vasati dasana-sikhare dharani tava lagna
sasini kalanka-kaleva nimagna-
kesava dhrta-sukara-rupa jaya jagadia hare
"All glories to Lord Kesava [Krsna], who appeared as the boar. The earth was held between His tusks, which appeared like the scars on the moon."
Prabhupada's Lectures General - 1970 700218VA.LA Los Angeles, February 18, 1970
Prabhupada: ...lifted the world when it was submerged within the water
of Garbhodaka Ocean. The universe which we are seeing, it is only half.
The other half is filled with water, and in that water is
Garbhodakasayi Visnu lying. So one demon, Hiranyaksa, he pushed this
earthly planet within that water, and Lord Krsna delivered this earthly
planet from water in the shape of a boar. So that auspicious day is
today, Varaha-dvadasi. This is called Varaha-dvadasi. So on this day it
is better to sing, to glorify the different incarnations of Lord within
this universe. The first incarnation is the fish form.
So these prayers were offered by Jayadeva Goswami. One Vaisnava
poet advented about seven hundred years before Lord Caitanya's
appearance. He was a great devotee, and his specific poetry,
Gita-govinda, is very famous all over the world. Gita-govinda.
Gita-govinda is the subject matter of Krsna playing on flute about
Radharani. That is the subject matter of Gita-govinda. The same poet,
Jayadeva Goswami, has offered this prayer,
TRANSLATION
O sinless Vidura, all of a sudden, while Brahma was engaged in
thinking, a small form of a boar came out of his nostril. The
measurement of the creature was not more than the upper portion of a
thumb.
O descendant of Bharata, while Brahma was observing Him, that boar
became situated in the sky in a wonderful manifestation as gigantic as
a great elephant.
Struck with wonder at observing the wonderful boarlike form in the
sky, Brahma, with great brahmanas like Marici, as well as the Kumaras
and Manu, began to argue in various ways.
Is this some extraordinary entity come in the pretense of a boar?
It is very wonderful that He has come from my nose.
First of all this boar was seen no bigger than the tip of a thumb,
and within a moment He was as large as a stone. My mind is perturbed.
Is He the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Visnu?
PURPORT
Since Brahma is the supermost person in the universe and he had
never before experienced such a form, he could guess that the wonderful
appearance of the boar was an incarnation of Visnu. The uncommon
features symptomatic of the incarnation of Godhead can bewilder even
the mind of Brahma.
TRANSLATION
While Brahma was deliberating with his sons, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, Visnu, roared tumultuously like a great
mountain.
PURPORT
It appears that great hills and mountains also have their roaring
power because they are also living entities. The volume of the sound
vibrated is in proportion to the size of the material body. While
Brahma was guessing about the appearance of the Lord's incarnation as a
boar, the Lord confirmed Brahma's contemplation by roaring with His
gorgeous voice.
TRANSLATION
The omnipotent Supreme Personality of Godhead enlivened Brahma and
the other highly elevated brahmanas by again roaring with His uncommon
voice, which echoed in all directions.
PURPORT
Brahma and other enlightened brahmanas who know the Supreme
Personality of Godhead are enlivened by the appearance of the Lord in
any of His multi-incarnations. The appearance of the wonderful and
gigantic incarnation of Visnu as the mountain like boar did not fill
them with any kind of fear, although the Lord's resounding voice was
tumultuous and echoed horribly in all directions as an open threat to
all demons who might challenge His omnipotency.
TRANSLATION
When the great sages and thinkers who are residents of Janaloka,
Tapoloka and Satyaloka heard the tumultuous voice of Lord Boar, which
was the all-auspicious sound of the all-merciful Lord, they chanted
auspicious chants from the three Vedas.
PURPORT
The word mayamaya is very significant in this verse. Maya means
"mercy," "specific knowledge" and also "illusion." Therefore Lord Boar
is everything; He is merciful, He is all knowledge, and He is illusion
also. The sound which He vibrated as the boar incarnation was answered
by the Vedic hymns of the great sages in the planets Janaloka, Tapoloka
and Satyaloka. The highest intellectual and pious living entities live
in those planets, and when they heard the extraordinary voice of the
boar, they could understand that the specific sound was vibrated by the
Lord and no one else. Therefore they replied by praying to the Lord
with Vedic hymns. The earth planet was submerged in the mire, but on
hearing the sound of the Lord, the inhabitants of the higher planets
were all jubilant because they knew that the Lord was there to deliver
the earth. Therefore Brahma and all the sages, such as Bhrgu, Brahma's
other sons, and learned brahmanas, were enlivened, and they concertedly
joined in praising the Lord with the transcendental vibrations of the
Vedic hymns. The most important is the Brhan-naradiya Purana verse Hare
Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama
Rama, Hare Hare.
