Power of MantraRajaPatha Slokam and Narasimhar Worship

Wish to share details from the following blog, which moved me a lot.

Personally, once we start meditating on Narasimha deva, we can never move away from Him.

In due course we will definitely feel that we are addicted to Him. Though MantraRaja Patha Slokam is bit long when compared to other small slokams, once we start reciting this, we will feel LOT and LOTs of difference in our thoughts and we will definitely feel closer towards Lord Lakshmi Narasimha.

The power of this sloka gets multifold when we recite this inside temple with full concentration. There is definitely some supreme magic behind this slokam and that is Lakshmi Narasimhar.

Click here for Mantra Raja Patha Slokam with meaning
http://murpriya.blogspot.com/2010/09/mantra-raja-patha-stotram-with-meening.html


Jai Narasimha ....

http://narayandasan.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/interesting-blog-on-narasimha-by-a-shrividya-upasaka/


This entire decade, which serves as a doorway to the new parivR^itti, seems to be nR^isimhamaya. Last night, a gentleman asked what our relation to nR^isiMha was considering our primary outlook to be that of a shAkta. I pointed out to him that pashchimAmnAya (and AgneyAmnAya to an extent) was entirely vaiShNava. Thinking back now, that reply seems superficial as the connection is a lot deeper.
The AchAryas of Sringeri have worshipped Lord Nrisimha as one of their chief upAsya devatA-s. It is not very clear whether this practice is prevalent in the Sri Mutt right from the times of AchArya bhagavatpAda as other AmnAya pIThas such as the govardhana pITha or the jyotirmaTha do not seem to have nR^isiMha as one of the chief upAsyas. Based on a conversation with shrI jayendra sarasvatI, the current AchArya of the kumbhakoNam-kAnchI maTha, nR^isimha is not among their upAsya mantras. It is Sringeri and dvArakA that are associated chiefly with nR^isimhopAsana. The case of dvArakA or bhadrakALI maTha is quite understandable due to its association with shrI padmapAdAcharya, a great upAsaka of Lord nR^ihari. The tAntrika worship of nR^isiMha in thirty-six forms, a practice known as the nR^isiMha vyUha, is the trademark of shrIkrama associated with dvArakA maTha. As for Sringeri, tradition states that the nR^isiMha sAlagrAma worshipped by the AchAryas was handed down the lineage by Adi shankara himself. Starting from the eighth AchArya of the maTha, Acharyas of the holy line have frequently assumed the titles, nR^isiMha or narasimha. The height of nR^imha upAsana in Sringeri seems to have reached during the lifetimes of two of its AchAryas: shrI vrddha nrsimha bhAratI and shrI abhinava vidyA tIrtha. However, unlike the dvArakA maTha, the worship of nR^isiMha is only faintly tAntrik in nature here.

Though nR^simha was fondly worshipped by the shrI sacchidAnanda shivAbhinava nR^isiMha bhAratI and shrI chandrashekhara bhAratI, nR^isiMha was not initially one of the chief upAsya-s of my own Guru shrI KPS. While mantrarAja was one among the hundreds of mantras he was initiated into, his focus, like that of his Guru mahAmahopAdhyAya shrI hAnagal virUpAkSha shAstrigal, was chiefly centered around the mahAmithuna: mahAtripurasundarI and prAsAda parameshvara. A certain incident in his life seems to have propelled him deeply into the upAsana of ramAdhava. While tutoring the pIThAdhipati of svarNavallI maTha at Sonde, a remote place close to gokarNa, shrI KPS began to suffer from mUlavyAdhi. There was severe bleeding and lack of medical attention seemed to indicate that death was certain. Based on divine guidance, he began to petition Lord nR^isiMha for help and was cured wondrously in no time. He later narrated to his disciples, “I was walking steadily towards dakShiNa (yamapurI) and the cry – lakShmInR^isiMha mama dehi karAvalAmbam - did the trick! The Lord held my hands and brought me back from the city of dharmarAja”.

On an uncanny chaturdashI day, he suddenly decided to initiate me into three mantras of the great Lord, primary among which was the mantrarAja, and advised to give as much importance to nR^isiMha as the shrIvidyA mantra in terms of upAsanA. That marked the beginning of a bond with the great Lord, one that would grow beyond my imagination. Strictly devoted to shiva and devI alone and never interested in even taking the name of viShNu, that was how I was and it was about to change. As a symbolic indication of the growing devotion towards shrImannArAyaNa, tuLasI began to grow everywhere around our house and sAlagramas landed in dozens at my place. panchAkSharI which was the chosen mantra that I recited all the time, in sleep and while awake, was replaced effortlessly by the mantrarAja, in spite of resistance from my side. This was probably the Lord’s way of stating the truth that the essence behind the two mahAmantras was not different.

Initially, it seemed rather difficult to recite the mantrarAja and the fact that it was lengthy compared to other mantras did not help either. It was one of those days that I ran into the great bhAgavata shrI mukkUr svAmigal. He was discoursing on the greatness of shrIdevI, the consort of shrImannArAyaNa at Nanganallur and I stood there examining some books and audio tapes that were displayed. svAmigal, all of a sudden, motioned me to come forward and gave prasAdam and declared, “The Lord is standing right behind you! I can see him” It was at that moment that my Guru’s statement, “Recite this always, he will watch your back” seemed to materialize into reality. The Lord has been compassionate to reveal the grace that verily is his presence on every occasion that has required a divine intervention.

