Here is why Prahlad prayed for his father to be liberated.
It was not due to bodily attachment, but due to compassion. Everyone should feel compassion for Hiranyakasipu. Anyone who thinks they have been hard done by in life should consider the internal devastation of Hiranyakasipu. Narada Muni states that he envies the level of absorption, the intensity of emotion, that Hiranyakasipu attained in meditating on the Supreme Being, Visnu.
Hiranyakasipu was of course one of the two gatekeepers, Jaya and Vijaya, who were externally cursed to take birth in the material world. In order to help the Lord perform his pastimes they took birth as demons, but retained their status as pure devotees, manifesting a level of meditation on the Lord that is formidable. In the case of Hiranyakasipu the secondary rasa of devastation was manifested in its purest and most complete form.
Hiranyakasipu was rejected by his father from the very moment of conception. His mother, Diti, had seduced his father, Kasyapa Muni, at an inauspicious time for procreation, and caused him to engender children at a moment under the influence of malefic stars.
Disgusted with himself and his wife, Kasyapa cursed her and the children to be born of her womb. This became the fundamental psychological experience of Hiranyakasipu. Early childhood experiences are very profound in shaping the psychology of a person, and from the moment of conception Hiranyakasipu carried with him a deep samskara of rejection.
Because he was in fact conceived at a time of malefic influences, the karma of the body and mind that he was born with was to be materialistically minded. This means that his vision was limited to an external, superficial way of seeing things. He therefore was unable to understand the deeper significance of events around him. This, combined with his psychological scars of rejection, lead him to interpret everything as an attack on him.
His brothers, Indra and the others, who were born of Aditi, Kasyapa’s other wife, became the demigods. They were installed in heavenly palaces and received offerings from the people in general. They were empowered representatives of the Supreme Person and functioned as administrators in the universal order.
Hiranyakasipu, and his younger twin brother Hiranyaksa (born first, therefore Vedically considered to have conceived second), did not understand or recognise the concept of a universal order. All he could perceive is that his brothers were accepting offerings from people, and he and Hiranyaksa were cut out of that. It became, to him, more evidence of prejudice and rejection of his brother and himself. He did not understand the relationship between Visnu, the Supreme Person, and the people of this world, or the need to become progressively detached from the material world by offering things to Visnu, in this case through the demigods who provide the function of “onsite representatives” of the Supreme.
That is precisely why they were excluded from it. They had no idea of what it really was, but thought simply that their brothers as the demigods were getting a kick back, and had shut Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksa out of the picture.
Hiranyakasipu felt very protective of his younger brother. They had been rejected by their father, and Hiranyakasipu determined to be the father that his brother never had. Filled with rage, he undertook intensely harsh austerities, which far exceeded anything in the capacity of the demigods. He was in fact a pure devotee descended from the spiritual world, so his power was immense.
The demigods became filled with fear and approached the most powerful being in the universe, Brahma, their grandfather. Brahma himself was perturbed by Hiranyakasipu’s actions, which threatened even him. In order to pacify Hiranyakasipu he gave him the benediction that Hiranyakasipu asked for, that of being impervious to being killed by a range of means, which seemed to preclude all possibilities.
With this benediction under his belt, the two sons of Diti waged war on their brothers the demigods, finally storming the gates of heaven and seizing control of the heavenly kingdom.
At this point Visnu was not involved in the war. Although Hiranyakasipu felt that Visnu had shown favouritism to the sons of Aditi and had colluded with them to exclude himself and his brother, Visnu claimed that he was in fact neutral to all and had no friends or enemies.
Hiranyakasipu was a man of honor and respected this, although he did not agree with the assessment. He was sure that Visnu was allied with his enemies.
After their victory, the two brothers ruled the universe, abusing their position and the privileges that it offered, just as it had always been feared that they would if given the opportunity. They simply did not have the depth of vision to be able to utilise their leadership position to serve the interests of the people, instead viewing it simply as a vehicle to obtain self-gratification.
