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| Lord Narasimha and demon Hiranyakashipu |
When the Sanaka and three other young rishis, the mind-born sons of Brahma, went to see Vishnu, Jaya and Vijaya stopped them at the gate of Vaikuntha. Enraged sages cursed them to be born as demons in Bhulok. Accordingly, Jaya, born as the son of Diti, became Hiranyaksha. He then abducted Mother Earth and was killed by Vishnu's Varaha avatar. His brother was Hiranyakashipu.
Hiranyakashipu started to mourn deeply due to the death of his elder brother. He wanted revenge against Vishnu; who had caused it. In the Mandara hill valley, he performed severe penance for Brahma. As time passed, his body became thin, covered with grass sticks. Ants started eating him.
At last, Brahma appeared there, sprinkled water on his body, and asked for a boon. Then Hiranyakashipu said, Grant me the boon that death will not come to me by any man, demon, creature, inanimate object, demigod, animal, weapon, inside or outside any house, day or night. Brahma granted his boon and disappeared from there.
Then Hiranyakashipu and his demonic army conquered the entire universe, imprisoned the king Indra, and became the king of heaven. The earth, afraid of him, grew crops by itself. The cows were giving plenty of milk.
While Hiranyakasipu was doing penance, his wife, Kayadu, was pregnant. Indra, realising that her son would become a thorn in his side, abducted her. Sage Narada, who stopped him, kept Kayadu in his hermitage and told her the stories of Vishnu. Then a son named Prahlad was born.
After Hiranyakashipu came from penance, Kayadu joined him with her son in the palace. The boy Prahlada was a devotee of Vishnu from childhood. Later he was sent to Gurukul. Both sons of Guru Shukracharya, Shanda and Amaraka, became Prahlada's gurus. As Hiranya Kashipu was a Vishnu hater, their attempts to prevent Prahlada from performing Vishnu's bhajan in front of him failed.
After a few weeks, Prahlada's education was over. He was brought back to the palace. On inquiring about his education, Hiranyakashipu learned that instead of becoming a prince, his son became a devotee of his enemy, Vishnu. He became furious. Prahlada's gurus, standing before him were now trembling. They argued that they did not teach him this. Hiranyakashipu threatened his son not to pray to the god Hari.
He asked his men to beat Prahlad with weapons and Pierce with spears. Prahlada stood there with closed eyes and joined hands, chanting to the Lord. No weapons hurt him.
Then Asur ordered his son to be stomped by the elephant and bitten by poisonous snakes. Burned by fire, pushed down from the hill. In the end, he poisoned him with his own hands. Despite all this, he could not kill Prahlada.
Shukracharya's sons asked for one more chance to correct him and again took him to Gurukula. However, whenever Prahlada had time, he used to tell the stories of Vishnu to the rest of the demons' children and convert their minds. Because of this, all the demons came and started complaining to Hiranya Kasipu.
One evening, Hiranya Kashipu, determined to kill his son with his own hands, grabbed a mace and called his son loudly. “Show me where your Lord is. I will see how he comes to save you. I will kill you with him.” He screamed. Then he started showing all the things in the palace and asking if his god was there. Prahlada replied, “Yes” for everything.
Then the furious demon hit a pillar and broke it into two parts. A bright light emanated from within the pillar. Lord Vishnu came out of it in the form of a person with the head of a lion and the body of a man. Hiranya Kashipu attacked Narasimha with a mace. Dropping the mace from his hand, Narasimha countered his sword attack as well. Then, taking the demon in his hands, he sat on the doorsill and, with his nails, pierced his belly, pulled out the intestinal cords, and wore them as a garland around his neck. Bleeding profusely and in pain, Hiranya Kasipu breathed his last. Narasimha defeated the rest of the demons.
Demigods appeared there, and they were afraid to go to the Lord. As Prahlada chanted hymns with folded hands in devotion, Lord Vishnu appeared in his true form and blessed him. Telling Brahma not to give a boon to any demons, he went to Vaikuntha. Then Prahlada was made king in the presence of Shukracharya and Brahma.
Diti, the mother of the demons, after the deaths of both her sons, became very sad. Knowing that Indra was responsible for everything, she thought of getting a stronger son than him. She served her husband Kasyapa Muni with great love. After a few years, Sage Kasyapa left for penance. He said, ”Ask what you want, and I will give it.” Diti said, “Give me a powerful son capable of killing Indra.”
After thinking for a while, the sage said, in this vrat called Punsavan for one year, if you do not lie, do not consume meat and alcohol, do not do violence, and follow all the shastras correctly, you will have a son stronger than Indra. But if there is a mistake in the vow, saying that your son will be Indra's friend, he left for the forest.
A few months later, Indra came to the hermitage to see his aunt Diti, who was pregnant. Approaching her humbly, he waited for the right time to destroy the child in her womb. Until she made an error in her vow, Indra could do nothing.
One dusk, due to the heaviness of her stomach, Diti fell asleep. As this violated Shastra, Indra immediately assumed subtle form, plunged into her womb, and cut the fetus into seven pieces with his Vajrayudh. When they started crying without dying, he again cut them into seven pieces. Thus, a total of forty-nine children were created there. "Don't kill us, brother; we are Maruts who follow you," those sons asked. And along with Indra, they came out of Diti's womb. When Diti awoke, she saw her forty-nine children and Indra. She was happy to see her children, although she was sad that she slept late and broke her vrat. Indra immediately bowed to her and went to heaven, taking the Maruts with him.
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