Srimad Bhagavatam – day 121
Govindāya namah
Varāha Swamy is being described as a personification of Yagna (sacrificial rituals). We continue with this description of His body.
(The different terminology used here refers to the different paraphernalia used in a yagna or to the different yagna procedures).
Brahma and other Maharishis continued their prayer,
“O Lord! Satra-yāga is Your bone-joints. All Yagnas in entirety, including Yagnas devoid of Soma rasa as well as the activities coupled with Soma rasa from Your body. The Yagnas known as Iśti are the muscles that keep Your body joined together.
Namo namas te ’khila-mantra-devatā-
Dravyāya sarva-kratave kriyātmane
Vairāgya-bhaktyātma-jayānubhāvita-
Jñānāya vidyā-gurave namo namaḥ
O master of all knowledge (vidya-guru)! Our respectful obeisance to You! The sum total of all mantras, all Devatas, all forms of offerings made in the homa as well as all activities and all Vedic rituals that pertaining to a Yagna, together form Your body! The Self-knowledge that arises as a result of practices such as detachment (vairagya), devotion (bhakti) and total sense-control is also Your form! We offer our obeisance to you!
O Lord Varaha! On your razor sharp tusks You are holding the earth together with all its mountains. The earth that You thus hold shines resplendently like a lotus plant with leaves held by an elephant in its tusks as it emerges out of the waters.
Earth, which currently rests on the tusks of Your body, is shining like the great mountain which holds huge clouds on its peaks.
This earth is the residence for all living and non-living entities. She is Your wife. To us, She is our mother. You are our father. Kindly restore the earth steadily in its original position. Then we shall offer our reverential obeisance to You both.
The wood that is used for kindling the homa (yagna) fire is known as Araṇi. Just as those well-versed with sacrificial rituals retain the fire in the Araṇi wood, You have retained Your divine power within this earth. In other words the earth’s capacity to sustain living and non-living entities arises purely due to the power you have retained in it.
You have rescued earth which had sunk to the bottom of the ocean. O Lord! This extraordinary feat could not have been accomplished by any being apart from You! Others cannot even imagine such a possibility. However O Lord, even this extraordinary feat of Yours is not at all astonishing because in reality every aspect of Yours is itself wonderful and astonishing! After all, using your power of illusion You have created this vast, wonderful and extraordinary universe.
O Lord, You have shown to us Your form as an embodiment of Vedas. When You shook your body a few drops of pure water from the hair of Your neck fell upon us, the inhabitants of Jana, Tapa and Satya lokas. O Lord, with these drops of water which have fallen upon us we have been purified completely.
There is no end to Your divine activities. He who desires to see the end point of your transcendental activities is a fool. This is because this entire creation has emerged due to the permutations and combinations between the three attributes of Nature (trigunas). It is nothing but a play of Your illusory power! O Lord Varāha! Please bestow auspiciousness even upon such fools!”
In this way, supreme saints, who were well versed in Supreme Knowledge, prayed to Lord Varāha.
The Supreme Lord then fixed the earth firmly upon water. The innumerable rays of the Sun God, who is also an incarnation of the Supreme Lord, touched earth. They appeared like his huge army of soldiers.
Lord Srihari, who is the Lord for everything in this creation, playfully restored earth to its original position and suddenly disappeared. He is Viswakśena.
Ya evam etāṁ hari-medhaso hareḥ
Kathāṁ subhadrāṁ kathanīya-māyinaḥ
Śṛṇvīta bhaktyā śravayeta yośatīṁ
Janārdano ’syāśu hṛdi prasīdati
Meaning: By fixing the intellect (buddhi) upon Lord Srihari, the person is freed from all sins and afflictions. The divine stories of the Lord are worthy of being glorified. He resides within every living being. The story of this transcendental Lord is always auspicious. It is very melodious. Srihari will be instantaneously pleased with the person who listens to this story or who narrates it to others.
He is the Lord of all desires. When He is pleased there is nothing which cannot be obtained. Nevertheless, one should bring to a halt the need to fulfill trivial worldly desires. They need to be given up. He who resides within the cave called the intellect actually blesses his ardent devotees, who serve him with absolute non-dual faith, with the ultimate reward known as liberation.
Even if one amongst His innumerable transcendental nectarous stories is drunk with great relish through the vessel known as the ear, it can destroy the worldly bondages and sufferings in totality.
Aha! In this world, the person who has understood the true essence contained in obtaining the four-fold aims of life (puruśarthas) will never get tired of listening to this divine story! He will eternally be engrossed in listening to the transcendental stories of that Lord.
This is the true characteristic of a knowledgeable person (jnani)!
Only those who have animal tendencies stay away from such divine stories. Bhagawatam has decisively declared that human beings who do not listen to divine stories are in reality animals, even though they have a human body.
With this the thirteenth chapter of the third canto comes to an end.
Third Canto Fourteenth Chapter
In this chapter the conversation between Diti and Kashyapa and Diti’s pregnancy are covered.
Śuka Maharishi said to Emperor Parikshit, “Even after listening to story of Varāha Swamy, Vidura, who was eternally and firmly dedicated towards listening to divine stories, was not satisfied. He folded both his palms and prayed to Maharishi Maitreya as follows:
“O revered Maharishi! You had said that the Supreme Lord Yagna-varāha swamy had killed the first demon Hiranyāksha. What was the reason for a war between this Lord, who was playfully lifting up the earth on His tusks, and the demon king? Who was that demon? Why did he attack the Lord? Kindly explain this in detail”.
Maitreya Maharishi replied, “
Sādhu vīra tvayā pṛṣṭam avatāra-kathāṁ hareḥ
Yat tvaṁ pṛcchasi martyānāṁ mṛtyu-pāśa-viśātanīm
O Vidura, you are an embodiment of dharma. Your question is truly appreciable. This is because the divine stories of Lord Srihari shred the noose called death in humans. In other words they free the being from repeated births and deaths.
Although being a child, Dhruva heard the glories of Lord Srihari through Maharishi Narada and also obtained initiation into Srihari’s mantra. With the power of this mantra he conquered death! He also obtained the position of the pole star, which is the abode of Lord Srihari. Such is the glory contained in the stories of this divine Lord. Vidura! I will answer your question. Listen”.
Govindaya namah