Narasiṃha Avatāra (Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa)
This is the Harivaṃśa’s account of the Narasiṃha avatāra, told in the Bhavishya Parva. Hiraṇyakaśipu does great tapas (austerity) after his brother Hiraṇyāksha dies, and Brahmā gives him a vara that almost no one can break. He rules the three worlds and demands that all pūjā go to him alone. His son Prahlāda, a devotee of Bhagavān Vishṇu, will not give way. Bhagavān Narasiṃha, half man and half lion, comes out of a pillar and tears Hiraṇyakaśipu apart.
Hiraṇyakaśipu’s tapas
News came to Hiraṇyakaśipu that his brother Hiraṇyāksha had been killed by Bhagavān Varāha. He was filled with grief and anger. He decided to avenge his brother with a power that no being could challenge, and he did the hardest tapas. He stood on one foot with his arms raised. He bore heat and cold, and gave up food and water for a very long time. His tapas was so fierce that fire shone from his body and the earth shook. Brahmā saw the strength of this tapas and came down from his world to give a vara (a boon).
The vara of near-invincibility
Hiraṇyakaśipu asked Brahmā for protection from every usual kind of death:
- not to be killed by any being that Brahmā had made
- not by man, beast, deva or asura
- not inside or outside any building
- not on earth or in the sky
- not by any weapon
- not by day and not by night
Brahmā gave him this vara. Hiraṇyakaśipu became the unchallenged ruler of the three worlds. He drove Indra out of svarga (heaven), brought all the devas under him, and chased the ṛshis from their āśramas. He declared that all pūjā, yajña and reverence in the three worlds must be given to him alone.
Hiraṇyakaśipu’s rule
In his great court Hiraṇyakaśipu ruled all beings with full power. The devas served him. All offerings of the yajñas were turned toward him. The order of the worlds was turned upside down to suit his will.
Yet in his own house lived a son who was not like him. This was Prahlāda. From his earliest years he was a devotee of Bhagavān Vishṇu, the very one Hiraṇyakaśipu hated most. Prahlāda did not hide his devotion. It was the whole substance of his life.
Prahlāda sees Bhagavān Vishṇu everywhere
In the depth of his bhakti (devotion), Prahlāda saw directly what his father denied: that Bhagavān Vishṇu is present everywhere in creation. Bhagavān Vishṇu was in every being, every element and every moment. He was in the pillar as much as in the sky, and in the daitya as much as in the deva.
Hiraṇyakaśipu challenged his son and demanded to know where this Vishṇu was. Prahlāda answered calmly and with full certainty: everywhere. This sight gave him a fearlessness that no torture or threat could shake. Hiraṇyakaśipu ordered one torment after another. Prahlāda was thrown from cliffs, trampled by elephants, thrown into the sea and given poison. He lived through every one of them without harm.
Narasiṃha comes out of the pillar
In his last fit of rage Hiraṇyakaśipu struck one of the great pillars of his sabhā (court hall). He demanded that Vishṇu appear if he really lived everywhere. From that pillar Bhagavān Narasiṃha came out. He was neither man nor beast: he had the face, fangs and claws of a great lion and the body of a man. He blazed with divine energy and filled the hall with roaring fire. The daitya warriors, waking from their shock, rushed to fight him.
Narasiṃha’s great power
No weapon touched Bhagavān Narasiṃha. No māyā (magic) and no mantra had any effect on him. The daitya commanders fell one after another. The greatest warriors of Hiraṇyakaśipu’s court could not even come near him. The devas, watching from the sky, were filled with awe and joy. Bad omens appeared on every side and announced the end of Hiraṇyakaśipu’s cruel rule. The whole daitya army was routed and scattered.
The slaying of Hiraṇyakaśipu
Bhagavān Narasiṃha seized Hiraṇyakaśipu and laid him across his great thighs. In this way every condition of Brahmā’s vara was met. Hiraṇyakaśipu was not on the earth and not in the sky, but on the lap of Bhagavān Narasiṃha. He was killed by one who was neither man nor beast. He was not killed by any weapon, but by divine claws. It was neither day nor night, but the twilight of dusk. Bhagavān Narasiṃha tore open Hiraṇyakaśipu’s chest. The tyrant of the three worlds was dead. Prahlāda’s long and patient bhakti was proved right.
Brahmā’s stotra to Narasiṃha
After the slaying Brahmā led the devas and ṛshis in offering a Sanskrit stotra (hymn of praise) to Bhagavān Narasiṃha. The stotra praises his supreme power, his presence everywhere, his care for his devotees, and his place as upholder of dharma for all the worlds. It praises Narasiṃha as the form above all forms. He is beyond all the guṇas and beyond all description, yet he takes a form both terrible and beautiful out of love for his bhakta (devotee).
Sources
- Harivaṃśa Purāṇa, Bhavishya Parva, chapter 41 (Hiraṇyakaśipu’s tapas)
- Harivaṃśa Purāṇa, Bhavishya Parva, chapter 42 (the vara and his rule over the worlds)
- Harivaṃśa Purāṇa, Bhavishya Parva, chapter 43 (Hiraṇyakaśipu’s court and Prahlāda)
- Harivaṃśa Purāṇa, Bhavishya Parva, chapter 44 (Prahlāda’s sight of Bhagavān Vishṇu everywhere)
- Harivaṃśa Purāṇa, Bhavishya Parva, chapter 45 (the pillar and the coming of Narasiṃha)
- Harivaṃśa Purāṇa, Bhavishya Parva, chapter 46 (the daitya army)
- Harivaṃśa Purāṇa, Bhavishya Parva, chapter 47 (the slaying and Brahmā’s stotra)