Prahlada and the man-lion

1. 1.17. Part 1, Section 17

   1.17.1Parashara begins the story of the wise boy Prahlada. Long ago, Prahlada's father, the demon king Hiranyakashipu, was proud of a gift of power from the god Brahma. With it he conquered the three worlds. He took over Indra's throne and did the jobs of the sun, the wind, the waters, fire and the moon.
2. 1.17.2Hiranyakashipu also made himself lord of wealth and of death. He took all the offerings meant for the gods. The frightened gods fled their heaven and hid on earth disguised as humans. Proud and rich, the demon king enjoyed every pleasure he wanted while singers praised him.
3. 1.17.3All the heavenly beings had to worship Hiranyakashipu, who loved to drink. They sang, played music and cheered for him. Heavenly dancers performed while he drank in his crystal palace.
4. 1.17.4Hiranyakashipu's son Prahlada was a young boy living at his teacher's house, learning his lessons. One day the teacher brought him to his father, who was drinking. The father lifted the bowing boy up and asked him to repeat the main thing he had learned.
5. 1.17.5Prahlada says that what fills his thoughts is this: he bows to the Supreme Being. That Being has no beginning or end, never grows or shrinks, and is the cause of everything. Hearing this, his father turns red with rage and shouts at the teacher, "What is this, wicked Brahmin?"
6. 1.17.6The king accuses the teacher of teaching his son to praise his enemy Vishnu. The teacher says he did not teach it. When the king asks Prahlada who taught him, the boy says Vishnu himself is the teacher of the whole world and lives in everyone's mind.
7. 1.17.7Prahlada asks who else could teach us but Vishnu. The furious king demands to know who this Vishnu is. Prahlada says Vishnu is the great God whom devoted people meditate on, whose glory words cannot describe, who is everything and from whom everything comes. The king shouts, "While I live, who else do you call supreme lord?"
8. 1.17.8The king threatens Prahlada with death. The boy calmly says Vishnu is the creator, protector and lord of every creature, including his father. He asks his father not to be angry. The king thinks some evil spirit has taken over his son.
9. 1.17.9Prahlada says Vishnu is not only in his mind but fills the whole universe and guides everyone, even his father. The king orders the boy taken back to his teacher to be controlled. He thinks someone wicked must have taught him to praise his enemies.
10. 1.17.10Prahlada goes back to his teacher and keeps studying and serving him well. Much later his father calls him again and asks him to recite a poem. Prahlada recites a prayer to Vishnu, the source of matter, souls and all creation.
11. 1.17.11Enraged, the king orders his son killed, calling him a traitor to his family. Thousands of demons (Daityas) come with huge weapons. Prahlada tells them that Vishnu is present in their weapons and minds too, so the weapons will not hurt him.
12. 1.17.12The demons attack, but Prahlada feels no pain and his strength keeps returning. His father promises to spare him if he stops praising Vishnu. Prahlada says he feels no fear, because Vishnu is in his mind, and just remembering Vishnu removes all dangers and the sufferings of life.
13. 1.17.13The demon king Hiranyakashipu orders deadly snakes to kill his son Prahlada. The snakes bite him all over, but Prahlada keeps his mind happily fixed on Krishna (Vishnu) and feels nothing.
14. 1.17.14The snakes tell the king that their own fangs broke and their hoods burned, yet the boy's skin has no wound. The king then orders the giant elephants that guard the directions of the world to crush Prahlada. He says one's own children can sometimes destroy a family, like fire burning the wood it comes from.
15. 1.17.15The huge elephants throw Prahlada down and stab at him, but their tusks break against his chest while he remembers Govinda (Vishnu). Prahlada tells his father this is not his own strength. It happens because he called on Janardana (Vishnu), who removes all danger and sin.
16. 1.17.16The king orders his demons to build a huge fire around Prahlada and has the wind god fan it. Prahlada says the fire does not burn him. To him everything around feels cool, like being among lotus flowers.
17. 1.17.17The family priests, descendants of the sage Bhargava, ask the king to calm his anger against his own son. They promise to train the boy so that he becomes obedient and helps fight the king's enemies, the gods.
18. 1.17.18The priests say the boy's behavior comes from being young and ask the king to let go of his anger. If Prahlada still will not give up worshipping Hari (Vishnu), they will find a sure way to kill him. The king agrees and has his son pulled out of the fire.
19. 1.17.19Back at his teacher's house, Prahlada secretly teaches the other demon boys whenever he can. He tells them he wants nothing from them. He reminds them that every creature is born, grows up, grows old, and then dies.
20. 1.17.20Prahlada says they have all seen this cycle with their own eyes. Whoever dies is born again, as the holy books teach. Each birth comes from good and bad deeds done before, and every stage of life involves pain.
21. 1.17.21Prahlada says foolish people think that easing hunger, thirst or cold is true pleasure, but it is only a short break from pain. He adds that the body is made of fluids and flesh, so its beauty and charm do not last.
22. 1.17.23Prahlada says rich people always worry that their things will be lost, burned or stolen. Being born, dying and entering a womb again are all painful. So the world is full of suffering, and Vishnu is the only safe shelter in it.
23. 1.17.24Prahlada tells the boys not to think they are too young for this, because the soul inside them never dies. Only the body is young or old. He describes how people keep putting off spiritual effort: a child waits for youth, a young person waits for old age. Then in old age their senses fail, and they regret doing nothing when they could.
24. 1.17.25Prahlada says people want true knowledge but get distracted by empty hopes. They play in childhood and chase worldly things in youth, and suddenly old age arrives. So a person should work for the soul's good right now, even as a child.
25. 1.17.26Prahlada says that even if they doubt him, they should simply think of Vishnu, who frees beings from bondage. Remembering Vishnu is easy, and it brings good fortune and removes sins. If their minds rest on Him day and night, they will be able to laugh at every trouble. He notes the whole world suffers from three kinds of pain: from the body and mind, from other beings, and from nature and fate.
26. 1.17.27Prahlada asks why anyone wise would hate others, since all beings deserve kindness. If others are richer or happier, we should be glad for them instead of jealous, because letting go of spite is a reward in itself. The wise even pity people who hate their enemies, because such people are confused.
27. 1.17.28Prahlada says he has given reasons to stop hating, even if we treat ourselves as separate from others. But the deeper truth is that the whole world is Vishnu, who is present in every being. So wise people see no real difference between themselves and anyone else.
28. 1.17.29Prahlada urges the boys to give up the angry ways of their demon family. Instead they should seek a perfect happiness that no god, demon or other being can take away. Disease, hatred and desire cannot disturb it either.
29. 1.17.30Prahlada says pure, endless happiness comes to anyone who fixes the mind on Keshava (Vishnu), and worldly life will never truly satisfy. Treating all creatures equally is itself the worship of Vishnu. When Vishnu is pleased, wealth and pleasure seem small. He tells them to turn to the tree of true wisdom and enjoy its fruits.

