Vageesh Express
March 2008 Edition
The DASAVATHARAM series
Varaha Avathar – The Boar
Incarnation
Bhoochorakahara pUnyadhamoorthe, kroDodhrithaBhudheshahare |
kroDakaara Shareera namo, harabhaktham the paripalaya
maam ||
To recover Earth from the depths of the ocean, He took
the form of a Boar!
Lord Vishnu's third incarnation was Varaha
meaning - turtle. Lord Vishnu decided to create a creature that could live on
the land alone. The boar lives on land only. This means in the order of
evolution land based animals evolved.
The Purana (Mythological story
about the avathar)
Once upon a time, there was a sage Kashyapa and
his wife Diti and they had a son named Hiranyaksha. Hiranyaksha became the king
of the asuras. Hiranyaksha’s meditation pleased Brahma and Brahma granted him
the boon that he would be invincible in any battle. Thus armed, Hiranyaksha
went out to fight with the devas.
He comprehensively defeated the gods and conquered
heaven. He also defeated Varuna, the god of the ocean. Thus, Hiranyaksha became
the king of the heaven, the earth and the underworld. But the asura was not
particularly fond of 
the earth.
He himself had begun to live in Varuna’s
palace under the ocean. So he hurled the earth into the depths of the ocean.
The gods went to Vishnu and prayed that something has to be done about
Hiranyaksha. They wished for peace to be restored to heaven and they wished
that the earth might be brought back from the depths of the ocean.
In response to these prayers, Vishnu
adopted the form of a boar and entered the ocean. Who should he meet there but
Hiranyaksha himself? Hiranyaksha of course did not know that this boar was none
other than Vishnu. He thought that it was an ordinary boar and attacked it. The
two fought for many years. But finally, Hiranyaksha was gored to death by the
boar’s tusks. The boar raised the earth up once again with its tusks.
Lord Vishnu thus saved the gods and the
principles of righteousness or dharma.
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