SB 2.7.1 – The Appearance of Sri Varahadeva

Giriraj Swami:

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

So, we thank you all for coming together here for satsaṅga. Sat means that which is eternal, and saṅga means to associate. So, satsaṅga means to associate with that, which is eternal, to associate with the Absolute Truth. As the devotees of the Lord, they also become eternal, like the Lord. So, to associate with the devotees of the Lord is also satsaṅga. Sat also means truth. So, the Absolute Truth is Krishna, and the devotees of Krishna speak the truth about Him.

So, today is a special day, Ekādaśī, and among Ekādaśī, today is also special because tomorrow is Varaha-dvadasi, the appearance day of the Lord’s boar incarnation. And because the regulations of Ekādaśī enjoin that we break the fast tomorrow morning by a certain time, we cannot fast for the appearance day of the Lord’s incarnation tomorrow. So, we fast today until noon. So, to honor the auspicious appearance of the boar incarnation, we shall read one verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam about Him. This is from the Second Canto, Seventh Chapter, “Scheduled Incarnations with Specific Functions,” Text One.

Please repeat.

TEXT 1

brahmovāca
yatrodyataḥ kṣiti-taloddharaṇāya bibhrat
krauḍīṁ tanuṁ sakala-yajña-mayīm anantaḥ
antar-mahārṇava upāgatam ādi-daityaṁ
taṁ daṁṣṭrayādrim iva vajra-dharo dadāra

TRANSLATION

Lord Brahmā said: When the unlimitedly powerful Lord assumed the form of a boar as a pastime, just to lift the planet earth, which was drowned in the great ocean of the universe called the Garbhodaka, the first demon [Hiraṇyākṣa] appeared, and the Lord pierced him with His tusk.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Since the beginning of creation, the demons and the demigods, or the Vaiṣṇavas, are always the two classes of living beings to dominate the planets of the universes.

COMMENT

Do you all know English?

PURPORT (continued)

Lord Brahmā is the first demigod, and Hiraṇyākṣa is the first demon in this universe. Only under certain conditions do the planets float as weightless balls in the air, and as soon as these conditions are disturbed, the planets may fall down in the Garbhodaka Ocean, which covers half the universe.

COMMENT

So, the universe is like a hollow globe, and the bottom half of the universe is filled with water called the Garbhodaka Ocean, and Garbhodakashayi Vishnu, He lays in the Garbhodaka Ocean, and from His navel, one lotus sprouts, and on the lotus, Lord Brahma appears. And therefore, Lord Brahma is the first created being in the entire universe. According to the modern theory of evolution, the first creatures in the universe are the most primitive.

Come this side, Mataji. Come to this side.

According to the modern theory of evolution, the first creatures are the most primitive, like single celled organisms, amoebas. And according to the theory of evolution, the amoebas evolve into more complex forms of life. That doesn’t make sense. The actual history of the universe is described in the Vedic scripture, that the first created being was Lord Brahma, who is the most intelligent. It is not that the most primitive become evolved and become the most intelligent, but the most intelligent create the most primitive.

So, Darwin’s theory is not acceptable to the students of Vedic knowledge, and the very idea that two members of the same species would combine and produce a creature of another species is quite absurd. I mean, is there any insect anywhere in the history of the world that two monkeys would come together to produce a human being? When monkeys come together, they produce monkeys. When giraffes come together, they produce giraffes. When flies come together, they produce flies. It is obvious. So, Lord Brahma is the first created being of the whole universe, and he is a devotee.

Thus, abiding the will of the Lord, or by the arrangement of the Lord, as the universe became populated, it became filled with two categories of persons; the demigods or devotees, and the demons. And the demigods are defined as devotees of Vishnu, and the demons are described as the asuras.

So, there is always a struggle between the devotees and demons. The devotees want to establish God consciousness in the universe, and the demons want to defy God and banish God, so they can exploit the resources of the universe for sense gratification. So, there is always a struggle between the devotees and the demons. This struggle has existed from the beginning of creation. So, Lord Brahma is the first created being, the first devotee, and Hiraṇyakṣa is the first demon. So, we are going to read about the struggle that took place in the beginning of creation between the first devotees and the first demons.