30. 1.18. Part 1, Section 18

    1.18.1The frightened demons tell the king that Prahlada is teaching his beliefs to the other boys. Hiranyakashipu orders his cooks to secretly poison all of Prahlada's food, and they do so.
31. 1.18.2Prahlada repeats Vishnu's name and eats the poisoned food. It does him no harm in body or mind, because the holy name defeats the poison. The scared cooks report to the king that his son digested the deadly poison.
32. 1.18.3The king orders the priests to perform rituals that will destroy Prahlada. The priests first speak gently to him. They remind him he comes from Brahma's famous family and is the king's son, and ask why he relies on the gods when his own father is everyone's protector.
33. 1.18.4The priests tell Prahlada to stop praising Vishnu, his family's enemy, because a father is the highest teacher. Prahlada politely agrees that his family is famous, that his father earned his high place, and that a father deserves the most respect.
34. 1.18.5Prahlada says he truly respects his father and has done nothing wrong there. But he questions their claim that there is no need to seek shelter in the eternal God. He stays quiet for a while out of respect, then smiles and asks if that was a fair thing to say.
35. 1.18.6Prahlada explains that people want four things in life: goodness, fulfilled desires, wealth, and freedom from rebirth. Since God is the source of all four, worshipping him is not pointless. Great sages like Marichi and Daksha gained these things this way.
36. 1.18.7Prahlada adds that others, through true wisdom and meditation, came to know God and were freed from the cycle of worldly life. Worshipping Hari (Vishnu) with a united, focused mind is the root of wealth, honor, wisdom, children, goodness and freedom.
37. 1.18.8Prahlada humbly says they are his teachers and his understanding is small. The priests threaten him: if he does not give up these ideas, they will perform rituals to kill him. Prahlada asks who can really kill or save anyone.
38. 1.18.9Prahlada says each person destroys or protects himself by doing evil or good. The angry priests use magic to create a terrifying fiery woman, who stabs Prahlada in the chest with a spear, but the spear breaks into a hundred pieces.
39. 1.18.10The narrator explains that even a thunderbolt would shatter against the chest of someone who keeps Hari (Vishnu) in his heart, so a spear could do nothing.
40. 1.18.11The evil magic turns back on the priests and burns them to death. Seeing them burn, Prahlada cries out to Krishna, the creator present everywhere, and begs him to save these same priests who tried to kill him.
41. 1.18.12Prahlada prays that since Vishnu lives in all beings, the priests should come back to life. He says he never hated anyone who tried to kill him, whether by poison, fire, elephants or snakes, and if that is true, the priests should live again.
42. 1.18.13At his touch the priests rise up unhurt. They bless the humble boy with long life and strength, then go tell the king everything.

