Where is your God? Ask him to come before me now or else I won’t believe that he exists? Many agnostics frequently put forth such logic to deny God’s existence. This phenomenon isn’t new, God’s authority has been challenged since the dawn of creation. The quest for superiority, immortality and desire to usurp the position of the Lord has been going on since ages. Srimad Bhagavatam tells us about one such person called Hiranyakashipu  who had great dislike for the Lord. Although Hiranyakashipu  was killed by the Lord long back but still his philosophy is prevalent today. Still there are those who continuously deny the concept of God, want to defeat God and want to become God.

Hiranyakashipu had lots of grievances against the Lord because God did not do things as per his likings and so he started considering Lord to be his enemy. 

Hatred for the Supreme Lord:  Hiranyakashipu’s heart was filled with hatred for the Supreme Lord because he believed that God had done great injustice by killing his brother. He conveniently discarded the fact that his brother Hiranyaksha was evil minded and his actions had caused lots of miseries to all the living entities. Hiranyakashipu declared for the delight of all God haters that he will fight with Vishnu and sever his head and will then offer the blood of Vishnu to his brother.

Hatred for the devotees who had love for the Supreme Lord: Hiranyakashipu liked all the exemplary qualities of his son Prahlad but one and that was his genuine love for Lord Vishnu. By force he had stopped the worship of Vishnu and had decalred that he should be worshipped as the Supreme God instead of Vishnu. But here was his own son who refused to toe his line and fearlessly said that a mortal being like him can never take the position of God.

Creating an atmosphere wherein the young minds are taught to become agnostic and hate the Lord: He did not allow anyone to practice devotional life. Those who dared were punished and those who followed were rewarded. The teachers appointed by him in the educational institutions were instructed to teach atheism to the students. The pupils in the school were not allowed to speak, discuss or know about God. Those tried were severely reprimanded and ridiculed.

One of the important characteristics of a demon is that not just he dislike God but he want all to dislike God and not just he practice atheism but he wants all to practice atheism. The way it was done during Hiranyakashipu’s reign today also we find in educational institution spiritual subject matters are not taught and the young minds are not given an opportunity to know and understand about God. In fact those who dare to try are often discouraged.

Hiranyakashipu ’s effort to belittle the position of God did not materialze. While torturing and trying to kill his own son, Prahlad, he mockingly asked where is your Lord, will he come to save you now and is he in this pillar? Speaking thus he hit the column hard and the omnipresent Lord appeared in the most ferocious form of Narshimhadeva and ripped apart the devil’s ego.

The atheists similarly laugh at those who believe in God and ask where is your Lord? God may not appear in front of them but he surely comes as death to devour such non believers one day. Lord being omnipresent is present everywhere, he manifests himself as per his will. “I am the Supersoul, O Arjuna, seated in the hearts of all living entities. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings.” Bhagavad Gita 10.20. The devotee of the Lord knows this and so he sees God everywhere and does not fear the non believers no matter how much powerful they are. Although the haters of God sometimes appear to have an upper hand over the genuine lover of the God but the devotees always emerge victorious. And this has been happening since time immemorial.

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(Purushottam Nitai Das is a member of congregation at ISKCON Kolkata. Check his blog http://krishnamagic.blogspot.in/)