Hiranyakashibu was the king of the Daityas. The Daityas, though born of the same parentage as the Devas or god, were always at war with the latter.Sometmes they waxed and drove all the Devas from the Heaven, and seized the throne of the god and ruled for a time. Then the Devas prayed to Vishnu, the omnipotent lord of the universe, and He helped them out of their difficulty. The Daityas were driven out, and once more the god reigned.
Hiranyakashibu had won the boom from Brahma, the God of Creation that he will never be killed by a man or animal or any existing creature, on heaven or earth, in day or night and inside or outside of the house. Now he conquered the Devas and himself on the throne of heaven.
He declared himself to be the god of three worlds- the middle world inhabited by men and animal; the heaven inherited by Devas and the nether world, inhabited by the Daityas. He proclaimed that there was no other God but himself, and strictly enjoined that the Omnipotent Vishnu should have no worship offered to Him anywhere.
Hiranyakashibu had a son called Prahlada. He showed his infancy to Vishnu. The king of Daityas, fearing that the evil he wanted to drive away from the world would crop up in his own family.
He made over his son two teachers called Shanda and Amarka, who were very stern disciplinarians, with strict injunctions that Prahlada was never to even hear the name Vishnu mentioned. But there is no use.
To clear themselves, the teachers told the terrible fact to the King that his son was not only worshipping Vishnu himself, but also spoiling all the other children by them to worship Vishnu.
The monarch became very much enraged when heard this and call the boy in his prescence.He tried by gentle persuasions to dissuade Prahlada from the worship of Vishnu and taught him that he was only God to worship. But it was no purpose. The child declared again and again that the Omnipresent Vishnu, Lord of the Universe, was the only being to be worshipped-for even he, the king, held his throne only so long as it pleased Vishnu.
The rage of the King no bound, and he ordered the boy to be immediately killed. So the Daityas stuck him with pointed weapons; but Prahladha’s mind was so intent upon Vishnu that he felt no pain from them.
When his father, the king, saw that it was so, he became frightened but, roused to the worst passion of Daitya, contrived various diabolical means to kill the boy. He ordered him to be trampled underfoot by an elephant. The enraged elephant could not crush the body any more than he could crush a block of iron.
Then the king ordered the boy to be thrown over a precipice, and this order too was duly carried out; but, as Vishnu resided in the heart of Prahlada, he came down upon the earth as gently as a flower drops upon the grass. Poison, fire, starvation, throwing into a well, enchantments and other measures were then tried on the child one after another, but no purpose.
When the king found to his horror that all mortal means of getting rid of the boy who was perfectly devoted to his enemy, the God Vishnu, were powerless, he was at a loss to know what to do. The King again brought before him and tried to persuade him to listen to his advice, but Prahlada made the same reply.
He put him again under the charge of the teachers, Shanda and Amarka. But those teachings did not appeal to Prahlada and he spent time in instructing his schoolmates in the path of devotion to the Lord Vishnu.
When his father came to hear about it, he again become furious with rage, and calling the boy to him, and threatened to kill him, and abused Vishnu in the worst language. But Prahlada still insisted that Vishnu was the Lord of the universe, the Beginning less, the Endless, the Omnipotent and the Omnipresent, and as such, he alone was to be worshipped.
The king roared with anger and said: “You evil one, if your Vishnu is God omnipresent, why did he not reside in that pillar? “
Prahlada humbly submitted that He did do so. “If so, “cried the king, “let him defend me; I will kill him with this sword.” Thus saying the king rushed at him with sword in hand, and dealt terrible blow at the pillar.
Instantly a thundering voice was heared, and lo and behold, there issued forth from the pillar Vishnu in His awful Nirsimha form- half lion, half man! Panic- stricken, the Daityas ran away in all direction.
Man-Lion, neither man nor God nor animal, and seizing the terrified Hiranyakashibu tore his rectum and pulled out his entrails with its claws. Thus he died without any weapon also being used against him. All his boons proved broken reeds in the end.
The God, in Nirsimha form consoled the weeping Prahlada and his mother. He blessed Prahlada and disappeared. Then the Gods headed by Brahma installed Prahlada on the throne of the Daityas.
THE STORY OF NIRSIMHA – HALF LINE HALF MAN
