21 - Final Destiny

Summary

In this episode of 'Stories from India,' host Narad Monei continues the tale of Pralad and his evil father Hira. Despite numerous attempts on his life, Pralad's unwavering faith in Vishnu saves him, culminating in the appearance of Vishnu's fierce Narasimha avatar. The episode also touches on the Festival of Holi and introduces Vali, a character with a unique power from Brahma.

Takeaways

• 🎶 The podcast 'Stories from India' explores myths, legends, and folk tales of India, hosted by a character named Narad Monei.
• 🧝 Narad Monei is a mythological character with eternal life and knowledge of past, present, and future, who also travels as a musician and storyteller.
• 🔥 The story continues with Pralad, his evil father Hiranyakashipu, and evil aunt Holika, with a cliffhanger from the previous episode emphasized for suspense.
• 💪 Pralad has a special power where half of his opponents' powers are transferred to him in every fight, making him nearly invincible.
• 🔮 Holika is protected by a magical cloak from Brahma, but a gust of wind, possibly divine intervention, saves Pralad by transferring the cloak to him.
• 🐘 Hiranyakashipu's attempts to kill Pralad with fire, poison, and an angry elephant all fail due to divine intervention and the boy's faith in Vishnu.
• 🦁 The appearance of Narasimha, Vishnu's fourth avatar, fulfills the conditions of Hiranyakashipu's death as described in the prophecy.
• 🎉 Holika's death is celebrated in the festival of Holi, a spring festival in India involving colors and bonfires.
• 📚 The podcast has covered various avatars of Vishnu and promises to delve into more details about others like Varaha, Mohini, and Buddha.
• 🐒 The character Vali from the Ramayana is mentioned, who gains half of his opponents' powers in battle, making him nearly unbeatable.
• 🎙️ The podcast invites listeners to engage through comments, reviews, and social media, and teases upcoming stories about Ahalya and other characters.

Q & A

What is the podcast 'Stories from India' about?

The podcast 'Stories from India' discusses myths, legends, and folk tales from India, hosted by Narad Monei, a mythological character with the gift of eternal life and knowledge of the past, present, and future.

What special power does the character Valmiki have?

Valmiki has the unique power that in every fight, half of his opponent's powers are magically transferred to him, making it nearly impossible for him to be defeated in battle.

Why is Pralad's father, Hiranyakashipu, unable to be killed by conventional means?

Hiranyakashipu was granted a wish by Brahma that he would not be killed by a human, animal, or god, and that it would happen neither during the day nor night, indoors or outdoors, by projectile or handheld weapons, on the ground, in the sky, or in the water.

What divine intervention saved Pralad from the fire set by Holika?

A gust of wind, sent by Vishnu, blew off Holika's magical cloak, which then wrapped itself around Pralad, protecting him from the flames.

How does the story of Pralad and Hiranyakashipu relate to the festival of Holi?

The festival of Holi is celebrated as a commemoration of the divine intervention that saved Pralad from the fire set by Holika, symbolizing the triumph of good over evil.

What is the significance of the character Narasimha in the story?

Narasimha, also known as the Lion Man, is the fourth avatar of Vishnu. He is neither a man, animal, nor a god, and he fulfills all the conditions of Hiranyakashipu's death as granted by Brahma's wish.

How did Pralad demonstrate his unwavering faith in Vishnu?

Pralad demonstrated his faith by continuously praying to Vishnu and believing in his protection, even when faced with life-threatening situations orchestrated by his father, Hiranyakashipu.

What is the connection between Vishnu and snakes?

Vishnu has a special relationship with snakes, as he rests on the ultimate snake, Sheshnag, and Sheshnag has aided Vishnu in every avatar. This relationship is also the reason why Pralad was unharmed when placed in a room full of snakes.

What is the significance of the character Vali in the Ramayana?

Vali is a powerful monkey king, the ruler of Kishkindha, and an older brother of Sugreev. He is known for his unique power of gaining half of his opponent's powers in every fight, making him nearly invincible.

What is the role of Narad Monei in the podcast?

