Narasimha Chaturdashi: Story of the Appearance of Lion Avatar

Narasimha Chaturdashi marks the day when Krishna appeared as Lord Narasimha to kill the demon Hiranyakashipu to prove the devotion of his great devotee Prahlad. Let’s reflect on the story of Lord Narasimha’s appearance.

The most powerful demon Hiranyakashipu had a son named Prahlad. Being born in the clan of demons, Hiranyakashipu expected Prahlad to learn demonic principles as the tradition in his family. But Prahlad while being in the womb had heard Krishna’s glories from Narad Muni. So, he only considered Narad Muni as his guru and accepted Krishna as the supreme personality of godhead.

Prahlad was one of the students of Shanda and Marka in the school of demons, who were sons of Shukracharya, the teacher of demons. One day Hiranyakashipu enquired Prahlad what did he learn in school. In response, Prahlad started narrating lord’s glories. Although Prahlad was speaking about the supreme truth, it upset Hiranyakashipu as he only considered himself to be the supreme personality of this universe. Even demigods were afraid of him and would tremble at his mere glance at them. But, here his own son was disobeying him and practicing devotional service of his enemy without any fear of his father. He felt that Prahlad was a disgrace to his family and ordered his men to kill Prahlad.

This point marked the beginning of the most difficult ordeals that the 5-year-old Prahlad had to face when his devotion was challenged. Hiranyakashipu’s men were born of demoniac blood and were devoted to fulfilling their master’s orders. They immediately picked up spears, arrows, and other weapons in their hands and started attacking Prahlad. The small and tender Prahlad was being attacked from all sides by these men with many weapons.

But, the spear or the arrow would touch his body and then fall to the ground. It appeared as if an invisible shield was protecting Prahlad. That invisible shield was none but Krishna who was protecting Prahlad from all sides and there wasn’t even a single scratch on his body.

In the Srimad Bhagwatam Canto 7, chapter 5 Shloka 41, Shukdev Goswami points this out in his commentary.

परे ब्रह्मण्यनिर्देश्ये भगवत्यखिलात्मनि ।
युक्तात्मन्यफला आसन्नपुण्यस्येव सत्क्रिया: ॥ ४१ ॥

This translates to “Even though a person who has no assets in pious activities performs some good deed, it will have no result. Thus the weapons of the demons had no tangible effects upon Prahlāda Mahārāja because he was a devotee undisturbed by material conditions and fully engaged in meditating upon and serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is unchangeable, who cannot be realized by the material senses, and who is the soul of the entire universe.”

After trying for a long time, Hiranyakashipu’s men approached him and told him about what had happened and how the weapons were failing in potency. Hiranyakashipu had other plans in place. Many elephants were employed from multiple directions making multiple attempts to crush Prahlad. The elephants went running towards Prahlad, but as they came close to him, they stopped and moved away from him as if they had seen a forest fire. This attempt was futile. Then, Hiranyakashipu trapped Prahlad in a room and used venomous snakes to bite and kill him. The result was the same. Hiranyakashipu then tried to use black magic on Prahlad. He called exorcists and tried to invoke ghosts in Prahlad’s body. But even that did not affect Prahlad. Because, during all these times, Prahlad would simply fold his hands and meditate on the lotus feet of Krishna. When all these attempts failed, Hiranyakashipu asked his men to throw Prahlad from a cliff of a mountain to kill him. While Prahlad was carried by the men towards the cliff, they used to ask Prahlad to reconsider his decision, give up the meditation of Krishna and accept his father’s supremacy. But Prahlad didn’t speak a word. His determination wasn’t disturbed by an inch. He had unflinching faith that the lord will protect him. He did not blame or complain. He could see Krishna as the doer of everything.

Many days passed. As all attempts were failing, Hiranyakashipu became anxious about this situation and was losing his effulgence. He started fearing that Prahlad might hold a grudge against him and try to kill him when he is grown up. Till this point, Hiranyakashipu employed others to kill his son. But now he was determined to kill Prahlad himself.

He enquired to Prahlad that when even the demigods are afraid of him, how is Prahlad so fearless, where is this strength coming from, who is giving him this strength that no attack has affected him? Prahlad replied that not only he, all the entities in the universe including Hiranyakashipu are getting strength from the same source i.e. Krishna. This whole universe is made by Krishna. Krishna controls everyone and everything. His activities are beyond our capabilities of understanding. He is stronger than the strongest, larger than the largest, and smaller than the smallest. He resides in everything, everywhere, and everyone. Prahlad tried to explain to Hiranyakashipu that God was not his enemy. The only enemy we have is our uncontrolled mind.

On hearing this, Hiranyakashipu became angrier and asked that if any authority higher than him exists in this world where is it? Where is that Krishna?

Prahlad simply replied that Krishna is everywhere. Hiranyakashipu was fuming now and pointed out to a pillar and asked that if Krishna is everywhere why can’t he see him in this pillar?

Prahlad replied that Krishna is there in the pillar and he can see him. Hiranshyap got up from his seat, took his sword, and hit the pillar that Prahlad had pointed to see if God exists and protects Prahlad.

At that time, a loud cracking sound was heard from the pillar, and Krishna as Lord Narasimha appeared from the pillar. Krishna is not bounded by anything but the love of his devotees. To keep Prahlad’s words, he came out from the pillar Prahlad had pointed out. Lord Narasimha was in the form of Half Lion and Half human and killed Hiranyakashipu on his lap with his nails keeping all benedictions intact. This marked the appearance of Lord Narasimha and the day is celebrated as Narasimha Chaturdashi.

Lord Narasimha is popularly worshipped to ward off evil forces and cure both physical and mental health issues.

Hare Krishna