Now, the planets are floating in space. This is very wonderful. We read in Rāmāyaṇa how Hanuman and the other monkeys and bears threw boulders into the sea to make a bridge between India and Lanka. So, some people say stories in Rāmāyaṇa or Bhāgavatam are mythology, they are not actual facts, and they wonder, “How can boulders float on water?”

But if we can ask, “How can boulders float on water?” We can ask, “How could such huge masses of boulders like the earth planet and the other planets float in space?” If we try to make a cotton float in the air, it will fall. So, how are these huge masses of mountains, oceans, rivers, continents floating in space? The only explanation is the potency of the Almighty Lord. The Almighty Lord is making the planets float in space. So, similarly, the almighty Lord was making the boulders float on water so that Lord Ramachandra and His army could cross and go to Lanka.

But still, by the Lord’s arrangement or the nature’s arrangement, there is a very delicate balance in the planets, suns, and moon, and stars, and if we create a disturbance in the natural balance of nature, there will be reaction. There will be a problem.

PURPORT (continued)

Only under certain conditions do the planets float as weightless balls in the air, and as soon as these conditions are disturbed, the planets may fall down in the Garbhodaka Ocean, which covers half the universe. The other half is the spherical dome within which the innumerable planetary systems exist. The floating of the planets in the weightless air is due to the inner constitution of the globes, and the modernized drilling of the earth to exploit oil from within is a sort of disturbance by the modern demons and can result in a greatly harmful reaction to the floating condition of the earth.

COMMENT

So, the modern demons are very eager to exploit the resources of material nature. So, now they have discovered oil within the earth. So, they drill into the earth to extract the oil, but they don’t think that by drilling into the earth and extracting oil, they are disturbing the natural balance that keeps the earth afloat. They can actually disturb the order of the earth by drilling and extracting oil, and it could actually happen that a planet could fall into the Garbhodaka Ocean.

PURPORT (continued)

A similar disturbance was created formerly by the demons headed by Hiraṇyākṣa (the great exploiter of the gold rush), and the earth was detached from its weightless condition and fell down into the Garbhodaka Ocean.

COMMENT

Now, people are exploiting the earth for oil, which some people call liquid gold. So, previously, at the beginning of creation, Hiraṇyakṣa tried to exploit the earth for gold, to take out huge quantities of gold, and the result was that the earth fell into the Garbhodaka Ocean.

PURPORT (continued)

The Lord, as maintainer of the whole creation of the material world, therefore assumed the gigantic form of a boar with a proportionate snout and picked up the earth from within the water of Garbhodaka.

COMMENT

So, the Lord assumes various forms, various incarnations with specific purposes. So, the Lord thought, What form would be appropriate to lift up the earth, which has fallen down into the ocean? So, He assumed the form of a boar. A boar could put its snout into liquid and bring out [Unintelligible 00:18:07], but we should never think that the Lord has become a pig or the Lord has become a turtle in any mundane sense. The Lord is always absolute, and therefore, He is all attractive in whatever form He assumes, and He is all worshipable.

So, it is said that when the [Unintelligible 00:18:33] drops of perspiration were sprinkled throughout the universe, the great sages and saintly persons worshiped the drops of perspiration. It is as pure as the Ganges water that emanates from the lotus foot of the Lord. And when the Lord made His great [Unintelligible 00:18:59], again, the sages and the saintly persons became ecstatic because the sound of the Lord’s roar was like the hymn of the Vedas. So, the Lord is absolute in whatever form He takes. He is all attractive. He is all beautiful. He is all opulent, fully worshipable.

Similarly, the devotees of the Lord, they are also appreciable, worshipable, in whatever form they take. We should not make material distinction on the basis of the body or the mind, but we should appreciate every devotee just like the Lord, and not discriminate that this is an Indian devotee; this is an American devotee; this is a white devotee; this is a black devotee; this is a male devotee; this is a female devotee; we should feel everyone is engaged in the service of the Lord. Therefore, all are the same.

PURPORT (continued)

Śrī Jayadeva Gosvāmī, the great Vaiṣṇava poet, sang as follows:

vasati daśana-śikhare dharaṇī tava lagnā
śaśini kalaṅka-kaleva nimagnā
keśava dhṛta-śūkara-rūpa
jaya jagadīśa hare

“O Keśava! O Supreme Lord who have assumed the form of a boar! O Lord! The planet earth rested on Your tusks, and it appeared like the moon engraved with spots.”

