Diti’s son Hiranyaksh tried to kidnap Mother Earth and submerge her in darkness of evil. It was an ambitious plan. He almost succeeded too! But Lord Vishnu found a loophole in the boon Brahma Ji had given him. He killed Hiranyaksh as a Varaha and saved Dharma. His brother Hiranyakashyap missed him. Mother Diti had raised them with one goal in mind – destroy the Devatas. Now that Hiranyaksh had failed, Hiranyakashyap swore to destroy the Devatas. He hated Vishnu like no one had hated anyone before. Devatas were weak on their own. Daitya had defeated them many times. It was Vishnu who kept helping Devatas with his tricks and clever plans. Hiranyakashyap knew the only way to defeat Devatas was to defeat Vishnu. To do so he took leave of his beautiful wife, his mother, Guru and friends. He left the kingdom in care of his ministers and went to the forest. Once there he stood on a mountain peak on one leg and meditated on Lord Brahma. Years passed and his meditation became intense. Indra knew he could not break Hiranyakashyap’s meditation. He knew the Asura would get a boon from Lord Brahma. The only thing Indra could do was to destroy Hiranyakshyap’s army. While Hiranyakashyap meditated Indra attacked his kingdom. The Daitya, terrified in absence of their king ran when the Devatas attacked. Indra’s army killed many Daitya. They went through each building to look for hiding Daitya. As they searched, they found Queen Kayadu – Hiranyakashyap’s wife. King Indra captured her and flew with her to his kingdom. On the way he met Narad Muni. Narad Muni said “Narayan! Narayan! O King Indra! It is wrong to capture another man’s wife and take her to your house! You as the King of Devatas should know that. This is shameful O King. Release her.” Indra tried to explain himself. He said, “O Great Muni (sage) I have not captured Queen Kayadu to keep her in my house. She is pregnant and will soon give birth to Hiranyakashyap’s son. I will kill that child as soon as it’s born. If I let him grow up he will be more evil than his father!” Narad Muni was too shocked to say anything for a moment. Then he exclaimed “Kill the infant child! How can you decide that he will be evil? Are you All Knowing Indra? Does the child have no Free Will? No! This is wrong. You cannot decide who the child will be and what path he will take. He must take birth, live his life and make his choices.” King Indra realized his mistake and apologized to Queen Kayadu and Narad Muni. Narad Muni then offered to look after the Queen while her husband meditated in the forest. Kayadu agreed and left with him. At the ashram, air rang with Narad Muni’s chants about Lord Vishnu’s greatness. He discussed the scriptures with Kayadu and told her stories of Lord Vishnu. Time passed and soon, the baby was born. Narad Muni named him Prahlad. As Prahlad grew, Narad Muni became his teacher. Meanwhile, Hiranyakashyap’s meditation had pleased Lord Brahma. He appeared before him and said “I am pleased Hiranyakashyap. Ask for a boon.”
Hiranyakashyap asked for immortality but Lord Brahma refused. He said “All who are born in this world must die. Ask for something else Hiranyakashyap”. Hiranyakashyap had thought about this a lot. He wanted to trick Brahma into making him immortal. Thus, he asked for this boon- “Lord, grant me a boon that no Human, beast, Danav or Devata can kill me. I will not die when it’s day. I will not die when it’s night. I will not die inside. I will not die outside. I will not die with weapons. I will not die without weapons. I will not die in the sky. I will not die on the Earth.” Lord Brahma smiled and said “So be it” and disappeared. Hiranyakashyap laughed out loud and roared. He then left for his kingdom. There he realized how Indra had attacked his kingdom in his absence. He also found out that his wife and son were at Narad Muni’s ashram. He went to the ashram, thanked Narad Muni and brought his wife and son back home. He was thankful to Narad Muni but unhappy that his son had spent so much time with him. Hiranyakashyap could not wait to attack the Devatas. He built a new army. Soon he attacked all kingdoms in the three worlds and defeated everyone. He threw Indra out of the Heavens and declared himself the King. He made a rule that no one could worship anyone other than him. If his soldiers found someone doing Vishnu Pooja they would punish that person. Good people everywhere lived in fear. New schools opened where children learnt to worship only Hiranyakashyap. He had completed his goal of defeating Devatas. Diti was proud of him. There was only one thing that worried him – his son. Prahlad had spent time with Lord Vishnu’s greatest devotee Narad Muni. It was sure to have an effect on the child. In order to test his theory he called Prahlad and asked him: “Tell me Son, who is the greatest and strongest in this world?” Prahlad replied “Lord Vishnu”. Hiranyakashyap controlled his anger. He called the kingdom’s best teacher to his palace. He told the teacher “Vishnu worshippers have filled my son’s mind with nonsense. Take him to school and teach him to worship only me.” Prahlad said goodbye to his parents and left with the teacher. At the school he lived with many other students. The teachers paid special attention to him because he was the Prince. After some time Hiranyakashyap called for his son. He asked Prahlad: “Tell me son, what have you learnt? Who is the greatest being in the world? Once again Prahlad replied “The greatest and strongest being in the world is Lord Vishnu.” Hiranyakashyap was furious. The teacher apologized many times and promised that he would try harder to teach Prahlad. At the school situation did not improve. Prahlad started talking to his friends about how Lord Vishnu was the only true lord. This scared the teachers and they informed the King. Hiranyakashyap called Prahlad to the court and gave him two choices-
“Worship only me and live or be loyal to Vishnu and die”.
