There is a particular kind of quiet a person reaches for before something difficult: a hard conversation, an early start, a fear they would rather not name. Across India, one of the oldest ways of meeting that moment is to sit, breathe, and recite a few lines of Sanskrit — a pranama, an offering of respect. The Sri Narasimha Pranama is one of these. In the Vaishnava tradition it is offered to Narasimha, the half-man, half-lion form of Vishnu, and it is recited as an invocation of courage and steadiness — a way to settle the mind on fearlessness before stepping into the day.
What follows is not one single mantra but a sequence of three traditional verses commonly recited together as the Narasimha pranama. We share them here as living heritage — the legend, the Sanskrit, and what each line means — so you can read them with understanding and, if you wish, make a small conscious practice of them. The agency stays with you; the verses are a tool you return to.
Who Narasimha is
The story comes from the Bhagavata tradition. A king named Hiranyakashipu had grown so powerful, and so cruel, that he forbade the worship of Vishnu altogether — yet his own young son, Prahlada, remained devoted. The king's anger turned on the boy. In the legend, Narasimha appears at this point: neither man nor beast, neither inside nor outside, at neither day nor night, slipping past every condition the tyrant had arranged for his own protection. He defends the child and ends the king's reign.
Read as heritage rather than doctrine, the figure carries a clear meaning: a fierce face turned towards cruelty, and a tender one turned towards the devoted. That double nature — ferocity and gentleness held together — is what the verses below return to again and again.
Verse 1 — the pranama proper
नमस्ते नरसिंहाय
प्रह्लादाह्लाद-दायिने
हिरण्यकशिपोर् वक्षः-
शिला-टङ्क-नखालये
Transliteration
namas te narasiṁhāya
prahlādāhlāda-dāyine
hiraṇyakaśipor vakṣaḥ
śilā-ṭaṅka-nakhālaye
Translation
“I offer my respects to Narasimha, who brings joy to Prahlada and whose claws are like chisels on the stone-like chest of the demon Hiranyakashipu.”
What the lines hold
- Narasimha — the form of the divine as half-man (nara) and half-lion (simha).
- Prahlādāhlāda-dāyine — the one who brings happiness to the devotee Prahlada, symbolising protection and grace.
- Hiraṇyakaśipor vakṣaḥ-śilā-ṭaṅka-nakhālaye — claws compared to chisels that cut through the hard, stone-like chest of the king who set himself against dharma, or righteousness.
This first verse is the pranama itself: a simple bow. It names the protector of the faithful and the undoing of cruelty in the same breath, and it emphasises the claws — the fierce detail — as the means by which arrogance was broken.
Verse 2 — present in every direction
इतो नृसिंहः परतो नृसिंहो
यतो यतो यामि ततो नृसिंहः
बहिर्नृसिंहो हृदये नृसिंहो
नृसिंहम् आदिं शरणं प्रपद्ये
Transliteration
ito nṛsiṁhaḥ parato nṛsiṁho
yato yato yāmi tato nṛsiṁhaḥ
bahir nṛsiṁho hṛdaye nṛsiṁho
nṛsiṁham ādim śaraṇam prapadye
Translation
“Narasimha is here, and Narasimha is there. Wherever I go, Narasimha is there. He is outside, and he is within my heart. I take refuge in Narasimha, the original source and my supreme refuge.”
What the lines hold
- ito nṛsiṁhaḥ parato nṛsiṁho — “here and there” — in the tradition, the divine understood as present in all directions.
- yato yato yāmi tato nṛsiṁhaḥ — “wherever I go, he is there” — the felt sense that protection is constant, whatever the place.
- bahir nṛsiṁho hṛdaye nṛsiṁho — “outside, and within the heart” — the divine held to be both external and inward.
- nṛsiṁham ādim śaraṇam prapadye — “I take refuge in Narasimha, the original source” — the line resolves in surrender.
Verse 2 is a separate, much-loved protection verse, often recited on its own — the single line ito nṛsiṁhaḥ parato nṛsiṁho is one many practitioners know by heart. In the tradition, devotees understand Narasimha as ever-present, within and without; the verse expresses that conviction and ends in letting go.
Verse 3 — from Jayadeva's Dashavatara Stotra
तव कर-कमल-वरे नखम् अद्भुत-शृङ्गम्
दलित-हिरण्यकशिपु-तनु-भृङ्गम्
केशव धृत-नरहरि-रूप जय जगदीश हरे
Transliteration
tava kara-kamala-vare nakham adbhuta-śṛṅgam
dalita-hiraṇyakaśipu-tanu-bhṛṅgam
keśava dhṛta-narahari-rūpa jaya jagadīśa hare
