Prahlada, the pious child of demon Hiranyakashibhu!

God acts through myriads of living beings in this world. In one of the hymns, god is propitiated as ‘thousand headed, thousand limbed being. The real meaning is that god acts through all of us. If god really acts through us, then why there is so much of evil and cruelty in the world? This is one vital question which needs to be answered very carefully. God has granted man a little freedom to choose. Hence, god will never interfere with our choices. At the same time, we have to choose wisely. We have to discriminate between correct and incorrect ways and choose the correct one. We have heard that it is God’s will. Yes, no doubt about that but if man feels that he can plan and execute any task, then the ultimate responsibility of the outcome belongs to him and he has to experience the result. If one relinquishes his doer ship and surrender to the supreme will of god, then god takes the ultimate responsibility for the particular individual.

In the epics, there is a narration about one devout child “Prahlada” who is the son of cruel demon Hiranyakashibu. The demon king hated the Lord and he wanted every one of his citizen to worship him instead of Lord Narayana! He pressurized his son to worship him instead of Lord. But Prahlada won’t relent a bit. He knew that his father is absolutely wrong to consider him as supreme over Lord Narayana. He bluntly told his father, he won’t bow before any except the Lord. The King was infuriated at the audacity of his son and he tried to punish him in several ways. But the child Prahlada always relied on the Lord, and never even once felt that he is subjected to suffering. Since the Lord was felt always in his little heart, the Lord saw that Prahlada is not subjected to any torture by his father. He saved him from drowning in sea, by scorching of fire, by biting of venomous snakes and even by crushing by the legs of elephant. Finally his father the king administered very severe poison and asked Prahlada to drink it. Prahlada simply drank the poison but Lord Narayana absorbed the poison and allowed Prahlada to survive this ordeal.

Finding that all his attempts have gone waste, the king finally asked Prahlada, “where is your Lord Narayana? Prahlada replied that he is at all places all the time. This infuriated the king further and he dashed his iron mace against an iron pillar, “Is Lord, inside this pillar? At the very moment, the iron pillar broke into two, parted in the middle and the Lord in his most furious form of Lion man” sprung from there, caught hold of the king and placed him in his lap, tore open his stomach and intestines. Thus the demon Hiranyakashibhu breathed his last in the lap of the lord. All those who witnessed this gory scene were trembling in mortal fear but Prahlada was deeply immersed in the contemplation of the Lord and he started singing his praise. Sooner, the furious Lord Narasimha cooled his temper and blessed the boy Prahlada!

We can understand now that both the demon and divine are the outcome of the will of Divine. The Lord wanted to highlight the supreme devotion of boy Prahlada in contrast to the cruel demon Hiranyakashibu. Thus the Lord destroyed the demon and at the same time saved Prahlada and the entire kingdom from the misrule of the demon! Prhalada submitted himself and surrendered to the Lord and he was saved instantaneously. The king steeped in Ego was killed mercilessly by the Lord for the atrocities of the King! This is how god acts differently in each situation! But, what about the present age? Every one of us is aware of the most disturbing conditions around the world. At that time, there were few wicked people. Hence god assumed suitable forms and annihilated the evil. But today, everyone is wicked to the core baring a few good one. If the Lord starts to kill, none will surely survive. Everyone everywhere is a mixture of good and evil. Then, how to deal with such situation? Now evil is ingrained in the brain of every one. The only way is to transform the mindset and conscious of the individual. But God won’t do it forcibly since it would go against the laws of creation. Since god has granted all men discriminative power and a thinking mind, he will ensure that each one is taught by their own experiences in life, the impermanent nature of human life and the pleasures. Everyone here knows that they have to depart empty handed when the call of death comes. Due to intense human misery and suffering, we are enlightened to the truths of life and the validity of virtues in human life. Slowly we try to shed the evil in us one by one. One fine morning, we will become free from evil and good and become truly eligible to merge in the Divine, which is the ultimate aim of human life!