Vishnu Puranam - 05 - Narasimha Avataram

Hiranyaksha's brother Hiranyakashipu was a great demon emperor who dominated the Earth. He performed great penance to Lord Brahma. After centuries of penance, Brahma finally appeared in front of Hiranyakashipu and asked told him that he had appeared to grant him a boon for the penance that Hiranyakashipu had performed. Hiranyakashipu asked for immortality. Brahma said it is against the law of nature and that it was not in his power to grant this boon and asked him to rethink what he desired. Hiranyakashipu thought for a while and asked for a blessing that would be equivalent to immortality. He asked that he shouldn't be killed by man nor animal, not be killed inside the house nor outside, not be killed at day nor at night, not be killed in space nor on the surface of the Earth. To top everything, Hiranyakashipu asked not to be killed by anything created by Lord Brahma. Brahma granted this and disappeared. Soon Hiranyakashipu became a tyrant and became a ruthless king. He soon had a son by the name Prahalada. Prahalada was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu. Hiranyakashipu considered Lord Vishnu as his mortal enemy, as he had incarnated himself to kill his brother Hiranyaksha. When Prahalada was in his mother's womb, Sage Narada had narrated tales of the Lord to his mother. As the mother heard the stories, so did the fetus. When Prahalada was admitted to Gurukulam, he changed the views of all his teachers and all the students to advised them to praise the Lord instead of honoring his father. When Hiranyakashipu came to know of the events that were taking place in the Gurukulam, he took measures to try and kill his son. He wanted to get him trampled by an elephant, feed him poison, imprison him without food, throw him into a ravaging flame. None of his methods produced the results that he wanted. He then brings Prahalada to his royal court. He asked him how he was surviving all the deadly situations. He said the Lord was protecting him. He also said that the Lord is within everyone, including his father. Hiranyakashipu then drew his mace and pointed out to a pillar and asked him if his Lord was present in that particular pillar. When Prahalada said yes, Hiranyakashipu smashed the pillar, and from that pillar, the Lord emerged in the form of a man-lion. The incarnation had the face of a lion and the body of a man. The Lord's rage knew no bounds. He dragged Hiranyakashipu to the doorstep and sat on the separating junction, which is neither inside nor outside the home. The Lord placed Hiranyakashipu on his lap, which was neither in space nor on Earth. Then the Lord used his nails at a time of sunset, which was neither day nor night and dug into the stomach of Hiranyakashipu, ripping out his intestines and put an end to the tyrant.

After the Lord calmed down, he offered the boy a boon saying the boy's father had not shown him any love. Prahalada told the Lord that his father had tried to hurt him in many different ways, and that had angered the Lord. The boy asks the Lord to forgive all the sins committed by his father as they were committed in ignorance. The Lord was impressed by the boy's ask and told the boy to ask for a second boon. The boy then said, when the Lord first offered to give a blessing to him, he asked for something straight away without putting any thought into it. The boy then asks the Lord that he be given the state of mind wherein he would not find himself in a position ever to require a boon from anyone, including the Lord Himself. When the Lord heard the boy's ask, He could not hold back any emotion and immediately hugged the boy and told him that many in this world choose to be named after Him. But from that moment on, He would take the name of Prahalada-Varadhan to be remembered by the name of his devotee. The Lord then gave the boy a final boon saying He would not kill anyone in his lineage as it would be an insult to the devotion showed by the boy.