Text 34
tataḥ sabhāyām upaviṣṭam uttame
nṛpāsane sambhṛta-tejasaṁ vibhum
alakṣita-dvairatham atyamarṣaṇaṁ
pracaṇḍa-vaktraṁ na babhāja kaścana
tataḥ — thereafter; sabhāyām — in the assembly house; upaviṣṭam — seated; uttame — on the best; nṛpa-āsane — throne (upon which King Hiraṇyakaśipu used to sit); sambhṛta-tejasam — in full effulgence; vibhum — the Supreme Lord; alakṣita-dvairatham — whose challenger or enemy was not seen; ati — very much; amarṣaṇam — fearsome (due to His anger); pracaṇḍa — terrible; vaktram — face; na — not; babhāja — worshiped; kaścana — anyone.
Manifesting a full effulgence and a fearsome countenance, Lord Nṛsiṁha, being very angry and finding no contestant to face His power and opulence, then sat down in the assembly hall on the excellent throne of the king. Because of fear and obedience, no one could come forward to serve the Lord directly.
When the Lord sat on the throne of Hiraṇyakaśipu, there was no one to protest; no enemy came forward on behalf of Hiraṇyakaśipu to fight with the Lord. This means that His supremacy was immediately accepted by the demons. Another point is that although Hiraṇyakaśipu treated the Lord as his bitterest enemy, he was the Lord’s faithful servant in Vaikuṇṭha, and therefore the Lord had no hesitation in sitting on the throne that Hiraṇyakaśipu had so laboriously created. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura remarks in this connection that sometimes, with great care and attention, great saintly persons and ṛṣis offer the Lord valuable seats dedicated with Vedic mantras and tantras, but still the Lord does not sit upon those thrones. Hiraṇyakaśipu, however, had formerly been Jaya, the doorkeeper at the Vaikuṇṭha gate, and although he had fallen because of the curse of the brāhmaṇas and had gotten the nature of a demon, and although he had never offered anything to the Lord as Hiraṇyakaśipu, the Lord is so affectionate to His devotee and servant that He nonetheless took pleasure in sitting on the throne that Hiraṇyakaśipu had created. In this regard it is to be understood that a devotee is fortunate in any condition of his life.