Nrusinha

Avatars

Nrusinha is considered the fourth avatār of the 10 foremost avatārs of Vishnu. In terms of the five eternal entities, Nrusinha is of the ishwar entity, which is capable of incarnation when Parabrahma Purushottam Narayan enters the ishwar.

Hiranyakashipu had conquered the three realms: Pruthvi, Swarga, and Pātāl. When he was ardently performing austerities, his pregnant wife Kayādhu was residing in Nāradji’s āshram. Listening to Nāradji’s discourses, the child that was born, Prahlād, became a firm devotee of Vishnu. However, his father Hiranyakashipu was an enemy of Vishnu. So, he tried to kill his own son Prahlad by giving him poison to drink, placing him in a pit of poisonous snakes, and other means. Ultimately, he forced Prahlad to embrace a blazing hot iron pillar. Nrusinha emerged from the pillar in the form of a half man (nar) and half lion (sinha), or Nar-Sinha, and killed Hiranyakashipu. This avatār was for the purpose of only one of his child devotees. The birth of this avatār was on Vaishakh sud 14.

Hiranyakashipu was the brother of Hiranyāksha, who was slain by Vishnu’s avatār Varāh, resulting in Hiranyakashipu’s antagonism toward Vishnu. These two brothers were Jay and Vijay, the guards to Vaikunth-Lok, in their previous birth. They were doomed to take birth as asurs due to the curse of Sanakādik.