In honor of Lord Varaha’s Apperance Day we are posting some words by Srila Prabhupada from the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Srimad Bhagavatam and some words from one of his lectures on the Srimad Bhagavatam explaining the Lords various incarnations.
Lord Varaha’s Appearance Day
Kṛṣṇa Is the Source of All Incarnations
As the supreme controller of both the material and spiritual worlds, the Lord has different incarnations of unlimited categories. Incarnations like Brahmā, Rudra, Manu, Pṛthu and Vyāsa are His material qualitative incarnations, but His incarnations like Rāma, Narasiṁha, Varāha and Vāmana are His transcendental incarnations. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the fountainhead of all incarnations, and He is therefore the cause of all causes. (SB 1.1.17 Purport)
Srimad Bhagavatam
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Canto 3, Chapter 18, Text 2
The Battle Between Lord Boar and the Demon Hiranyaksa
dadarśa tatrābhijitaṁ dharā-dharaṁ
pronnīyamānāvanim agra-daṁṣṭrayā
muṣṇantam akṣṇā sva-ruco ’ruṇa-śriyā
jahāsa cāho vana-gocaro mṛgaḥ
dadarśa—he saw; tatra—there; abhijitam—the victorious; dharā—the earth; dharam—bearing; pronnīyamāna—being raised upward; avanim—the earth; agra-daṁṣṭrayā—by the tip of His tusk; muṣṇantam—who was diminishing; akṣṇā—with His eyes; sva-rucaḥ—Hiraṇyākṣa’s own splendor; aruṇa—reddish; śriyā—radiant; jahāsa—he laughed; ca—and; aho—oh; vana-gocaraḥ—amphibious; mṛgaḥ—beast.
He saw there the all-powerful Personality of Godhead in His boar incarnation, bearing the earth upward on the ends of His tusks and robbing him of his splendor with His reddish eyes. The demon laughed: Oh, an amphibious beast!
PURPORT
In a previous chapter we have discussed the incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as Varāha, the boar. While Varāha, with His tusks, engaged in uplifting the submerged earth from the depths of the waters, this great demon Hiraṇyākṣa met Him and challenged Him, calling Him a beast. Demons cannot understand the incarnations of the Lord; they think that His incarnations as a fish or boar or tortoise are big beasts only. They misunderstand the body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, even in His human form, and they deride His descent. In the Caitanya-sampradāya there is sometimes a demoniac misconception about the descent of Nityānanda Prabhu. Nityānanda Prabhu’s body is spiritual, but demoniac persons consider the body of the Supreme Personality to be material, just like ours. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ: persons who have no intelligence deride the transcendental form of the Lord as material.
Also from Srimad Bhagavatam 4.8.57
Dhruva Maharaja Leaves Home for the Forest
svecchāvatāra-caritair
acintya-nija-māyayā
kariṣyaty uttamaślokas
tad dhyāyed dhṛdayaṅ-gamam
sva-icchā—by His own supreme will; avatāra—incarnation; caritaiḥ—activities; acintya—inconceivable; nija-māyayā—by His own potency; kariṣyati—performs; uttama-ślokaḥ—the Supreme Personality of Godhead; tat—that; dhyāyet—one should meditate; hṛdayam-gamam—very attractive.
My dear Dhruva, besides worshiping the Deity and chanting the mantra three times a day, you should meditate upon the transcendental activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His different incarnations, as exhibited by His supreme will and personal potencies.
PURPORT
Devotional service comprises nine prescribed practices—hearing, chanting, remembering, worshiping, serving, offering everything to the Deity, etc. Here Dhruva Mahārāja is advised not only to meditate on the form of the Lord, but to think of His transcendental pastimes in His different incarnations. Māyāvādī philosophers take the incarnation of the Lord to be in the same category as the ordinary living entity. This is a great mistake. The incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is not forced to act by the material laws of nature. The word svecchā is used here to indicate that He appears out of His supreme will. The conditioned soul is forced to accept a particular type of body according to his karma given by the laws of material nature under the direction of the Supreme Lord. But when the Lord appears, He is not forced by the dictation of material nature; He appears as He likes by His own internal potency. That is the difference. The conditioned soul accepts a particular type of body, such as the body of a hog, by his work and by the superior authority of material nature. But when Lord Kṛṣṇa appears in the incarnation of a boar, He is not the same kind of hog as an ordinary animal. Kṛṣṇa appears as Varāha-avatāra in an expansive feature which cannot be compared to an ordinary hog’s. His appearance and disappearance are inconceivable to us. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly said that He appears by His own internal potency for the protection of the devotees and the annihilation of the nondevotees. A devotee should always consider that Kṛṣṇa does not appear as an ordinary human being or ordinary beast; His appearance as Varāha-mūrti or a horse or tortoise is an exhibition of His internal potency. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said, ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ: one should not mistake the appearance of the Lord as a human being or a beast to be the same as the birth of an ordinary conditioned soul, who is forced to appear by the laws of nature, whether as an animal, as a human being or as a demigod. This kind of thinking is offensive. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu has condemned the Māyāvādīs as offensive to the Supreme Personality of Godhead because of their thinking that the Lord and the conditioned living entities are one and the same.
Nārada advises Dhruva to meditate on the pastimes of the Lord, which is as good as the meditation of concentrating one’s mind on the form of the Lord. As meditation on any form of the Lord is valuable, so is chanting of different names of the Lord, such as Hari, Govinda and Nārāyaṇa. But in this age we are especially advised to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra as enunciated in the śāstra: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
And from;
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Canto 7, Chapter 9, Text 47
Recorded April 2, 1976
Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam [SB 1.3.28]. There are many expansion of God. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam [Bs. 5.33]. He has got many forms, but this form which we know as Kṛṣṇa, that is the original Kṛṣṇa, or original God. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat: [Bg. 7.7] “Although I have got many forms, but the original, supreme form is Kṛṣṇa.” But that does not mean that the other forms of Kṛṣṇa, not our manufactured, but as it is stated in the śāstra… Kṛṣṇa has got many names: Rāma, Govinda, Nṛsiṁha, Varāha. There are other forms. Rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā-niyamena tiṣṭhan [Bs. 5.39]. Rāma, Nṛsiṁha, Varāha. He has got many forms. Rāma is also expansion of Kṛṣṇa. So these forms… We should not consider they are less powerful than Kṛṣṇa. Not that. But Kṛṣṇa is the original form. The example is given in the śāstra, just like candles. Dīpārcir eva hi daśāntaram abhyupetya [Bs. 5.46]. The… There are thousands of candles, so we get one of them ignited, light up, and then second, then third, then fourth, then fifth—you can go on increasing millions. The each light, each candle, is equally powerful. There is no doubt. Kṛṣṇa’s expansion not… The Viṣṇu-tattva… It is called Viṣṇu-tattva. Dīpārcir eva hi daśāntaram abhyupetya dīpāyate na hi tathā pṛthag asti hetu [Bs. 5.46]. So Viṣṇu-tattva. Viṣṇu-tattva is one, but still… Just like the example, candle. One candle, first candle, is Kṛṣṇa. Sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam [Bs. 5.1], govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi. This is the conclusion.
