Appearance Day of the Divine Protector - Lord Nrsimihadev

Hare Krishna dear friends,

Today marks the day on which Lord Nrsimihadev appeared to remove the obstacles for a young five-year-old boy named Prahlada. The day is called Nrshima Caturdasi and is the appearance of Lord Krishna in the form of half man-lion incarnation.

The obstacles Prahlada faced were the anger and wrath of his father, named Hiranyakasipu who controlled the world. Hiranyakasipu was extremely proud and hated Lord Vishnu (or Krishna). His son, however, was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu and constantly thought of Lord Vishnu. Thus they were always at odds with each other. One day Hiranyakasiphu asked his little son where the Lord resides, and Prahlada replied that the Lord resides everywhere.

This greatly angered Hiranyakasipu and asked Prahlada- Well if He’s everywhere, is He in this pillar? Hiranyakaysipu was ready to kill Prahlada and struck the pillar. However, to substantiate Prahlada’s statements, the Lord emerges from the pillar in His wonderful incarnation as Nrsimhadev, a half lion and half man.

The backstory tells us that Hiranyakashipu could not be killed by a man or a beast, nor on land or sea, neither day nor night and, without weapons.  So with all these benedictions, Hiranyakashipu had thought he had it all covered and no one would ever defeat him. However, the Lord tricked him and attacked Hiranyakashipu at twilight (when it is neither day nor night) on the threshold of a courtyard (neither indoors nor outdoors), and placed the evil Hiranyakaspyu on his thighs (neither earth nor air). Then using his claws (neither living nor non-living), he defeated Hiranyakasiphu. This tells us that the Lord can defeat our mundane calculations, no matter how greatly thought out they are.

Although Lord Nrsimhadev’s form looks somewhat frightening to those who may not know the story, the incarnation is one of deep compassion for living beings. Lord Nrsimha Deva is the protector of His devotees and remover of all obstacles and difficulties in the path of devotion to the Lord.

Anyone can offer prayers to Lord Nrsimhadev to request guidance in hard times just as he guided and protected little Prahlada.

To read more about the story’s purpose and intention, please go to this article by Srila Prabhupada, the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON - Nrsimha Caturdasi by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada – Back To Godhead

All the best,
Rukmini Walker