2017-04-24 Mon

Hope you are staying in touch with our series on incarnations of lord Vishu on earth.

Most of us are very familiar with the fourth avatar of Vishnu ‘Narsimha’. Nara means man and Simha means lion. Let’s have a quick look at the story behind it.

Hiranyakasyapa, a demon, after a great penance was given a boon by Lord Brahma that he be neither killed by a man or beast nor in daylight or at night and neither inside or outside a building. After this, Hiranyakasyapa started considering himself as the Supreme of all Gods.

His son Prahlada was the great devotee of Lord Vishnu and this was not accepted by Hiranyakasyapa. He attempted various ways to kill his son but each and every time Prahlada managed to escape.

Once Hiranyakasyapa asked Prahlada to show his Lord Vishnu. He said he is everywhere. This further enraged Hiranyakasyapa and he knocked down a pillar and asked if Lord was present there.

Suddenly lord Vishnu emerges in a furious form having the body of a human and face of a lion, the pillar was neither inside the house nor outside, and the time was evening, neither night nor day. Hiranyakasyapa was killed by this Narsimha avatar and thus Lord Vishnu saved his beloved devotee.

This scene of Narasimha killing Hiranyakasyapa is beautifully depicted on a commemorative stamp of Jayadeva. It has fine jewel-like colors with very fine details on it. The face value of this stamp is INR 5.

Don’t you wish to get this tiny art piece in your collection?

Stay tuned to know more!