43. 1.19. Part 1, Section 19

    1.19.1Hearing that the priests' magic failed, King Hiranyakashipu calls Prahlada and asks where his amazing power comes from: training, magic, or birth.
44. 1.19.2Prahlada bows to his father and says his power is not magic or natural; it is easy for anyone with God in their mind. Someone who wishes no harm and treats everyone like himself has no cause for suffering, but one who hurts others in deed, thought or word plants seeds of misery.
45. 1.19.3Prahlada says he wishes, does and speaks no evil to anyone, and always meditates on Keshava (Vishnu) who lives in all beings. Since God is in every creature, wise people should love all creatures.
46. 1.19.4Furious, the king orders his servants to throw Prahlada from his enormously tall palace onto the mountain rocks. They throw him down, and he falls thinking of Hari (Vishnu).
47. 1.19.5Mother Earth catches the falling boy, and he is unhurt with no broken bones. The king then asks Samvara, an expert in magic spells, to kill him.
48. 1.19.6Samvara boasts of his thousands of magic tricks and attacks Prahlada. Prahlada stays calm, holds no hatred even for Samvara, and meditates on Vishnu, the slayer of the demon Madhu.
49. 1.19.7Vishnu sends his blazing discus, Sudarshana, to protect Prahlada, and it destroys all of Samvara's illusions.
50. 1.19.8The king orders a deadly, freezing wind to kill Prahlada, and it enters his body. Prahlada thinks of Vishnu, and Vishnu, present in his mind, drinks up the wind, which is destroyed.
51. 1.19.9With all attacks defeated, Prahlada goes back to his teacher, who teaches him every day the science of government written by Usanas (Shukra, teacher of the demons) for kings.
52. 1.19.10The teacher tells the king that Prahlada has mastered politics and is humble. The king asks Prahlada how a king should treat friends and enemies, and what to do when advancing, retreating, or at peace.
53. 1.19.11Hiranyakashipu, the demon king, tests his son Prahlada on how to rule. He asks how a king should treat ministers, spies, subjects and enemies, when to make peace or war, how to build forts and how to stop rebellions.
54. 1.19.12Prahlada bows humbly and says he has learned all these lessons from his teacher, but he does not agree with all of them. Kings are taught four ways to handle friends and enemies: kind words, gifts, punishment and turning people against each other. But Prahlada gently says he sees no one as a friend or an enemy.
55. 1.19.13Prahlada explains why. Vishnu, also called Govinda, lives in his father, in Prahlada himself and in every creature. So it makes no sense to divide people into friends and foes.
56. 1.19.14Prahlada says studying ways to beat enemies is tiring and useless, because it rests on false ideas. It is better to learn about one's own true self. Only ignorance mistakes ignorance for knowledge, just as a small child thinks a firefly is a real fire.
57. 1.19.15Prahlada says real action is what frees us from being trapped in worldly life. Real knowledge is what leads to that freedom. Everything else only wears us out or makes us clever at a skill. He offers to tell his father what truly helps, and points out that everyone wants power and money.
58. 1.19.16Prahlada says wealth and kingdoms come from good deeds done in past lives, not from hard effort alone. Even foolish or cowardly people sometimes become kings by fate. So anyone who wants greatness should try to be good and devoted.
59. 1.19.17Prahlada says anyone seeking final freedom should look on all beings equally. Gods, people, animals, birds and snakes are all different forms of Vishnu. Whoever truly understands this sees the whole world as one with himself, and Vishnu, who removes all suffering, is pleased with him.
60. 1.19.18Parashara, the sage telling this story, says Hiranyakashipu jumps up in fury and kicks his son in the chest. He orders his demon chiefs to tie the boy up with snakes and throw him into the ocean. He fears others will start following Prahlada's beliefs.
61. 1.19.19The king complains that Prahlada keeps praising Vishnu, his enemy, no matter how often he is stopped. The demons tie Prahlada with ropes and throw him into the sea. The ocean shakes and rises in huge waves, and the land is about to flood, so the king gives a new order.
62. 1.19.20Hiranyakashipu orders the demons to pin the boy under the sea with rocks. He lists every attack Prahlada has survived: fire, weapons, snakes, poison, deadly wind, magic, falls from mountains and the elephants that guard the sky. He calls his son a constant source of misery.
63. 1.19.21The demons pile rocks over Prahlada for thousands of miles. Lying at the bottom of the sea, he stays calm and begins to praise Vishnu, calling him the lotus-eyed one and the soul of all worlds.
64. 1.19.22Prahlada keeps praying. He honors Vishnu as Krishna and Govinda, the friend of priests and cows, and the helper of the world. Vishnu creates the universe as Brahma, protects it, and destroys it at the end of an age as Rudra (Shiva).
65. 1.19.23Prahlada says Vishnu, called Achyuta (the one who never falls), is the source of everything. That includes gods, demons, people, animals, plants, stones, the elements, the senses, the mind, time and nature. All of these are his forms.
66. 1.19.24Prahlada says Vishnu is both knowledge and ignorance, truth and untruth, poison and nectar. He is every action, the one who receives its results, and the reward of every good deed. He is in Prahlada, in others, and everywhere in the universe.
67. 1.19.25Prahlada says monks meditate on Vishnu and priests offer sacrifices to him. The whole universe is his largest form. His smallest, most hidden form is the soul inside every being.
68. 1.19.26Prahlada praises an even higher Supreme Soul in Vishnu. It lies beyond the individual soul and cannot be sensed or imagined. He bows to this highest form, called Purushottama (the Supreme Person), the soul of all creatures.
69. 1.19.27Prahlada bows to the divine power that the senses, words and mind cannot reach. Only the truly wise can know it. He salutes Vasudeva (Vishnu), who is part of everything yet also beyond everything, and who has no name or form.
70. 1.19.28Prahlada says even the gods cannot see Vishnu's true form, so they worship his forms on earth. Vishnu lives in every mind and sees all the good and bad people do. Prahlada asks this Vishnu to be pleased with him.
71. 1.19.29Prahlada asks Hari (Vishnu) for mercy and says the universe is woven through him like cloth. Then he goes deeper and declares that Vishnu is also himself. He feels he is one with the eternal Spirit, from which all things come.