Narad Monei serves as the host and storyteller of the podcast, providing insights and narrating the myths and legends of India with his eternal life and knowledge of the past, present, and future.

Outlines

00:00

🔥 The Tale of Pralad and His Trials

In this episode of 'Stories from India', host Narad Monei continues the suspenseful narrative of Pralad and his evil father, Hiranyakashipu. Pralad, a devotee of Vishnu, faces numerous life-threatening challenges orchestrated by his father and aunt, Holika. Despite the dire situations, Pralad remains steadfast in his faith. The episode highlights Pralad's trials, including being placed on a burning pyre, poisoned milk, and an attack by an enraged elephant, all of which are miraculously thwarted by divine intervention. The story emphasizes the power of faith and the divine protection offered by Vishnu.

05:01

🐘 Pralad's Miraculous Escapes and Hira's Desperation

The narrative delves deeper into Pralad's miraculous escapes, showcasing the divine intervention of Vishnu in various forms. A seemingly impossible chain of events saves Pralad from an attack by an elephant, illustrating the subtle yet powerful ways in which Vishnu protects his devotee. Further, Hira's attempts to harm Pralad, including placing him in a room with snakes, are met with failure as Vishnu's omnipresence and influence are evident. The episode underscores the theme of divine protection and the futility of opposing the divine will.

10:03

🦁 The Emergence of Narasimha and Hira's Downfall

The climax of the story unfolds with Hira's ultimate test of Pralad's faith, leading to the emergence of Narasimha, Vishnu's fourth avatar. Narasimha, a hybrid of man, lion, and god, fulfills the conditions set by Brahma for Hira's death, demonstrating the inescapable nature of divine justice. The episode concludes with Pralad's ascension to rule the kingdom, highlighting the triumph of faith and righteousness over evil. The story serves as a reminder of the power of divine intervention and the ultimate victory of good over evil.

15:04

🐒 Vali's Unique Power and Upcoming Adventures

The episode shifts focus to Vali, a character from the Ramayana, who possesses a unique power granted by Brahma. In every battle, Vali gains half of his opponent's powers, making him nearly invincible in combat. The host teases an upcoming episode that will explore the adventures of Akar and Bebel, hinting at intriguing tales from medieval India. The episode concludes with a promise of future stories, maintaining the listener's interest and anticipation for the next installment.

Keywords

💡Narad Muni

Narad Muni is a mythological character in Hinduism known for his eternal life and omniscience, encompassing knowledge of the past, present, and future. In the video's narrative, he serves as the host of the podcast, guiding the listeners through the story of Pralad and his family, thereby embodying the role of a storyteller and a musician, which are traditional attributes of Narad Muni.

💡Pralad

Pralad is a central character in the script, known as a staunch devotee of Lord Vishnu. His unwavering faith and devotion are highlighted in the video as he faces numerous life-threatening situations orchestrated by his father Hiranyakashipu and aunt Holika. Pralad's character exemplifies the triumph of faith and devotion over adversity.

💡Hiranyakashipu

Hiranyakashipu is depicted as the antagonist in the script, the father of Pralad, who is granted a wish by Lord Brahma that he could only be killed under very specific conditions. His character represents the struggle against divine will and the consequences of arrogance and defiance.

💡Holika

Holika is Hiranyakashipu's sister and an accomplice in his attempts to kill Pralad. She is known for her magical cloak that protects her from fire, which is used in a failed attempt to burn Pralad. Her character serves as a foil to Pralad's faith and is ultimately defeated by divine intervention.

💡Divine Intervention

Divine intervention is a recurring theme in the script, where Lord Vishnu's protective presence saves Pralad from various deadly traps set by Hiranyakashipu and Holika. This concept is central to the video's message, illustrating the idea that faith and devotion can lead to miraculous protection.

💡Vishnu

Lord Vishnu is a principal deity in Hinduism and is portrayed as the protector of Pralad in the script. His various avatars, including Narasimha (the Lion Man), are highlighted as manifestations of divine power that intervene in the world to uphold dharma. Vishnu's role is pivotal in the narrative, demonstrating the power of divine justice.

