Hari Aum
My Guru, Swami Sivananda, says that spiritual aspirants will have to face their fears squarely to succeed in spiritual life. Yogis say there are three categories of suffering that human beings face-- those from one's own body/mind (e.g. diseases), those from other living beings (animals, people, devas, astral beings etc) and those from nature (flood, famine, fires etc).
Nobody wishes to suffer so people often experience fear when they face the above. Diseases produce fear; ferocious and venomous creatures produce fear. Some people fear astral beings (negative entities) while others fear severe weather.
Sivananda says that courage is absolutely necessary in spiritual life. He declares that timid people are completely unfit for spirituality. However, fear is a perfectly natural emotion. It is related to our survival instinct. Having said that, our minds often produce a lot of unnecessary fear related to events that will never happen, or imaginary threats. This consumes a lot of mental energy, exhausts us and makes our life unhappy.
Therefore, it is worth considering some spiritual remedies to instil courage into our minds and overcome all fears.
Any name of God is capable of bringing all auspiciousness into our lives and of destroying all fear and inauspiciousness. However, certain forms of God are often worshipped to destroy fear. One such form is Narasimha, the man-lion avatar of Lord Narayana.
Narayana manifested the Narasimha avatar to protect His devotee, the child Prahlada from the demon Hiranyakashipu (the father of Prahlada). The form of Lord Narayana is usually peaceful and calm-- He is called 'Shantakaram'. However, in this avatar, He takes on a most furious form. He is depicted as an wondrous being, with the face of a magnificent lion and the body of a powerful man.
All the gods, demons and everybody (including Narayana's own consort, Goddess Lakshmi) was terrified at the sight of Him and were unable to calm His anger. They tried to pacify Narasimha but did not succeed. Finally, in desperation, they begged the child, Prahlada, for whose sake Narayana had assumed this extraordinary form, to go to Narasimha and calm Him down.
Prahlada then approached Narayana in His Narasimha avatar and praised Him with a hymn. This calms down the great man-lion avatar and He affectionately took Prahlada in His lap and blessed Him.
I recently came across the Lakshmi-Narasimha strothram. In addition to chanting the ashtakshara mantra of Narayana, listening to this gives me courage to face my fears.
I am sharing the links below to the stothram on Youtube and an English translation by someone on their blog.
I will summarise some of Lord Narasimha's great qualities described in this prayer. He is described in the following terms:
Magnificent in appearance, huge in size, handsome, charming, with extremely sharp teeth and claws, the embodiment of beauty, beloved of His devotees, loving towards His devotees, the destroyer of all negativity (including negative spirits), the protector of all beings, the Supreme Being. He is described as the true father, mother, guru and friend of all beings.
He has beautiful eyes (lotus-eyed), has a beautiful form (dark like monsoon clouds) and is bright like lightening. He is described as the husband of the beautiful Lakshmi. He is beyond the three gunas (qualities) of Prakriti (nature); the giver of of four goals of life, namely dharma (righteousness), artha (wealth), kama (worldly enjoyments) and moksha (spiritual peace, wisdom and bliss).
In my Guru's book, Japa yoga, the following mantras are given to worship Lord Narasimha
The Narasimha gayatri mantras:
1. Om Vajra-nakhaya vidmahe, Tikshna-damshtraya dhimahi, Tanno Nrisimhah prachodayat.
2. Om Nrisimhaya vidmahe, Vajra-nakhaya dhimahi, Tannah simha prachodayat.
Anushtubha mantra (has 4 parts each containing 8 syllables not including Om):
Om Ugram Viram Maha-Vishnum,
Jvalantam Vishvatomukham,
Nrsimham bhishanam bhadram,
Mrityu-mrityum namamyaham.
One of the slokas from the Lakshmi-Narasimha stothram described above that mentions Narayana is:
Namostu Narayana Narasimha,
Namostu Narayana Virasimha,
Namostu Narayana Krurasimha,
Namostu Narayana Divyasimha.
This means, I bow to you Narayana, in the form of Narasimha, as a heroic lion (Virasimha), as a fierce lion (Krurasimha) and a divine lion (Divya simha).
May Lord Narasimha's blessings be upon us all. May we be blessed with courage to walk the spiritual path and attain true devotion and spiritual peace.
Hari Aum Tat Sat.
P.S. Nov 13, 2019: Since writing the above, I also came across the famous and very beautiful Narasimha kavacham which protects the devotee from all problems and grants all auspiciousness. It was recited by His devotee, Prahlada and is described in the scripture called the Brahmanda Purana.
YouTube link to a beautiful rendition of the kavacham:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd932-Hcgj8
Meaning of the kavacham:
http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Narasimha_Kavacham
P.S. Nov 13, 2019: Since writing the above, I also came across the famous and very beautiful Narasimha kavacham which protects the devotee from all problems and grants all auspiciousness. It was recited by His devotee, Prahlada and is described in the scripture called the Brahmanda Purana.
YouTube link to a beautiful rendition of the kavacham:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd932-Hcgj8
Meaning of the kavacham:
http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Narasimha_Kavacham
