“It’s Kali-yuga, Prabhu!” Suffering in Spiritual Life

Śrī Gopinātha vijñapti (A Fervent Petition to Śrī Gopīnātha)

By Swami Bhaktivijñāna GiriPublished On: August 22, 2026Tags: Kṛṣṇa-tattva, Vaiṣṇava History14.7 min read

Overview

In this article, Swami Bhaktivijñāna Giri responds to a question regarding the history of Swami B.G. Narasiṅgha Mahārāja’s personal Deity of Śrī Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha and Narasiṅgha Mahārāja’s intimate relationship with and worship of the Deity, as well as the significance of Narasiṁha worship within the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition.

Recently, after composing thirty-two verses in praise of our Guru Mahārāja’s personal Deity, Śrī Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha, I was requested to write something about the history of that Deity and our Guru Mahārāja’s relationship with Narasiṁha.

Over the years, our Guru Mahārāja, Śrīla B.G.Narasiṅgha Mahārāja, had a number of Deities of Narasiṁha. Somehow, they were always in the form of Yoga-Narasiṁha, which is a śānta–rūpa (peaceful form) of Narasiṁha and, according to Pañcarātra, a suitable form for sannyāsīs to worship. This is the form He takes after slaying Hiraṇyakaśīpu, where He teaches Prahlāda the esoteric secrets of yoga.

His first Deity of Narasiṁha was from a famous emporium in Tamil Nadu. The Deity was made of aṣṭa-dhātu (eight metals), about four inches high, and sat next to a large Deity of Kāliya-mardana Kṛṣṇa that Guru Mahārāja had also purchased from Tamil Nadu. Guru Mahārāja worshipped these Deities for a year or so in Hawaii, but because the Deity of Kāliya-mardana Kṛṣṇa was so big (about 3.5 feet), Guru Mahārāja eventually gave Him, along with the Narasiṁha Deity, to a godbrother.

The second Deity he found in another emporium in Madras (now Chennai). He was quite small, made of German silver, and fashioned in an Oḍiā style. Guru Mahārāja worshipped Him for some months and later gave Him to a devotee and his wife, who, I believe, are still worshipping Him.

The third Yoga-Narasiṁha Deity was in Chola style. Guru Mahārāja had Him made in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu. This Deity was crafted by a young gentleman who was still learning śilpa-śāstra from his guru. The Deity was quite beautiful, though, from a mundane perspective, somewhat imperfect in proportion. He remained on the altar at our āśrama in South India for a few years. In fact, Guru Mahārāja’s āśrama was partially named after this Deity – Śrī Narasiṅgha Caitanya Maṭha/Āśrama. Guru Mahārāja once explained this to me – “The first Deities here were Narasiṁha and small Mahāprabhu, so I called it ‘Śrī Narasiṅgha Caitanya Maṭha.’ I am not so vain as to name my āśrama after myself – but even if I did, so what? Should I be ashamed of my name?”

(Narasiṅgha Mahārāja’s third Deity of Yoga-Narasiṁha in the āśrama)

Then, in 1999, Guru Mahārāja travelled to the village of Belavāḍi in Karnataka, where there is an ancient Hoysala temple of Yoga-Narasiṁha worshipped by Vaikhānasa brāhmaṇas. Upon seeing this Deity, he was immediately charmed, and a desire arose in his heart to have a small silver Deity made based on that form.

(Yoga-Narasiṁha in Belavāḍi)

One of our devotees knew a gentleman in Mysore named R. G. Singh, who owned a large handicrafts emporium and was well acquainted with many artisans in the region. Mr. Singh knew of an elderly craftsman who had spent his life making Deities according to śilpa-śāstra. He did not mass-produce; each Deity was unique. When shown photographs of the Hoysala Narasiṁha in Belavāḍi, he became excited and immediately agreed to begin the work. He first made a wax model, then encased it in clay and cast the Deity in silver using the lost-wax process.

Eventually, on Guru Mahārāja’s twenty-fifth sannyāsa anniversary on March 19th, 2000, the Deity of Śrī Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha was presented to him and he was delighted. That evening, accompanied by local brāhmaṇas chanting Vedic hymns and devotees performing saṅkīrtana, Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha was taken on procession on a palki.

