Siduri wrote on 6 Jul 1998:

>...It came to me when I was
>in the Temple last night that I had a lion-headed guardian spirit as
>well--at least that is how I think of Him ... Nrsimha-deva. He was an
>avatar of Vishnu/Krsna who came to slay the demon in human form,
>Hiranyakasipu, who was about to kill the child saint Pralad. Hiranyakasipu
>had been granted a boon by Indra, King of the Gods, that he could be killed
>by no weapon forged of man, neither on land nor on sea, neither by day or
>by night. Nrsimha materialised out of a pillar in the palace as
>Hiranyakasipu was about to hack Pralad into pieces with his scimitar.
>Nrsimha whose name literally means "God/lion" (Nara-simha) took the form of
>a lion's head and torso on a human trunk. It was twilight when He
>appeared; neither day nor night. He roared and grabbed Hiranyakasipu and
>pulled him onto His lap--neither on land nor on sea. With his "jewel-like"
>talons (no weapon forged of man) he ripped the demon to shreds. Great
>story, eh? He is now venerated as the Protector of Devotees. After my
>accident on the bike last year I was in the Temple and I had ... not a vision,
>but just a sense of Nrsimhadeva's protection extending over me. I really
>love the prayer we chant for him after the main service every Sunday evening.
>He is an Expansion of Krsna or Vishnu, so it is really the same as
>mentioned on the websites about Bast and Sekhmet, that there is one entity
>who adopts a multitude of guises, but always is the same Divine
>Consciousness, with endless transformations.