Narasimha

Narasimha was the fourth avatara of Vishnu in Dashavatara. In this form, Vishnu had the body of a human, but he had a head of a lion. This avatara of Vishnu is also a symbol of great strength and power.

A painting of Narasimha

The Hindu scriptures tell this story about Narashimha. There was a demon (a daitya) named Hiranyakashipu. He was against all gods and goddesses. But, his son named Prahlada used to worship the god Vishnu. Hiranyakashipu was not happy at his son and wanted to burn him to death. Hiranyakashipu also wanted to kill everyone who worshipped the gods and goddesses and make everyone worship him instead. Vishnu became Narasimha, and protected Prahlada and other people who worshipped the gods and goddesses by stopping Hiranyakashipu. Brahma had granted Hiranyakashipu a boon that kept him safe so that he could not be killed by a human, animal, deva. He also could not be killed in the morning or night, or inside or outside of his palace. This made Hiranyakashipu believe that no one could kill him. When he wanted to kill his son for worshiping Vishnu, Vishnu came to earth incarnated as a half-human, half-lion animal (neither human animal nor non-human being). This way, Vishnu killed Hiranyakashipu by disimboweling him to death in the twilight (neither morning, nor night) time on that day and sitting on the porch of the palace (neither inside, nor outside), without disrupting the boon given to him by Brahma. Lakshmi, Sarasvati, Shiva, Parvati, Indra, Shachi, all the total other gods, all the total other goddesses celebrated this. Now, Narasimha Jayanti is celebrated across the world.