Srimad Bhagavatam – day 412
With absolute concentration little Prahlāda meditated upon the lotus feet of Lord Narasimha. Prahlāda, whose mind and heart were totally focussed upon Lord Narasimha, fixed his gaze totally upon the Lord. With a heart that was overflowing with love, and in a faltering voice, he prayed,
“O Lord! Brahma and other Devatas, supreme Maharishis, accomplished Siddhas have minds that are totally filled with traits of purity and goodness (sattva guna). Even then they, with their extreme mastery over words, could never completely and satisfactorily worship You nor extol your glories. How then can I, whom am born in this cruel demon clan, appease You? Is it ever possible for such capacity to exist in me?
It is my opinion that neither wealth, birth in a good lineage, beauty, penance, mastery over the senses, erudition, physical strength, radiance, capacity, diligence, intelligence nor yogic austerities can please the Supreme Lord. This is because You, the Supreme Lord, were pleased with elephant Gajendra only due to his deep devotion”.
What is the use of possessing these 12 qualities i.e. wealth, birth in a good lineage, beauty, penance, mastery over the senses, erudition, physical strength, radiance, capacity, diligence, intelligence nor yogic austerities, if devotion towards the lotus-eyed Lord is missing?
“Superior than a Brahmin who possesses these qualities but who lacks devotion towards You is the low-class butcher who has completely surrendered his speech, mind, actions, wealth and life to You!”
What is the use of noble qualities when devotion is absent? Better than him is the person who at least has a little devotion towards the Lord.
“Such devotee will purify the lineage into which he is born while a Brahmin, who falsely considers himself great, can never purify even himself!
O Lord, You who are eternally situated in absolute bliss and are complete in every aspect. There is nothing that You gain from the worship offered to You by devotees. Even then, You the ever-compassionate Lord, accept the worship offered by the devotees, which is offered by them solely for their benefit”.
The human being worships so that he is blessed with happiness, good health etc. Hence his worship is aimed for his own benefit. He reaps the fruits of his worship. He does not surrender the fruits of his worship to God. Only with some desire he undertakes worship, poor-feeding, charitable activities, Yagnas and other meritorious deeds. The real puja is that which is performed without any desire or expectation of any form! Only such worship He receives truly!
Everyone should cultivate this habit of worshipping or performing meritorious deeds without any expectation of rewards. Chant mantra without any expectation. Then even if the Lord is not visible you will remain satisfied as you are then merging into the Lord. If the Lord appears then it is apparent that the devotee had some desire to be fulfilled. Seeking that the Lord should manifest before you, is also a desire isn’t it? Therefore, without even such expectation, worship should be continued. Such desire binds you. Such prayer does not reach Him. The moment He manifests, your penance would have yielded fruit and the balance gets exhausted. Your penance account would be nullified then and there. How then can such penance be classified as offering to Him? Without any desire, one should prostrate before Him.
“Please bless that I am happy; please bless that I get the ticket”- all these are desires. For these silly insignificant desires we are worshipping the Lord. Every time we desire something, the worship gets set off against the reward received. As such we have not offered anything to Him.
Only that mantra which is chanted without any expectation can be offered to Him! Only those Yagnas and other meritorious deeds performed without any desire are true offerings to Him! To offer your daily worship to Him, continue your worship with the same dedication but offer the results of the worship wholly to Him. “I do not seek any punya (merit) from this good deed”- should be the thought. Only then we can obtain the true rewards of that meritorious deed.
When we sit for the puja we read out a long list of pending desires and once again towards the end of puja we add to the list those desires which we had forgotten in the beginning. This is our attitude.
“Such worship can be compared to the facial decoration and makeup. The reflection of the makeup is seen only in a mirror isn’t it?
O Lord, although I am an insignificant person, I will, to the best of my abilities and intelligence, try to narrate Your transcendental glories. As a result of spiritual ignorance that has no beginning, a living entity takes up a gross body which is the outcome of the trigunas. Furthermore, due to feelings of ‘I and mine’, such living entity gets totally trapped into worldly bondages. O Lord, such living entity who is thus trapped, becomes pure due to singing Your transcendental glories.
O Supreme Lord! You are the dwelling-place for traits of goodness (sattva guna). Brahma and all other Gods are Your servants. Please do not be angry with them, O Lord, as they are not demons like us. You, the Supreme Lord, exhibit wondrous transcendental pastimes through the medium of Your lovely incarnations. Through them not only do You secure the well-being and prosperity of living entities in this world but also grant them supreme bliss.
O Lord Narasimha! Now that the demon has been killed please withdraw Your anger. When scorpion, snake and other poisonous entities are killed, even saintly persons, who strictly abide by principle of non-violence (ahimsa) rejoice”.
If a poisonous snake is on a killing spree, then it needs to be killed. Letting it live due to compassion or mercy will result in the death of many more living entities. No one should pamper a mad dog. Such mad dog should necessarily be put to death. Death is equal of liberation for it. At such moments even saints rejoice as the right treatment was given to it, says Prahlāda.
Nārāyaṇāya namah.