Varada Yoga Bhoga Narasimha Swamy Temple

Varada Yoga Bhoga Narasimha Swamy Temple-Shanthi Grama

The Hoysala period Varada Yoga Bhoga Narasimha Temple is located on the shore of the village lake Shantigrama near Hassan- Karnataka.

Sri Varada Yoga Bhoga Narasimha Swamy is the most popular temple among pilgrims.Again a simple temple in terms of the plan and carving, it was built by Acala Prakasa Muni in the 12th century. The idol dates back to the Chola period and depicts Narasimha in a meditative posture, hence the name Yoga Narasimha. The ring of nine forms of Narasimha (Nava Narasimha) incorporated in the ceiling of the portico of the temple is a rare sculptural work.

Here lord Narasimha the 4th avatar of Vishnu is seated in his yogic form – lion headed man with chakra, mace, nails & jaws.Lord Vishnu took this form on Himvat mountain Harivamsa to vanquish Hiranyakashipu who had become the all mighty & powerful with a grant of a wish by Lord Brahma and turned evil, arrogant and unreasonable. Even the 33 crore Hindu God’s were powerless in front of him. Narasimha avatar conceived in such a way that it invalidated the boon of Lord Brahma. As a result, Narasimha killed Hiranyakashipu at dust at the threshold of his house, making him lie on his lap and executing him with his claws.

This temple is powerful because of the ritualistic poojas taking place from the past 1200 years. Highest level of discipline & attention needs to be followed when worshipping Lord Narasimha. Here Lord Narasimha is with Lakshmi with shanka (conch) is in his right hand otherwise it’s usually in the left, chakra (wheel) is in the left.