The Lords fourth incarnation was Nara-simham This incarnation was demi-human- Half human and Half animal (lion). Nara means human simham means lion.
After his brothers death Hiranyaksibu became afraid for his life. He wanted long life and power. One day he got the idea to go to the forest and do meditation to get more life and also ward off any trouble with any animal or the Gods.
So Hiranyaksha went to the forest to do meditation. After a severe and devoted meditation for along time LORD Brahma appeared before him. He asked Brahma for immortality .But Brahma said no. He said all men when born have to die some time or the other and cannot live for ever. Brahma said "ask some thing else" Then Hiranyakasibu asked that he should not die either at the hands of any human or killed by any animal - in the day or at night. Brahma gave him the boon asked for and disappeared.
Even though his wife was pregnant Hiranyakasibu went to the forest to do penance. In the meantime Indra thought "If Hiranyakasibu gets the boon that he wants then we will all be in deep trouble. Hence I should kidnap his wife and keep her in jail". So when he returned after kidnaping Hiranyakasibu's wife Naradhathe sage came and stoped him. Naradha told Indra "you should not do this kind of coward acts. Hiranyakasibu is definitely going to get the boon and nobody can stop him. leave the lady with me and go to your 'lokha'. Indra left that lady with Sage Naradha and went off. Naradha took that lady to his abode and told her good moral stories. She would listen to him but sleep off. At that time the Sage would start to tell the stories of God Vishnu and also Prayers to God Narayana. The child in the womb of the lady listened to all the stories about Narayana and also the prayers. These got embedded firmly in the mind of the child-to-be born. The child when born was named Prahalada and he grew up as anardent devotee of Lord narayana.
But Hiranyakasibu had ordered all his subjects and all around him to pray to himself and not to any god. Hence was much annoyed by the devotion of his son to lord Narayana whom to God Narayana whom he considered as his enemy. Prahalada was ill-treated and tortured to forget god Narayana but could not get him to forget the Lord. Rakshasa Hiranyakasibu lost all his patience and one day in irritation asked prahalatha "Ok my boy where is that god Narayana ? Can you show me"? "yes"said Prahalada. He is everywhere and anywhere. The Rakshasa asked his son " pointing to a pillar "is he in this pillar ?" "yes he is in this pillar" said the son. Immediately the rakshasa took his huge club and hit the pillar. The pillar broke in to two pieces and appeared from it Narasimha neither a human nor an animal ie (half man and half lion) and took the Rakshasa on his lap and killed him with his claws. Thus came to end the evil called Hiranyakasibu. God took Narasimha avathar only to kill evil.
This was Lord's fourth incarnation to shave people they should be devoted to the God.
But Hiranyakasibu had ordered all his subjects and all around him to pray to himself and not to any god. Hence was much annoyed by the devotion of his son to lord Narayana whom to God Narayana whom he considered as his enemy. Prahalada was ill-treated and tortured to forget god Narayana but could not get him to forget the Lord. Rakshasa Hiranyakasibu lost all his patience and one day in irritation asked prahalatha "Ok my boy where is that god Narayana ? Can you show me"? "yes"said Prahalada. He is everywhere and anywhere. The Rakshasa asked his son " pointing to a pillar "is he in this pillar ?" "yes he is in this pillar" said the son. Immediately the rakshasa took his huge club and hit the pillar. The pillar broke in to two pieces and appeared from it Narasimha neither a human nor an animal ie (half man and half lion) and took the Rakshasa on his lap and killed him with his claws. Thus came to end the evil called Hiranyakasibu. God took Narasimha avathar only to kill evil.
This was Lord's fourth incarnation to shave people they should be devoted to the God.
Matsya, the one-horned fish, is the first among, the Dasa Avatara, the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu. The core concept of Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma) is that there is no beginning or end. There is only transformation. When man abandons Dharma and ventures into the territory of Adharma, Nature starts its destructive transformation. We humans term this as apocalypse or total annihilation. Lord Vishnu incarnated as Matsya to save all that was good in the world before its destruction. Just before the total destruction of the world, Matsya, the one-horned fish, swam into the hands of a pious man and asked him to save it from a big fish. The pious man took the fish home and placed it in a small vessel. The fish kept on increasing its size. It was then transferred from the small vessel to a big vessel; from it to a well, from well to a pond, from pond to a lake; and finally it was transferred to the ocean but it still kept growing.
The pious man in some Puranas is Manu, in some other Puranas it is Satyavrata. The pious man realizes the fish is Narayana and prostates before it. Matsya then told him that there will be a Mahapralaya in seven days. Matsya requests him to gather the seeds of all plants and a pair each of all living beings. He is asked to put them in a ship and wait for the deluge (Mahapralaya). Matsya also tells the pious man that it will again appear during the deluge and he will need to tie the boat to its horn using Snake Vasuki as the rope. In some versions, Matsya sprouts the horn and uses Ananta Sesha as the rope and navigates the boat to safety without the help of the pious man. In Bhagavad Purana, the boat is not build by the pious man but instead it appears before the deluge and he has to enter it with the seeds of all plants.
When the boat was tossed hither and thither in the massive flood, Matsya appeared near the boat and Satyavrata tied the boat to the horn of Matsya using Snake Vasuki as the rope. Matsya navigated the boat safely to the top of Mount Meru. When the deluge was taking place, a demon named Hayagriva with the face of a horse stole all the Vedas and sasthras from Brahma. and hide them in the deep sea.After a terrible fight with the Hayagriva,Vedas are restored and returned to the Brahma.
