Prahlad

Samir's past life had been quite simple but also miserable. He had not gotten the love and attention from his family. It would not be an exaggeration to say that his relationship with his family was as good as that of a stranger with another stranger. He didn't really know the whole concept of love that much. Even after that, he somehow felt hatred and pity in his heart. 

Yam continued with his tale after a brief moment of silence, "With the help of his newly acquired boon, Hiranyakashyapu defeated every foe who came in his way. Shortly after, he became the ruler of all three major Loks which were Prithvi Lok, Swarg Lok and Patal Lok. His mind was finally free to take care of his family problems which included one thing only: His son, Prahlad's devotion to his sworn enemy. Hiranyakashyapu wanted to destroy the devotion towards Bhagwan Vishnu present in Prahlad's heart and mind. To achieve this, he sent Prahlad to a Gurukul. When attending the Gurukul, he would be taught about the greatness of his father and the cunningness and deception of Bhagwan Vishnu and in a few years of time he would understand the greatness of Bhagwan Hiranyakashyapu, at least that was what Hiranyakashyapu had planned."

"But what happened next was not what he had expected, isn't that right?" Samir interjected.

Yam then said in praise, "Exactly. When Prahlad arrived at the Gurukul, he made some friends on the first day. Unbeknownst to him, they had made friends with him just because of his status as the prince. Their conversation slowly reached the topic of Prahlad's devotion towards Bhagwan Vishnu. They questioned Prahlad's devotion and its reason. Facing such criticism, Prahlad didn't waver. Then, Prahlad broke a branch of a plant and asked the children if their Bhagwan Hiranyakashyapu could fix it. Hearing this, they started laughing and told Prahlad that it was impossible. For them, this was nothing but a joke. While laughing, one of the kids asked him in disdain, "You want to embarrass our Bhagwan but can your Bhagwan do it? If notthen you have no right to ask such questions." Prahlad still remained calm and replied sincerely and honestly to the kid that Bhagwan Vishnu could do it. He started to chant Bhagwan Vishnu's name and asked him to connect the broken branch to the plant. Suddenly, the branch started glowing and levitating. Slowly, it moved closer to the plant and after just a moment, the branch had been fully reconnected. It was as if the branch had never been broken. All the kids were amazed and realized the greatness of Bhagwan Vishnu."

Samir retorted, "But why did Bhagwan Vishnu interfere in mere mortals' argument?"

Yam then replied, "A valid question. Bhagwan Vishnu interfered because Prahlad had called for his help wholeheartedly. His request was also selfless as he just wanted to help his friends remove their blindfold from their eyes."

After a brief pause, Yam carried on the tale and said, "The teachers teaching in the Gurukul reported this incident to Hiranyakashyapu. After hearing of the incident, Hiranyakashyapu recalled Prahlad to the palace and scolded him harshly. The next few attempts of Hiranyakashyapu also ended in failure and being fed up with his own son, he decided to get him killed. Even though he had decided so but still, he had hesitation in his heart. This caused him to try various methods to kill him indirectly. He ordered his soldiers to drop Prahlad from a cliff and kill him while feigning the act of taking him somewhere to travel. Prahlad was dropped from a high cliff but he was saved by a farmer who was taking his cart full of hay to the palace. The soldiers informed Hiranyakashyapu of Prahlad's death but Hiranyakashyapu was sceptical and asked them if they had confirmed his death with their own eyes. They answered that they had not seen the death because of the height. This answer infuriated Hiranyakashyapu and he was just about to scold them further but a gatekeeper told him that Prahlad had come back unscathed to the palace. This incident was the breaking point of Hiranyakashyapu and now the only thing which was preventing him from taking the life of his own son was the rumors that his citizens would spread if he killed him personally. For the next plan, he invited his sister 'Simhika' who had gained a boon from Bhagwan Brahma. The boon was that she was immune to the harm caused by fire. Simhika showed off this boon of hers in front of Prahlad by sitting in a fire pit. Then she asked him if he wanted to join her and also told him that he would be safe in her embrace. Prahlad accepted this proposal of hers and sat in the pit in Simhika's embrace. The main motive of Simhika was to kill Prahlad by deceiving him but when the fire died down, Hiranyakashyapu saw that Prahlad was fine. However, what he didn't expect even in his dreams was that his beloved sister had died in the fire. Burned to ashes. After this plan failed, he sent Prahlad to his sister Simhika's in-laws' home with a letter to deliver to his older brother 'Ahlad'. Simhika was a childless wife and seeing her distress, Kayadhu gave her firstborn to her. Prahlad arrived at the palace with the letter in his hands and delivered it to Ahlad. The letter contained the information of Simhika's demise and Prahlad being the reason for it. The letter also contained the order for Ahlad to kill Prahlad. After seeing the letter, Ahlad's eyes reddened by sadness and hatred but he didn't let himself to show it and asked Prahlad to rest for a few days at the palace. Ahlad needed some time to think of a way to accidentally kill Prahlad. Some days passed and one day, Ahlad called Prahlad to go to a temple of Bhagwan Vishnu which was infested by venomous snakes and bring back the statue. Of course, he omitted the part about the venomous snakes. Prahlad arrived at the temple and opened the gates but when he saw the snakes, he was terrified. After a while, with a strong devotion he closed his eyes and start to chant Bhagwan Vishnu's name in his mind. He opened his eyes after a while and saw that all the snakes had disappeared. He quickly picked up the statue of Bhagwan Vishnu and returned to the palace. Ahlad was astonished to see him come back alive and asked him about how he brought back the statue. Prahlad told him about what had happened truthfully. Ahlad then decided to go and check for himself if what Prahlad had said was true or not. When he arrived at the temple, he saw that there were no snakes inside at all. He slowly checked his surroundings and suddenly, a snake jumped on him from the ceiling and bit him. Ahlad quickly grabbed the snake and tossed it away and ran towards the palace. He successfully reached the palace gates and his treatment started. Nothing worked on him and everyone lost their hope. When Prahlad heard of his brother's serious condition, he rushed back to the palace and chanted Bhagwan Vishnu's name in hopes of saving his brother."

Samir had an astonished look on his face and he asked, "But why did he try to save him? Did he not know that Ahlad had attempted to kill him?"

Yam replied solemnly, "Prahlad was kind and innocent but not dumb. He knew that his brother had tried to kill him but as I said earlier, he was kind and innocent. He tried to save him even after that incident."

Yam sighed and shook his head while saying this. 

Samir then asked him, "Then did Ahlad survive?"