The Story of Bhakta Prahalad

Children need to appreciate their roots and culture to improve a feeling of pride and appreciation for them. Indian mythological stories for kids can be an incredible way to gain knowledge and learn about ancient times.

The Puranas, for example, are a compilation of traditional stories that talk about the oldest times and how life used to be. These mythical stories describe the good achievements of the heroes and teach children crucial values and morals to bring positive modification in their lives. In this article, we are going to read about Prahlad who was very devoted to god. Let's read Prahalad's story.

The Story of Prahalad for Kids

There once resided a king named Hiranyakashipu. Through several years of penance, he had developed a boon that he would not die either during the day or night, either in his house or outside, by battle from either man or animal and by no weapon created of either metal or wood. The boon gave him a lot of power so he lived carelessly and judged ruthlessly. He became very powerful, so he did not care about anyone and roamed around boasting about his boon.

Prahalad's Story

In the olden days, giant monsters were called daityas. Hiranyakashipu was the king of the daityas and needed to conquer the world and be worshipped by everyone. He had a son called Prahlad, who was a big devotee of Shri Vishnu. He would vocalise Vishnu’s name all the time and during all his actions.

Bhakta Prahalad

Hiranyakashipu was very irritated with Prahlad’s devotion to God and wished his son to worship no one, but himself. But Prahlad continued in his affection for lord Vishnu and his father proceeded to harass him to change his ways.

Out of his anger at Prahlad’s affection, Hiranyakashipu once had poured him in boiling oil, but Prahlad came out unharmed! So, next time, Hiranyakashyapu had the boy thrown from a hill, while yet another time, into a fire. But each time, God protected Prahlad from any hurt. This made the Hiranyakashyapu even angrier.

Prahlad was Hiranyakashyap's son, so he tried to convince him to stop worshipping Vishnu but Prahlad was a believer of Lord Vishnu, he wasn't convinced. Hiranyakashyap did not like this but Prahlad was uncovering his devotion. So, Hirnyakashyap agreed to kill Prahlad.

Finally, Hiranyakashyap called his sister Holika, a sea demon, to kill Prahlad. Holika had been provided with a boon that fire could not destroy her. She chose to take Prahlad in her lap and sit on a burning fire.

As the fires engulfed them Prahlad called aloud for Lord Vishnu's help. To everybody's surprise, the fire slowly ate Holika and she burned to death. Prahlad occurred safely and soundly.

Then one day, Hiranyakashyap asked Prahlad, “You tell me that your God will protect you. Can you reveal to me where he is?” Prahlad said, “God is everywhere.” Prahlad was standing next to a pillar, so the king asked, “If your God is everywhere, is he in this pillar?” Prahlad replied, “Yes.”

Upon hearing this, the king got extremely angry and broke the pillar in half. The next moment, Lord Vishnu emerged from the pillar in the avatar of Narasimha, half human and half lion! It was neither day nor night (twilight time) when this happened. He held up the king and took him to the threshold of the fort such that they were neither inside nor outside the fort. There he positioned the king on his lap and killed him with neither metal nor wood, but his feet!

Vishnu Came Out From Pillar

Moral of the Story

God is everywhere. If one chants God’s Name with devotion, he protects one in all circumstances. God is present everywhere, we just have to believe that he is there. He protects everyone and anyone, one has to call him with heart.

Summary

The story of bhakta Prahalad is shared in this article. Prahlad was the son of Hiranyakashipu and a great devotee of Lord Vishnu. Hiranyakashyap didn't like his son because he worshipped Lord Vishnu. He tried to kill him many times but god saved Prahlad every time. At the end Lord Vishnu came in Narasimha avatar and killed Hiranyakashyapu by following his boon. In this story, we learned that if we are not wrong and not doing wrong with anyone then God is always with us and will always protect us from all evil. Doing good deeds is what our work is. We don't have to worry about the result.