💡Avatar

In the context of the script, an avatar refers to the incarnations of Lord Vishnu that descend to Earth to restore balance and protect the righteous. The video mentions several avatars, including Narasimha, and discusses their significance in Hindu mythology and their role in the story of Pralad.

💡Holi

Holi is a spring festival in India that is mentioned in the script as being connected to the story of Pralad and Holika. The festival involves the celebration of colors and a bonfire, which is symbolic of the divine intervention that saved Pralad from the fire, as depicted in the script.

💡Physics Defying

The term 'physics defying' is used in the script to describe the supernatural events that occur, such as the wind that steals Holika's cloak or the chain of events that leads to the elephant's fall. These instances highlight the theme of the supernatural and divine intervention in the narrative.

💡Narima

Narima, also known as Narasimha, is the fourth avatar of Lord Vishnu mentioned in the script. This avatar is depicted as a half-man, half-lion creature that fulfills the conditions of Hiranyakashipu's death, thus illustrating the concept of divine justice and the fulfillment of destiny.

💡Bali

Bali is mentioned in the script as a character with a unique power to gain half of his opponent's powers in every fight, making him nearly invincible in battle. This power, granted by Lord Brahma, is a key aspect of his character and is used to illustrate the theme of divine gifts and their impact on the narrative.

Highlights

Introduction to the podcast 'Stories from India' with host Narad Moneii, a mythological character with eternal life and knowledge of past, present, and future.

Continuation of the story of Pralad and his evil father and aunt, with a cliffhanger from the previous episode.

Character with a special power that gains half of the opponent's powers in every fight, making him seemingly invincible.

Holica's magical firefighter's cloak, a gift from Brahma, protects her and Pralad from the flames.

Hira's unique death conditions granted by Brahma, which are later fulfilled by Vishnu's avatar Narasimha.

The miraculous gust of wind and the physics-defying situation that saves Pralad from the fire.

Hira's anger and decision to avenge his sister's death, leading to further attempts to harm Pralad.

Pralad's immunity to poison due to Vishnu's divine intervention, showcasing his protection.

The chain of unlikely events leading to an elephant's fall, preventing it from harming Pralad.

Hira's ignorance of Vishnu's relationship with snakes, which inadvertently protects Pralad.

Pralad's unwavering faith in Vishnu despite numerous life-threatening situations.

The revelation of Narasimha, Vishnu's fourth avatar, who fulfills the conditions of Hira's death.

Pralad's wisdom and eventual rule of the kingdom, highlighting his character development.

Discussion on the Festival of Holi and its connection to the story of Holica and Pralad.

Introduction of the character Vali from the Ramayana, with a unique power to gain half of his opponent's powers in battle.

The encounter between Vali and Ravana, and the outcome influenced by their respective powers.

Upcoming episode teaser about the story of Akar and Bebel, and the unique character of Shanta, sister of Ram and Lakshman.

