Curse of the Manasaputra’s – Jaya & Vijaya

The story of Lord Narasimha’s  avatara begins much before with the Brahma Manasaputra’s. As again please remember these stories are both true on their plane of reference and also convey a very deep metaphysical meaning. The story begins when the cosmos was in its embryonic stage ( hiranyagarbha ) and Lord Vishnu was resting on the ocean of milk ( milky way galaxy )  in yoga nidra . Lord Brahma the creator was born from the essence of Vishnu and desired to create the worlds and its inhabitants.

Before creating anything else four divine beings were created from his consciousness and those were the eternal bachelors and Brahma Manasaputras ( born from Lord Brahma’s mind ) Sanaka,Sanatana,Sanandana and Sanat Kumara.

This is described in detail in the Srimad Bhagavatam Third Canto Chapter 12

sanakaḿ ca sanandaḿ ca

sanātanam athātmabhūḥ

sanat-kumāraḿ ca munīn

niṣkriyān ūrdhva-retasaḥ

SYNONYMS

sanakam — Sanaka; ca — also; sanandam — Sananda; ca — and; sanātanam — Sanātana; atha — thereafter; ātma-bhūḥ — Brahmā, who is self-born; sanat-kumāram — Sanat-kumāra; ca — also; munīn — the great sages; niṣkriyān — free from all fruitive action; ūrdhva-retasaḥ — perfect brahmachari ( in whose the flow of thoughts and hence semen has been reversed )

TRANSLATION

In the beginning, Brahmā created four great sages named Sanaka, Sananda, Sanātana and Sanat-kumāra. All of them were unwilling to adopt materialistic activities because they were highly elevated due to their perfect brahmacharya.

tān babhāṣe svabhūḥ putrān

prajāḥ sṛjata putrakāḥ

tan naicchan mokṣa-dharmāṇo

vāsudeva-parāyaṇāḥ

SYNONYMS

tān — unto the Kumāras, as above mentioned; babhāṣe — addressed; svabhūḥ — Brahmā; putrān — unto the sons; prajāḥ — generations; sṛjata — to create; putrakāḥ — O my sons; tat — that; na — not; aicchan — desired; mokṣa-dharmāṇaḥ — pledged to the principles of liberation; vāsudeva — the Personality of Godhead; parāyaṇāḥ — who are so devoted.

TRANSLATION

Brahmā spoke to his sons after generating them. “My dear sons,” he said, “now generate progeny.” But due to their being attached to Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they aimed at liberation, and therefore they expressed their unwillingness.

The four Brahma manasaputra’s were eternally engaged in chanting of  Sri Maha Vishnu’s name and were perfect Siddhas. Sage Narada who also an Brahma manasaputra received divine knowledge from the kumara’s at a later stage.The kumara’s had the boon of eternal youth and they established the firm foundations of Sankhya. Sankhya is the basis of the Bhagavad gita and Bhagavatam.

Once the four kumara’s decided to have a darshan of Lord Vishnu and proceeded to Vaikuntha . Lord Vishnu had just decided to have a nap and instructed his Dwarapalaka’s ( guards at the door ) that he should not be disturbed. The divine sages arrived at the gates of Vaikuntha and were obstructed by the guards  Jaya and Vijaya. It was all a play of divine providence that incidents should take place this way. The kumara’s who used to be always poised and calm flew into a rage and cursed  the guards they would be born as demons . Upon hearing the commotion at the door Lord Vishnu came out and on seeing the divine sages paid the due respects to them. Meanwhile Jaya and Vijaya fell on the feet of the sages and requested them to modify the curse. The sages said they were powerless to change the curse that was pronounced and only Lord Vishnu could do that. Jaya and Vijaya prayed to Lord Vishnu to modify the curse. Lord Vishnu gave them two options , they could decide to be born in multiple number of births like normal human beings and come back to vaikuntha after a lot of time or they could be born as sworn enemies to the Lord and meet their death at his hands and return immediately. Jaya and Vijaya took the option of being born as enemies to the Lord so that they could return quickly.

This is called Virodha bhakti 🙂 …It is said Kamsa used to hate Krishna so much he would think of Krishna all the time. Even though he thought of the lord with hatred , the name of the Lord being so powerful and the touch of the Lord being so powerful. Kamsa attained mukti at Krishna’s hands.

The three births of Jaya and Vijaya were

1.Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashyapu— Varaha and Nrisimha Avatara

2.Ravana and Kumbhakarna —- Rama Avatara

3.Sishupala and DantaVaktra – Krishna Avatara

Nrisimha avatara’s story begins with the Varaha avatara which we will discuss when we get to Varaha Kshetras.

Lord Brahma emerging from the Vishnu Naabhi