(Narasiṅgha Mahārāja after receiving the Deity of Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha)

The very next morning, the Deity was installed in his kuṭīra, and he drove to Mysore, purchased various pūjā paraphernalia, and began worshipping Him. He also took the Deity to the original temple in Belavāḍi and had Him placed on the altar.

(Narasiṅgha Mahārāja with his Deity in Belavāḍi)

Guru Mahārāja trained some of the young boys who had undergone upanayana to assist in the worship of the Deity. Sweet rice was always offered to Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha. He remained in Guru Mahārāja’s room for twenty years, receiving constant worship.

(Some of the young brahmacārīs worshipping Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha)

Along with Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha, Guru Mahārāja worshipped a Lakṣmī-Narasiṁha śālagrāma that had been donated to him by a Śrī Vaiṣṇava scholar named Śrī Ravi Thirumalai. The śālagrāma had been worshipped in his family for many generations, but for some reason he was unable to continue the worship. One of our devotees suggested that he offer the śālagrāma to Guru Mahārāja, and upon meeting him and beholding Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha, he immediately became convinced that Guru Mahārāja would properly care for the śālagrāma. On my birthday in 2016, Guru Mahārāja gave me that śālagrāma to worship and He has been with me ever since. At that time, Guru Mahārāja was simplifying his pūjā to only include Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha and his govardhana-śilā, since he was more focussed on travelling and preaching.

(The ancient śālagrāma of Lakṣmī-Narasiṁha worshipped by Narasiṅgha Mahārāja)

On Janmāṣṭamī 2003, Guru Mahārāja installed a large Deity of Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha in the āśrama, based upon the original Hoysala Deity in Belavāḍi. On that day, Guru Mahārāja brought his personal Deity and placed Him on the altar. On Narasiṁha Caturdaśī, Guru Mahārāja would generally bring Him and place Him on the altar along with the big Deity.

(Narasiṅgha Mahārāja installing the large Deity of Yoga-Narasiṁha in his āśrama in 2003)

Guru Mahārāja was compelled to leave India in 2017, and before leaving, instructed me to continue the worship of Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha in his absence. Thus, his Deity was placed on my altar for some time, until I myself also had to leave the country. In 2019, Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha eventually came to Vermont, and Guru Mahārāja requested me to continue His worship. While reading a book on Pañcarātra, I discovered that although the Deity is Yoga-Narasiṁha, He has three eyes, indicating the partial presence of some krodha (anger). Spontaneously, Guru Mahārāja had already been calling Him ‘Vīra Narasiṁha’ (Heroic Narasiṁha), and then he affirmed, “He is Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha.”

On a side note, Narasiṁha is the only form of Kṛṣṇa/Viṣṇu who possesses three eyes. In this regard, there is an intrinsic connection to Śiva (who also possesses three eyes), though that is a subject for another time.

A few days before Guru Mahārāja returned to India, I was dressing Narasiṁha with His jewellery when he slowly came out of his room with his phone and took a photograph of the Deity. Guru Mahārāja was manifesting pastimes of illness and was very frail, yet for some reason he chose to take that picture. Afterward, he turned to me and said, “Take care of Him, Giri.” By Guru Mahārāja’s mercy, since then I have been taking care of Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha – or rather, He has been taking care of me.

(The last photo of Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha taken by Narasiṅgha Mahārāja)

However, this appreciation is not based upon custodianship, nor is it a matter of sectarian sentiment. Had Guru Mahārāja entrusted this Deity to anyone else, the principle would remain the same. The significance lies in the intimate and continuous service he personally rendered to Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha for twenty years within the privacy of his own kuṭīra. Anything intimately connected with the service of a great soul naturally becomes worshippable and spiritually significant.

