Escaping the Most Deadly Snake - Time Factor

Date: 2008-09-04 Author: Narahari das

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

Last week we were seeing a Video CD of the betrothal ceremony of my brother-in-law which happened 5 years back. We could realize that around 8 members in our family who were in the ceremony and we were seeing in the video are not existing any more. Some of them have passed away due to old age and some due to terrible diseases like cardiac arrest, cancer etc. 5 years have passed like a flash and Time has swept away the lives of 8 people in one family in an imperceptible way. This happens all over the material creation everyday. The technological advancement in all the fields is aimed at fighting against various natural and man-made calamities and today for almost every problem, we have a method of counteraction (whether it works or not). However, there is no technology to subdue/fight against the action of Time (kala) and with the result, even great persons are very much fearful of the time factor and ultimately get defeated. Srila Prabhupada makes a powerful statement in his commentary to the Gita verse 11.32, " Time is destruction, and all manifestations are to be vanquished by the desire of the Supreme Lord. That is the law of nature." In the scriptures, Time is spoke of as a manifestation of the Lord Himself. A person can be considered really fearless only when he is fearless about the Time factor and death. This is possible only when one takes shelter of the Supreme Lord and listen to His instructions.

There is a nice story in the illustrating how we can counteract the onslaught of the Time factor. During the Kurukshetra war, when Dronacharya was slain in the battle, his son Ashvathama got very angry with the and decided to destroy them completely. He released the Narayana Astra (the personal weapon of Lord Narayana). had taught this to Ashvathama because of his repeated request and this astra was not known to . Once released, the astra reached the sky, multiplied itself million fold and innumerable maces, disks and arrows spitting fire started pulverizing the army. Witnessing the slaughter of troops, all the Pandavas fell into anxiety, not knowing what to do. Arjuna was completely clueless and surrendered to Krishna and said, "I don't know what this weapon is and how to stop it. Please protect us from this weapon." The Lord then ordered the Pandavas and their troops, "Lay down your weapons and descend from your chariots, horses and elephants and offer your pranams to this Narayana astra. If you lay weaponless on the earth and surrender to it, this astra will not harm you. If you even think of battle within your mind, this weapon will kill you. This astra is a manifestation of My personal energy and will not return to its wielder without killing the opposing enemy. There is no counter weapon for this astra (For all other astras counter weapon exists. For eg. Fire astra can be defeated by water astra and snake astra can be defeated by Astra etc.,).The only way to escape from this weapon is to surrender and not to counteract". Hearing this, the Pandavas and their troops exactly acted as per the Lord's words. But Bhima did not heed to Krishna's words and said, "I will smash this astra with my mace and then kill Asvathama" and marched towards the astra. The astra turned towards Bhima and started tormenting him with full force, who couldn't offer any fight back to the astra. Krishna then snatched the mace from Bhima's hands threw it to the ground and pushed Bhima from the chariot to the ground to surrender to the astra. The astra then got pacified and since it didn't see any opponent, it entered the divine body of Sri Krishna who is Narayana Himself. Asvathama was very upset on seeing this and left the battle field. Srila Vyasadev met him on the way and said, The " unfailing Narayana astra didn't work for you because you were using it against Narayana (Krishna) Himself and His pure devotees and Lord Narayana knows how to control His personal weapon".

Time is unconquerable like Narayana Astra and just like the Pandavas and their troops, the safest way is to surrender to the Lord who controls Time, by chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare in all humility. This is the best way to escape the onslaught of the insurmountable Time and find shelter at the Lord's lotus feet. Any other counteraction will be defeated by kala. The (7.9.5) clearly states that one who is harassed by Time should take shelter of Lord Narasimha who alone can award fearlessness.

sva-pāda-mūle patitaṁ tam arbhakaṁ vilokya devaḥ kṛpayā pariplutaḥ utthāpya tac-chīrṣṇy adadhāt karāmbujaṁ kālāhi-vitrasta-dhiyāṁ kṛtābhayam

When Lord Nrsimhadeva saw the small boy Prahlada Maharaja prostrated at the soles of His lotus feet, He became most ecstatic in affection toward His devotee. Raising Prahlada, the Lord placed His lotus hand upon the boy's head because His hand is always ready to create fearlessness in all of His devotees.

In this verse, kala ahi - deadly snake of Time; vitrasta dhiyam means one whose mind is terrified by Time. Srila Prabhupada states in his commentary The " necessities of the material world are four -- ahara, nidra, bhaya and maithuna (eating, sleeping, defending and mating). In this material world, everyone is in fearful consciousness (sadā samudvigna-dhiyām), and the only means to make everyone fearless is Krsna consciousness. When Lord Nrsimhadeva appeared, all the devotees became fearless.The devotee's hope of becoming fearless is to chant the holy name of Lord Nrsimhadeva. Yato yato yami tato nrsimhah: wherever we go, we must always think of Lord Nrsimhadeva. Thus there will be no fear for the devotee of the Lord."

The more sincerely we chant the Holy names and read the scriptures, the more we're out of the fear of Time and its faithful follower, the Death.

I pray at the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupda and Gurudeva so that I'll take the holy name Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare very seriously and become free from fear of all sorts.

Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Narahari Krishna das UK.