V araha Dwadasi
Tomorrow ( 29 January) is Varaha Dwadasi. Devotees observe fasting today ( On Ekadasi – 28 Jan) for Lord Varaha.
Lord Varaha;s pranam mantra from Dasavatata Stotra:
vasati dasana-sikhare dharani tava lagna
sasini kalanka-kaleva nimagna
kesava dhrita-sukara-rupa jaya jagadisa hare
0 Kesava! O Lord of the universe! O Lord Hari, who have assumed the form of a boar! All glories to You!
The earth, which had become immersed in the Garbhodaka Ocean at the bottom of the universe, sits fixed upon the tip of Your tusk like a spot upon the moon.
Lord Varaha at Navadvipa:
One of the island of Navavipa dhama is Koladvipa.Kola is another Sanskrit word for boar, just like Sukara there is also another word kola. Koladvipa is one of the nine islands of Navadvipa. And it named after Lord Varaha because in the Satya yuga Lord Varaha appears there. He appeared there to fulfill the desire of one brahmana devotee. There was a Vasudeva vipra who was a very pious brahmana, who was a great devotee of Lord Varaha and he was praying to Lord Varaha that “Please make my eyes successful. Give me darshan. I want to see Your form. Please make my life successful. If I can have Your darshan then my life is worthwhile. ” And he was praying like this for many many days. He was a great devotee of Lord Varaha.
After a long time Lord Varaha appeared before this brahmana Vasudeva and He revealed to this brahmana Vasudeva His transcendental form. If you go over to Navadvipa you can see there is one temple there, a Gaudiya temple which has also the deity of Lord Varaha. Lord Varaha appears there in Koladvipa and He told this brahmana Vasudeva that “This Navadvipa dhama is very dear to Me. All of My different incarnations are here in this dhama. And in the Kaliyuga I will also come in My most merciful form and at that time I will perform the sankirtana of the holy name.”And then He requested this brahmana Vasudeva, “You please also come in the Kaliyuga and take part in My sankirtana pastimes. In this way Lord Varaha revealed the nature of His future pastimes to His devotee.
Lord Caitanya’s as Lord Varaha- Darshan to Murari Gupta:
Murari Gupta was a great devotee of Lord Ramachandra. And he was a very intimate associate of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu during His early pastimes. So Lord Caitanya exhibited the form of Lord Varaha when He came to Murari Gupta’s house. And it was certainly bewildering for Murari Gupta to suddenly find Caitanya Mahaprabhu transformed into the form of Lord Varaha. Murari Gupta was a great devotee of Lord Ramachandra. And he was a very intimate associate of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu during His early pastimes. So Lord Caitanya exhibited the form of Lord Varaha when He came to Murari Gupta’s house. And it was certainly bewildering for Murari Gupta to suddenly find Caitanya Mahaprabhu transformed into the form of Lord Varaha.
Murari Gupta saw Lord Caitanya transformed into Lord Varaha and then Lord Varaha picked up a water pot. There was a water pot with a spout and Lord Varaha…Lord Caitanya in His form as Lord Varaha then picked up that water pot in His mouth just as Lord Varaha would pick up the earth from the bottom of the Garbhodaka Ocean. And in this way; Lord Caitanya was revealing to His devotees that He is the Supreme Lord. This was His pastime, this was His way of showing them. He said, “In the past you doubted who I am! Now you know who I am! Now you can see who I am!”
And then He asked Murari Gupta to offer prayers. And Murari Gupta was so astounded to see all of this. It was difficult for him to say much in glorification of the Lord. But then Lord Caitanya began to speak to Murari Gupta and He told him that there are people who worship the Vedas but He said, “There is a particular wretch in Kasi. There is this wretch in Kasi named Prakasananda and he cuts Me to pieces with his teaching of the Vedas.” Prakasananda was of course the leader of the mayavadi sanyasi’s in Benares and later on Lord Caitanya would go there to Benares and deliver Prakasananda. It’s mentioned in Caitanya Bhagavata that in His early pastimes, Lord Caitanya was already aware of this Prakasananda. And He describes how his words were cutting Him to pieces. Why do the mayavadi’s words cut the body of the Lord to pieces? Because they deride His personal form! The Mayavada, they will particularly recite a statement from the Vedas which said “The Lord has no arms and He has no legs. He cannot see but He knows everything. He has no ears but He can hear everything. He has no eyes but He can see everything.”
They give importance to this kind of statement and then they conclude that the Lord therefore cannot have a form. They do not understand how the Lord can have a spiritual form, a transcendental form. So when the Lord appears in these different incarnations just as Varaha, Kurma or Nrsingha, the body is not material. But it is a fully transcendental spiritual form. Actually the form of Lord Varaha is described to be the Vedas personified. And this is explained that the Vedas are the breath of the Lord. Now the Vedic knowledge was given, the first student of the Vedas was Lord Brahma. The Vedic knowledge from the Lord was imparted into Lord Brahma. That breath of the Lord was put into Lord Brahma. And then when Lord Varaha appears, He appears from the nostril of Brahma. So what is coming from the nostril? This is actually our breath, so that same breath is actually Lord Varaha. Therefore just as the breath comes from the nostril of Lord Brahma, this is personified Vedas. So Lord Brahma is non different from the personification of the Vedas.
( Excerpt from lecture by BVV Narasimha Swami at Sri Mayapur, 2015)
Sri Varahadev ki Jai!
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