Acharya Prashant explains the meaning of Holi by recounting an old fable from the Vishnu Purana. The story is about a demon king named Hiranyakashipu who, through intense austerities, prayed to Lord Brahma and received a boon of near-immortality. The conditions were that he could not be killed during the day or night, indoors or outdoors, on land, in the sea, or in the air, nor by any man or animal, nor with any handheld weapon or projectile. Having received this boon, Hiranyakashipu became extremely arrogant and decreed that only he should be worshipped in his kingdom, not God. Everyone complied out of fear, except for his own young son, Prahlada. Prahlada refused to submit, stating that Truth is Truth and God is God, and he would only bow to God, not to a mere mortal king who had attained some power. Furious, the king enlisted his sister, Holika, who had a special power that made her immune to fire. Holika made Prahlada sit in her lap on a large pyre, intending for the boy to be burnt alive while she remained unharmed. However, a miracle occurred: Prahlada survived the fire, while the scheming Holika was burnt to ashes. The king, even more enraged, then challenged Prahlada to embrace a burning hot iron pillar. As Prahlada approached it, a special creature, Narasimha—half-lion, half-man—emerged from the pillar. This occurred at dusk, a time that is neither day nor night. Narasimha, being neither man nor beast, took the king to the threshold of the palace (neither inside nor outside), placed him on his lap (neither on land, sea, nor air), and killed him with his sharp claws (neither a handheld weapon nor a projectile), thus cleverly bypassing all the conditions of the boon. The festival of Holi celebrates the innocent faith of Prahlada, which saved him from the sinister plots of the mighty king. The story offers several lessons. First, even when the ego works hard, it seeks only its own continuation for unworthy purposes, as seen in Hiranyakashipu's tyranny. The message is to question the purpose of one's hard work and power. Second, it is better to be powerless than to have power in the wrong hands. Finally, Prahlada's story is a great lesson in detachment and devotion to Truth, showing that the fundamental relationship with Truth is higher than any worldly or blood relation.