Transcripts

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

hello and welcome to stories from India

a podcast where we talk about myths

Legends and folk tales from

India I'm your host narad monei and I'm

a mythological character

myself I have the gift of eternal life

and knowledge of the past the present

and the

future by profession I'm a traveling

musician and a

Storyteller so the way I'm doing my job

is by

podcast this week we'll continue the

story of pralad and his evil dad and

evil Aunt if you haven't heard the

previous episode you definitely should

because we left it on a

cliffhanger

for the suspense to have any effect it

would really help if you know how we got

there the character this week has a very

special power in every

fight half of his opponents powers are

magically transferred over to him this

makes it impossible for him to be

defeated except maybe by sniper

attack we'll pick up the story right

where we left off last

time holica sat on a pile of logs with

pralad on her lap the whole pile of logs

was on

fire holica was protected by her magical

firefighter's cloak that was a gift from

my dad Brahma the

Creator Hera the boy's dad had also

received a

gift it was that when he died it would

be by neither a human nor an animal nor

a god it would be neither day nor night

it would be neither indoors nor Outdoors

he would not be killed by either asra or

shastra which are Sanskrit words for

projectile weapons or handheld

weapons he would not be killed on the

ground or in the sky or in the

water the Flames continued to rise

around them H watched on with

Glee this was a win-win for

him if Vishnu showed up trying to

protect pralad this was his chance to

have a

showdown he had no doubts in his mind

that he'd be able to defeat Vishnu

thanks to the wish Brahma had

granted on the other hand if Vishnu did

not show up the world was better off

without one Vishnu

devote even if that devote was his own

son

as the Flames Rose he couldn't see much

of what was

happening inside hola was calm and

undisturbed the Magical cloak around

her pralad was calm

too you'd wonder why though he was in

the hot seat quite

literally he continued to pray to

Vishnu suddenly there was a gust of wind

where did that come from wondered

holica but not for too

long because that gust of wind blew her

cloak right off of

her in a physics defying situation quite

like in the Final Destination movie

series the cloak miraculously wrapped

itself around

pralad yep that wind was freakish all

right before holica could do or sing say

much she

burned the Flames that had taken a long

time to build up now accelerated and

quickly burned hola to a

crisp Hira had been expecting his sister

but when his son stepped out of the

ashes instead H was

angry he was a stereotypical villain but

even he loved his

sister he decided that she must be

Avenged

this had to be vishnu's

doing Hira walked off in a

huff the next day he decided to set up

another trap for

Vishnu he poisoned the boy's

milk but just like in the old song about

Rasputin prad drank it all up and sat up

fine it was still Vishnu behind the

scenes all the poisonous particles

magically evaporated out of the glass of

milk this wasn't really physics

defying because quantum mechanics tells

us that it is not impossible for all the

poison molecules to suddenly behave that

way it's just very

unlikely but as you have already seen

stretching the rules of physics is

vishnu's

speciality and so pralad was quite safe

for

now next an angry elephant was brought

over to trample the

boy people around the court were gasping

at the sight of the great animal rushing

towards the

boy just then yet another freakish thing

happened on a nearby tree a squirr was

carrying a nut back

home as it jumped to its Branch the the

sun which had been behind a cloud

suddenly peaked

out the sunlight glanced off of a nearby

soldier's shield and reflected exactly

into a tiny spot where the squirrel

was momentarily blinding

it the squirrel

stumbled the nut dropped out of its

hands as the nut rolled down on the

ground it slowed down

and when it finally stopped it nudged a

Loosely positioned piece of

Rock The Rock

dislodged and rolled a short distance

downhill a very short distance but just

enough to be in exactly the elephant's

path the elephant stumbled and fell

before it could reach the

boy pralad muttered a silent prayer of

thanks to

Vishnu Hira was losing it now he next

put pralad in a room full of

snakes but this was just a move out of

ignorance Vishnu and snakes have a

special

relationship if Hira had actually

bothered to do some opposition research

he'd have known how Vishnu rests on

shag the ultimate snake and how in every

Avatar sheshnag has aided

him I've covered more of krishna's

relationship with snakes in episode 11

the boy who

lived there wasn't any furniture in the

room and it looked like H intended to

keep the door locked all night so the

snakes made a nice bed for prad to sleep

on I must say prad had guts of Steel

throughout this despite dodging one

bullet after another he was not in the

least bit panicking he had utter faith

in

Vishnu well it was my coaching it had to

work H had lost patience now after

trying to hurt his child in every way

possible and failing every time he

finally did what he should have done at

the very

beginning he had a conversation with

pralad he asked outright why do you

