SB 3.13.32–34 – Approaching the Lord

Giriraj Swami: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Three, Chapter Thirteen, “The Appearance of Lord Varaha.”

TEXT 32

jaghāna rundhānam asahya-vikramaṁ
sa līlayebhaṁ mṛgarāḍ ivāmbhasi
tad-rakta-paṅkāṅkita-gaṇḍa-tuṇḍo
yathā gajendro jagatīṁ vibhindan

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.

COMMENT

There’s no purport so we’ll continue to the next verse.

TEXT 33

tamāla-nīlaṁ sita-danta-koṭyā
kṣmām utkṣipantaṁ gaja-līlayāṅga
prajñāya baddhāñjalayo ‘nuvākair
viriñci-mukhyā upatasthur īśam

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 tamāla tree, and thus the sages, headed by Brahmā, could understand Him to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead and offered respectful obeisances unto the Lord.

TEXT 34

ṛṣaya ūcuḥ
jitaṁ jitaṁ te ‘jita yajña-bhāvana
trayīṁ tanuṁ svāṁ paridhunvate namaḥ
yad-roma-garteṣu nililyur addhayas
tasmai namaḥ kāraṇa-sūkarāya te

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 by Srila Prabhupada

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 Mahā-Viṣṇu. Innumerable universes generate from the holes of His bodily hairs, and thus His transcendental body is the Vedas 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 Brahmā and other residents of the higher planetary systems.

COMMENT

So the Lord is always one and the same and absolute, although He may appear in different forms for different purposes. Here the sages pray kāraṇa-sūkarāya, kāraṇa means cause and sūkarāya means unto the hog form. In other words, the Lord assumed the form of a hog or a boar for some reason. And as Srila Prabhupada explains the reason was that He had to lift up the earth from the waters. So, hogs are accustomed to putting their snouts into all sorts of places and coming up with things. So, because the Lord had to perform that type of task, He assumed the form of a boar. And as a boar, He put His snout into the waters and came up with the earth. 

Similarly, the Lord has assumed other forms for specific reasons. He assumed the form of a tortoise, so that the Mandara mountain—that was being used as a churning rod by the demons and demigods—would have a place to rest. And they were churning it in the ocean so the tortoise was an appropriate form because the tortoise could live in the water, but at the same time it had a hard back that could provide a proper surface for the mountain to rest on. But again, when the Lord assumed the form of the tortoise, He remained transcendental and assumed a gigantic form. 

Similarly, Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, you know the story that after Lord Varaha killed Hiraṇyakṣa, Hiranyakasipu became outraged because Hiraṇyakṣa was his younger brother and faithful servant. So, Hiranyakasipu vowed that he would avenge the death of his brother. And he knew that the slayer of his brother was Vishnu Himself. We accept Vishnu as the Supreme Lord following in the footsteps of the great sages here. But demons like Hiranyakasipu think that Vishnu is more or less like them, just that He has great mystic powers. And even many of the demons also had great mystic powers. So, he thought that Vishnu is an ordinary human being—and just as ordinary human beings have friends and enemies—he thought that Lord Vishnu also accepts the demigods as friends because they flatter Him, and He considers the daityas to be enemies because they don’t flatter Him like the demigods. So, they think He is partial to the adityas because they flatter Him. And therefore, Hiranyakasipu thought that if he developed enough mystic powers, he could defeat Vishnu. 

So he performed great austerities—he stood on the tip of his toe with his arms upraised for thousands of years. And he became so powerful by dint of his austerities that the whole universe was disturbed and the demigods approached. Oh well anyway, Lord Brahma understood that he had to intervene, and so he asked Hiranyakasipu what he wanted. So Hiranyakasipu replied that he wanted to become immortal, and Lord Brahma answered that he himself is not immortal so he cannot make Hiranyakasipu immortal. But then Hiranyakasipu, thinking that he was very intelligent, said, “All right, if I can’t get the boon of immortality directly, I will get it indirectly.” And therefore, he prayed that he should not be killed during the day or night, he should not be killed by any animal or human being or God, he should not be killed inside the house or outside the house, he put so many conditions by which he thought he could become immortal. And therefore, the Lord assumed the form of Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, who was not a man or an animal or a god, but He was half-man and half-lion. So, He assumed a form to fulfill a particular purpose. 

