Five Narsimha Darshans in Arunachala!

Arunachala Hill is the repository of all deities.

It is Shiva as well as Vishnu. It is Shakthi, Vinayaka, Murugan and also representative of billions of deities imagined and unknown.

In this post I want to showcase the five powerful darshans of Lord Narasimha which are seen in the Hill. These darshans are original inspirations an are not borrowed from any source.

The five Narasimhas are associated with another powerful hill called Yadagiri Gutta in Andhra Pradesh.




"In Tretayugam, there lived a sage by the name of Yadarishi, son of the great sage Rishyasrunga and Santa Devi who did penance inside a cave with the blessings of Anjaneya (Hanuman) on this hill between Bhongir (Bhuvanagiri) and Raigiri (Now in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh, India). Pleased with his deep devotion, Lord Narasimha, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu appeared before him in five different forms as Jwala, Yogananda, Gandabherunda, Ugra and Lakshminarasimha. They later manifested themselves into finely sculpted forms that later came to be worshiped as Pancha Narasimha Kshetram."

wiki

The First is the Jwala Narasimha. The Fire Narasimha.

This is a difficult darshan to elaborate as Aruna Hill to is volcanic in origin hence the entire Hill qualifies as a darshan of Jwala Narasimha.

There is a powerful temple in Ahobilam dedicated to Jwala Narasimha.



Jwala Narasimha



The second is the Yoga Narasimha. The Narasimha who delights in Yoga.

There is a very famous temple dedicated to Yoga Narasimha in Melkhote, Karnataka



Yoga Narasimha



The south face of the Hill is representative of Yoga and hence a darshan of the Hill's south face is equivalent to Yoga Narasimha.



The Ugra Narasimha is eloborated in the post of the Five faced Hanuman.

This is the angry Narasimha darshan.



Next is the powerful Gandabherunda Narasimha...a mythological bird representing Vishnu's incarnation with two heads of a bird.





The last is the most calm Narasimha...Laxmi Narasimha....this darshan also qualifies as Narasimha Prahalad darshan with the Great Northern Spur representing Prahlad and Goddess Laxmi alternatively.



Lakshmi Narasimha Darshan