srimadbhagavatham-skandha3-chapters 13 and 14

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Chapter13-Varahavathara

 

Once Svayambhuva Manu perceived that the earth was drowned in the

sea and sought Braham for protection. Brahma meditated and from his

nostril a baby boar of the size of thumb came out and while he was

looking it grew to a size of an elephant and still grew till it

touched the sky. Brahma and his sons were wondering what it was when

the Boar gave a roar which made the rshis living in the lokas Jana

and Thapa delighted and they responded with vedic chants, knowing

that it was the yajnavarahamurthy. Then the Lord Varaha entered the

waters.

 

The Varahamurthy was described as follows:

 

He entered the ocean smelling the whereabouts of the earth, the

Lord who was yajnamurthy in the form of a boar, with fierce fangs

but soft eyes looked at the Brahmins chanting the Vedas. When he

fell into the ocean with the force of the vajra of Indra, he

agitated the ocean and the high waves which resulted seemed to be

long arms of the ocean crying `Oh Lord protect me.'

 

The Lord took the earth easily on His tusks and emerged out of water

and killed the asura Hiranyaksha who tried to fight with Him, as

easily as a lion killing an elephant.

 

The size of Varaha was indicated by `khuraiH kshurapraiH dharyan

thadhaa aapa,' He waded in the waters with His hoofs and saw the

earth. Hence the ocean was only up to His hoofs.

 

The rshis praised the Lord thus:

 

Oh Lord you are victorious and invincible. You are the

personification of the Vedas and your hair holes contain the seas,

You have assumed the form of a boar for uplifting the earth and to

kill the demon. You are the manthras and the deities to whom the

manthras are addressed, You are the yajna and the rites of the

yajna. You could be understood only by those who have devotion and

detachment. Oh Sustainer of the world, the earth sitting on your

tusk with the mountains on it intact, looks like a lotus with leaves

stuck to the tusk of an elephant coming out of a forest.

 

Then the Lord put down the earth on the waters as before and

returned to His abode.

 

Chapter14- The birth of Hiranyaksha and Hiranya kasipu.

 

Vidura asked Maithreya the reason for the fight between the Lord

and Hiranyaksha. Maithreya explained the birthos the asuras,

Hiranayksha and Hiranyakasipu.

 

Dhithi , one of the wives of kasyapa prajapathi, wanted to have

union with her husband on one evening . He told her that the time

was not suitable because it was pradosha and belonged to Lord Rudra.

But she insisted and the sage knowing that it was her destiny

fulfilled her wish and afterwards took bath and did pranayama and

gayathri to purify himself. Later dhithi was ashamed and prayed that

Rudra should not harm the foetus. Kasyapa told her that she will get

two sons who would terrorize the whole world and would be killed by

the Lord Hari but one of her grandsons would be a great bhagavatha.

Then comes the narration of the dvarapaalakas of the Lord who were

cursed by the Sanakaadhi and were told by the Lord to be born as his

foes for three births and return to vaikunta and the episode of

Hiranyaksha is retold. But the story of Hirnyakasipu and

Narsimhavathara comes much later in the epic.