There is one important point to note regarding Guru Mahārāja’s relationship with Narasiṁha. Despite his name being ‘Narasiṅgha Mahārāja’ (‘Narasiṅgha being the Bengali version of ‘Narasiṁha’), he was, first and foremost, a Gauḍīya. Once, when a young man remarked to me, “Your guru is a great narasiṁha-bhakta,” and I conveyed this to him, he became visibly annoyed and said, “I am not a narasiṁha-bhakta! My iṣṭa-deva is Mahāprabhu and Govardhana!” Then, humbly, he added, “The only reason I have so many Narasiṁha Deities in my āśrama is because I have so many anarthas.” However, personally, I feel that the true reason was that he saw our anarthas, and understood that we needed Narasiṁha’s mercy to remove the obstacles to our bhajana.

In other words, he made it clear that for Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas, the worship of Narasiṁha is primarily meant to remove anarthas and thereby make one qualified to worship Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Govinda. Thus, his worship of Narasiṁha was a teaching in itself. This principle is clearly explained by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in five prayers found in his Navadvīpa Bhāva Taraṅga (see below). In fact, it was Guru Mahāraja who first popularised these five prayers to Narasiṁha when he wrote his article ‘The Worship of Lord Narasiṁha.’ Every day, we would chant them after pūjā during the ārati of Narasiṁha. These prayers eventually spread around to other missions.

There was another esoteric reason why our Guru Mahārāja worshiped Narasiṁha which was explained by him – Narasiṁha could have easily killed Hiraṇyakaśipu and protected Prahlāda without even taking the trouble of personally appearing. However, because Prahlāda had declared that the Lord resided everywhere, and Hiraṇyakaśipu challenged this, He appeared to prove that His devotees words are always true, and that Prahlāda’s philosophical statement concerning the Lord’s sarva-vyāpitvam (all-pervading nature) was also a fact. Therefore, Narasiṁha not only protects His devotees, but He also protects the siddhānta.

To further demonstrate the ontological supremacy of Girirāja Govardhana, on Guru Mahārāja’s altar, Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha always sat just below his govardhana-śilā.

Recently, I mentioned to my godbrother Kalki Prabhu that for the followers of our Guru Mahārāja, Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha is not just another Deity of Narasiṁha. This is our Guru Mahārāja’s personal Deity, whom he worshipped in his kuṭīra for twenty years. I would even venture to say that, in one sense, Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha holds an even more important position than the large Deity that Guru Mahārāja installed in his āśrama in South India. The large Deity in the āśrama was primarily for public darśana, but this Deity remained in Guru Mahārāja’s own private quarters and received his intimate daily service for two decades. Naturally, for many of Guru Mahārāja’s disciples, there is a particularly deep sense of his personal presence and affection connected with this Deity. There is a special potency there, and all of Guru Mahārāja’s disciples can receive His mercy.

Of course, not everyone sees the arcā-vigraha through the same lens. A mundane person may say, “Yes, I gave some silver to make that Deity,” as though Śrī Narasiṁha were simply a well-crafted metal object with some sentimental value attached to it. Such ‘devotion’ mixed with calculation and proprietorship was never praised by Prahlāda Mahārāja, who said, na sa bhṛtyaḥ sa vai vaṇik — “Such a person is not a servant of the Lord, but a merchant.” Devotees do not measure the Lord by weight, alloy, or market price. A Deity worshipped by a pure Vaiṣṇava is not regarded as a chunk of silver any more than a govardhana-śilā is regarded as a mere rock.

arcā-viṣṇor śilādhir guruṣu naramatir vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhi
viṣṇor vā vaiṣṇavānāṁ kali-mala-mathane pāda-tīrthe’mbu-buddhiḥ
siddhe tan nāma-mantre kali-kaluṣa hare śabda-sāmānya-buddhiḥ
śrīśe sarveśvareśa tad itara sama dhīr yasya vā nārakī saḥ

One who considers the Deity of Viṣṇu to be merely stone, who thinks the guru to be an ordinary man, who gauges a Vaiṣṇava according to the community he was born in, who regards the caraṇāmṛta of Viṣṇu or the Vaiṣṇavas (which removes the contamination of the age of Kali) to be ordinary water, who considers the perfect mantra of Bhagavān (which destroys the pollution of Kali-yuga) to be an ordinary sound, who thinks that the form of Śrīpati (the Lord of Lakṣmī), the Supreme Controller, and the Devas are equal – such a person is a resident of the hellish regions! (Padma Purāṇa)