still worship

Vishnu and prad

replied Vishnu is all powerful allseeing

all

knowing okay then where exactly is

Vishnu asked

hi how can he see everything when he's

not even

here he's here said prad

where I don't see him he

asked he's in everything around us said

the

boy even in this pillar

here sure said

prad H smashed the pillar with one hand

he was powerful enough to smash a marble

pillar to bits with his bare

hand see no

wishu h start to say and stopped because

when the tiny pillar

cracked from inside it emerged a huge

creature taller than any man and several

times wider and broader than the pillar

had

been this was quite a

person he had the body of a human

giant and the head of a ferocious

lion everyone was scared

stiff

The Lion Man picked up H like he weighed

nothing and dragged him to the door of

the

palace he lifted prad's father off the

ground to about chest height and dug his

sharp nails into hira's body like it was

made of

butter as H's breath left him he

realized what had

happened The Lion Man was neither a man

nor an animal nor not a God but a

combination of all

three he was neither on the ground nor

in the

sky he was at the threshold of his

Palace and so was neither completely

indoors nor

Outdoors it was

Twilight and so it was neither daytime

nor night

time and The Lion Man had used neither a

projectile not a handheld

weapon his wish had come

true The Lion Man was actually nurma

which literally translates to man

lion this was vishnu's fourth avar and

by far his

fiercest pralad who had already shown

extraordinary wisdom at his young age

went on to Rule the

Kingdom that's it for this

story some notes on the

show as I mentioned last week hola is

the reason we celebrate the Festival of

holy as it happens this Festival begins

tomorrow and ends on

Tuesday if you haven't heard of it it's

a spring festival in India that involves

a lot of

colors the night before holy which is

basically tomorrow people will make a

bonfire not in celebration of hola's

death but to celebrate the divine

intervention that allowed prad to

escape at this point we've encountered

many of vishnu's

avatars we have covered matsa in episode

one unicorn

fish vaha in another episode we have

covered a small fraction of Rah and

krishna's

stories you can find links to all of

these in the show

notes we still have several more to

cover including Wan kurma moini and

Buddha and we have to cover pararam in

more detail as well but by far the

narima Avatar is the most violent of

vishnu's

avatars I've linked some pictures of

nimma on the site SFI podcast.com if you

want to check the go

out pralad himself went on to do a lot

more after

this but his adventures in later life

are worthy of an episode of their

own the character this week is the most

powerful person

ever sort of like apocalypse from the

X-Men

movies Vali from the ramayan has a

unique power in every fight battle or

contest Vali automatically receives half

of his opponent's

Powers together with his own powers

which are certainly not negative this

makes W impossible to

defeat if you want to guess how he got

this power I'll give you exactly one

guess and as I'm sure you've got it

right it was my dad again Brahma who

gave him this

power V was impossible to defeat if you

faced him in

battle on the other hand a well-placed

sniper might be able to hurt

him and that is exactly what

happened but I'll not give away too many

details since we have not reached that

part of the ramayan

yet Wali was a monkey King ruler of the

kingdom of kishkinda an older brother of

sugreev Wali was easily the most power

ful being on the planet he defeated

pretty much everyone including ran the

chief villain guy from The

Ram this is the point in the story where

I make an

entrance I was passing through Ran's

Court one day and I happen to carelessly

refer to W as the most powerful being on

Earth that was enough for ran to want to

prove a

point I wanted him against it but Ren

went went off to challenge

W yes ravan had a lot of superpowers

from Brahma but the fight had only one

possible outcome since ravan lost half

of those powers to Val even before the

fight

began W made quick work of Raven and

held him captive in his wait for it

armit yes he did ravan obviously Tapped

Out out at this move he asked Wally for

friendship and W gladly

accepted Wally didn't have many friends

and badly wanted

some what happened after this is a story

for another

day I'm also going to do an episode on

Tara at some point she was W's wife and

had just as much if not more interesting

backstory that's it for this week if you

have any comments or suggestions please

leave a comment or a review on the site

sfip podcast.com or tweet at SFI

podcast you can also find me on

Instagram and

Facebook be sure to subscribe to the

show to get notified automatically of

new

episodes thanks to all you listeners for

your continued

support the music is from purp

planet.com that's purple-planet

.c next week we'll go back into the

world of akar and

bebel we'll see how one can stay warm

despite being in the middle of a

freezing Lake all night we'll also see

what the term slow cooker really meant

in medieval

India the character next week is the

sister of RAM and

lakshman most people are unaware of her

and for a good reason she does not

appear in most versions of the

ramayan I'll see you next

[Music]

week