Such is the symptom of an incarnation of the Lord. The incarnation of the Lord is not the concocted idea of fanciful men who create an incarnation out of imagination. The incarnation of the Lord appears under certain extraordinary circumstances like the above-mentioned occasion, and the incarnation performs a task which is not even imaginable by the tiny brain of mankind. The modern creators of the many cheap incarnations may take note of the factual incarnation of God as the gigantic boar with a suitable snout to carry the planet earth.

COMMENT

So, the incarnations of the Lord are described in the scriptures, and we can identify someone as an incarnation with reference to the scripture, and the incarnations perform deeds which are impossible for ordinary living entities to perform. In fact, they perform deeds that ordinary living entities cannot even imagine. So, the Lord lifted the planet earth from the Garbhodaka Ocean. We cannot even imagine it. But as opposed to the real incarnations mentioned in the revealed scriptures, there are many false incarnations who cannot do wonderful things like the Lord. So, we should be aware of such false incarnations.

To be accepted as the incarnation of the Lord, one should be able to do extraordinary deeds which no ordinary person can do. Someone may have some little mystic power to make ashes or something, and people think he is God, but yogis can do even greater things than make ashes, but because people are so ignorant, so foolish, they accept an ordinary man as God or an incarnation of God.

Srila Prabhupada said that when he was a student, he had a teacher who was an admirer of a yogi. So, the teacher mentioned to Srila Prabhupada and the other students that the yogi had asked some of his admirers what they would like. So, they said they would like pomegranate, which was out of season at the time in Calcutta. So, the yogi immediately brought a fresh branch of pomegranate from Afghanistan. So, that is one of the mystic [Unintelligible 00:24:36] of the yogis. They can bring from different places.

Srila Prabhupada also told the story of one yogi. I think his name was Kailanka Baba, but he used to sit naked on the street in Banaras during British rule. So, the British constables warned him, “You cannot sit naked in public.” So, the yogi paid no attention, he continued sitting in the street naked. So, again, the police warned him not to sit naked in the street, but the yogi paid no attention. So, eventually, the police arrested him and put him in jail, but by his mystic power, he shrunk himself to such a small size that he left the room in the jail through the keyhole. And again, he was sitting naked in the street. So, again, they arrested him, put him in jail, and again, he escaped through the keyhole. So, after three times of arresting him and having him escape, they decided to let him be.

So, there are eight mystic perfections [Unintelligible 00:26:15]; to become lighter than the lightest, to become heavier than the heaviest, [Unintelligible 00:26:24], to achieve things that are difficult, becoming bigger than the biggest, smaller than the smallest, becoming weightless. We hear about yogis walking on water. Actually, they can walk on water because they have the perfection of becoming weightless. So, they can walk on water because they have no weight.

So, once, one newspaper reporter asked Srila Prabhupada, “Can you walk on water?” Srila Prabhupada replied, [Unintelligible 00:27:11]. So, the mystic perfections, they seem very wonderful, but they are actually all material, and most of them have already been replicated by material scientists, like flying. They can fly in airplanes. Floating on water, they can float on a boat. Of course, some they have not yet mastered, but they are all material. They are not the real purpose of yoga, and certainly, having some mystic perfection is no indication that someone is God.

So, people are so ignorant in Kali-yuga and so foolish that if someone does a little magic, they immediately think he is Bhagavān, but the real incarnations are mentioned in the revealed scriptures, and they do things that yogis cannot do. They do things that no one can do, only God.

PURPORT (continued)

When the Lord appeared to pick up the earth, the demon of the name Hiraṇyākṣa tried to create a disturbance in the methodical functions of the Lord, and therefore he was killed by being pierced by the Lord’s tusk.

COMMENT

So, the form of the Lord as Varahadeva was suitable both for lifting the earth from Garbhodaka Ocean and for killing the demon Hiraṇyakṣa. And the Lord also says in the Bhagavad-gītā.

TEXT 8

paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ
vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām

COMMENT

That He appears to protect the pious and to annihilate the miscreants. So, Lord Boar also, He protected the devotees who were being plunged into the Garbhodaka Ocean on earth, and He annihilated the first demon, Hiraṇyakṣa.