Prahlad bowed his head and replied “Father I cannot stop loving Vishnu.” Hiranyakashyap roared with rage. He ordered the soldiers to throw Prahlad from a mountain top. The soldiers followed the order and threw him from the highest peak to die. They went into the valley to collect Prahlad’s dead body. Instead of a dead body they found a smiling Prahlad sitting on a bunch of twigs meditating upon Lord Vishnu. Next, they threw Prahlad into a pit full of angry poisonous snakes. The snakes bit Prahlad and yet no harm came to him. The soldiers were beginning to get scared of him. They then asked him to sit under a tree and let a herd of drunk elephants loose on him. The elephants were about to step on Prahlad but stopped and sat near his feet. Soldiers did not know what to do and went to Hiranyakashyap. King Hiranyakashyap realized that Prahlad was being helped and it wouldn’t be easy to kill him. Thus, he called his sister Holika. Holika had received a boon from Lord Agni (Fire) that he would not burn her. She could sit in a fire and not burn. Brother and sister together came up with a plan. Holika took Prahlad in her lap and entered a fire. The result shocked everyone. She died in the fire and Prahlad walked out of it singing praises of Lord Vishnu. Hiranyakashyap felt he would go mad with anger. Vishnu had killed his brother Hiranyaksh. Now somehow he had used Prahlad his son to kill his sister and challenge his authority! He called Prahlad to his court and asked “How have you survived? What magic are you using? Tell me!” Prahlad joined his hands, bowed his head and replied “Father, I do not know any magic. Lord Vishnu’s love for me protects me. He is everywhere and in everything and thus always there to help me.” Hiranyakashyap’s eyes became red with anger. His breath became faster. His body became stiff. All the Daityas in the court shook with fear to see their king so angry. He walked towards his son, raised his sword and asked
“Is Vishnu here?”
“Yes father” replied Prahlad.
Where is he? Roared Hiranyakashyap
“He is in everyone and everything Father. He is inside you, inside me, inside every stone of this palace” A calm Prahlad replied.
“Is he in this pillar?” Hiranyakashyap asked in a dangerous voice.
“Yes father” said brave Prahlad.
“Okay then. I will break this pillar and if the coward Vishnu does not come out of the pillar, I will cut your head off with my sword.” Roared Hiranyakashyap then kicked the pillar.
A loud boom noise and a roar filled the room. When the dust from the pillar settled they saw a strange scary beast standing near the pillar. Many Daityas fainted from fear. Others ran away. It was Narsimha, half man and half lion. He pounced on Hiranyakashyap and picked up the Great Daitya as if he was a rabbit. Narsimha dragged him to the door of the court hall. Now they were neither inside nor outside. He sat on a bench and placed Hiranyakashyap in his lap. Now the Daitya was neither in the sky nor on the Earth. Dusk arrived so that it was neither day nor night. Finally, he killed him with his nails and teeth which are not considered weapons. Hiranyakashyap’s intelligence and power did not save him from Lord Vishnu when he tried to kill Brave Devotee Prahlad.
