Prahlada

The demons had a king named Hiranyakashipu who was very evil. Vishnu killed this evil king and instated Prahlada, Hiranyakashipu’s son, as the king of the demons.

Prahlada was a good king. He was respectful towards the gods and the brahmanas. Religious ceremonies were faithfully observed in his kingdom. The brahmanas could go about their business in peace, performing tapasya and visiting tirthas. Dharma (righteousness) prevailed.

There was a powerful sage named Chyavana. One day, he went to a tirtha named Nakuleshvara, located on the banks of the river Narmada. When Chyavana entered the river to bathe, a black snake came and bit him. But the sage started to pray to Vishnu and the snake’s poison was rendered harmless. The snake however managed to drag Chyavana down into the underworld. All the demons (danavas and daityas) who lived in the underworld worshipped the great sage and he was taken before their king, Prahlada.

Prahlada asked Chyavana, “Please tell me about the great tirthas that are there in the sky, the earth and the underworld.”

“There are a large number of tirthas,” replied the sage. “But the best tirtha in the sky is Pushkara, the best one on earth is Naimishatirtha and the best one in the underworld is Chakratirtha.”

Hearing this, Prahlada thought that it would be a good idea to visit Pushkara. But as a preliminary, the demons went and bathed in Naimishatirtha. After the bathing was over, Prahlada went out on a hunt with his companions and soon came to the banks of the river Sarasvati. There was a shala tree standing there and all along the tree the branches were pierced with arrows. Not a single part of the trunk was unscathed.

A little beyond the tree, Prahlada came upon two sages. They had matted hair and wore deerskins. They were busy meditating. But by their side, there were two divine bows. And quivers full of arrows. Prahlada concluded that these two sages were not real sages. They must be fake sages, otherwise, why should they carry weapons?

“Why are you so bothered?” retorted the sages. “We are only doing what is in our power to do.”

“How can you talk of power?” asked Prahlada. “I am the king of the demons. I am the source of your strength. How can you have any independent power?”

“Not at all,” replied the sages. “We are Nara and Narayana. We have plenty of strength. There is no one who is our equal in prowess.”

These words angered Prahlada and he arranged his soldiers in proper formation and attacked the sages. Nara and Prahlada first fought with one another, letting loose volleys and volleys of arrows. They sliced up each other’s arrows. The sky was covered with arrows flying in all directions. When his arrows served no purpose, Prahlada took up a divine weapon named brahmastra. Nara repelled this with another divine weapon named narayanastra. Prahlada now took up agneyastra and Nara repelled this with maheshvarastra. Prahlada now took up a mace to fight.

Narayana had taken no part in the battle so far. He relieved Nara and entered the fray. Prahlada’s mace struck Narayana and Prahlada started to shoot arrows at each other. So wonderful was the battle that the gods came and lined up in the sky to see what was happening. Narayana sliced up all of Prahlada’s bows with his arrows. The king of the demons then began to fight with clubs, nooses and spears. Finally, one of Narayana’s arrows pierced Prahlada in the chest and he fell down on his chariot, unconscious. His charioteer removed Prahlada to safety.

When Prahlada regained consciousness, he came back to fight again. But Narayana told him.

“It is now time for the evening prayers. Come back tomorrow and we will resume our duel.”

Next morning Prahlada returned and the two warriors continued to fight. Thus it went on for a thousand years and Prahlada found it impossible to vanquish Narayana. In desperation, he started to pray to Vishnu.

Vishnu appeared before Prahlada and said, “Forget about trying to defeat Narayana. He is invincible. The gods and the demons cannot vanquish him, even if they gang up together.”