The Bhagavad-gītā tells us ye yathā māṁ prapadyante—that as we approach the Lord, the Lord reciprocates. And He can reciprocate in so many ways. For the jnanis, He is the impersonal brahmajyoti, and He fulfills the desires of the jnanis who want to merge into effulgence. For the yogis, He is the Paramātmā, and He fulfills the desires of the yogis who want to meditate upon His form in their hearts. And for the devotees, He is Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But even as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, different devotees approach Him in different moods of service. And therefore, if someone wants Him to be master, the Lord becomes the perfect master. If someone wants Him as a friend, the Lord becomes the perfect friend. If someone wants Him as a son, the Lord becomes the perfect son. As we heard in Srila Prabhupada’s lecture that Vasudeva and Devaki prayed to the Lord, “We want a son like You.” And the Lord thought, Well, who can be like Me? God is one without a second, so the Lord Himself became the son. Similarly, if we want the Lord to be our husband, He’ll become our husband. Once one disciple asked Srila Prabhupada that Lord Krishna had 16,108 wives, does He have only 16,108 wives? And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Oh, you want to become Krishna’s wife? You can pray like that.” So, in whatever way we want to approach the Lord, the Lord will reciprocate. 

In the case of Bali Maharaja . . . Bali Maharaja was very charitably inclined to brahmanas. In fact he had achieved his extraordinary power and position by serving the brahmanas and pleasing the brahmanas. So when the demigods approached the Lord to save them from Bali Maharaja, the Lord assumed the form that would suit the mood of Bali Maharaja. He didn’t take the universe by force from him although He could have. But Srila Prabhupada explains that even though He was a superior authority and had the power to take the universe from him, still even a superior authority does not have the right to take someone’s property. He had to ask the person. So, the Lord thought of Bali Maharaja’s mood that he likes to serve brahmanas, he is very charitably inclined. And therefore, the Lord assumed the form of Vamanadeva—a little brahman—and He came to beg for charity. And that was Bali Maharaja’s mood, to give charity. So, the Lord reciprocates with the mood of the devotee. And in the case of Bali Maharaja, although he was not. . . he had not manifested himself as a devotee yet, but even then, the Lord reciprocated with his mood and appeared as a brahman to beg for charity—which Bali Maharaja was happy to give. 

Even in the case of. . . not remembering his name right now, but the demon who was a devotee of Lord Shiva and he eventually started to cut—because he didn’t get any response from Lord Shiva—so he began to cut pieces of flesh from his body and offered into the sacrificial fire. Yes, Vṛkāsura. And eventually Lord Shiva thought, He is in the process of committing suicide, I don’t really want him to commit suicide. So he appeared to him. And again, Srila Prabhupada explains he wasn’t really pleased with the demon’s sacrificial offerings, but any gentleman if he sees another person about to commit suicide will try to intervene and save him. So Lord Shiva thought, He is committing suicide, I can’t let him just commit suicide. So he came, and he said, “What do you want?” So Vṛkāsura said, “I want the benediction that whosoever head I touch will crack.” So, Lord Shiva agreed. And Vṛkāsura was such a demon that he immediately became lusty for Shiva’s consort, Parvati, and wanted to kill Shiva and enjoy Parvati—such a demon. So, he began to chase after Lord Shiva to touch his head and kill him. 

And Lord Vishnu understanding the difficulty of Lord Shiva assumed the form of a brahman, again, and He stopped Vṛkāsura. And He began to speak to him completely on the bodily platform, and again Srila Prabhupada explains the demons are always very preoccupied with their bodies. And the Lord understanding the mentality of the demon reciprocated perfectly with his consciousness, and He said, “Why are you running so fast? It’s not good for your health to exert yourself so much.” So, the demon immediately thought, Oh, He’s concerned about my bodily welfare. He is concerned about me. I have to hear what He has to say. And then Vṛkāsura said, “Well, Lord Shiva gave me the boon that whosoever head I touched would crack and the person would die. So, I am chasing after Lord Shiva so I can touch his head.” So the Lord in the form of the boy began to laugh, and of course demons are always very concerned about their prestige, they don’t want anyone to laugh at them. “Why are you laughing at me?” “I am surprised that you would take Lord Shiva’s word seriously. Everyone knows that since the Daksa yagna, his mind has been deranged and he only speaks nonsense. I am surprised that you would put your faith in his words.” So then Vṛkāsura said, “Really.” “Yeah, I’ll tell you what you should do. You should touch your own head, and when you find out that his boon didn’t work, you can catch him and chastise him.” So the demon touched his own head with his hand and true to the benediction, his head cracked open and he died. And thus, Lord Vishnu saved Lord Shiva. But He did it by assuming a guise and speaking in such a way that He appealed to the mentality of the demon. 

So—ye yathā māṁ prapadyante—the Lord reciprocates with the way people approach Him, and sometimes the Lord knowing the mentality of the person will take the initiative and approach the person, but approach in such a way that the person is pleased with the Lord even though he may be a demon. And devotees are also the same to some extent—of course it is said that devotees are more kind than the Lord, because the Lord will fulfill the person’s desire whatever the desire may be whereas the devotee will not fulfill desires that are not beneficial for the person. But Srila Prabhupada also, he would reciprocate with the way people would approach him. 

