Narasimha Avatar

 Today as I write, I would like to share that last month July had not  been so good for me. I was not getting proper sleep and my nights would end up thinking about random thoughts. I felt restless and was not sure what to do. 

Then my mom asked me to pray to Narasimha. I started praying since last one week and from last 3 days I feel I am getting proper sleep even though it's not 8 hours full and I wakeup early but I feel better. So, I am sharing what I got from my research about Lord Narasimha and his association with overcoming fear and anxiety.  Here it goes..

Swami Sivananda, says that spiritual aspirants will have to face their fears to succeed in spiritual life. Yogis say there are three categories of suffering that human beings face-- those from one's own body/mind (e.g. diseases), those from other living beings (animals, people, devas, astral beings etc) and those from nature (flood, famine, fires etc).

Nobody wishes to suffer so people often experience fear when they face the above. Diseases produce fear; ferocious and venomous creatures produce fear. Some people fear astral beings (negative entities) while others fear severe weather.

Sivananda says that courage is absolutely necessary in spiritual life. He declares that timid people are completely unfit for spirituality. However, fear is a perfectly natural emotion. It is related to our survival instinct. Having said that, our minds often produce a lot of unnecessary fear related to events that will never happen, or imaginary threats. This consumes a lot of mental energy, exhausts us and makes our life unhappy.

Therefore, it is worth considering some spiritual remedies to instil courage into our minds and overcome all fears.

Any name of God is capable of bringing all auspiciousness into our lives and of destroying all fear and inauspiciousness. However, certain forms of God are often worshipped to destroy fear. One such form is Narasimha, the man-lion avatar of Lord Narayana.

Narayana manifested the Narasimha avatar to protect His devotee, the child Prahlada from the demon Hiranyakashipu (the father of Prahlada). The form of Lord Narayana is usually peaceful and calm-- He is called 'Shantakaram'. However, in this avatar, He takes on a most furious form. He is depicted as an wondrous being, with the face of a magnificent lion and the body of a powerful man. 

All the gods, demons and everybody (including Narayana's own consort, Goddess Lakshmi) was terrified at the sight of Him and were unable to calm His anger. They tried to pacify Narasimha but did not succeed. Finally, in desperation, they begged the child, Prahlada, for whose sake Narayana had assumed this extraordinary form, to go to Narasimha and calm Him down. 

Prahlada then approached Narayana in His Narasimha avatar and praised Him with a hymn. This calms down the great man-lion avatar and He affectionately took Prahlada in His lap and blessed Him.

Here is one such powerful mantra of lord Narasimha.

Ugram Viram Maha-Vishnum 

jvalantam sarvato mukham

narasimha bhishanam bhadram

mrityur mrityum namamy aham!!

I also suggested to one of my friend who has been suffering from multiple health issues. In a different post I will share if he tried it and did he see any positive impact of it. But, I am sure he will feel positive.