Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.2392

c8.2392

The words of Prahlāda struck his father like a thunderbolt. With his lips trembling with anger Hiraṇyakaśipu stared with his blood-red eyes at the preceptor. The frightened Guru again and again submitted that he had never taught him any of the kind the boy had repeated before his father. Then who must have taught him those things? the emperor enquired. Then Prahlāda said that all those things were put into his mind by Mahāviṣṇu himself. A hot discussion then took place between Prahlāda and his father and in the end Hiraṇyakaśipu ordered the preceptor to take away Prahlāda and make another earnest attempt to correct him and bring him round to the emperor’s liking. Prahlāda stayed for another period with the Guru serving him with devotion and studying well. After a long time Prahlāda was again taken before his father and the latter as before asked him to repeat what he had studied so far. To the shocking disappointment of Hiraṇyakaśipu Prahlāda again repeated verses in praise of Mahāviṣṇu. The emperor’s rage knew no bounds and he ordered his men to kill his son. (Chapter 17, Aṃśa 1, Viṣṇu Purāṇa).