PURPORT (continued)

According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, the demon Hiraṇyākṣa was killed by the hand of the Lord.

COMMENT

Because there was some fighting.

PURPORT (continued)

Therefore his version is that after being killed by the hand of the Lord, the demon was pierced by the tusk. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura confirms this version.

COMMENT

So, Srila Jiva Gosvami is the greatest philosopher of all time and has written volumes of books of high philosophy. Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura is also one of the most brilliant philosophers in history. Now, if the story [Unintelligible 00:30:44] would not be applying their intelligence to analyze the sequence of events, how the Lord killed the demon, but they are very intelligent students of Vedic scriptures, and they are studying the scriptures to understand the incarnation of the Lord, the pastimes of the Lord.

And therefore, they have concluded that actually, the Lord killed the demon with His hands, and later pierced the demon with His tusks. So, they are not studying mythological stories, nor are they studying the history of ordinary wars. They are studying the pastimes of the Lord as described in the scriptures, and they are informing us or enlightening us for our pleasure how the Lord killed the demon.

Of course, now we are in Kali-yuga, and in Kali-yuga, they are the special incarnation, Sri Krishna Chaitanya, and He is also described in the revealed scriptures. So, we accept Lord Chaitanya as God not by sentiment or by imagination, but because He is accepted as God with reference to the scripture. Great authorities like Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, Sanatana Gosvami, Rupa Gosvami, all accepted Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as the incarnation of Krishna.

So, someone may ask, “What did Lord Chaitanya do that is so extraordinary that proved that He is God?” So, Srila Rupa Gosvami has glorified Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

TEXT 53

namo mahā-vadānyāya
kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te
kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-
nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ

COMMENT

He prays to Sri Krishna Chaitanya, “You are Krishna Himself, but You have come in a golden complexion, and You are giving what no other incarnation has ever given, and that is pure love of Krishna.” So, nobody except Krishna can give love for Krishna, and therefore, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is accepted as an incarnation of the Lord. Of course, the devotees of the Lord who are empowered by the Lord can also give love of Krishna, and they are called śakty-āveśa-avatāra, or empowered incarnations. They are not God directly, but they are induced with the power of God with some specific purpose.

So, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also confirms that the religious process for the modern age of Kali is the chanting of the holy names of Krishna. [Unintelligible 00:34:46]. Only one who is empowered by the energy of the Lord can spread the chanting of the holy name all over the world.

So, because Srila Prabhupada, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, spread the saṅkīrtana movement all over the world, we can understand he was empowered by the potency of Lord Krishna. And therefore, he can also be accepted as śakty-āveśa-avatāra. Not directly the Lord, but a living entity empowered by the Lord to fulfill some specific purpose. And certainly, no one did what Srila Prabhupada did, spread the holy name throughout the world, and no one will ever do what Srila Prabhupada did. So, therefore, he can be accepted as an empowered incarnation, but he himself always presented himself as the humble servant of the servant of the Lord.

But Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is directly the Lord, and He is actually the incarnation for the modern age of Kali-yuga. And therefore, the Bhāgavatam says, “Intelligent persons of Kali-yuga will worship the Lord by saṅkīrtana-yajña, chanting the holy name.”

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

And by chanting the holy name of the Lord in the modern age of Kali, we can get full benefit of the Lord’s mercy and potency. Therefore, Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta says kali-kāle nāma-rūpe kṛṣṇa-avatāra, that incarnation of Krishna in the age of Kali is the holy name of Krishna. So, if we chant the holy name of Krishna, we can actually evoke the presence of the Lord. We get all the benefits of the presence of the Lord.

Just as devotees benefit [Unintelligible 00:37:22] Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted persons not only to chant the holy name and become Krishna conscious, but He wanted them to spread the holy name so others become Krishna conscious. And that is the whole principle of the Krishna consciousness movement, and we should make our own life successful by becoming Krishna consciousness, and do good to others by helping them become Krishna conscious.

Hare Krishna. Are there any questions or comments?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:38:23].

Giriraj Swami: He says the scientists explain planets revolving in orbits. They spin around and the force that propels them outward is called centrifugal force, and there is another force that draws them inwards called centripetal force, and the combination of the balance between the centrifugal force and centripetal force makes the planet orbit. We can also orbit satellites.