In the shrIvidyA krama sampradAya that comes down from shrI padmapAdAchArya through bhagavatI bimbAmbikA, the status of prathama pUjyatva is accorded not to guru or gaNapati but to nR^isiMha, who represents the great Guru svacChanda bhairava. According to tradition, there are five pumrUpas of shrI parAmbA which are trimUrtyAtmaka. They are: shrI nrsimha, shrI svarNAkarShaNa bhairava, shrI shuddha dakShiNAmUrti, shrI dattAtreya and shrI ucChiShTa mahAgaNapati. Due to their association with shrIvidyA, all of these mUrtis are visualized in aruNa varNa with the exception of dakShiNAmUrti (antarlInavimarshaH) and worshipped at particular times of a day. These five forms represent the emanations of svacChanda bhairava in the various yugas for the propagation of brahmavidyA along the five srotas, accompanied by three mahAnAthas: skanda (sUrya, agni), krodha bhaTTAraka (nandin, agastya) and lopAmudrA (kAmarAja). The peculiarity of the bimbAmbikA sampradAya is to accord the status of kAraNa guru to nR^isiMha as the teaching of shrI-krama is believed to have been transmitted by krama-deshika shrI svacChanda bhairava in the form of nR^isiMha to padmapAdAchArya and as the vaiShNavI mahAvidyA bagaLAmukhI to bimbAmbikA.

The glory of nR^isiMha came to the forefront after our visit to Sevvilimedu, a nR^isimha kShetra on the outskirts of kAnchIpuram. The nR^isiMha temple here was in a pathetic condition with the deities dressed in torn vastra-s. After having the darshan of the Lord and undertaking a samkalpa to offer vastram to saundaryavallI and her Lord, we quite forgot about the shrine till a strong reminder from the vajranakha jolted us. Frequent visions of the Lord indicating that his gopuram was on the verge of falling began to recur and he commanded authoritatively to have the gopuram restored. He prodded us to initiate some action and assured that the rest will be taken care of. After overcoming the initial state of disbelief and hesitation, once the activity got kick-started, things proceeded smoothly beyond belief and the restored rAjagopuram of the shrine stands tall today as a sign of assurance from the Great Lord to his children, “I am here for you”.

After the passing of shrI nambUdari appa, the responsibility of overseeing the annual oracle, called the devatA prashna, which is done on the day of chitra viShu fell on our shoulders. A certain devatA, like shUlinI or vanadurgA are invited during a special ritual and their message for the coming year is recorded. There are no specific questions asked but only their message is accepted and followed. As we began to prepare for the new parivR^itti, there was fervor and excitement as to what the oracle would prescribe for the upAsakas within our guru maNDala. As a total departure from the usual proceedings, the invited devatA failed to appear that year and instead, the presence of nR^isiMha was felt. The message from the Lord was simple: kartavyam harikIrtanam. The presence was overwhelming, blissful and not comparable to anything known before. We have tried to spread this message among the upAsakas of our maNDali to the best possible extent and incorporated nAmasmaraNa is numerous ways that fit the framework of our upAsanA. While we wondered why there was no message from the deities or guru maNDala this chitra viShu, a certain elderly gentleman from dakshiNa desha had a vision of the Lord in all his glory and was guided to compose a hymn named gururatnamAlA. The gentleman was also cured of his arthritis and this has been the latest proof of the Lord’s benign grace.
Several other upAsakas I have personally known have recounted their experiences with nR^isiMha and the miraculous ways in which the Lord has touched their lives. Another disciple who received pAdukAnta dIkShA from shrI KPS recounted how, after years of upAsanA, he began to hear the mantrarAja in dream and in his head and was initiated into it in a dream. An elderly and saintly devotee of shrI bhuvaneshvarI had an interesting experience. She was initiated into the mahAvidyA by the paramAcharya of kAnchI-kumbhakonam maTha and completed several crores of japa before attaining the siddhi of the mantra. A few years ago, while she was immersed in japa, her Guru instructed her to perform koTi japa of viShNu sahasranAma followed by a homa and stated that to be the fastest and sure most way to overcome suffering. After completing the japa in the next few years, as she prepared to perform the homa, she was again told by the paramAcharya that the Lord was best worshipped as nR^isiMha in kali yuga and hence she should perform the homa with sudarshana sampuTita nR^isiMha. Prior to this, she was not associated with nR^isiMha in any form. The homa was completed recently as instructed by paramAcharya. Many of our readers seem to have attended this event.
It is neither necessary to accept the truth in these ‘tales’ nor worship the Lord expecting him to prove his presence through such incidents. It is simply sufficient if one dwells, even for a moment, in a contemplative state relishing the rasa of his lIlA; that alone is capable of rejuvenating the life of the modern man that has become rasahIna. As my year-long study of the mAdhyamika Buddhism of nAgarjuna approaches its climax, the insight gained through this study seems to be severely overshadowed by the brilliance of the smile that the Lord has been benignly showering on me. There is a clear message within that smile and I pray it brings me clarity.