Nrsimha News

Diary of a spiritual journey 10
June 7, 2005

With alternating warm and cold days the summer in Europe is happening. This is the time for many festivals, which are not ordinary but spiritual events full of transcendental potency. It all begins in May. For the last ten years I have been going to Germany to visit the holy abode of Lord Nrsimhadeva, which has been renamed as New Simhacalam, to celebrate the appearance day of the Lord. It really is a very special place, the temple is situated in a hilly tract of land about 800 meters high close to the Czech border. Every now and then the hills are covered by pine forest, the clouds are thin and ethereal, it is as if the entire landscape has assumed the mood of Lord Nrsimhadeva. That is not surprising because the deity form of Lord Nrsimhadeva is emanating sheer power, He is heavy and His nature is hot. He has transformed His place of residence in a holy dhama. In India we have seen many times how the deity of the Lord can transform a place in to a spiritual abode, such as for example Nathdvara, or Radha Govinda in Jaipur or Jagannath Puri and so on. Here Lord Nrsimhadeva is taking over. His temple is in an old farm building, inside the temple room has dark brown walls with mirrors on the ceiling and the actual Garbha Grha, the altar room, is made of black stone. On the temple walls are painting with illustrations from the 7th Canto of Bhagavatam, Prahlada is being tortured or thrown of a cliff, Hiranyakasipu performs austerities to get a benediction of Lord Brahma and stands on his toes and fire is emanating from the top of his head. Lord Nrsimhadeva is standing on His black altar with typical brass ghee lamps hanging on chains and behind Him the backdrops are showing traditional designs in the form of yantras. The Lord may carry weapons, He has quite a collection of clubs and swords and the likes. The pujaris also look serious and heavy and while offering arati they wave black camaras instead of the usual white ones.

Devotees begin to gather for the Nrsimha Caturdasi festival, they have come from all over,I see devotees from Spain, Sweden, Holland, Croatia, Czech and of course Germany itself and it's nice to meet many old friends. I would like to invite more devotees to come next year. It's not just a visit to a festival, rather we are permanently deepening our relationship with lord Nrsimhadeva. Nowhere else have I experienced such an intense focus on this particular form of the Lord. Again and again we chant,

.. tava kala kamala vare nakham adbhuta srngam dalita hiranyakasipu tanu brngham.........

There are expert festival pujaris present, such as Amara and Gaura Kesava who came all the way from Hawai. They have seriously studied in South India how to perform Nrsimha worship, they chant mantras and perform many other authentic rituals with so much effort, that I am sure that the Lord is pleased by their endeavors. As a sannyasi I cannot say that my life is short of travel, nor of festivals. Therefore I have participated in so many abhisekas, bathing ceremonies of the Deity, all over the world that includes India where I have lived for many years. However nowhere in the world have I seen abhisekas like in Germany, with so much opulence, executed with so much precision, accompanied by brahmanas who really know their Nrsimha-mantras. What can I say it certainly looks ecstatic to see Lord Nrsimhadeva dressed in bananas! it's quite an experience!

Ravindra Svarupa gave a nice lecture about how Lord Nrsimhadeva is driving out the demoniac material desires from our heart or the Hirankasipu that lives within us. In the evening Sacinandana Maharaja was leading such an ecstatic kirtan while the Deity of Lord Nrsimha is being taken on palanquin to circumambulate the temple, that although I was somewhere else at that time, I just felt drawn in by that ecstacy and I had to go outside and join that kirtana. After that we got the taste and just continued chanting for hours and hours until deep in the night, the devotees went beyond themselves.

Sri Nrsimha Jaya Nrsimha
Jaya Jaya Nrsimhdeva
Prahladesa Jaya Padma
Mukha Padma Brngham

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare..............

Krsnaksetra Prabhu is the special patron for this Deity and His temple, because he has originally made all the arrangement to install Lord Nrsimhadeva here in this temple, therefore today he is still taking responsibility for the puja and the welfare of this project. He can tell amazing stories. He said that in the beginning after the Deity had been carved, it was shipped to Germany and one transport company was responsible to deliver the Deity to the farm. The truck driver did not really know what powerful load he was carrying in the back of his truck, but he could feel it. The power of Lord Nrsimhadeva was emanating right through the box and the driver became more and more anxious. especially because he could not find the farm. Instead of taking the box back to the transport depot as would have been the normal procedure, the driver could no longer tolerate the presence of Lord Nrsimhadeva and finally just left the box somewhere in the fields. Eventually after some communication with the transport company the devotees located the Deity and they brought the Lord to His temple. Never before in my spiritual life have I had such an exclusive meditation on Lord Nrsimhadeva. Every year when I return from my visit to Nrismhaksetra or New Simhacalam I feel I have come a little closer to the Lord.

Just like in India people come from all over to isolated temple towns like Tirupati and Nathadvara to get some mercy of the Lord, I must urge all devotees to somehow or other make it for a transcendental darsana of this ecstatic manifestation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who has due to being very soft hearted appeared in the fierce form of Lord Nrsimhadeva to protect His devotee Prahlada Maharaja.

Sri Sri Prahlada Nrsimha, ki jaya!!!