Yes, but Srila Prabhupada makes the point that centripetal force is just a word. Gravity is just a word. But what actually is it? They cannot explain what it is. They just give it a name. But it is actually the potency of the Lord.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:40:11].

Giriraj Swami: Yes. They take advantage of the potency of the Lord. Even if you ask them what is keeping the [Unintelligible 00:40:37] in space, they will say what you just said; centripetal force, centrifugal force. But what is it? We can cook with fire, but fire is the energy of the Lord. The fact that we can cook with fire doesn’t negate the fact that fire is the energy of the Lord. We can say, “Well, we can create fire by rubbing sticks together,” but still, fire is the energy of the Lord.

So, we don’t mind the achievements of the scientists, as long as they give credit to the Lord. Well, if they may take advantage of the laws of nature, like this is the law of nature. They can take advantage of the laws of nature that they didn’t make the laws of nature, they just take advantage of the laws of nature. Eventually, the whole universe would be annihilated. So, they can’t claim that they are responsible. Then, the [Unintelligible 00:42:34] will all be destroyed.

So, the [Unintelligible 00:42:40] are existing and floating in space by the grace of the Lord. So, they may say, “Well, we have done it,” but the power of speech to say, “We have done it” can be withdrawn at any moment. The brain power to make the calculations and its designs to launch this equipment, the brain power can be taken away at any moment. So, whatever faculties we have [Unintelligible 00:43:16] are also given to us by the Lord, and they can be withdrawn by the Lord at any time. And they probably say, “We launched the satellite into space,” but the power [Unintelligible 00:43:43] can be taken away at any moment. [Unintelligible 00:43:47].

Any other questions or comments?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:44:02].

Giriraj Swami: Well, the same incarnation appears in different creations. So, sometimes there are differences in details, and the explanation of the differences exist because the description refers to different incarnations.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:44:36].

Giriraj Swami: Different living entities make the parts of the [Unintelligible 00:45:02]. Sometimes actual demons are Hiraṇyakṣa and Hiraṇyakaśipu. [Unintelligible 00:45:33].

Devotee: How far is one’s strength of mind related to one’s Krishna consciousness?

Giriraj Swami: Well, the scriptures give the example that the senses are like horses. The driving instrument is the mind, and the driver is the intelligence, and the passenger on the chariot is the soul. So, the soul decides where he wants to go and he tells the driver, and the driver uses the driving instrument to direct the horses in the direction he wants to go.

Now, a devotee decides that he wants to go to Krishna, wants to go in the direction of Krishna consciousness, so the intelligence decides, “I will rise early in the morning. I will offer maṅgala-ārati. I will chant sixteen rounds. I will read Bhagavad-gītā,” and so on. Now, the intelligence is the driver and the mind is the driving instrument, but it may happen that the driver loses control of the driving instrument, and then the mind sort of goes out of control. And even though the intelligence is saying, “You should get up,” the mind is saying, “You should sleep.” The intelligence is saying, “You should eat only kṛṣṇa-prasāda,” the mind goes wild and wants to eat all sorts of food.

So, Bhagavad-gītā says that we must control the lower sense rather than the higher sense. So, higher than gross matter, the body, is the sense. Higher than the senses is the mind. Higher than the mind is intelligence. Highest is the soul. So, we have to control the mind through intelligence. Sometimes, the intelligence is not strong enough to control the mind. So, we have to make the intelligence stronger than the mind, and the way to strengthen the intelligence is by hearing. That will make the intelligence stronger to control the mind. But the central point of the yoga practice is to control the mind. We cannot make progress unless we control the mind.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:49:13].

Giriraj Swami: The intelligence decides, “Now we are going to chant Hare Krishna,” and the intelligence tells the mind, the senses, the tongue, “Hare Krishna,” for the ears to hear the sound.

Srila Prabhupada gave another example, that just like intelligence has an antenna and then the waves are received from the antenna and then the picture is shown on the screen and then the viewer sees the picture on the screen, so in chanting, the antenna is the ear, and then the mantra is shown on the screen, which is the mind, and the person who’s watching the television is the soul, listening to the mantra, which enters through the ear and is perceived in the mind.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:51:11].

Giriraj Swami: There are no demons in the spiritual world, only devotees. Demons are only in the material world.

Any other questions or comments? Or a little bit more kirtan?