Nara+Simha is the incarnation of Vishnu in a definite form to extend the help to different lokas. The context was Vaikuntha, and the custodians Jaya and Vijaya at the gate stop the entry of learned sages of Sanaka group. The rishis curse the duo to take multiple births in Bhooloka. Vishnu offers the way out by reducing the number of births to three; but during these lives the duo become Vishnudweshis, who loathe Vishnu.
Hiranya was son of sage Kashyapa and lost his brother to Vishnu’s avatar of Varaha. To avenge this death, he prays for “no death” condition. Brahma refused that boon and as a compromise, an almost impossible death condition was given. Hiranya Kashyapa can’t be killed by any normal beings, neither during day or night, nor by any weapons etc. Hiranya Kashyapa occupies all lokas and becomes a cruel ruler. As an irony, he and his wife Lila were blessed with a noble soul as a son. He was named Prahlada, and grew to become a staunch Vishnu devotee.
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World's Longest Tiramisu: London Sets New Guinness Record With 1,445-Foot Sweet Giant Made By 100 ChefsIn an altercation between father and son, father who earlier tried to convert the son into his bhakta, loses cool and challenges the son to show him Vishnu. The very meaning of Vishnu is “sarva vyapaka” or the omnipresent. Prahlada replies that Vishnu can be had and seen anywhere and everywhere. Father hits a pillar in an effort to disprove his son’s faith of omni-presence of Vishnu. Here, happens the miracle of Nara+Simha. The lord appears in a magical combination of human torso and lion face, lifts up Hiranya Kashyapa, tears him apart with lion nails, during the dusk time. All conditions of Hiranya Kashyapa’s boon of not dying in hands of any regular being, not during day or night, not with weapons etc. got complied. The day when this happened was Narasimha Jayanti day, the fourteenth day during the Shukla (ascending) fortnight of Vaishakha masa or month.
Narasimha is a powerful protector. We offer virtue from our side. He protects us from both visible and invisible. The day may be spent in contemplation and doing japa of the GOD. We extol and idolize divine qualities.
(Dr. S. Ainavolu is a Mumbai-based teacher of Management and Tradition.)