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Maharshi Kashyap and Diti had two sons - Hiranyaaksh and Hiranyakashyap. Hiranyaaksh was very powerful Raakshas. He took Prithvi inside the sea, so Vishnu assume the form of a Varaah and took out the Prithvi from the sea. While He was coming out, He met Hiranyaaksh and had a long fierce battle with him. At last He killed him.

Hiranyakashyap got very sad hearing his brother's killing and he became the staunch enemy of Vishnu. He did severe penance and got the Var from Brahmaa Jee, "I should die neither in the day nor night, neither inside the house nor outside the house, neither in the sky nor on the Earth, neither by any celestial nor by any human, nor from any weapon." Brahmaa Jee said "So be it" and got disappeared. Thus he became very powerful. Now he considered Vishnu nothing. He also won Tri-Lok and declared himself higher than Vishnu.

He forced everybody to worship him, not Vishnu. He had four sons - Anuhlaad, Prahlaad, Sanhlaad, and Hlaad. Among them Prahlaad was a great devotee of Vishnu. Even when he played with his mates, he sang Vishnu's Bhajan, worshipped Him and even asked his mates also to worship Him. When he became 5-year old, his father sent him to Gurukul. There Guru started teaching him. But whenever Guru asked him any question, he answered them in the light of Vishnu. This made Guru angry and fearful of the King.

After a while Hiranyakashyap saw Prahlaad in the palace, so he asked him as what he was studying. He said - "Vishnu is the highest, everybody should worship Vishnu only. He is the Creator, He is the Destructor, He is the Sustainer." Hearing this Hiranyakashyap asked him - "Who has taught this? Your Guru?" Prahlaad said - "No, But this is known to everybody." His father called his Guru and scolded him very badly as what was he teaching to him. This happened once or twice again. At last he thought that this boy cannot be controlled like this, he has to be killed. So he adopted all possible ways to kill him - crushed him under elephants' feet, threw from the top of mountain, bit by snakes, gave him poison to drink, put him on the fire (with Holikaa in her lap), but he came out safe from all these killing events.

Now this made Hiranyakashyap very angry. Once he asked him - "How do you save yourself?" Prahlaad said - "It is Vishnu who saves me, you also worship Vishnu, he will help you also." "Where does He live? I don't see Him anywhere." Prahlaad said - "He is present everywhere." He showed him a pillar and asked him - "Is He here also?" "Yes" Hearing this, he hit the court pillar to see Vishnu saying, "Let me see if He is in there also or not." Prahlaad started worshipping Prabhu's name. The pillar started shaking and eventually broke. A strange figure came out of that pillar - Nrasinh form of Vishnu - half upper body was of a lion and the half lower body was of a human. He caught Hiranyakashyap with His two hands, took him at the door of the court, put him on his lap and tore out his stomach with His lion-like nails, it was a Sandhyaa time.

Prahlaad prayed Him and He blessed him.