A Narasimha Temple in Jodhpur

From Dhruva Dasa

Posted Dec. 14, 2004

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and the awesome Lord Narasimhadeva

I wanted to go to a certain Narasimha temple here in Jodhpur with some friends, but the rickshaw driver insisted that Jodhpur had no Narasimha temple. Little did he know that I had already been to two Narasimha temples here. The problem was that I didn't remember the directions to the one I wanted. So the rickshaw man and my friends started arguing, and finally the driver gave in.

"All right," he said, "I will stop and ask if anyone knows about this Narasimha temple."

The rickshaw came to a stop, and the driver and my two friends jumped off to ask people for directions. I also hopped off just to be amused by all the arguing. As I was walking towards one of my friends, I was stopped by a group of elderly men sitting on the side of the road chatting. They were all old, at least over 70, and they looked like wise men.

The eldest of them spoke to me. "What are you looking for?" he asked.

"Ji," I replied, ("Ji" means Sir in their language), "I am looking for the Narasimha mandir."

He looked at his friends, and they all pointed to their left. "That's the Narasimha temple," said one of them. "It's across the street."

"Sir," I said, "that can't be."

"You just go and see," said another. "He is there."

No, I thought. What are the chances of the Lord being so kind to me as to let me find another one of His temples?

My friends and I made our way there. We gazed upon the beautiful, old temple, and we walked into the entrance.

We went up the people inside, one at a time. "Narasimha mandir?" we would ask. "Narasimha mandir?"

They all smiled. "Yes," they would say, "you go inside. He is there."

I went into the temple and looked around. I could see that this was once an amazing temple. There were ancient paintings of the Lord's pastimes covering all the walls around.

I moved closer to the Lord's altar and gazed upon His beautiful form. I felt chills in my entire body as I remembered how merciful He had been to such a fool as me.

Another temple, I thought. Wow! One more I can add to my book so His devotees and everyone else can have darshan.

I stood looking at the Lord's beautiful form. Soon the local kids and some other people started to gather around. I asked for the pujari, and some of the kids ran out to get him. The amazing thing was that even though this temple was situated in the middle of the city surrounded by all the craziness of modern India, it had kept its simplicity and true beauty.

The pujari made his way in and introduced himself as Brajananda prabhu from the Nimbarka sampradaya. We had a long talk about the history of this temple. It was nice to see how he takes care of the Lord so sweetly.

"We are supposed to approach the Lord as if we were little children," he told me.

"Yes," I replied, "like Prahlada Maharaja.

"Exactly like Prahlada," he said.

We paused, and then he continued speaking. "This temple is over 200 years old," he said, "and my great, great ancestors installed the Lord here. Before that, there was nothing around this area, just desert."

"Why did your ancestors install this temple?" I asked.

He smiled. "Because they were all Narasimha bhaktas," he said.

I thanked him, and then I offered my respects to the Lord again and begged Him to never let me stop finding His wonderful forms. Then my friends and I left.

So sweet Lord Narasimha deva is! He can help us by removing what is not favorable to our service to the Lord and His devotees. We just have to beg Him again and again, "Please protect my service to the devotees."

He will do this. Let us not forget.

© dipika.org Dec. 16, 2004