Boolean 'NOT' Operator - Hiranyakashipu’s Boon

Vinay Borhade
Sep 14
2 min read

How a famous demon king’s wish teaches us about the power (and pitfalls) of logical negation in Python!

By drawing parallels between ancient stories and modern code, programming concepts become much more relatable, fun and easy to remember!

A Demon King’s Impossible Wish

n the epic of the Bhagavata Purana, Hiranyakashipu is the king who sought to defy death itself. After severe penance, he asks Brahma for a boon that would keep him safe from all possibilities of death:

Not “by man nor beast”
Not “inside nor outside”
Not “by day nor night”
Not “by any weapon”
Not “on earth nor in the sky”

Every request is an act of negation. Instead of asking for immortality, he tries to cover every possible scenario by specifying what he cannot be killed by—layer upon layer of “NOT this, NOT that!”

The Logic of Negation (Boolean NOT) in Python

In the world of programming, we invoke this spirit of exclusion through the Boolean NOT operator. It’s used to check if a condition is not true—flipping True to False and vice versa.

is_night = False 
if not is_night:     
	print("It’s not night. So something else must be happening!")

Just as Hiranyakashipu hopes to achieve safety through “not day, not night,” your code checks for the negation of a situation before proceeding.

Story to Code

Suppose Hiranyakashipu tried to write his safety protocol in code:

def can_be_killed(by, location, time):
    if (not (by == 'man' or by == 'beast') and
        not (location == 'inside' or location == 'outside') and
        not (time == 'day' or time == 'night')):
        return True   # Only then he is vulnerable!
    return False

But as we know from the story, the divine problem-solver, Lord Narasimha (man-lion avatar of Vishnu) finds a way:

Lord Narasimha is -

neither man nor beast
He kills at twilight (not day, not night)
On the threshold (neither inside nor outside)
Without weapons (bare hands; finger nails)
On his lap (neither earth nor sky)

The power of NOT lets us express these extraordinary conditions with logical precision!

Why Not Logic Matters

Edge Cases:
The Boolean NOT operator is crucial for checking what doesn’t fit the pattern—catching exceptions, edge conditions, and unique events.
Exclusions:
Often in programming, you want to act only if something is not the norm, e.g., user is not authenticated, item is not in stock.
Creativity in Logic:
Sometimes, as in the boon, the most creative solutions come from carefully defining what doesn't count, rather than what does.

A Lesson From the Boon

Hiranyakashipu teaches us a timeless truth—no matter how many negatives you pile up, exceptional cases still slip through!

In code (and life!), while NOT logic is powerful, it’s best used with clear, simple rules and awareness of what you might be leaving out.

Use Not With Wisdom

Python’s not operator is your tool for flipping logic, guarding special cases, and building creative conditional statements—much like the demon king’s complex (but fail-prone) boon.

Narasimha’s lesson: for every rule, there’s an exception waiting at the threshold. Use logical negation with care and clarity!