Hey guys. Today I'll be revisiting interesting topics about the Hindu religion. But, this article is about its influence and how its very wide spread. I'm also happy to say that I've started on my fourth translation of my mom's Mahaperiyava Satsangam. I don't know when it'll be done, but hopefully soon. This article is going to be very interesting and pretty long. Tune in for more content like this. With that said, I'll be happy to introduce the article, "The Amazing Story of an Azerbaijani Devotee of Lord Narasimha."
When most people talk about Hinduism, they think of people of India. However, that is not the case here. Hinduism is a religion, not a nationality. Anyone of any origin could worship Hindu Gods. Hinduism has branched out of India into several other countries. Even the point of my mom doing the Mahaperiyava Satsangam every month is to spread the stories and morals of our Hindu religion to children of the next generation. Overall our motto is that Hinduism shouldn't go obsolete. All of these precious stories shouldn't slip out of our hands and should be kept at the tip of our brain cells for us to pass it down to the next generation. Anyone of us could easily listen to these stories, but it takes true dedication and devotion for us to internalize the morals of these stories and shape our daily lives as such. It's even more unbelievable that a devotee from Azerbaijan shows this type of devotion to Hindu Gods.
This is an amazing story about a saint named Mataji Pada Sevanam, from Baku, Azerbaijan (former part of the USSR), who re-established devotional service to Lord Narasimha and changed the hearts of many devotees due to her limitless love to Krishna, fearlessness, and determination.
At one point in time, someone distributed a Bhagavad-Gita book translated by Srila Prabhupada to this woman. She started reading it and the knowledge from it was so powerful that she accepted it and dwelled in its presence. She found the address of the ISKCON temple in the beginning of the book and came to meet the devotees in the temple. Another devotee met her and escorted her to a guest room. He said, "Just a minute, please wait." When the devotee came back the woman was preaching the Bhagavad-Gita. In the book, she kept many bookmarks symbolizing what Bhagavan Sri Krishna said. The devotee said that he was amazed to see how interested he got into her preaching of the Bhagavad-Gita.
With utmost bliss, she started attending the programs at the temple, participated in Kirtans (songs), and fell in love with the Deities. She lost her love of living alone in the city. Her kids were grown up, and had their own families. Now she felt like she acquired a new spiritual family. One day she came to the temple and said that she wanted to sell her apartment and donate the money to the temple. She just wanted a provided room in the temple where she can live, serve, chant, and sing. The devotees agreed and built a little extension to the temple. You can see it by the temple in Baku, right at the entrance, it has large windows. She moved in and began growing Tulasi. She treated the Deities and Krishna with great love.
She had already been initiated by Rohinisuta Prabhu, and her name was Pada Sevanam. Some say she should be expelled from the temple for Sahajiya, but others claim that she is a saint. What they mean by Sahajiya was that she was communicating with Krishna as if she would do with you. She had a special affection towards Gopal. Gopal was a blue-colored doll of a little child Krishna. She took extreme care of him as if the doll were her own baby. Once she even bought a radio controlled toy car, put her Krishna into it and started driving him around the temple's yard. She talks to Krishna ecstatically about anything and shocked many devotees who came to the temple.
"I watched a movie called 'Pilgrimage to Ahobilam'," she said. Ahobilam is a famous temple of Lord Narasimha. There is a fascinating story about a disciple of Indradyumna Swami from the 1990-ties going to the Ahobilam temple. The temple is situated deep in a jungle surrounding by tigers. One has to be really determined to get there. Indradyumna Maharaja said that there are signs reading "Beware of Tigers." There is a temple of Hiranyakashipu and there are still pieces of the column from which Lord Narasimha appeared. There is also a cave and there is a self-manifested deity of Lord Narasimha inside it.
Dhruva Maharaja Prabhu entered an ancient temple where the Deity is Vira Narasimha. Vira means victor or conqueror. This deity is located in a cave atop the mountain. Once upon a time, a demonic king owned land in this place. He decided to perform austerities and worship Lord Brahma. He had an idea of stealing the Vedas from Brahma when he appeared. He did exactly what he devised. Brahma rushed to Lord Narasimha and prayed to him. Narasimha appeared and tore the demon apart and safely returned the Vedas. The Lord Narasimha took an order to stay in the form of a Vira while in the form of a deity.
The movie shows that Dhruva swims through water up to his chest in the cave where bats hang upside down above his head. As it becomes darker and dreadful, they hear bells ringing and see the light of oil lamps at the end of the cave. There was a priest, conducting worship, with an engaged couple sitting beside him.
Pada Sevanam immediately asked Krishna, "What should I do, how can I help Lord Narasimha?" She claims that Gopal told her to go there and serve Narasimha. Many devotees restricted her, saying that she doesn't know anything about India and that it would be dangerous. However, she regret the fact that India is dangerous and went there because Gopal had told her to.
This story is very entertaining because of the fact that Pada Sevanam wasn't any normal Hindu devotee. She had courage, determination, etc. I feel like she should be set as an example or a role model for other devotees to see how much she has give to come close to our Hindu Gods. She gave up her apartment to the temple and stayed in the temple because that's the only place she wanted to be in. She also listened to Gopal immediately and without any fear, travelled to India and is now considered a protector for a temple of Lord Narasimha! It's very nice to see that someone has devoted so much to come closer and closer to God. She will, for sure, go to unreachable heights with her determination and courage. She was 74 years old when she went to India, travelling all by herself. Long live Pada Sevanam!
Here are the websites used for research on this wonderful topic. Tune in for more content like this.
www.indiadivine.org/amazing-story-azerbaijani-devotee-lord-narasimha/
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