Narasiṃha Jayanti 1978

Nṛsiṃha Jayantī is observed on Vaiśākha Śukla Caturdaśī: the 14th day of the bright fortnight of Vaiśākha (April-May). On this day, Lord Viṣṇu manifested his fourth avatar: Nṛsiṃha, the half-man (nara) half-lion (siṃha), to slay the demon king Hiraṇyakaśipu and protect the child devotee Prahlāda. Of all Viṣṇu's ten principal avatars (Daśāvatāra), Nṛsiṃha is the most intense and most theologically intricate: for he emerged not from a womb or natural conception, but burst forth from a stone pillar in a moment of pure divine necessity, defying every limitation the universe had placed on what form the Protector could take.

The backstory is essential to the festival. Hiraṇyakaśipu was a powerful asura who, enraged by the death of his brother Hiraṇyākṣa at Viṣṇu's hands, performed severe tapas and obtained from Brahmā a seemingly unassailable boon: he could not be killed by man, animal, god, or demon; not during day or night; not inside a building or outside; not on earth or in sky; not by any weapon created or made. Armed with this near-invulnerability, Hiraṇyakaśipu declared himself the supreme deity and demanded worship. His son Prahlāda, however, was a devoted Viṣṇu bhakta from birth: chanting the Lord's names instead of his father's. No amount of punishment (thrown from cliffs, trampled by elephants, drowned, given poison, set on fire) could turn Prahlāda away from his devotion. When Hiraṇyakaśipu finally challenged his son by asking where this Viṣṇu was (was he in this pillar?) Prahlāda answered yes, and his father struck the pillar with his mace. From the broken column burst Nṛsiṃha: at dusk (neither day nor night), on the threshold of the court (neither inside nor outside), in the lap of Nṛsiṃha himself elevated above the ground (neither on earth nor in sky), killing Hiraṇyakaśipu with his claws (not a weapon created or made). Every clause of Brahmā's boon was honored, and every clause was simultaneously circumvented by the divine ingenuity of the avatar.

Nṛsiṃha Jayantī is observed with fasting through the day, special pūjā at dusk (the hour of the avatar's manifestation), recitation of the Nṛsiṃha Kavacam and the Nṛsiṃha Stotras, and reading of the Prahlāda story from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa's seventh canto. Devotees believe that worshipping Nṛsiṃha offers protection from all forms of fear, danger, and evil: for if the Lord could violate the laws of physics and metaphysics to protect one child's faith, he can certainly protect those who call upon him with sincere devotion. The dusk pūjā is particularly important: lamps are lit at the threshold (echoing the threshold-moment of the avatar's emergence), and the Navārṇa Mantra and Nṛsiṃha Kavacam are recited as the day turns to night.