Sri Varaha Avatara
BY: SUN STAFF
Sri Varaha Avatara
19th c., Patna
Sep 09, 2012 — CANADA (SUN) — From "Dasavatara - The Ten Manifestations of God" by Swami B.B. Tirtha.
Varaha-avatara is the third among the Dasavatara. When Brahmaji was ordered to carry out the creation, he began to think about the details involved in the task. At that moment, a male named Svayambhuva Manu and a female named Satarupa manifested from his body. Abiding by the desire of Brahma, Svayambhuva Manu accepted Satarupa as his wife in order to carry out the process of creation.
Seeing the earth submerged in the waters of annihilation and desiring to seek a dwelling place for the living beings, Manu approached his father, Lord Brahma, and prayed to him to rescue the earth. When Brahma saw the earth submerged in the water, he thought for a long time about how it could be rescued. He had earlier established the earth in its normal state after removing all the water, but could not understand why the earth had again sunk into the watery abyss. He had been appointed to do the work of creation but the earth had become inundated in a deluge and had sunk into the depths of the ocean to Rasatala (the lowest of the seven underworlds). How was the act of creation to be accomplished? How was the earth to be rescued?
Lord Brahma could not think of a solution even after much thought and effort. At last, he took shelter of the Supreme Lord, Vishnu. While Brahma was still deep in thought, a small boar the size of a thumb suddenly appeared from his nostril. Astonishingly, as Brahma looked on, the tiny boar expanded in the sky and within moments had assumed a form as large as a great elephant. Brahma, great brahmanas such as Marici, the Four Kumaras (Sanaka, Sananda, Sanatana and Sanat-Kumara) as well as Svayambhuva Manu, saw the transcendental Varaha form and began to discuss this wonderful event. Lord Brahma thought that this must be some resident of the transcendental world travelling in disguise in the form of a boar. "Oh! What a great surprise! How wonderful it is that this expanding Varaha form has come forth from my nostril. Is Sri Hari, the lord of sacrifice, concealing His original form and trying to agitate me?"
In this way, while Brahma was deliberating with his associates, Sri Hari roared tumultuously like the great mountain Giriraja. The omnipresent Sri Hari enlivened Brahma and the other highly elevated brahmanas by again roaring with His uncommon voice. The sound of His roar was so sweet that it would destroy all the miseries of the hearer. Lord Brahma, Svayambhuva Manu and other sages who reside in Janaloka, Tapaloka and Satyaloka, chanted auspicious mantras from the Vedas as offerings to Varahadeva. Upon hearing the prayers of Brahma and the other sages, Lord Varaha prepared to enter into the waters of annihilation for the benefit of the demigods. Lord Varaha rose into the sky while slashing His tail. The Lord quivered the hair on His shoulders and scattered the clouds in the sky with His hooves. With raised hairs, white tusks and luminous effulgence, the Lord's form was brilliantly beautiful. This is a unique and wonderful pastime of Sri Hari. Just the remembrance of it causes shivering in the body. Despite being omnipotent and omniscient, He searched for the earth planet in the way that an animal would, using the sense of smell. Although His external appearance was fearful, He pleased the sages engaged in offering prayers by lovingly glancing over them and entering into the water. His dive into the water with His thunderbolt-like mountainous body divided the ocean. The ocean prayed to the Lord out of fear, "Please protect me, O Supreme Lord!"
The Lord of all sacrifices separated the water with His hooves and saw the earth lying at the bottom of Rasatala in the same way as when He had carried her in His stomach during the time of annihilation. Appearing very splendid, Lord Varaha lifted the earth by carrying her on His tusks. At that time, a very powerful demon named Hiranyaksha challenged the Lord with a mace. Lord Varaha expressed great anger upon seeing the demon. Thereafter, Lord Varaha killed Hiranyaksha just as a lion kills an elephant, and the cheeks and face of the Lord became red with the blood of the demon [1]. With folded hands, the sages headed by Brahma offered prayers to the Lord. The Lord, being satisfied with the prayers of the great sages, placed the earth upon the turbulent water with His hooves and then disappeared from their vision. There is a very important point to understand here. The Laghu-bhagavatamrita says:
"Lord Varaha appears twice in one day of Lord Brahma. During the Svayambhuva-manvantara, He appeared from Brahma's nostril and rescued the earth, and during the sixth manvantara (Cakshusha-manvantara) He appeared to rescue the earth and kill Hiranyaksha."