72. 1.20. Part 1, Section 20

    1.20.1Parashara says that as Prahlada meditated on Vishnu as one with himself, he lost all sense of being a separate person. He felt he was the endless, eternal Supreme Soul. Because his mind was now pure, Vishnu appeared within it.
73. 1.20.2Prahlada, a boy born into the Asura (demon) family, had been tied up and thrown into the sea with rocks piled on him. Lost in thinking of Vishnu, he became one with him. When he stirred, his ropes broke, the sea and earth shook, and he pushed off the rocks and came out of the water. Then he looked around and remembered that he was Prahlada again.
74. 1.20.3With his mind and words fully focused, the wise boy Prahlada began praising Vishnu, the Purusha (Supreme Being) who has no beginning. He bows to God as true wisdom, and says God is both things we can see and things we cannot, both with form and beyond form, both beyond words and described in words.
75. 1.20.4Prahlada keeps praising Hari (Vishnu). He says God holds every quality and is also beyond all qualities. God is tiny and huge, seen and unseen, ugly and beautiful, wisdom and ignorance, cause and effect. All good and bad, and everything that lasts or passes away, comes from God.
76. 1.20.5Prahlada bows to Vasudeva (a name of Vishnu), who is both one and many, the first cause of everything, present in all beings and yet beyond them. The sage Parashara, who tells the story, says that as Prahlada sang this, Vishnu, dressed in yellow, suddenly appeared in front of him.
77. 1.20.6Prahlada stands up in awe and, stammering, keeps saying "Glory to Vishnu." He asks Keshava (Vishnu) to bless and purify him. Vishnu says he is pleased with Prahlada's steady love and offers him any wish. Prahlada asks only that his faith never grow weaker, through all his future lives.
78. 1.20.7Prahlada asks that his love for God be as strong as the hold ordinary people's possessions have on them. Vishnu says Prahlada already has this love and always will, and asks him to choose another wish. Prahlada asks God to forgive his father for the wrong he did in punishing him for praising God.
79. 1.20.8Prahlada lists what his father did to him: attacked him with weapons, threw him in fire, had snakes bite him, poisoned his food, and threw him tied up into the sea under rocks. Still, he asks Vishnu to free his father from the guilt of these acts. Vishnu agrees and offers him yet another wish.
80. 1.20.9Prahlada says he already has everything he wants, because his faith will never fade. He says that someone with firm love for God can have wealth, goodness, pleasure, and even freedom from rebirth. Vishnu tells him that because of his steady love, he will reach final freedom.
81. 1.20.10After Vishnu disappears, Prahlada goes back and bows to his father. His father, in tears, hugs him and asks, "My child, are you alive?" He is kind to him and regrets what he did. Prahlada then lovingly takes care of his father and his teacher.
82. 1.20.11Later, after Vishnu killed his father in the form of the man-lion (Narasimha), Prahlada became king of the Daityas (demons). Because he was good, he ruled with great wealth and had many children. When his rule ended, through meditation on God, he gained final freedom from being born again.