TRANSLATION
Playing like an elephant, He entered into the water after roaring
again in reply to the Vedic prayers by the great devotees. The Lord is
the object of the Vedic prayers, and thus He understood that the
devotees' prayers were meant for Him.
PURPORT
The form of the Lord in any shape is always transcendental and
full of knowledge and mercy. The Lord is the destroyer of all material
contamination because His form is personified Vedic knowledge. All the
Veda worship the transcendental form of the Lord. In the Vedic mantras
the devotees request the Lord to remove the glaring effulgence because
it covers His real face. That is the version of the Isopanisad. The
Lord has no material form, but His form is always understood in terms
of the Veda. The Veda are said to be the breath of the Lord, and that
breath was inhaled by Brahma, the original student of the Veda. The
breathing from the nostril of Brahma caused the appearance of Lord
Boar, and therefore the boar incarnation of the Lord is the personified
Veda. The glorification of the incarnation by the sages on the higher
planets consisted of factual Vedic hymns. Whenever there is
glorification of the Lord, it is to be understood that Vedic mantras
are being rightly vibrated. The Lord was therefore pleased when such
Vedic mantras were chanted, and to encourage His pure devotees, He
roared once more and entered the water to rescue the submerged earth.
TRANSLATION
Before entering the water to rescue the earth, Lord Boar flew in
the sky, slashing His tail, His hard hairs quivering. His very glance
was luminous, and He scattered the clouds in the sky with His hooves
and His glittering white tusks.
PURPORT
When the Lord is offered prayers by His devotees, His
transcendental activities are described. Here are some of the
transcendental features of Lord Boar. As the residents of the upper
three planetary systems offered their prayers to the Lord, it is
understood that His body expanded throughout the sky, beginning from
the topmost planet, Brahmaloka, or Satyaloka. It is stated in the
Brahma-samhita that His eyes are the sun and the moon; therefore His
very glance over the sky was as illuminating as the sun or the moon.
The Lord is described herein as mahidhrah, which means either a "big
mountain" or the "sustainer of the earth." In other words, the Lord's
body was as big and hard as the Himalayan Mountains; otherwise how was
it possible that He kept the entire earth on the support of His white
tusks? The poet Jayadeva, a great devotee of the Lord, has sung of the
incident in his prayers for the incarnations:
vasati dasana-sikhare dharani tava lagna
sasini kalanka-kaleva nimagnakesava
dhrta-sukara-rupa jaya jagadia hare
"All glories to Lord Kesava [Krsna], who appeared as the boar. The
earth was held between His tusks, which appeared like the scars on the
moon."
TRANSLATION
He was personally the Supreme Lord Visnu and was therefore
transcendental, yet because He had the body of a hog, He searched after
the earth by smell. His tusks were fearful, and He glanced over the
devotee-brahmanas engaged in offering prayers. Thus He entered the
water.
PURPORT
We should always remember that although the body of a hog is
material, the hog form of the Lord was not materially contaminated. It
is not possible for an earthly hog to assume a gigantic form spreading
throughout the sky, beginning from the Satyaloka. His body is always
transcendental in all circumstances; therefore, the assumption of the
form of a boar is only His pastime. His body is all Veda, or
transcendental. But since He had assumed the form of a boar, He began
to search out the earth by smelling, just like a hog. The Lord can
perfectly play the part of any living entity. The gigantic feature of
the boar was certainly very fearful for all nondevotees, but to the
pure devotees of the Lord He was not at all fearful; on the contrary,
He was so pleasingly glancing upon His devotees that all of them felt
transcendental happiness.
TRANSLATION
Diving into the water like a giant mountain, Lord Boar divided the
middle of the ocean, and two high waves appeared as the arms of the
ocean, which cried loudly as if praying to the Lord, "O Lord of all
sacrifices, please do not cut me in two! Kindly give me protection!"
PURPORT
Even the great ocean was perturbed by the falling of the
mountainlike body of the transcendental boar, and it appeared to be
frightened, as if death were imminent.
TRANSLATION
Lord Boar penetrated the water with His hooves, which were like
sharp arrows, and found the limits of the ocean, although it was
unlimited. He saw the earth, the resting place for all living beings,
lying as it was in the beginning of creation, and He personally lifted
it.
