The story of Prahalada.
The story of Hiranyakasyapu and Prahalada emphasises how powerful
faith in the Supreme is.
Hirayakasyapu was a demon king, egocentric, pompous, powerful and wicked. He hated Maha Vishnu and considered him his enemy. His subjects were forced to chant his name and sing his praise and forbidden from worshipping Vishnu. When his son Prahalada was born, he became a devotee of Vishnu, singing his praise and chanting his name at all times, by the grace of sage Narada.
This angered Hiranyakasyapu and he ordered Prahalada’s death,
unbothered by the child’s tender age. He tried poisoning him, getting him trampled under wild elephants, throwing him from the mountains, and finally burning him in a
pyre. So strong was Prahalada’s faith in Vishnu that he chanted Vishnu’s name
as he went through the ordeals and escaped unscathed each time.
Seething with anger, Hiranyakashyapu demanded to know where
Vishnu was. He was sure he could not be defeated by Vishnu for he had the most
unlikely boon – he could not be killed by a man or an animal, neither at day
nor night, neither outside nor inside the house, by no weapon – making it
impossible to be killed in a war.
‘Is he in this pillar?’ he thundered.
‘He is, father. He is everywhere,’ said little Prahalada, with complete
faith in Vishnu and unafraid of the demon king.
Hiranyakasyapu broke open the pillar with a strike of his mace
and Maha Vishnu sprang out of it – in a form no one had seen before. He took the form of Narasimha, with the face
of a terrifying lion and body of a man. He was neither a man nor an animal –
he growled fiercely as walked up to the demon. It was dusk, the time opportune,
it was neither day nor night. Carrying the demon king to the threshold of his
room, when he was neither inside nor outside the house, he put the demon on his
lap and with the slightest touch of his sharp nails – needing no weapon – tore
open his belly, killing him instantly.
Prahalada’s faith in Maha Vishnu did not dwindle even for a
fraction of a second. Shri Vishnu did not break his little’s devotee’s faith either.
How strong is your faith in the Supreme?
Our belief and faith are conditioned by the nature of our
soul. If our faith in the Supreme is strong, we can be sure that the one we
trust will never let us down.
