Narsimha Chaturdashi Research Paper

Today 20th May,2016 is Narsimha Chaturdashi or Narsimha Jayanti. It is the appearance day of Lord Narsimha who was the fourth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Narsimha was half lion half man and he appeared on this Earth to save his great devotee Prahlada from his demonic father Hiranyakashipu. The story goes like this:

Long ago there lived Sage Kashyapa who had two wives Aditi and Diti. Devas or the good ones were born to Aditi and asuras or the evil ones were born to Diti. Hiranyakashipu was a mighty demon born to Diti. He grew up to be a great and mighty king but he was very cruel. He wanted to defeat Lord Vishnu who had killed his brother Hiranyaksh as the varah avatar. So he went to the forest so that he could do intense meditation and please Lord Brahma.

Lord Brahma finally appeared after years of intense prayers and

She had a boon that fire couldn’t harm her. But to everyone’s amazement, Holika was burnt into ashes while Prahlada was again unharmed.

Hiranyakashipu was now angry beyond comparison. He shouted at Prahlada,” Where is your Vishnu?” Prahlada replied,” He is everywhere.” “Is he in this pillar?” said Hiranyakashipu mockingly. “Yes,” Prahlada answered. And then the unimaginable happened. The pillar wrecked into pieces and there appeared a strange creature.

This creature was half man half lion with ferocious claws. He dragged Hiranyakashipu to the doorstep of the court and put him under his lap and killed him with his claws. It was twilight hour. Thus Hiranyakashipu was killed according to the conditions he had chosen. He was killed by neither man nor God or demon or animal but Narsimha. He was killed at doorstep which was neither outside nor inside. He was killed using claws not any weapon. The time was twilight which was neither day nor night. He was in Narsimha’s lap when he was killed and thus was neither on Earth nor in the