PURPORT
The word rasayam is sometimes interpreted to mean Rasatala, the
lowest planetary system, but that is not applicable in this connection,
according to Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura. The earth is seven times
superior to the other planetary systems, namely Tala, Atala, Talatala,
Vitala, Rasatala, Patala, etc. Therefore the earth cannot be situated
in the Rasatala planetary system. It is described in the Visnu-dharma:
patala-mulesvara-bhoga-samhatau
vinyasya padau prthivim ca bibhratah
yasyopamano na babhuva so 'cyuto
mamastu mangalya-vivrddhaye harih
Therefore the Lord found the earth on the bottom of the Garbhodaka
Ocean, where the planets rest during the devastation at the end of
Brahma's day.
TRANSLATION
Lord Boar very easily took the earth on His tusks and got it out
of the water. Thus He appeared very splendid. Then, His anger glowing
like the Sudarsana wheel, He immediately killed the demon [Hiranyaksa],
although he tried to fight with the Lord.
PURPORT
According to Srila Jiva Gosvami, the Vedic literatures describe
the incarnation of Lord Varaha (Boar) in two different devastations,
namely the Caksusa devastation and the Svayambhuva devastation. This
particular appearance of the boar incarnation actually took place in
the Svayambhuva devastation, when all planets other than the higher
ones--Jana, Mahar and Satya--merged in the water of devastation. This
particular incarnation of the boar was seen by the inhabitants of the
planets mentioned above. Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti suggests that the
sage Maitreya amalgamated both the boar incarnations in different
devastations and summarized them in his description to Vidura.
TRANSLATION
Thereupon Lord Boar killed the demon within the water, just as a
lion kills an elephant. The cheeks and tongue of the Lord became
smeared with the blood of the demon, just as an elephant becomes
reddish from digging in the purple earth.
TRANSLATION
Then the Lord, playing like an elephant, suspended the earth on
the edge of His curved white tusks. He assumed a bluish complexion like
that of a tamala tree, and thus the sages, headed by Brahma, could
understand Him to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead and offered
respectful obeisances unto the Lord.
TRANSLATION
All the sages uttered with great respect: O unconquerable enjoyer
of all sacrifices, all glories and all victories unto You! You are
moving in Your form of the personified Vedas, and in the hair holes of
Your body the oceans are submerged. For certain reasons [to uplift the
earth] You have now assumed the form of a boar.
PURPORT
The Lord can assume any form He likes, and in all circumstances He
is the cause of all causes. Since His form is transcendental, He is
always the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as He is in the Causal Ocean
in the form of Maha-Visnu. Innumerable universes generate from the
holes of His bodily hairs, and thus His transcendental body is the Veda
personified. He is the enjoyer of all sacrifices, and He is the
unconquerable Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is never to be
misunderstood to be other than the Supreme Lord because of His assuming
the form of a boar to lift the earth. That is the clear understanding
of sages and great personalities like Brahma and other residents of the
higher planetary systems.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 4: Chapter Eight, Text 57 :PURPORT
PURPORT
Devotional service comprises nine prescribed practices--hearing,
chanting, remembering, worshiping, serving, offering everything to the
Deity, etc. Here Dhruva Maharaja is advised not only to meditate on the
form of the Lord, but to think of His transcendental pastimes in His
different incarnations. Mayavadi philosophers take the incarnation of
the Lord to be in the same category as the ordinary living entity. This
is a great mistake. The incarnation of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead is not forced to act by the material laws of nature. The word
sveccha is used here to indicate that He appears out of His supreme
will. The conditioned soul is forced to accept a particular type of
body according to his karma given by the laws of material nature under
the direction of the Supreme Lord. But when the Lord appears, He is not
forced by the dictation of material nature; He appears as He likes by
His own internal potency. That is the difference. The conditioned soul
accepts a particular type of body, such as the body of a hog, by his
work and by the superior authority of material nature. But when Lord
Krsna appears in the incarnation of a boar, He is not the same kind of
hog as an ordinary animal. Krsna appears as Varaha-avatara in an
expansive feature which cannot be compared to an ordinary hog's. His
appearance and disappearance are inconceivable to us. In the
Bhagavad-gita it is clearly said that He appears by His own internal
potency for the protection of the devotees and the annihilation of the
nondevotees. A devotee should always consider that Krsna does not
appear as an ordinary human being or ordinary beast; His appearance as
Varaha-murti or a horse or tortoise is an exhibition of His internal
potency. In the Brahma-samhita it is said,
ananda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhavitabhih: one should not mistake the
appearance of the Lord as a human being or a beast to be the same as
the birth of an ordinary conditioned soul, who is forced to appear by
the laws of nature, whether as an animal, as a human being or as a
demigod. This kind of thinking is offensive. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu
has condemned the Mayavadis as offensive to the Supreme Personality of
Godhead because of their thinking that the Lord and the conditioned
living entities are one and the same.
