It was a blissful week. The young man met some of his friends after a long gap of 25 years. Time changes a lot of external appearances but not the friendships. It was great to relive some old moments again. Very rarely does time fly back.

While returning from the meet, he heard a beautiful song from old telugu movie Bhakta Prahlada, his all-time favorite aired at one of the temples. His thoughts delved into the interesting story of Prahlada from Srimad Bhagavatam, a Hindu scripture. While not as popular as Ramayana and Mahabharatha, this story of Prahlada summarized a beautiful vedantic thought and answered some fundamental questions about the nature and form of God for the young man.

Response of Prahlada on the whereabouts of God, during the climax of the drama that unfolds between him and his father(Hiranyakashipu) essentially summarizes the vedantic thought.

Indugaladandu ledani
sandehamu valadu |
chakri sarvopagathundu,
endendu vedaki choosina
anadande galadu ||

God has no specific place or form. He is omnipresent, all-pervading. He is residing even in the very soul that is questioning his existence. All it needs is for us to look for the God within and surrounding us in all forms and realize its omnipresence.

When someone internalize the fact that God has no specific form, he will also have no issue with its logical corollary that all forms of God(Saguna Brahman) also represent the same formless/attributeless God(Nirguna Brahman) he is familiar with.

Yadbhavam tadbhavathih.

It is interesting to notice that at the first sight of lord Narasimha, both Prahlada and Hiranyakashipu exclaim – “so you are God. this is how you look”. Obviously both of them have also not seen God before that moment in physical form. God only manifested in the form, shape and place that was the most appropriate as in the minds of the caller.

In case of Lord Narasimha, it was Hiranyakashipu who was interested to see him in a physical form hence materialized in a form that befits his needs. Prahlada was always in a state of bliss and in unison with his formless and attributeless omnipresent God. He was not the one who wanted to see the God in the physical form but he also had no issues with the manifestation of God as Lord Narasimha. He rather was enormously happy since he saw no difference between the God in his thoughts and the Narasimha in physical form standing in front of him.

The young man was a blessed soul. It was an eventful week for the young man. He met a few of his friends after a gap of 25 years, and now he also met the inner dweller. He got up from his thoughts with a smile on his lips and contented in mind.