God at times incarnates with the full powers and at times with smaller portion of his glory depending on the purpose of the incarnation. The power of each avatar differs majorly and the Lord’s appearance in the Avatar ranges from nine to sixteen rays or Kalas. Purna Avatars are in which all the sixteen rays are present. Purna means complete is all respect and till their return journey back to Vaikuntha, the Purna Avatar is conscious fully about his Jiva form, his God form and his Turiya form (Brahm). This they are conscious even at the time of birth. Shri Narasimha Saraswati is the 2nd Purna Avatar of Shri Dattatreya. Narasimha Saraswati was born in 1378 in a village called Karanjapur in Maharashtra. As soon as the birth took place the first words he uttered was OM and this is considered as holy. But to the surprise of everyone he did not utter any other word other than OM till he reached the age of 7.
The parents were quite worried about the boy but Narasimha Saraswati gestured with his hands that he will speak after the Upanayana. To the surprise of everyone he could speak all the Vedas and even started giving lectures on Vedas to the people. Shri Narasimha Saraswati performed many miracles during the course of his life and Shri Guru Charitra is a book which explains the life of Shri Narasimha Saraswati. Shri Narasimha Saraswati’s earlier name was Narahari or Shalgramdev and his father’sname was Madhav and mother’s name was Amba Bhavani. His surname was Kale and was born in Deshastha Brahmin family. Shri Narasimha Saraswati left home and went for the Kashi pilgrimage and took sanyasa from Shri Krishna Saraswati at Kashi. The second part of His name came from his Guru and it was the Guru who named him Shri Narasimha Saraswati. After visiting many holy places he went back to Karanja and met his parents. Shri Narasimha Saraswati finally settled in Ganagapur and settled there during the last phase of his life.
