Bhagwat Puran Seventh Skandh: Prahlada and the Narasimha Avatar

The seventh skandh is the story of the devotee Prahlada: a boy who would not give up God's name even before his tyrant father, and for whose protection the Lord burst from a pillar as Narasimha.

Chapter 1: why God seems to take sides

Yudhishthira asked Narada: "Shishupala abused Krishna all his life, yet at death his light merged into Krishna. How?" Narada said: one who thinks of the Lord constantly, in any mood, reaches Him: the gopis through love, Kamsa through fear, Shishupala through hatred, and devotees through devotion. (Shishupala was one of Jaya and Vijaya in a former life.) Then Narada told the story of Hiranyakashipu and Prahlada.

Chapters 2 to 4: Hiranyakashipu

When his brother Hiranyaksha was killed by Varaha, Hiranyakashipu came to hate Vishnu. He practised such severe austerities on Mount Mandara that an anthill grew over his body. Brahma offered a boon, and he cleverly asked that he should die neither by man nor beast, neither by day nor night, neither inside nor outside, neither on earth nor in the sky, neither by weapon thrown nor held, nor by god, asura or serpent. With this boon he conquered the three worlds and declared himself God.

Chapters 5 to 7: Prahlada and the nine kinds of devotion

Prahlada had heard Narada's teaching even in the womb, when his mother Kayadhu stayed in Narada's hermitage. Back from school, asked by his father what was the best thing he had learned, Prahlada said:

Shravanam kirtanam vishnoh smaranam pada sevanam
archanam vandanam dasyam sakhyam atma nivedanam (7.5.23)

Meaning: Devotion to Vishnu has nine forms: 1. hearing His stories, 2. singing His glory, 3. remembering Him, 4. serving His feet, 5. worship, 6. bowing, 7. serving as a servant, 8. friendship, and 9. complete self-offering.

His enraged father tried many ways to kill him: weapons, elephants, snakes, throwing him from a mountain, poison, fire (tradition links the Holika story here, in which his aunt Holika, who had a boon against fire, burned while Prahlada was saved). Each time the Lord protected him.

Prahlada also taught the asura boys at school: "Human birth is rare; worship God from childhood, for most of life goes in sleep, play, attachment and old age. Devotion needs no special qualification, family or wealth."

Chapter 8: the Narasimha avatar

At last Hiranyakashipu raised his sword and asked: "Where is your God? Is He in this pillar?" Prahlada said: "Yes, He is everywhere, in this pillar too." Hiranyakashipu struck the pillar, and at that moment, with a terrible roar, Lord Narasimha burst out of it: half man, half lion, neither man nor beast.

At dusk (neither day nor night), on the threshold of the palace (neither inside nor outside), placing him on His thighs (neither earth nor sky), with His nails (neither weapon thrown nor held), the Lord slew Hiranyakashipu. Every word of Brahma's boon held true, and still wrongdoing came to its end.

Chapters 9 and 10: Prahlada's prayer

The Lord's fury was so terrible that Brahma, Shiva and even Lakshmi feared to approach. Brahma sent Prahlada. The boy fell fearlessly at the Lord's feet; the Lord placed His hand on his head and became calm. Prahlada sang a beautiful hymn.

When the Lord offered a boon, Prahlada said: "A servant who asks for something in return is not a servant but a trader. Grant that I may have no desires." Then he asked for his father's liberation. The Lord said: "Because of a son like you, twenty-one generations of your family are purified." Prahlada became king of the daityas.

Chapters 11 to 15: the duties of the ashramas and householders

Narada told Yudhishthira the marks of eternal dharma: truth, compassion, austerity, purity, forbearance, discernment, control of mind and senses, non-violence, celibacy, renunciation, study, straightforwardness, contentment, equal vision, service, silence and devotion to God, thirty marks in all. Then the duties of the four ashramas, the householder's obligations and hospitality, and the teaching that a person has a right only to as much wealth as fills the stomach; one who claims more as his own is a thief.

What this skandh teaches

• God is everywhere, even in a pillar; true faith is always answered.
• Devotion has nine paths; follow any one with your whole heart.
• Good values and devotion should be sown from childhood.
• Wrongdoing cannot escape through boons and cleverness; God does justice even within every rule.
• A true devotee asks for nothing and wishes good even to those who hurt him.