God's second incarnation was Koorma means turtle.God wished to create another creature one that could live in the water and on the land. The turtle can live in the water and land. So the turtle was his second creation in this world. This is the reason why god is shown as half-turtle and half-god. It is called koorma Avatharam Many years ago there was a war between the devas (gods) and the demons and the gods lost this war.
They prayed to Vishnu to rescue them from the oppression of the demons. Vishnu told Brahma and the other gods that they should have a temporary truce with the demons. The two sides should get together to churn the ocean .Vishnu would ensure that the devas benefited more from this churning of the ocean than the demons did. The truce was agreed upon and the two sides got ready to churn the ocean. The mountain Mandara was used as a churning rod and great sake Vasuki as the rope for churning.
The devas grasped Vasuki’s tail and the demons grasped Vasuki’s head. But as the churning began, the mountain Mandara which had no base, started to get immersed in the ocean .What was to be done? Lord Vishnu came to the rescue. He adopted the form of a turtle and the peak was balanced on the turtle’s back . As the churning continued, terrible poison named kalkuta emerged from the depths of the ocean and was swallowed by Shiva. Shiva’s throat became blue from this poison and he is there fore known as Nilakanthan. The goddess Varuni, the goddess of wine(sura), came out next.
The gods readily accepted her and thus they came to be known as suras. But the demons rejected Varuni and were therefore known as asuras. She was followed by the Parijata tree, a beautiful tree that came to occupy the pride of place in Indra’s garden. A jewel named koustubha emerged and was accepted by Vishnu as his adornment. Three wonderful animals came out next- the cow Kapila, the horse Ucchaishrava and the elephant Airavata .They were followed by the apsaras, beautiful women who became the dancers of heaven. They were known as apsaras because they emerged from water. The goddess sri Lakshmi came out next and was united with Vishnu . Finally ,Dhanvantari emerged with a pot of amrita(amrita kumbam) (the life - giving drink) in his hands. Dhanvantari was the originator of medicine(ayurveda). The demons where capture the amrita kumbam from Dhanvantari and departed with the amrita kumbam.
Mohini Avathar But Vishnu quickly adopted the form of a beautiful woman (mohini). So beautiful was the woman that the demons were charmed. “Pretty lady,” they said. “ take the amrita and serve it to us. Marry us.” Vishnu accepted the amrita,but he had no intention of giving it to the demons. He served it to the gods instead. There was only one demon who was some what clever. His name was Rahu. He adopted the form of Chandra, the moon-god, and succeeded in drinking some of the amrita. The sun-god and the moon-god noticed what was happening and reported it to Vishnu. Vishnu there upon cut off Rahu’s head with a sword.
But Rahu had drunk the amrita, so he could not die. He prayed to Vishnu and Vishnu granted him a boon. The boon was that occasionally Rahu would be permitted to swallow up the sun .You can see this happening at the time of the solar and the lunar eclipses. People who give alms during such eclipses are blessed. The gods obtained the amrita and the demons did not. Thus, the gods became more powerful than the demons. They defeated the demons and regained heaven.
Vishnu’s next incarnation was in the form of a boar .GOD decided to create a creature that could live on the land alone. The boar lives on land only. This means in the order of evolution land based animals evolved. It is called Varaha Avatharam.
The mythological story behind this avathar is as follows: Once sage Doorwasa went to vishnu -lokha to worship Lord Vishnu .But the guards at the gate - Jayan and Vijayan didn't allow the saint inside to see the lord. The sage got very angry and cast acurse that the two should leave the heavens and be born in the earth as rakshasa- cruel and violent human beings and went away .
The two guards were very sad and worried. After thinking for along time they went inside and saw Lord Vishnu. They told him about the curse cast by the sage Doorvasa. However even Lord Vishnu could not reverse the curse.
The guards should not have stopped sage Doorvasa at the gate. Vishnu said You both should not have stoped that sage and I can do nothing about the sage's curse but I can give a new boon that is: you both can come back to me as my enemy after 3 births or you can come back to me as my devotee after 30 births. Take your choice. They said 'O lord we don't want 30 births. Please we want to come back to you soon in 3 births even though the three births would be as your enemies'. Lord Vishnu agreed to this. So in that order their first birth is: The sage Kashyapa and his wife Diti had two son's named Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasibu brothers. they became the kings of the demans. These brothers were very cruel.
Hiranyakasibu was the worst of the two. Hiranyaksha’s meditation pleased LORD Brahma and lord Brahma appeared before him and granted him the boon that he would be invincible in battle. Thus armed. Hiranyaksha went out to fight with the devas. He comprehensively defeated the gods and conquered heaven. He also defeated Varuna, the god of the ocean .Thus, Hiranyaksha became the king of the heaven, the earth and the underworld. But the demons was not particularly fond of the earth. He himself had begun to live in Varuna’s palace under the ocean.
So he hurled the earth into the depths of the ocean. The gods went to Vishnu and prayed that something might be done about Hiranyaksha. They wished to be restored to heaven and they wished that the earth might be brought back from the depths of the ocean. In response to these prayers, Vishnu adopted the form of a boar and entered the ocean. Who should he meet there but Hiranyaksha himself? Hiranyaksha of course did not know that this boar was none other than Vishnu. He thought that it was anordinary boar and attacked it. The two fought for many years .But finally, Hiranyaksha was gored to death by the boar’s tusks .The boar raised the earth up once again with its tusks. Vishnu thus saved the gods and the principles of dharma.
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