Narada advises Dhruva to meditate on the pastimes of the Lord,
which is as good as the meditation of concentrating one's mind on the
form of the Lord. As meditation on any form of the Lord is valuable, so
is chanting of different names of the Lord, such as Hari, Govinda and
Narayana. But in this age we are especially advised to chant the Hare
Krsna mantra as enunciated in the sastra: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna
Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
Kasyapa muni was a great sage, the son of sage Marici and the grandson of
Brahma. A greatly powerful mystic, he was one of the chief prajapatis or
progenitors of the universe who was given the responsibility of increasing
the population of the universe. He married the thirteen daughters of
prajapati Daksha and through them had numerous offspring's that would
later populate the various portions of the universe. His thirteen wives
are the mothers of almost all the population of the entire universe, and
their names are very auspicious to hear. They are Aditi, Diti, Danu,
Kastha, Arista, Surasa, Ila, Muni, Krodhavasa, Tamra, Surabhi, Sarama and
Timi.
Birth of Hiranyaksya
********************
In the era of Caksusa Manavantra, once while Kasyapa muni was performing
his evening yajna or sacrifices to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he
was approached by his beautiful and chaste wife Diti with the desire to
have a son. Since it was the evening time, the junction of the day and
night, a time considered inauspicious in Vedic scriptures, Kasyapa muni
advised his wife to wait. However Diti, stricken by strong lustful
desires, could not contain herself. Thus was conceived at this
inappropriate time two of the greatest demons in material creation.
So powerful were the embryos carried in the womb of Diti that they covered
the entire universe with a dark cloud. When the fearful demigods
approached Lord Brahma for protection, even he expressed his inability to
control these demons. Lord Brahma explained that the demons were
originally Jaya and Vijaya, the two gatekeepers of the innermost doors of
Vaikuntha, and had come to the material world being cursed by the four
Kumaras. Since they were actually pure devotees of the Lord and had come
into the material world only by His wish to assist Him in His pastimes,
they were beyond the control of any but the Supreme Lord Himself. Lord
Brahma however assured the demigods that the Lord will always protect His
devotees, and since the demigods were always meditating on the Lord, they
would no doubt be protected. Thus assured the demigods returned to their
respective abodes.
Diti carried the two embryos them in her womb for one hundred years,
fearful of the dire predictions made by her husband. Thus were born
Hiranyaksa and Hiranyakasyapu. Even though Hiranyaksa was born first,
since Hiranyakasyapu was conceived first, he is considered to be the elder
of the brother. Both the demons were physically very strong and keen in
intellect. By performing severe austerities they were able to get many
boons from Lord Brahma and roamed the universe fearlessly, subduing all
kinds of demigods and demons.
Mother Earth submerged
**********************
The Srimad Bhagavatam describes the material universe as being shaped like
a hollow sphere, surrounded by several layers of covering. The lower half
of the universe is filled with the Garbodhaya Ocean. Lying on this ocean,
resting on Ananta Sesa is Lord Vishnu from Whose navel emanates the lotus
flower that gave birth to Lord Brahma. The Earth planet was once submerged
into the waters of this ocean and was thus uninhabitable. The reason for
this given in the Srimad Bhagavatam is that after the previous cycle of
destruction, for some reason Earth remained submerged in the waters of
destruction. In some scriptures another reason given is that Hiranyaksa
extracted so much gold from the planet that he caused it to become
unstable and fall from its orbit. Yet another reason given is the
Hiranyaksa simply submerged the planet to display his power and cause
disturbances.
Appearance of Lord Varaha
*************************
While Lord Brahma was meditating on how to rescue Earth from this
situation, there appeared from his nostril a wondrous creature no larger
than the tip of the thumb. As Lord Brahma and the inhabitants of the upper
planetary systems looked on with amazement, the creature with the form of
a boar soon grew into tremendous size reaching the sky. Witnessing this
astounding transformations, Lord Brahma concluded that He could be none
other than Lord Vishnu Himself come to their help. The greatly pious
inhabitants of Tapa loka, Mahara loka and other higher planetary systems
began to glorify the Lord with select Vedic hymns.
