LSD: Lord Narasimha is the fourth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Lord Narasimha is half lion and half man. The word Narasimha is made up of two small words ‘Nara’ and ‘simha’. Nara means man and Simha means lion. The weapons of Lord Narasimha are chakra, mace, nails and jaws. Lord Narasimha is also known as Agnilochana (अग्नि लोचन)- one with fiery eyes.
Other names of Lord Narasimha are
- Bhairavadambara (भैरव डम्बर) – whose roar can cause terror
- (कराल) – who has wide mouth and long projected teeth
- Hiranyakashipudvamsa (हिरण्यकाशिपु ध्वंश) – who ki*lled Hiranyakashipu
- Nakhastra (नखास्त्र) – whose nails are used as weapons
- Simhavadana (सिंह वदन) – the one with face of lion.
- Mrigendra (मृगेन्द्र) – King of animals (lion)
THE STORY
According to hindu calendar Lord Narasimha Jayanti is celebrated in Chaturdashi of Vaisakha Shukla Paksha (waxing phase of moon). Hiranyakashipu was blessed by Lord Brahma with a boon that he couldn’t be kil*led by any human, animals, gods or any other living creature . Hiranyakashipu was also blessed that he couldn’t be ki*lled in the day time or night time, neither in the land nor in the sky. After getting the boon, he became arrogant. He captured Lord Indra’s ruling place and started to terrorise the people and gods. He announced himself as god of the whole world in his arrogance.
But the son of Hiranyakashipu, Prahlada was just opposite of him. He was great devotee of Lord Vishnu. Prahlad was banned by his father to worship Lord Vishnu but he never listened to his father. Prahlada always worshipped Lord Vishnu. When Prahlada didn’t obey his father and still worshipped Lord Vishnu instead of Hiranyakashipu, he tried to ki*ll Prahlada by pushing from a hill. But Lord Vishnu saved Prahlada by his divine power.
After that Hiranyakashipu tried to burn Prahlada but failed. After these incidents Hiranyakashipu was full of anger and tied his son in the pillar of his house. Then he asked, where is your god ? Prahlada replied, “God is here in the pillar”. Hiranyakashipu said, “call your god and ask him to save you” and tried to k*ill Prahlada. At the same time Lord Vishnu appeared tearing the pillar in the form of Lord Narasimha. Lord Narasimha then ki*lled Hiranyakashipu on his lap by his long nails. This day is remembered as Lord Narasimha Jayanti.
How did Prahlada get the spiritual knowledge ?
After ki*lling Hiranyakashipu, Lord Narasimha was still angry. Lord Brahma and Mata Laxmi couldn’t make Lord Narasimha calm. No gods or man could pacify Lord Narasimha at that time. Everybody feared to go infront of Lord Narasimha, even Lord Brahma too. So Lord Brahma asked Prahlada to go forward and pacify Lord Narasimha because Lord Brahma knew that Lord Narasimha will not hurt his greatest devotee.
Prahlada was also confident about the love and affection of Lord Narasimha towards himself. Prahlada went down in the lotus feet of Lord Narasimha and asked him to be cool. Lord Narasimha calmly put his hand on the head of Prahlada. After this incident, Prahlada received Brahma Gyan (ब्रम्ह ज्ञान) or spiritual knowledge because he was blessed by Lord Narasimha (incarnation of Lord Vishnu).
