19. Simha and Narasimha
“Only from water, life is born. Without water life cannot exist”, said Balarama; they were crossing the river Limpo Po.
“In the Soorya Mandalam (Solar system) only in our earth water is abundant. It is because of this that so many species of life is prosperous here and a higher species called man could evolve. But even in dry places we call desert, there is water hidden somewhere. There too certain kinds of life exists”, said Krishna.
“Suppose water supply reduces, climate changes, the polar ice melts, the equilibrium of heat and monsoon cycles go berserk, what will happen?” wondered Balarama.
“Bhooma Devi will go barren like other grahas (planets) and life will vanish! It could happen either due to natural forces or by human beings in whom Asura Sakthi (Sattanic power) is also hidden!
They crossed the temperate savannahs. There were herds of zebras grazing. The mighty river Zambezi came down magnificently to a lake as a beautiful waterfall. It reappeared at the other end of the lake and flowed towards Indian ocean in the east. On its banks, a variety of animals roamed happily. Similarly, another tributary to Zambezi merged and reappeared from the northern lakes of Tankaneeka, and Nyasa. In that valley also they could see plenty of wildlife.
A family of zebras were drinking at the river. On their bodies black and white lines were painted as if by an expert artist. One young zebra was charmingly cute. Krishna and Balarama were looking at its pranks lovingly. A roar of the lion travelled in the air from a distance. The ears of the zebras were slightly vibrating. Realising the imminent danger they started running.
Chasing the fleeing zebras a lioness came running. In a few seconds the lioness would have pounced on one of the young zebras. In the meantime a miracle happened.
Krishna transformed into Narasimha (half man half lion a manifestation of Vishnu for killing demon Hiranya) and came in between the lioness and zebras. In the meantime the zebras fled. There was a ferocious fight between the Narasimha and the lioness. In the nearby place a lion was lying with his three wives. The lazy lion raised his head and saw the commotion and kept quiet. The other three lionesses came to the rescue of their sister. Even collectively they could not face the Narasimha, because it was several times more powerful than the lionesses. They withdrew and ran away. They also realized that this strange animal was more powerful than the Mrigendra (King of beasts) of the forest. Whether it is in forest or in civilizations the uncontrollable strength can only be controlled by superior might!
A herd of elephants marched towards the river. They were stunned to see this fight. The elephant heading the march stopped. He saw the four lionesses running accepting defeat from the Narasimha. The elephants were also afraid of the strange powerful Narasimha. Krishna leaving that ferocious form, changed back to his original human form. Karimukha lifted his trunk and trumpeted to assure them that there was no danger.
The elephants marched and came to the water. The leader of the African elephant came near Karimukha and observed him closely. Unlike their tribe, Karimukha’s head portion was high and gradually sloping towards back and in the trunk also only one finger instead of two! The African elephant’s centre portion was high and also bigger in size. He enquired and learnt from Karimukha that they were from India.
In the meantime the zebras slowly assembled again near Karimukha. Elephants stood surrounding Karimukha. Narada came with a song of praise of Lord Narayana.
