Lord Vishnu is known to have taken ten incarnations to stop the reign of evil on this earth and bring peace and prosperity everywhere. Narasimha avatar is considered to be Lord Vishnu’s fourth avatar, and he had taken the form of a half-man half-lion to protect his devotee Prahalad.
It is said, that during the Satya Yuga, Sage Kashyap and his wife Diti had two sons- Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakshipu. Both were known to cause destruction and chaos everywhere, and troubled the humans and devas alike. The gods, being fed up with their atrocities, prayed to Lord Vishnu to come up with a solution to stop the brothers.
Lord Vishnu heard his devotees’ prayer and took the form of a giant boar, known as his Varaha avatar to kill Hiranyaksha. This is considered to be Lord Vishnu’s third incarnation. Hiranyaksha hid the earth, personified as Bhudevi, in the deep ocean. Lord Vishnu’s Varaha avatar finally managed to find the location of the earth, and Hiranyaksha along with it.
The Fight Between Varaha Avatar and Hiranyaksha
The boar and Hiranyaksha had an intense fight, one that shook the whole world. Finally the boar was able to mow down Hiranyaksha with his tusks, and carried the earth on his tusks and placed her in her rightful position in the universe, and restored balance in the world.
This brought a lot of relief to the gods and humans alike, but their happiness was short-lived as Hiranyaksha’s brother Hiranyakshipu swore revenge on Lord Vishnu for killing his brother and caused immeasurable destruction in the world, scaring everyone around.
He led his army of asuras to destroy everything good in the world, but met with the might of the devas. He came to know that the devas were being helped by Lord Vishnu, and he promised to be the reason for the end of Lord Vishnu.
He decided to go deep into the jungles and pray to Lord Brahma for the boon of immortality. He soon forgot about all his worldly desires and senses, and was lost in his meditation.
Lord Indra Destroys Hiranyakshipu’s Army
Meanwhile, Lord Indra realized that the asuras were not being led by Hiranyakshipu. He thought this was the perfect opportunity to attack the asuras as they were without the leader, and it would be easier to win the war between the devas and asuras. So, he attacked the asuras with full force, and as expected, was able to kill most of them and win the war.
He destroyed the whole of Hiranyaskhipu’s capital city in the process, and decided to march on to his palace. Over there, he found Hiranyakshipu’s wife Kayadhu. He thought of taking her as a prisoner and use her as a hostage if Hiranyakshipu ever decided to retaliate.
Right at that moment, Narada Muni arrived and stopped Lord Indra from doing so. He angrily asked Indra why he was forcibly taking the woman as a prisoner. Indra told him that he was going to use her as a hostage just in case Hiranyakshipu decided to attack him again. Hearing this, Narada Muni asked him to release the woman right at that very instance, as she had no role to play in the war between the asuras and the devas. She was just an innocent and helpless woman.
Indra had no other option but to let her go. After he released her, Narad asked her if she was okay, and she told him that she was a bit shaken and shocked, but otherwise she was fine. She also told him that she was pregnant, and she wanted to stay with Narad and serve him just like his daughter, as she had no other place to go.
Narad accepted to this and Kayadhu started living in Narad’s hut. Narad used to tell her stories about Lord Vishnu, and she developed a sense of attachment for Lord Vishnu, after listening to his stories. Her unborn baby also used to listen to the stories, and he would go on to become one of the biggest devotees of Lord Vishnu.
Meanwhile, the heat generated from Hiranyakshipu’s penance was so intense and powerful that the devas could feel it in the heaven. Finally they weren’t able to bear the heat anymore and went to Lord Brahma and requested him to heed to the prayers of Hiranyakshipu.
Brahma Gives Boon to Hiranyakshipu
Brahma was really pleased with Hiranyakshipu’s devotion, and granted him any boon that he wished for. Hiranyakshipu told him that he wanted to be immortal. Brahma told him that such a wish wasn’t possible, as it would distort the order of balance of life. So, after a lot of thinking, Hiranyakshipu finally came up with a plan.
He asked Lord Brahma to grant him a boon that would allow no man, god or animal created by Brahma to kill him. Also, nobody could kill him at day or night, and no one could kill him in heaven or on earth. Also, no can could kill him with a weapon, or kill him either inside or outside his house.
After a lot of thinking, he finally decided to grant the boon to him. Overjoyed, he went back to his kingdom. Over there, he was really saddened to see the condition of his kingdom. He decided to take revenge on Indra for being the cause of all this. He fought with the devas all alone and defeated them, and banished them from Devaloka. Then he became the ruler of the heavens.
Prahlad, a True Devotee of Lord Vishnu
He found his wife and son on earth and brought them back to his kingdom. Unlike the evil and vile Hiranyakshipu, Prahlad, his son, was a big devotee of Lord Vishnu and prayed to him all the time. Once while talking to Prahlad, Hiranyakshipu was surprised to hear him sing the praises of Lord Vishnu. Furious, he punished Prahlad’s teacher and asked him to keep an eye on him.
With time, Hiranyakshipu got more and more furious at Prahlad for praying to Lord Vishnu. Finally he couldn’t take it anymore and asked his guards to kill Prahlad. The guards reluctantly agreed to kill him, but with each blow on Prahlad, their swords crumbled to pieces and Prahlad remained unharmed.
Hiranyakshipu asked for some poisonous snakes to bite Prahlad, but he still remained unharmed. He then let loose mad elephants at him, but the elephants did not attack him at all. He decided to call his sister Holika, and asked her to make him sit on her lap and burn him to his death. He thought that this plan would work at least, but it was Holika, who was immune to fire, who burnt down to ashes.
Now Hiranyakshipu was stumped. He was out of ideas and his anger had reached its peak. He dragged Prahlad and asked him if his Lord Vishnu was present in the room with them. Prahlad told him that the Lord was everywhere, and in frustration Hiranyakshipu mocked Prahlad and asked him if his Lord was present in a pillar next to them. Prahlad told him that he was. In rage, Hiranyakshipu kicked the pillar, and out came a ferocious being who was half man and half lion.
Lord Vishnu Incarnates as Narasimha Avatar
The creature screamed in a booming voice, that he was Narasimha, one among the ten avatars of Vishnu, who had come down to earth to kill Hiranyakshipu. He held Hiranyakshipu in a vice like grip and dragged him to the threshold of the door, which was neither outside nor inside his house. He placed him on his lap, which was neither sky nor the earth, and killed him with his claws at twilight, without using any weapons.
After killing out, the half lion half man gave out a loud roar, which scared away all the asuras in fright. No one dared to approach the beast, but Prahlad went up to him with utter devotion in his eyes and thanked him for saving his life. When asked about his father, Narasimha told him that Hiranyakshipu was actually Lord Vishnu’s gatekeeper Vijay who was cursed, and who needed to take three more births to go back to the heavens.
Prahlad was made the king of his father’s kingdom, and he ruled with utmost honesty and goodwill, which also changed the ways of the asuras.
Thus, Lord Vishnu had taken the incarnation as half lion half man to save both his devotees, Prahlad from the wrath of Hiranyakshipu, and he helped Vijay, his gatekeeper, to somewhat make progress in overcoming the curse.
