There was once a proud and powerful king named Hiranyakashipu. He had been granted a special protection, and he thought it made him greater than God. He ordered everyone to worship him instead of Vishnu.

But his own son, a boy named Prahlada, loved Vishnu. He said, gently and without fear, that Vishnu is not just in heaven. He is in everyone, even in his father.

The king was furious. He tried again and again to make his son obey, and when that failed, to hurt him. Serpents, elephants and fire were sent against the boy. Prahlada kept thinking of Vishnu, and none of them could harm him.

Here is the most amazing part. When the king's priests attacked Prahlada and their own magic turned back on them, Prahlada didn't cheer. He prayed for them to live, because, he said, Vishnu was in them too. They rose up unhurt.

In the end, Vishnu came as Narasimha, half man and half lion, and ended the cruel king's rule. Prahlada became a good and kind king himself. In the best-known telling, Narasimha bursts out of a stone pillar, to show that God really is everywhere, just as Prahlada said.

Prahlada was a child, but he was the bravest one in the palace. He stayed kind even to people who tried to hurt him, because he saw God in everyone.