Adhbhutha Kesari - Ahobila Narasimha

HiraNyan was mad with rage over this unexpected happening ("avuNan ponga"). The mighty Lord chased HiraNyan down, dragged him to the steps of the palace, spread him on His expansive lap and used His nails as the weapon to tear the chest of HiraNyan and destroyed the asuran during the sandhyA kaalam.

Thirumangai describes all these happenings in an abridged manner and salutes Lord Narasimhan as a Parisuddhan, who fulfilled His avathAra Kaaryam at the dhivya dEsam of Ahobilam: "AaL ariyAi avuNan ponga aaham vaLL uhirAl pOzhntha Punithan idam".

 

DESTRUCTION OF HIRANYAN

AND THE ANUGRAHAM TO PRAHLADHAN

 

The two powerful slOkams of Swamy Desikan's SrI Sookthi of KaamAseeka ashtakam bring out vividly both the HiraNya SamhAram and the compassion of the Narasimha Moorthy to His Bhakthan as PrahlAdha Varadhan at that time.

Vikaswara makha svaru kshatha HiraNya vakshasTalee
nirargaLa vinirgaLadh rudhira sindhusandhyAyithA:
avanthu madana aasikA manuja pancha-vakthrasya
aham pratamikA miTa: prakaditha aahavA: Baahava:

 — SlOkam 6 of SrI KaamAseekAshtakam

Meaning:

This Lord Narasimhan's finger nails extended impatiently to tear apart Hiranyan's chest. They were hard and powerful like the VajrAyudham. Our Lord used those nails and split into two the broad chest of HiraNythe. HiraNyan's blood gushed out as a torrent without let and reddened the hands of our Lord. The redness of the hands made them resemble the hue of SandhyA Kaalam. Those powerful hands of the Lord were intent on protecting His devotees and destroying their enemies. They competed with each other to engage in these twin tasks. May those hands of Sri KaamAseekA Narasimhan protect adiyEn!

saDA paDala bheeshaNE sarabhasa attahAsaudhbhaDE
sphurath krudhi parisphuDadh bhrukuDikE api vakthrE kruthE
krupA KapaDa-Kesarin dhanuja Dimbhadattha stanA
SarOja sadhrusA dhrusA vyathibhishajya tE vyajyathE

— SlOkam 7: Sri KaamAseekAshtakam

Meaning:

Oh MaayAvi, who took the mischevous appearance of Nara Simham! Your sacred face was looking frightening with its dense flock of manes (Pidari Mayir KaRRaikaL) and a powerful and loud laughter emanated out of that face.Your brows were moving rapidly with anger over HiraNyan. Even in the context of this frightening appearance, Your lotus like eyes revealed Your matchless compassion for the BhagavathOtthaman PrahlAdhan and nourished him like mother's milk. Simultaneously, Your eyes were able to project anger over HiraNyan and compassion towards PrahlAdhan. This was indeed a very unusual act of operation. Your compassion stood as the nourishing breast feeding milk for the child PrahlAdhan. The quality of Your DayA is revealed through Your mysterious eyes.

We studied the first two lines of the above Paasuram so far. Now, we will enjoy the wonderful imagination of Kaliyan as he brings before his minds' eye a scene that takes place at AhObila KshEthram.

Ahobilam is a place known for its dense forests, tall hills and many kinds of wild animals such as Lions and elephants roam there. The elephants have Paim KaNN (Green colored eyes); the Lions (AaLi); they hunt the elephants to extract their priceless tusks (Kompu) as trophies (SamarpaNams) to be presented to their Master, Narasimhan. The Lions have eyes that are red (Semm KaNN AaLi) because of their anger at the elephants. The Lions want to bring these valuable tusks as Paadha KaaNikkai to the Lord out of their devotion and reverence to Narasimhan, who is One of them and as such their ruler. They wish to demonstrate their servitude to Lord Narasimhan. Kaliyan draws the picture of this moving scene:

"paingkaNaanaik kombu koNdu patthimaiyaal, adikkeezhch
chengkaNaaLi ittiRaincum SingkavEL kunRamE"

The lions leave the flesh of the elephant out in the forest, where they killed the elephants, and bring just the tusks that they pulled out. They arrive at the Sannidhi of their Lord, place the tusks before Him with utter reverence and worship Him at this AhObila KshEthram. "ittu irainjum" refers to their own way of worship of their Lord to hail their Jaathi sambhandham. For a wild animal like the Lion, the thought that it should bring some valuable thing with respect to the Lord arises according to Kaliyan because of the Mahimai of the AhObila KshEthram. Their Bhagavath Bhakthi propels them to engage in such endearing acts. Due to Poorva Janma puNyam, they are born in the forests of AhObilam and enhance their Bhakthi through kaimkaryam appropriate to their nature as wild animals.

 

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PASURAM 2

alaittha pEzh vaay vALL yeyiRu ohr kOLL ari aay, avuNan
kolaik-kayyALan nenju idantha koor uhirALan idam
malaittha selsAtthu yeRintha poosal vann-tuDi vaay kaduppa
silaikkai vEdar thezhippu aRAtha SingavEL KunRamE (2)

 — Periya Thirumozhi: 1.7.2

MEANING:

In the previous Paasuram, the sanchAram of the Lions to Sri Narasimhan's sannidhi to present their SamarpaNams of the danthams (tusks) of elephants for use in ivory cots and palanquins for the Lord were described. In this paasuram, another type of noisy activity at SingavEL KunRam is described by the SevArTee, Thirumangai Mannan. Here Thirumangai sees the bhakthAs of Lord Narasimhan struggling to find their way amidst the fierce and inhospitable terrain of Ahobilam to have the darsanam of their Lord and putting up with the stones and arrows of the native hunters (Chenchus).