Mahabharata

Narsimha (half lion)

Narsimha means half lion, half human. What I think is that it basically represents the mammals. So, the story of Lord Narsimha goes like this:

Hiranyakashyapu decided to obtain a boon from Lord Brahma too. He meditated for thousands of years and finally, Lord Brahma appeared in front of him.

"I'm impressed by your boon. You can ask for whatever boon you want. What do you want, child?" Lord Brahma asked.

"I want a boon that neither a God, an animal, nor a man, neither inside nor outside, neither at day nor at night, neither on the earth nor in the sky (heaven or hell), nor can any weapon kill me," Hiranyakashyapu tries to include everything in the boon, to avoid the death his brother got. He didn't want to commit the mistake his brother did. Excuse any grammatical mistakes in the boon because it was done by me. It was a very complicated sentence. Anyways, let's just move forward.

"So be it," Brahma says and disappears. Hiranyakashyapu gets the control over the earth, heaven and the hell by defeating Lord Indra and Lord Yama. He started destroying temples and killing every devotee and sage he could find. Vishnu devotees were once again being killed. People stopped praying to Lord Vishnu. The temples were all deserted. There was no one in the temple but still, one voice was still praising and singing for Lord Vishnu. It was the voice of Pralad, son of Hiranyakashyapu.

When his mother was six months along, she had visited the ashram (hut, school or you can say gurukul where people are educated about God) of Devarahi (sage of the gods, a title) Narad, who was a deep devotee of Lord Vishnu himself. She stayed there because of an emergency but Devarahi Narad used that time to educate the young foetus and his mother about Lord Vishnu.

In three mere months, she gave birth to Pralad and Pralad had become a devotee of Lord Vishnu. She thanked Devarahi Narad and went on her way to her kingdom. After her husband had returned after years of conquering the three worlds (earth, heaven and hell), she stopped praying because of him but Pralad was about eight years old then and he was still praying.

Hiranyakashyapu tried everything he could to make Pralad stop praying, from leaving Pralad in a room full of snakes to pushing him off the cliff and trying to burn him but Lord Vishnu saved him every time. Pralad was praying every moment he was awake and everym moment he was asleep and Hiranyakashyapu became irritated with this. He went to Pralad and warned him to stop praying but Pralad wouldn't listen.

"Don't be stubborn. No one can save you," Hiranyakashyapu said arrogantly.

Pralad smiled and said, "My Lord Vishnu will save me from every dangerous thing. You should stop being stubborn and become his devotee too."

Hiranyakashyapu roared and asked, "Where is Vishnu? Is he here," and he broke one of the temple pillars, "or is he here?" and he broke another one. "Where is your Vishnu? I'm the Lord of the three worlds. Stop praising him and start praying to me."

Just then, a pillar broke off and Lord Narsimha emerged from the pillar. Pralad joined his hands in front of him and Narsimha roared in response and grabbed Hiranyakashyapu by his hair.

"I am neither a God, an animal nor a man. I am both animal and man," and he took him to the entrance of the temple, "You are neither on the inside, nor on the outside. You are on the threshold of this temple," he pointed to the sky and said, "It's neither day nor night. It's twilight," he sits down on the threshold and puts Hiranyakashyapu on his lap, "You are neither on the earth nor in the sky. You are on my lap," and raises his paws and says, "You will not be killed by any weapon, you will be killed by my nails" and takes out Hiranyakashyapu's heart.

After this, the mighty demon who had conquered the three worlds was lying dead on his lap but Narsimha was still angry. He started destroying everything in his eyesight and Lord Shiva was worried that he will destroy the whole earth itself. So, he took the incarnation of Sharabha (half lion, half bird) and captivated Lord Narsimha and skinned him so that Lord Shiva could wear that skin. Did Lord Shiva roam naked before? Yes, he did.

So, that's the end of Lord Narsimha. Hope those who are reading this enjoyed this messed up and yet a story which talks about devotion. It's not like you should have blind faith on God or you should depend on him for everything. No, you shouldn't. Instead, simply trust him and do your duties. Your main duty is not to pray to the Gods. Your main duty is your profession. Do it whole heartedly so that the society can function but remember your basic duties too, like protecting innocents, taking care of the planet, addressing the wrong things in the society and all those things. In fact, try to limit your shopping and that will be enough. You don't know how consumerism is affecting the planet and teach your family and friends the same thing. This will start an endless chain for a change. Start wearing natural fibres because you don't know how much poly fibres are affecting the nature. Be true and loyal to your customers and kind to your employees. Don't have blind faith, just follow your dharma. It doesn't matter if you believe in God or not, perform your role in the society and try to keep the society stable. That's all and you are serving him, the almighty, the endless one, the eternal one. Jai Shri Krishna...