Even though the Lord assumed the form of a boar for a specific purpose,
that is dredging Mother Earth from the mud in the ocean bed, His body is
as always transcendental. In fact the scriptures state that since Lord
Brahma received the Vedas as a breath from Krishna, and Lord Varaha
appeared in his breath, His body is the Vedas personified. This is
substantiated by the fact that the bellows of Lord Varaha sounded just
like Vedic hymns to His devotees and invoked the chanting of Vedic prayers
glorifying His inconceivable potencies.
Hiranyaksa arrives
******************
At this time the demon Hiranyaksa arrived looking for a fight. He had
become so strong that no one, not even the powerful Indra could withstand
his fury. With a mace on his shoulders and adorned with glittering
ornaments the demon traveled all over the universe harassing its
inhabitants. Once he entered into the waters of the Garbodha Ocean and
traveled all the way to Vibhavari, the capital of Varuna, the demigod who
controls the oceans and the netherworlds. Knowing that Varuna was no match
for him, Hiranyaksa mocked him with fulsome words and begged for combat.
Varuna however declined and instead directed him to fight with Lord
Vishnu. Varuna assured Hiranyaksa that Lord Vishnu would certainly give
him a great fight. The greatly proud Hiranyaksa started looking for Lord
Vishnu and was directed by Narada muni to the place where Lord Varaha was
performing His pastime of rescuing Mother Earth.
Lord Varaha fights Hiranyaksa
*****************************
The demon, quite surprised to see the unusual form of the Lord, began to
goad Him with insults and taunts, hoping to provoke a fight. All the
demigods headed by Lord Brahma entreated Lord Varaha to bring an end to
the reign of terror enacted by the demon by killing him. So the Lord, in
order to protect His devotees and bring an end to injustice accepted the
challenge of Hiranyaksa.
The duel between Lord Varaha and Hiranyaksa was witnessed by the denizens
of the higher universe. The Lord fought a long and hard battle with the
demon, with many apparent change of tides in the battle. Once may wonder
how the supremely powerful Lord could be put to a struggle by a mere
demon. However this is explained as one of the enjoyable pastimes of the
Lord. Just as we have a propensity to fight, the Lord also enjoys combat.
However no one but His pure devotees can even approach Him. Thus the Lord
created this wonderful pastime in which he arranged for the four Kumaras
to curse His pure devotees Jaya and Vijaya, so that they could take birth
as demons and serve Him be combating with Him.
Lord Varaha kills Hiranyaksa
****************************
The battle between Lord Varaha and the demon continued till the time that
the Sun was about to set. Lord Brahma cautioned Lord Varaha not to toy
with the demon any more but kill him promptly since the demoniac powers
increase many fold at this inauspicious juncture of time. At this time
Lord Varaha cast a loving glance at His devotees and very casually slapped
the demon under his ear causing him to die.
The effortless, almost indifferent way in which the Lord finally killed
the demon is in sharp contrast of the hard fought battle that had been
going on between them. The death of Hiranyaksa bought cheers of relief
from all denizens of the universe who glorified Lord Varaha with many
prayers and hymns.
All glories to Lord Varaha
**************************
Such are the pastimes of the Lord, they accomplish many things at once.
They give enjoyment to the Lord - the combat between Lord Varaha and
Hiranyaksa was long and closely fought and gave much pleasure to the
chivalrous tendencies of the Lord. They give His devotees an opportunity
to serve Him, for Hiranyaksa was none other than Vijaya one of the most
confidential servitor of the Lord who was participating in this pastime as
a service to Him. They reinforce the Vedic principles that whenever there
is decline of religion, the Lord personally descends to protect His
devotees and annihilate the demoniac. Finally they attract the conditioned
souls of the material universe back to their eternal spiritual abodes.
It is stated in the Srimad Bhagavatam that the boar incarnation was
manifested in two millenniums-namely Svayambhuva and Caksusa. In both
millenniums there was a boar incarnation of the Lord, but in the
Svayambhuva millennium He lifted the earth from within the water of the
universe, whereas in the Caksusa millennium He killed the first demon,
Hiranyaksa. In the Svayambhuva millennium He assumed the color white, and
in the Caksusa millennium He assumed the color red. The two different boar
incarnations described are the one Supreme Personality of Godhead.
All glories to Lord Varaha !!!
Reference: Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 3, Chapter 13.
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