sworn enemy. Hiranyakasipu was furious, "An enemy took birth in my house!" Prahlad Maharaj had to suffer so much because of that. You must all learn from this. How much Prahlad Maharaj had to suffer—he was even thrown into fire!

When Hiranyakasipu saw that every attempt of his men to kill Prahlad Maharaj proved futile, Hiranyakasipu decided to kill Prahlad Maharaj himself. He ordered his men, "Bring him to me! I will finish him today!" Prahlad Maharaj came, and Hiranyakasipu asked him, "Listen, boy! Where did you get so much power?!"

Prahlad Maharaj replied, "O the best of the demons! I am powerful through the same power that has made you powerful. You think you are very great, but you have got your strength through Brahma by the will of Krishna, Lord Hari—the Lord has given you some temporary power, but you do not understand who the Lord is."

"Come on, I do not want to listen to your talks. Shut up!"

Offenders of Guru, Vaishnavs, the Lord, and of the Lord's devotees cannot stand hearing others talk sweetly to them. You know the story of Devananda Pandit—he made a small offence to Srivas Pandit (a great devotee of the Lord), but he had to suffer because of that offence. Anything related to the Lord does not enter the ears of such offenders, it does not get any place in their hearts. Magnet generally attracts iron, but when a piece of iron becomes rusty, it cannot be attracted by a magnet—and it can never be drawn to a magnet until and unless the rust is removed. So, as long as there remains some offence in the heart (Nama-aparadh, seva-aparadh, dham-aparadh, Vaishnav-aparadh), Krishna will not attract us just as a magnet does not attract a piece of rusty iron.

So, Prahlad Maharaj tried to speak to his father and reason him, and in the end he said, "Hari is present everywhere."

ঈশ্বরঃ পরমঃ কৃষ্ণঃ সচ্চিদানন্দবিগ্রহঃ ।
অনাদিরাদির্গোবিন্দঃ সর্ব্বকারণকারণম্ ॥

isvarah paramah krsnah sach-chid-ananda-vigrahah
anadir adir govindah sarva-karana-karanam

"Krishna, who is known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes."

(Sri Brahma-samhita, 5.1)

He is the cause of the whole creation. He is the root cause of all creation and destruction, everything happens by His will. By His will fire has the power to burn. Hiranyakasipu said, "I had you thrown into fire, but you started playing in the flames! What is this? Why did nothing happen to you?"

"Hari is the cause of everything that happens in this world. Everything and everyone in this world eternally serves Hari. Be it sun, wind, fire, or moon—they are all Hari's servants. Do you not understand it? When the Lord orders fire, 'I am taking your power away from you!' Hari gives power to everyone, be it Brahma, Siva, Durga, Kali, Laksmi, Ganesh, humans or anyone else, and when He takes it back, everything becomes lifeless and powerless. All power comes from the Lord, and The Lord can take all power away.

So, what did the Lord do next? How did the Lord appear to protect Prahlad Maharaj? Prahlad Maharaj had argued with his father for a long time. Prahlad Maharaj tried to explain that Hiranyakasipu was his father and he was his son only for a short time, but Hiranyakasipu did not want to listen to anything. You know, there is a saying "Good counsel to a rogue bears no fruit (চোরে না শুনে ধর্মের কাহিনী)." We are also like that—we are fallen conditioned souls living within illusory environment; we live listening to all sorts of bad talks, and we do not like to hear good things. We have so many things kept in our hearts, and we cannot keep these good things there. We say with our mouth, "I will keep You in my heart," but we only say it. So, in the end, Hiranyakasipu said,

"Where is your Hari?"

Prahlad Maharaj replied, "O best of demons, tell me where He is not? He is everywhere!"

"Everywhere?! Is He here in my palace?!"

"Yes, He is here too."

"Is He in this pillar as well?"

"Yes, He is."

"What?! Hari is here in this pillar?! My enemy is here in this pillar?! Let us see!" Hiranyakasipu did not believe it, so he hit the pillar so hard that the pillar broke. The pillar fell down and it was so big—like, from Nabadwip to Krishnanagar! Then, a great roar of millions of lions could be heard—all three worlds (heaven, earth, and hell) began to shake. Prahlad Maharaj, a small boy, who said that Hari was in the pillar, was not afraid because it is also those who do wrong that become afraid. You know, thieves are always afraid because they can be caught by the police or the owner, but those who have done no wrong have nothing to be afraid of. So, hearing that great roar, everybody backed off and waited...

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