Prahlad the Devotee

Lord Vishnu, as the Varaha avatar, had killed Hiranyaksha, brother of the asura king Hiranyakashipu. To take revenge, Hiranyakashipu did a fierce penance and asked Brahma for a boon: let me not die by man or beast, by day or night, inside or outside, on earth or in the sky, nor by any weapon. With this boon he began to think himself immortal.

His son Prahlad was a devotee of Hari from childhood. When he was in his mother Kayadhu's womb, she had stayed in Narad's ashram, and there Prahlad heard teachings on devotion. At school his teachers taught him statecraft, but he would teach the other boys to love the Lord.

One day his father lovingly asked: son, what is the best thing you have learnt? Prahlad said: the nine forms of devotion to the Lord: hearing His stories, singing His names, remembering Him, serving His feet, worshipping, bowing, serving Him, befriending Him and offering oneself to Him. Hearing this, Hiranyakashipu flew into a rage.

He tried many ways to kill his own son. Soldiers struck him with weapons, he was thrown before mad elephants, bitten by poisonous snakes, given poison, thrown from a high cliff and cast into fire. Each time Prahlad kept chanting Hari's name and was unharmed. In popular tradition, the story of Holika is also linked to this.

Prahlad never hated his father. He stayed calm and only said that the Lord is everywhere: in me, in you, in every living being. His fearless devotion became the cause of one of the Lord's most wondrous avatars.