According to the Laghu-bhagavatamrita, in the lineage of Uttanapada, the son of Praceta was Daksha, the daughter of Daksha was Diti, and the son of Diti was Hiranyaksha. At the time of the appearance of the original (adi) Varahadeva at the beginning of the kalpa, Manu did not have any sons or daughters. How then could Hiranyaksha have taken birth during the Svayambhuva-manvantara? Therefore, it is seen that in the Bhagavatam, Maitreya Åshi described the pastimes of Lord Varaha in both the Svayambhuva-manvantara and Cakshusha-manvantara at the same time. Svayambhuva Manu and Satarupa gave birth to two sons: Priyavrata and Uttanapada, and three daughters: Akuti, Devahuti and Prasuti.
dvitiyam tu bhavayasya rasatala-gatam mahim
uddharishyann upadatta yajnesah saukaram vapuh
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.3.7)
"For the welfare of the world, and due to the desire to rescue the earth which had fallen to Rasatala, the supreme enjoyer of all sacrifices accepted His second manifestation as a boar."
Here, Lord Varaha is described as the second avatara:
yatrodyatah kshiti-taloddharanaya bibhrat
kraudim tanum sakala-yajna-mayim anantah
antar-maharnava upagatam adi-daityam
tam damshtrayadrim iva vajra-dharo dadara
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.7.1)
"The unlimitedly powerful Lord assumed the form of a boar for the rescue of the earth and pierced the first demon, Hiranyaksha, with His tusk."
jalakridasu ruciram varahim rupamasthitah
adhrishyam manasapyanyair vangmayam brahma-samjnitam
prithivyuddharanarthaya pravisya ca rasatalam
damshtrayabhyujjaharai na matmadharo dharadharah
drishtva damshtragravinyastam prithvim prathita paurusham
astavan jana-lokasthah siddha brahmarshayo harim
(Matsya Purana 6.8-10)
"The Supreme Personality of Godhead who is imperceptible to the mind, who plays beautifully in the water and who is the Sound-God designated as Absolute Brahman, appeared as Varaha to save the life-giving earth. He entered into the depths of the ocean and rescued the earth with His tusks. Seeing the earth resting on the tusks of the Lord, the sages of Janaloka offered prayers to the most celebrated Sri Hari."
Here it is said that Lord Narayana, the cause of creation and destruction, appeared as Varaha:
vasati dasana-sikhare dharani tava lagna
sasini kalanka-kaleva nimagna
kesava dhrita-sukara-rupa jaya jagadisa hare
(Sri Jayadeva's Dasavatara-stotra, 3rd Verse)
"O Kesava! O Supreme Lord, You have assumed the form of a boar! O Lord! The planet earth rested on Your tusk and it appeared like the moon engraved with spots."
Brahma offered prayers to the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna, when He manifested in the womb of Devaki while she was in the prison of Kamsa. The following is the last verse of those prayers:
matsyasva-kacchapa-nrisimha-varaha-hamsa-
rajanya-vipra-vibudheshu kritavatarah
tvam pasi nas tri-bhuvanam ca yathadhunesha
bharam bhuvo hara yaduttama vandanam te
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.2.40)
"O Supreme Controller, Your Lordship previously accepted avataras as Matsya (fish), Asvagriva (horse), Kurma (tortoise), Nrisimhadeva (half man/half lion), Varaha (boar), Hamsa (swan), Lord Ramacandra (the son of Dasaratha), Parasurama, Vamanadeva and other forms, to protect us and the three worlds (heaven, earth and underworlds). O Krishna, best of the Yadus, we respectfully offer our obeisances unto You. Now, by Your mercy, please protect us again by diminishing the burden of sins in this world."
FOOTNOTES
[1] Seeing Varahadeva within the water (Rasatala), the demon Hiranyaksha misunderstood the Lord to be an ordinary boar. Considering Him to possess meager strength, he spoke many deriding words. The Lord, however, returned his taunts with equal vigour. Lord Varaha dodged the violent mace-blows of the angry demon Hiranyaksha, and thus a violent mace-fight began between the two. Lord Brahma prayed to the Supreme Lord to please kill Hiranyaksha in the loka-samhara-karini-sandhya, in the auspicious period known as Abhijit (during the evening in conjunction with the Abhijit star-the time that would be the most favourable for the destruction of a demon). After that, during the demoniac hours, the powers of the demon would increase manifold.
Hiranyaksha displayed his prowess by using the mace and trident, and finally by casting illusions and striking hard with his fists, but the Lord killed the demon by a severe kick. This pastime has been described in the Third Canto, Chapters 18 and 19, of Srimad-Bhagavatam.
