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In Sukracharya’s ashram, when the other students learnt about Prahlada’s story, they approached him and wanted to learn from him. He then instructed them about the uselessness of leading a materialistic life and how absolute devotion to Lord Vishnu was the only way in which one could attain salvation.
He then went on to inform his friends that he had received this knowledge from Narada Muni and that it was based on logic and philosophy and was free from all material contamination. When his young friends asked Prahlada as to how he had managed to get this knowledge from the great Narada, he went on to narrate the story of his birth to them.
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When Hiranyakasipu, the asura king was engaged in severe penance near the Mandara mountain, Indra, the king of the demigods attacked the asuras to subdue them and conquer them. After defeating the asura armies, Indra then captured Hiranyakasipu’s wife, who at that point of time was pregnant with Prahlada. At this point, Narada intervened and told Indra that even though the queen bore Hiranyakasipu’s child, the child itself was sinless and faultless and that he would go on to become a great devotee of Vishnu.
Hearing this Indra allowed Narada to take the queen to his ashram to remain there under his protection. At the ashram, as was the norm the queen provided service to Narada who in turn was benevolent enough to partake with instructions and information on religion and other related subjects to her. Because of the long duration of her stay there, all the information that Narada gave to her were assimilated by Prahlada from within his mother’s womb itself.
Therefore when the young prince was born, he was already a great devotee of Vishnu and followed the path of abstaining from materialistic pleasures even from a very young age, despite the fact that he was an asura prince.
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