Lord Narayana incarnates for three reasons: to save
good people, to destroy the wicked and to establish dharma. Once an acharya was instructing his disciples on the reasons for God’s descent upon Earth.One of them was puzzled. He asked his teacher: “There are thousands of wicked men like Hiranyakasipu these days. So why doesn’t the Lord come to destroy them?” The teacher answered
that while it was true that there were thousands of
people as wicked as Hiranyakasipu, there was not even one
Prahlada. So why would the Lord come? The primary purpose of His avatars is to save His devotees.
The killing of Hiranyakasipu was not the purpose of the
Narasimha avatar, but the saving of Prahlada was, said Akkarakkani Srinidhi in a discourse.We may wonder how the Lord will welcome us, when He has beside Him those who have been devoted to Him for years. Will new entrants be welcomed? The answer is that just as when a new calf is born, it is given more attention than the older ones, the Lord too will give us more attention than He gives to the ones who have been loyal for many years. A cow that gives
birth to a calf licks the filth off the newly born. Likewise, the Lord will welcome us into His fold, though we may not have been His devotees for long, and He will not spurn us because of our sins.
One day, Tirukannamangai Aandaan, a Vaishnavite devotee, saw two dogs fight. One of the dogs bit the other and the latter died. The owner of the dead dog was furious and he and the owner of the other dog engaged in fisticuffs. In the process, one of them killed the other. Fearing the consequences of his action, the man committed suicide.Thus, two men lost their lives over two dogs.
Aandaan thought to himself that if two men showed such
love for their dogs that they were willing to die for them, how much more would God’s love be towards those who surrendered to Him? Some who surrender to Him cannot bear to be separated from Him and seek moksha at once. Others want liberation,but not right away. God embraces
both categories of devotees.
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