Development of Hinduism

SR No.: 007303
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: M M Ninan
Publisher: M M Ninan
Total Pages: 582
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

Page 336

14. THE CONCEPT OF AVATARS
Asuras. This enraged Hiranyakasyapa very much. He tried in many ways to kill Prahlada. But Prahlada always escaped. Enraged, once he asked Prahlad to show him the Lord Vishnu.. Prahlada said, "He is everywhere". Enraged, Hiranyakasyapa knocked down a pillar, and asked if his Lord was present there. Lord Vishnu then emerged as a half lion, half man from the pillar which was neither inside the house nor outside, and the time was evening, neither night nor day. He killed Hiranyakasyapa.
Vajrayana or "Tibetan" Buddhism also has a Man-lion form of buddha. Simhamukha has the head of a lion. She is a wrathful manifestation of (Secret knowledge) Guhyajnana Dakini, who, according to the Nyingmapa tradition, was the principal Dakini teacher of Padmasambhava in the country of Uddiyana. Therefore, although Simhamukha is a Dakini in her aspect, she functions as a Yidam or meditation deity and her special functions are averting and repulsing (bzlog-pa) psychic attacks. Very often the Dakinis and the Matrikas were the old pre-Buddhist pagan goddesses of the earth and sky. Among the eight Tantra sections (sgrub-pa bka' brgyad) transmitted to Tibet in the 8th century by Padmasambhava, wherein Simhamukha, is the chief divine figure, very much assumes the role of the Hindu goddess Durga. Though this is an 8th C development, the tradition of the wrathful god in the form of lion-man is seen common with the Nara-Simha Avatara.
(http://www.vajranatha.com/teaching/Simhamukha.htm)
Lion-Headed Dakini
Out of the immensity of the dharmadhatu, the mother of all the Buddhas You arise as chief of all the innumerable Dakinis,
With your magical power and shakti pulverising obstructing spirits: Homage to the Dakini Senge Dongma.
Killing Hiranykashyapu by incarnating as Narasihma is one of Vishnu's major exploits. In Indian tradition of festivity this episode is related with Holi, India's one of four most important festivals and
332