I remember once when I was just beginning to associate with Srila Prabhupada in India, one of Prabhupada’s disciples commented to me about how Srila Prabhupada reciprocated with different disciples. And for one disciple, Prabhupada was like the loving father, and for another disciple Prabhupada was like the stern taskmaster, but Prabhupada gave the disciples, in a sense, what they wanted, but it was all part of the effort to help them in Krishna consciousness and devotional service. Sometimes devotees would come with the mood that they would just want to do whatever Prabhupada wanted them to do. And if the devotee was suitable for the purpose, Prabhupada would engage the devotee in the project that Prabhupada wanted. Then again there were other devotees who had a specific desire to render a particular service, and generally Prabhupada would encourage—again if the disciple was qualified enough—Prabhupada would encourage the disciple. And some disciples had both moods like one, Yashomati Nandan prabhu. Actually, he was. . . anyway I won’t go into the history, but he was from a Gujarati brahmin family from Surat, and he met the devotees in Detroit. He was a student, and he became very inspired by the devotees. He actually wrote a beautiful letter to Srila Prabhupada that Srila Prabhupada had published in BTG. And he had the desire to come to India and to open a center in Gujarat. 

So Srila Prabhupada really wanted help in India, and he was concerned because most of the Indian youth then was very preoccupied with material advancement. It’s funny how the generations change and sort of rebel. Like our generation—our parents were very conservative and established, and so—we sort of rebelled and became part of the counterculture. And Srila Prabhupada came and appealed to us. I mean Krishna consciousness was really more counter culture than any of the other countercultures, and we were attracted. And then the next generation. . .it’s sort of like the older generation, they would eat say, well I don’t want to mention but, what they would eat, so we rebelled. We became vegetarian, we only wanted to eat healthy food. And now the children of our generation rebel against us, they want to eat burgers and fries. So, in India when we came the older generation was very pious and they were very favorable to Krishna consciousness, and their children were in the mood, what has religion ever done for us, we want material advancement. So, they were not inclined towards Krishna consciousness but now their generation, their children, which are like the devotees who are being cultivated at Chowpatty, their generation are rebelling against their parents’ materialism and they want to become more spiritual like their grandparents and great-grandparents were. So anyway, when Srila Prabhupada came to India, the younger generation was not interested in Krishna consciousness. All the intelligent ones wanted material advancement, and Srila Prabhupada was very concerned that yes, the older generation was giving donations but who was actually going to do the work? 

And so, when Yashomati Nandan prabhu—an intelligent young Indian, educated in America—wanted to go back, Prabhupada encouraged him. But Prabhupada was interested in Juhu at the time, he wasn’t really interested in a center in Gujarat. So, when Yashomati Nandan arrived in Bombay eager to open the center in Gujarat, Prabhupada asked him to stay. And because he also had the desire to surrender and do what Prabhupada wanted, he stayed and helped in Juhu. But within his heart, he really wanted to go to Gujarat and open a temple. And after some years, I guess the circumstances were such, Prabhupada felt the time had come to let Yashomati Nandan Prabhu fulfill his desire and open a center in Gujarat—which he did in Ahmedabad. So, Prabhupada would also reciprocate with the mood of the devotee, and encourage the devotee, sometimes. . . and we find it even today. 

Prabhupada would say this is the best service. . . book distribution is the best service, but he would also say raising the next generation in Krishna consciousness is the most important service. The other day, I got a heading on email, the most important service in quotation marks, knowing that the person was quoting Srila Prabhupada, but I couldn’t guess what the most important service was going to be. Because sometimes it was book distribution, sometimes it’s raising the children, sometimes . . . it turned out to be some devotee who was running a school for the children quoting Srila Prabhupada—it’s the most important service. And in one sense they’re all the most important service. The same thing with the deities. Prabhupada would come to a temple and say These are the beautiful deities, and then he would go to the next temple and say These are the most beautiful deities. Of course, we know the most beautiful deities are Rukmini-Dwarkadhish, and he was only saying it in the other places to encourage them. And it’s not that Prabhupada was like. . . yeah, he was reciprocating with the mood of devotees, but he also felt it. He would see the deities, it was like a spontaneous exclamation of appreciation, and the same thing with the different services. It’s not . . . yes, he was encouraging them, but he was also spontaneously reciprocating with his own appreciate . . . I mean reciprocating with the devotees based on his own genuine appreciation of their service. So that was Prabhupada and in that respect he was like Krishna reciprocating with the different moods. 