Ultimately, the Supreme is perceived according to one’s realisation (ye yathā māṁ prapadyante…). One person sees a piece of silver; another sees the worshippable Lord who accepted twenty years of loving service from a venerable Vaiṣṇava. External involvement in a mission, long years of association with the guru, or even apparent service do not necessarily awaken transcendental vision. Without genuine spiritual culture, true humility, and deep guru–śraddhā, one may remain materially calculated even while standing in close proximity to divinity.

We pray that by the mercy of Śrīla Guru Mahārāja and Śrī Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha, our own vision gradually deepens from the superficial to the substantial, from mundanity to transcendence. May we always remember Śrī Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha in the proper spirit of service and devotion, just as Guru Mahārāja did, and may even a particle of his worshipful mood awaken within our hearts.

Jaya Śrīla Guru Mahārāja!
Jaya Śrī Yoga-Vīra Narasiṁha!

Five Prayers to Śrī Narasiṁha
(From Śrī Navadvīpa Bhāva Taraṅga, 2.36-40)

e duṣṭa hṛdaye kāma ādi ripu chhaya
kuṭināṭi pratiṣṭhāśā śāṭhya sadā raya
hṛdaya-śodhana āra kṛṣṇera vāsanā
nṛsiṁha-caraṇe mora ei ta’ kāmanā

In this wicked heart reside the six enemies headed by lust,
As well as duplicity, the desire for prestige, and deceit, which always remain there.
My only desire at the feet of Nṛsiṁha
Is the purification of my heart and longing for Kṛṣṇa.

kāṅdiyā nṛsiṁha-pade māgiba kakhana
nirāpade navadvīpe yugala-bhajana
bhaya bhaya pāya yāṅra darśane se hari
prasanna ha-ibe kabe more dayā kari’

When shall I weep at the feet of Nṛsiṁha
And beg to worship the Divine Couple in Navadvīpa without hindrance?
He whose very sight causes fear itself to become afraid –
When will that Lord Hari become pleased and bestow His mercy upon me?

yadyapi bhīṣaṇa mūrti duṣṭa jīva prati
prahlādādi kṛṣṇa-bhakta-jane bhadra ati
kabe vā prasanna haye sakṛpa-vacane
nirbhaya karibe ei mūḍha akiñcane

Although His form is terrifying for wicked jīvas,
He is exceedingly gentle to devotees of Kṛṣṇa such as Prahlāda.
When will He become pleased and, with words full of mercy,
Make this foolish beggar fearless?

svachhande vaisa he vatsa śrī-gaurāṅga-dhāme
yugala-bhajana ha-u, rati hau nāme
mama bhakta-kṛpā-bale vighna yābe dūra
śuddha citte bhaja rādhā-kṛṣṇa rasa-pūra

“Live happily, my child, in the abode of Śrī Gaurāṅga.
May worship of the Divine Couple awaken within you, and may you develop attachment to the Holy Name.
By the power of My mercy upon the devotees, obstacles go far away.
With a purified heart, worship Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, who are a reservoir of rasa.”

ei bali’ kabe mora mastaka-upara
svīya śrī-caraṇa harṣe dharibe īśvara
amani yugala-preme sāttvika vikāre
dharāya luṭiba āmi śrī-nṛsiṁha-dvāre

Saying this, when will He joyfully place
His own divine feet upon my head?
Then, overwhelmed with ecstatic transformations born of prema for the Divine Couple,
I shall roll upon the ground at the doorway of Śrī Nṛsiṁha

About the Author: Swami Bhaktivijñāna Giri

Swami B.V. Giri is a senior disciple of Swami B.G. Narasiṅgha Mahārāja. Receiving dīkṣā and sannyāsa initiation in the year 2000, he has been the main editor, translator and researcher for many books and articles written by Swami B.G. Narasiṅgha and many that he's authored himself. He is currently residing in Vṛṇdavana where he is engaged translating and publishing articles and books of our acāryās.