The Boy Who Would Not Bow

Among the tales the sages told the Pandavas was the story of Prahlada, the demon's son who loved God, and of how the Lord took a form that was neither man nor beast to keep an impossible promise.

There was once a mighty demon king named Hiranyakashipu, whose brother had been slain by the Lord Vishnu in an earlier age. Burning with hatred and grief, Hiranyakashipu swore vengeance upon Vishnu and upon all who worshipped him, and he resolved to make himself so powerful that no one - not god, not man, not the Lord himself - could ever stand against him. To this end he went into the wilderness and undertook a penance of fearful severity, standing in austerities for ages until the heat of his discipline shook the heavens and compelled the creator Brahma to come before him and grant him a boon.