{"id":16515,"date":"2015-03-30T11:55:14","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T11:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=16515"},"modified":"2015-03-30T11:58:25","modified_gmt":"2015-03-30T11:58:25","slug":"srila-prabhupada-ashramas-youth-on-a-hike-to-purify-the-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=16515","title":{"rendered":"Srila Prabhupada Ashrama\u2019s Youth on a Hike to Purify the Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nOn the way to Bhargava Narasimha<\/em><\/p>\n

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\nBarghava Narasimha<\/em><\/p>\n

by Rama Vigraha das (ACBSP) Srila Prabhupada Ashrama Director, Mayapur<\/strong><\/p>\n

What do you do with teenagers during a school break? Hike, camp-out, travel! It really gets the spider webs out of their heads and they love it. Thanks to the generous donation of Nitesh Patel from LA and the mercy of Lord Narasimha, we finally packed our backpacks and headed towards Ahobilam in South India. The train ride let the boys cut up with all the sleep they think they have missed, and eating sandwiches was definitely not a problem. <\/p>\n

On the way, they stopped to visit the newly inaugurated beautiful temple of ISKCON Guntur<\/b> where they spent the night. They then took a taxi to Panaka Narasimha\u2019s Temple<\/b> where the Lord is offered two kalashes of gur water at a time, which you can hear Him gurgling. He then returns one back as maha prasadam. Now, this is sugar water and this in India, yet you don\u2019t find one ant anywhere around! By the way, Lord Rama, Hanuman and Sri Caitanya visited this temple. It closes at 3:00pm as the demigods perform the worship the rest of the day.<\/p>\n

Next day they went to the beach a favorite part of their outing. They went back to Guntur tired and red like lobsters from the sun. They got a good sleep and took a train to Ahobilam where I met with them. In these hills Garuda practiced austerities and prayed to Lord Narasimha for His darshana. Pleased with him, Lord Narasimha manifested nine different and unique forms. Our prayer is to see all nine. That afternoon we started our transcendental walk to the main temple in lower Ahobilam, Laksmi Narasimha. <\/b>The carved pillars are astounding. It was an auspicious beginning as we got to see Their abhiseka. It was special to hear some of the boys chanting the mantras along with the brahmanas. <\/p>\n

We then walked to Bhargava Narasimha, <\/b>first of the nine self-manifested deities, located on a hill where Parasuram performed austerities. Next day started the hike. It was the first time on a mountain for some of the boys. I noticed their feet… sandals, oh well. We had darshana of the main deity of higher Ahobilam, Ugra Narasimha,<\/b> second of the nine. The main altar is a cave. If you shave up you get a discount for the entrance fee. They provide free bamboo sticks for climbing, but when they saw the westeners the sticks suddenly had a price (two rps). From here, we took a small path by the river going up the hill. One km. away is the temple of Varaha Narasimha<\/b> Swami, <\/b>His third form. His face is of Varaha. We had maha ladhu for breakfast here which the monkeys were eager to have us share. Three more kms up the hill we reached Jwala Narasimha,<\/b> fourth of nine,<\/b> at the spot where the Lord finally killed Hiranya Kasipu. Nearby is a small tank where The Lord washed His hands, raktakunda, <\/i>the rocks in this pond became reddish. Next the real trek began; the boys that were going ahead missed the path and took a short cut. We found ourselves walking vertical for almost an hour! It was tough and it had frightening parts where rocks seemed about to roll down, and if one did, we all go with it! We pass by a flat rock were our ashrama teacher Shyamrasika and his friend Jagni slept on in a previous trip. What they did not know is that they could have been dinner to a tiger or bear! At one point you can see our day\u2019s destination \u201cThe Ugra Stamba\u201d, the fossilized pillar where the Lord appeared from to protect His devotee Prahlada. The stamba<\/i> is considered non different from Lord Narasimha. This this is a beautiful area of dense forest surrounded by stunning hills. Next we took darshana of Malola Narasimha<\/b>, fifth of nine deities. He appears in a graceful form as His name means beloved to Laksmi. Next Prahlada Mettu, this small shrine is in a cave by Prahlada\u2019s gurukula area. Back for a lunch cooked by a Madhva Brahmana; yogurt rice, upma, tomato rice, big fat vadas with super spicy chutneys. In the afternoon we went to two temples in lower Ahobilam, Chatra Vata Narasimha, <\/b>sixth of the nine. <\/b>He has the most beautiful smile and He sits in lotus position. Next Yogananda Narasimha<\/b>, seventh of nine merciful forms. They say that after killing Hiranya Kashipu Lord Narasimha taught Prahlada several yogic postures. Next was the pleasing, sweet Bala Narasimha who is a baby form of Lord Narasimha, A BABY FORM OF LORD NARASIMHA! my wife could just take Him home. At this complex of temples one of the boys, Tathagata, was lamenting that he wanted to pray for his parents to each of the Nine Deities of Lord Narasimha, but he forgot to do so. Just then, as we entered the next temple, the brahmana announced that all the nine forms of the Lord were present there. Thatagata got his wish fulfilled. Shyamrasika Mashai had a pleasant surprise for us. He knew of a clean and solitary lake nearby (yes, in India) where we relaxed and refreshed ourselves from the transcendental stroll. <\/p>\n