Hiranyaksa, the younger brother of Hiranyakasipu, directly challenged Visnu when Visnu was involved in the action of universal maintenance, adjusting the orbit of the Earth. “Who do you think you are, touching my planet!” Hiranyaksa demanded, and attacked Visnu. Not understanding the role of the demigods or Visnu in the universal maintenance he threatened the stability of the universe. At that time Visnu fought with him and killed him.
When Hiranyakasipu heard about this he became livid with rage:
“That lying coward Visnu! I respected his word when he said he would not fight, but would remain neutral. He refused to meet me in open combat on the battlefield, and now he has killed my younger brother in an underhanded way!”
Hiranyakasipu saw it as further evidence of the plot against him. His father, his brothers the demigods, Visnu, all were against him, and all continually lied about what they were doing as they mistreated him. Hiranyakasipyu had never told a lie in his life.
Hiranyaksa was not only Hiranyakasipu’s brother, but his twin brother, and the only family he had ever had. The only companion, the only like-minded person. It was the two of them versus the world, and after so many years of intense hardship they had finally done it, finally made it, and now at this victorious moment it was all snatched away. Hiranyaksa was dead. Hiranyakasipu had been motivated by a desire to protect his brother and be a father figure to him, the father they never had.
Now he lived only for his son Prahlad. Everything he had he wanted to give to his son. He had determined that his son would have a father who would give him his birthright, the birthright that had been denied to Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksa, but that he seized through his intense endeavour.
Then came the fateful meeting. Hiranyakasipu met his young son Prahlad and affectionately took him on his lap and tousled his hair with great love. He then inquired from his beloved son what he was learning in school, where Hiranyakasipu had sent him to learn to administer the kingdom they had won.
Prahlad replied by telling him that Visnu was the goal of life.
Hiranyakasipu threw Prahlad from his lap as if he were a hissing snake, his mind reeling. How could this be? How had his mortal enemy, Visnu, gotten to his young son, within the very palace?
Hiranyakasipu became filled with contradictory emotions, and this was the beginning of the final act for him. On the one hand, his primal motivating force, the rejection by his father, and his subsequent intense desire to provide for his son, the only thing left to him after the death of his brother. His intense desire to establish a dynasty, to right the wrong of his and his brother’s exclusion from their family heritage.
On the other hand, his deep rooted hatred for Visnu, who had been behind everything that had been wrong with his life - his father, the Vaisnava, who cursed his mother for conceiving children at a time which was inauspicious for procreation of Vaisnavas, the alliance between Visnu and his other brothers that saw Hiranyaksa and himself marginalized and excluded, Visnu’s refusal to take to the battlefield and put up an honest fight, and subsequently his underhanded killing of Hiranyaksa when Hiranyakasipu was not present.
These two powerful motivating forces began to war within Hiranyakasipu and destroy his internal emotional landscape. He had lived a life with intense purpose, fierce resolve, but now the very same force that had driven him to conquer the universe, excelling all other living beings in austerity and determination, began to manifest as an unresolvable contradiction.
He had to kill his son to retain his identity, his integrity with the principles that had brought him to this point, and his son was the only thing he was living for, the focus of his principles.
He couldn’t bring himself to do it, so he delegated the task to his servants. Each time they returned to him he experienced a dissociation from his core that drove him closer and closer to the brink of total insanity: “Is it done?”
Fearing to hear either answer his hands would grip the throne tightly until his subordinates reported: “He lives still, sire.” He would slump in his seat, losing touch more and more with reality, edging closer to madness.
Finally Prahlad came before him. Hiranyakasipu’s hope was that his son had seen reason, that the teachers had managed to demonstrate to him who Visnu really was, and that now they could together rule the universe. He was sure that things would work out, and that in spite of all the odds he had faced, his birth, his childhood, the long years of struggle, the death of Hiranyaksa, somehow there would be a happy ending. His son would appreciate him.
However, it was not to be.
At that moment everything, absolutely everything, turned to ashes in his mouth. His whole identity came crashing down around him, filling his ears with a roaring sound. His devastation was complete. Raising his sword and screaming incoherently he rushed toward his son, the only thing he lived for, and the representative of the most hated person in the universe….
And at that moment, Visnu appeared.