I’ll just end with two small anecdotes that illustrate this. Although Prabhupada also had his own mood, I mean, and Krishna also has His own mood. So, any reciprocation is ultimately a combination of the mood of the person with whom the Lord or the Lord’s representative is reciprocating with, and the Lord’s own mood or the devotee’s own mood. But I thought of this yesterday also, in relation to the discussion of contradictions or apparent contradictions. But once Revatinandan Swami approached Srila Prabhupada, and Revatinandan Swami was very intelligent. He ended up preaching in the universities in England and discussing with many big professors and scholars there. So he had a very analytical mind. So, he approached Srila Prabhupada that in some places in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we read that Lord Brahma was born on the lotus flower and he created all the planetary systems around him. But in other places we read that the different planetary systems reside within the stem of the lotus flower, and the two versions seem contradictory. And Srila Prabhupada replied that these things are inconceivable, we cannot understand these things with our teeny brains. Our only business is to love Krishna, that was his answer. 

The other story is Madhudvisa prabhu and mother Yamuna were having a little debate, at the Ardh Kumbh mela, in 1971. And one was saying that Krishna and Balarama are the same, I think perhaps Madhudvisa prabhu was saying, “Krishna and Balarama are the same. The only difference is that Krishna is black and Balarama is white.” And mother Yamuna was saying that no, there is a difference because Krishna is the only enjoyer of Srimati Radharani. So, they were arguing and . . . as one devotee commented to me yesterday, it’s very good that we can argue and defeat the Mayavadis, for example. But sometimes we get in the mode we want to argue and defeat the other devotees. So anyway, they were . . . each one was very strong in his or her point. So, Tamal Krishna Goswami, who was Prabhupada’s GBC secretary then, took the matter to Srila Prabhupada. And he said that one devotee—say Madhudvisa prabhu—said that Krishna and Balarama are exactly the same, the only difference is that Krishna is black and Balarama is white. Prabhupada said, “Yes, he is right.” And then Tamal Krishna Goswami said, “But mother Yamuna says that there is a difference because Krishna is the only enjoyer of Srimati Radharani.” And Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes, she is right.” And Tamal Krishna Goswami said, “But Srila Prabhupada they’re both saying different things, they both can’t be right.” And Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes, you are right.” So, then Tamal Krishna Goswami said, “Well, which is right?” And Srila Prabhupada said, “You decide.” 

So I guess what I am saying here is that Prabhupada, when he heard each version, actually agreed that each version is correct because our philosophy is acintya-bhedābheda-tattva. So when someone sees the sameness, he’s correct, but if someone sees the difference, he or she is also correct. But the other side of it, I guess, is that Prabhupada didn’t want us to get too wrapped up in arguing with each other or like pondering too deeply about subjects that are inconceivable to us. He had faith in the process of Krishna consciousness that by serving Krishna and chanting the holy names of Krishna everything would be revealed.

Once in India . . . of course as Prabhupada had mentioned in the talk again, on Vyasa-puja, about balance, we want to have balance, but when we were in India sometimes Srila Prabhupada really engaged us very fully. I mean, there was so much work to do, and so few qualified people to do it, and Srila Prabhupada had such a sense of urgency in his mission that he really engaged his disciples very fully. And sometimes we’d be lucky to chant our rounds, and there were periods we just didn’t have time to read. And once, I didn’t actually say anything to Srila Prabhupada, but within my heart I felt like I was not reading. I am not getting time to read. I was thinking like I might be missing something in my spiritual life, but I suppose Srila Prabhupada understood my mentality or my concern, and he quoted the verse naṣṭa-prāyeṣu abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. And he said by serving the. . . by reading the book Bhagavat or by serving the person Bhagavat one gets the same result. And he said that if you serve the person Bhagavat all the truths of the book Bhagavat will be revealed to you, even if you never read the book. Of course, he wanted us to read the books, and under ordinary circumstances he wanted us to keep the balance of the morning program and then practical service during the day and then the evening program. But under circumstances like we had with him in India, he had faith in the words of the scripture. And I am sure he also had his own realization that if one serves a spiritual master without reservation, one realizes everything, one gets everything, and I think that was Prabhupada’s mood. He wanted us to chant and hear, he wanted us to study and be knowledgeable, and be able to preach and answer questions. But he wasn’t very anxious about like dwelling on little points of disagreement or apparent disparities, but he just wanted us to go on with the mission, chant Hare Krishna, and he knew that in the end, we would get Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy and go back home back to Godhead and bring many others with us. 

Hare Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada ki. . . jaya!

So enough of the book Bhagavat, go out and serve the person Bhagavat.

Srila Prabhupada ki. . . jaya!

Srivasa prabhu ki. . . jaya!

All person Bhagavats assembled ki. . . jaya!