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Sudarshana Gayatri

Om sudarshanaya vidmahe mahajvalaya dhimahi
tano chakrah prachodayat

As is our annual custom, Nrsimha Caturdasi will be observed in Sridhama Mayapur as a three day festival from May 7th – 9th. The first day will be celebrated with a huge procession throughout the ISKCON Mayapur property and on the second day we will be performing a three hour long Maha Sudarshana Homa before the Deity of Lord Nrsimhadeva. The third day is observed as Nrsimha Caturdasi. We would like to offer you an opportunity to personally benefit from the Sudarshana Yajna by participating in the offering as explained below.

The Sudarshana Yajna is a very special one. Sudarshana, the divine discus of Lord Vishnu, is invoked along with Lord Nrsimha for the attainment of success in a particular undertaking and for protection from negative forces. It is a type of exorcism which removes evil elements and other troublesome astral entities as well as counteracts curses and spells.

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The homa is accomplished with a fire yajna, offerings of Tulasi leaves to the Lord, and recitation of the Purusha Sukta, and the Sudarshana yantra, a copper disc with special sacred symbols is bathed 108 times with the Sudarshana mantras for empowerment and then offered darpan (bath water) from the purified water of kalashes. As usual, this year’s yajna consisting of over 10,000 various offerings will be performed by 9 saintly Mayapur gurukula Brahmin boys.

The TOVP Team is coordinating again this year’s Sudarshana Yajna and we invite all our donors to participate as part of a worldwide yajna for the protection and success of the TOVP project and for their personal protection also. To participate we request that you make a vrata (vow) to chant a specific number of extra daily rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra between now and May 7th (India time) for this purpose. Email us at tovpinfo@gmail.com either before you start the vrata or when you complete it on May 7th (India time) with your name, gotra (if any), and the number of rounds you intend to chant per day or have completed by May 7th. Your name will be chanted as part of the offering infused into the water of the bathing kalashes, and then recited again during the darpan (yantra bathing) by the Brahmins performing the yajna.

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The ashes remaining after the yajna are considered extremely potent. We will be keeping these ashes and, where postal law permits, will mail them to donors who have participated as explained above. Donors who do not receive the ashes by mail can receive them at the TOVP office.

As you all know, Mayapur Nrsimha is a very special Nrsimha Deity. Although He is in His manifestation as Ugra-Nrsimha, the most fierce and angry form, because Lord Nrsimha is especially favorable to the devotees of Sri Caitanya Mahapabhu, He relaxes His angry mood to only offer blessings and mercy. There are many stories in Mayapur of miracles in this regard.

One of our goals in building the TOVP is to offer Lord Nrsimhadeva a new home, along with Sri Sri Radha Madhava and Sri Pancha Tattva. Lord Nrsimha will have his own separate wing and altar in the temple and His presence is a major element of the entire project. He is our protector and well-wisher and deserves the most opulent circumstances and worship. Nrsimha Caturdasi this year will be very special in Mayapur because it will celebrate the commencement of the installation of the Kalashes atop the TOVP domes.

With this in mind we would like to encourage our donors to continue enthusiastically with your pledge payments because now all funds received will be directed towards the production of the Chakras in Russia. If you are able, please give a larger portion of your pledge for Nrsimha Caturdasi to help finance this work. If you have not yet started making payments towards your pledge or had to stop for some reason, please see this as an opportunity to start or restart your pledge payments. If you have not yet given a donation to the TOVP or would like to give another, please take advantage of this auspicious occasion and make a pledge by going to: https://tovp.org/donate/seva-opportunities/

All Glories to Lord Sri Nrsimhadeva!

Prayers to Lord Nrsimhadeva by Shani (Saturn)

Shani said:

By the mercy of the dust of Your lotus feet which destroy a multitude of sins, grant infinite auspiciousness to Your devotee who always worships Your lotus feet with devotion. O Lord Nṛsiṁha, please bestow upon me Your merciful side-long glance.

Your lotus feet are worshipped by Goddess Lakṣmī, even though She is fickle by nature (cancala) and by Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva whose feet are worthy of worship with devotion. O Lord Nṛsiṁha, please bestow upon me Your merciful side-long glance.

By contemplating or meditating upon Your appearance, which is expounded in the Vedas extensively, the best of the saints are liberated from the three-fold miseries and from all misfortunes. O Lord Nṛsiṁha, please bestow upon me Your merciful side-long glance.

By the word of His devotee named Prahlāda, Lord Hari, who is generous and kind, appeared from a pillar and by placing Hiraṇyakaśipu on His thighs split open his stomach with His nails. O Lord Nṛsiṁha, please bestow upon me Your merciful side-long glance.

You protected your own devotee Prahlāda from a raging fire, the deep ocean, from falling from a tall mountain peak, poison, a mad elephant and the fangs of poisonous serpents. You are omnipresent and supremely generous. O Lord Nṛsiṁha, please bestow upon me Your merciful side-long glance.

By meditating upon He whose great form is devoid of imperfections, the best of the saints attained liberation from the ocean of materialistic attachments and obtained unmitigated salvation. O Lord Nṛsiṁha, please bestow upon me Your merciful side-long glance.

By meditating upon He whose form is fearsome, all peace, happiness and prosperity can be obtained, all sins can be obliterated, the fear arising from evil spirits, fevers and unfavorable planetary positions can be removed, O Lord Nṛsiṁha, please bestow upon me Your merciful side-long glance.

Your transcendental fame is sung gloriously in all the divine assemblies of Śiva, Brahmā and Indra etc. and whose power is steadfast in wiping out all impurities, O Lord Nṛsiṁha, please bestow upon me Your merciful side-long glance.

On listening to the heartfelt prayer composed by Śanideva in the assembly of Lord Brahmā, Lord Hari who is ever compassionate to His devotees, spoke to Śanideva as follows.

Śrī Nṛsiṁha said:

O Śani, I am pleased with your devotion. Whatever you desire that will benefit the world, ask for that kind of boon and I will grant it.

Śrī Śanideva replied:

O Lord Nṛsiṁha, O reservoir of compassion, please be kind to me. O Lord of all gods, let my week-day (Saturday) be Your favorite day. O Purifier of all the worlds, may You fulfill the desires of all those who listen to or read this great prayer to You composed by me.”

Śrī Nṛsiṁha said:

O Śani, let it be so! By virtue of My being the universal protector (Rakṣobhuvana), I fulfill the desires of all My devotees. Please listen to My words let there be no fear of the twelfth and eighth birth positions (and implicitly any unfavorable birth positions) and consequent troubles from you for anyone who reads or listens to this prayer to Me composed by you.

Then Śanideva replied to Lord Narahari that he would follow the Lord’s instructions. Then the joyful saints and sages present there (in Brahma’s assembly) responded with cries of, ‘jaya, jaya!’”.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa told Dharmarāja, “Whoever listens to or recites this conversation between Śanideva and Lord Nṛsiṁha in the form of this prayer of devotion will definitely have all desires fulfilled and will always rejoice.”

Thus ends the prayers offered to the universal protector Śrī Nṛsiṁha by the great soul Śani.