Prahlada

Prahlada
Prahlada overcoming the elephant
Information
Children	Virochana

prahlada (Sanskrit: Prahlāda, प्रह्लाद) is a male name that means "filled with joy" or "excess in joy." It is the name of a figure in Vedic literature, most notably the Srimad Bhagavatam. In the literature, Prahlada was a daitya king, the son of Hiranyakashipu and Kayadu, and the father of Virochana. He is often described as a saintly boy from the Puranas known for his piety and bhakti to Lord Vishnu. Despite the abusive nature of his father, Hiranyakashipu, he continued his devotion towards Lord Vishnu. He is considered to be a mahājana, or great devotee, by followers of Vaishnava traditions and is of special importance to devotees of the avatār Narasiṁha. A treatise is accredited to him in the Bhagavata Purana in which Prahlāda describes the process of loving worship to his Lord Vishnu. The majority of stories in the Puranas are based on the activities of Prahlāda as a young boy, and he is usually depicted as such in paintings and illustrations.

Prahlāda was born to Kayadu and Hiranyakashipu, an evil daitya king who had been granted a boon that he could not be killed of anything born from a living womb, neither be killed by a man nor an animal, neither during the day nor at night, neither indoors nor outdoors, neither on land, nor in the air nor in water and of no man made weapon! However, after repeated attempts of filicide by Hiranyakashipu unto Prahlada, Prahlada was finally saved by Lord Narasimha, a prominent avatar of Vishnu who descended to demonstrate the quality of Divine rage and redemption by killing the demon king. The word "Narsimha" is derived from the hindu word" nar" meaning Man and "simaha" meaning lion. Thus Narsimha to a being who is half man and half lion.Lord Narasimha, being the transcendental Supreme Personality of Godhead, fulfilled all the proper requirements by which the otherwise nearly-invincible Hiranyakashipu could be killed.