For dinner we had doshas and coconut chutney, chapatti and subji. Our Bengali students were happy HOT and SPICY! The boys wanted to hike back to the stamba that night. My wife was worried, better say, she was panicking just thinking of the wild animals and dangerous cliffs to walk in the dark. Shyamrasika Mashai agreed to go but with the condition that our police man, Baladeva Prabhu, went along. I\u2019m grateful to Baladeva for his unyielding no. Last day, early in the morning everyone (but Shyamrasika Mahashai) would rather take a riksa to the upper Ahobilam than walk 8kms. From there we would walk 6km to see Pavana Narasimha,<\/b> eight of nine. It was Ekadasi Shyamrasika Prabhu found bananas and peanuts brittles. We commence the hike going up tiny steep steps which look as if they are about to end, but after a bend on the path they went on and on and on. Each muscle of my body was screaming. Once we finished those steps, it was quite a pleasant walk. For Bala, Lalitanath, Tathagata and Dev who just disappeared in the distance it was a pleasant run. The locals say that there are three packs of tigers on these hills. They only go out hunting in the evening. We did not see any tigers but we sure got the impetus to hurry up. Walking to this temple was indeed a blessing in disguise. That pleased the Brahmin here so much that, displaying all the symtoms of a real Vaishnava, he gave us fresh maha coconut and gur. He even asked his mother to make lemon-gur water which he offered to Pavana Narasimha and then distributed two cups to each of us. He told us that Pavana Narasimha is specially merciful because after the angry fight with Hiranyakashipu he came upon Laksmi. She had taken birth in a Chenchu (hunters) tribe in this area in order to reunite with Him. He recognized her and married her at that spot. He is tender looking. Nearby, eighty steps up the hill is her cave temple. My wife and I would rather cover some of the walking back while the energetic boys run up the steps. We went so far ahead that the boys though that we got lost. They really had to run to catch up with us. It felt good to be ahead this time. DevGovinda was left a little behind the main running team Tatha, Bala and Lalitanath when he saw something following him behind the bushes some yards away. He did not know what it was, but again it worked as an incentive to hustle. On the way back, we headed towards the ninth of the nine self-manifested forms of Lord Narasimha the desire and anticipation to see Him had increased in our hearts since the temple had been closed on previous attempts. Will we get the mercy to see all nine? Humble prayers started to pour in our minds. The boys shouted -\u201dStop, stop ek minute!\u201d- to the riksa driver as we passed by the temple. It was open! Karanja Narasimha<\/b>, ninth of nine. Hanuman visited this place. He did not recognize Lord Narasimha thus the Lord manifested a bow in one of his hands and Hanuman was able to realize that Rama and Narasimha are non-different. The Hanuman deity is very charming at this temple. We were blissful our trip came to an end and the Lord allowed us darshana of his nine beautiful forms and much more. We hiked, climbed, and sweat and it was all worth it a million times. <\/p>\n

The history of Ahobilam is stated in ten chapters in the Brahmanda Purana by Srila Vyasadeva. It describes the greatness of the kshetra in the first chapter and in the fourth chapter it gives a description of the nine temples of Narasimha in His nine forms. (Nava Narasimha Kshetra)<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

For more information about Srila Prabhupada Ashrama visit us at Facebook, also contact us at rvigrahadas@yahoo.com<\/a>. Our website is www.srilaprabhupadaashrammayapur<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"HareBy Rama Vigraha das<\/strong><\/p>\n

What do you do with teenagers during a school break? Hike, camp-out, travel! It really gets the spider webs out of their heads and they love it. Thanks to the generous donation of Nitesh Patel from LA and the mercy of Lord Narasimha, we finally packed our backpacks and headed towards Ahobilam in South India. The train ride let the boys cut up with all the sleep they think they have missed, and eating sandwiches was definitely not a problem. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16515"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16519,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16515\/revisions\/16519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}