20250727 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.18.7

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sa

Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.18.7

taṁ niḥsarantaṁ salilād anudruto
hiraṇya-keśo dviradaṁ yathā jhaṣaḥ
karāla-daṁṣṭro ’śani-nisvano ’bravīd
gata-hriyāṁ kiṁ tv asatāṁ vigarhitam

Translation: The demon, who had golden hair on his head and fearful tusks, gave chase to the Lord while He was rising from the water, even as an alligator would chase an elephant. Roaring like thunder, he said: Are You not ashamed of running away before a challenging adversary? There is nothing reproachable for shameless creatures!

Purport: When the Lord was coming out of the water, taking the earth in His arms to deliver it, the demon derided Him with insulting words, but the Lord did not care because He was very conscious of His duty. For a dutiful man there is nothing to fear. Similarly, those who are powerful have no fear of derision or unkind words from an enemy. The Lord had nothing to fear from anyone, yet He was merciful to His enemy by neglecting him. Although apparently He fled from the challenge, it was just to protect the earth from calamity that He tolerated Hiraṇyākṣa’s deriding words.

Jayapatākā Swami: So here the pastime we see is that Lord Varāha is saving the planet earth from the depth of the ocean. This earth planet had fallen into the depth of the Garbhodaka ocean. So Kṛṣṇa was saving the earth in His Boar form. The boar is famous for working in the mud. This way, He had picked up the earth from that situation and it was His responsibility to save the planet earth. This demon had used abusive language against Kṛṣṇa in His Boar form. So it is not that Kṛṣṇa is not sensitive, He dislikes it very much if someone criticizes Him. So when the demon insulted Him, He felt it, but He tolerated it. Because He had a duty to save the earth. After saving the earth, then He returned to the demon. So, externally it so appears that He was running away from the demon. But, He was not running away from the attack, He was simply saving the earth first and then He would engage in warfare. We are all supposed to be Vaiṣṇavas. So the Lord appears before us in the Deity form, as an arcāvatāra. So, in our neophyte stage we cannot see the Lord, we cannot hear the Lord talk to us. So He is so kind, He appears before us in a Deity form.

Near Katwa, there is Śrīkhaṇḍa kṣetra, there was a Vaiṣṇava, Mukunda dāsa, whose son was Raghunandana. His son was a young boy, and he gave him upanayanam. He had to go and see a disciple who was dying. The boy was told by Mukunda dāsa to do the offering to Lord Kṛṣṇa. He was told that you will offer bhoga of laḍḍus to Laḍḍu Gopāla and bring the plate back. So he brought the plate of laḍḍus and told Laḍḍu Gopāla, please eat these! But the Deity did not eat! He thought the Deity eats the way we eat, but he did not see that. The Lord can eat simply by glancing, and it still remains intact. But Raghunandana started to cry. So the Deity asked him, “Why are you crying?” The boy said, “You are not eating the laḍḍus.” The Deity said, “If I eat the laḍḍu, then you won’t cry?” “Please,” the boy said. So the Deity started to eat the laḍḍus! Picking up with His hand and eating them. The boy brought the empty plate back to his mother. Mother asked, “Where are the laḍḍus?” The boy said, “The Lord ate them!” (laughter) So when Mukundananda came back, the father, the mother told him what happened. The father thought maybe the child ate the laḍḍus. So then, the father said, “Okay give the child like normal and I will hide and see what happens.” The father hid behind the Deity and was watching. This boy, he offered the Deity and said, “Please, take these laḍḍus.” After that the father could not hear anything. He looked around the corner, ah! The Deity was eating the laḍḍu! And He had the laḍḍu in His hand! And it was half-eaten. So, the father came out and saw the half-eaten laḍḍu in the hand of the Deity. So, seeing the laḍḍu in the hand of the Deity, he said, “I caught You, the evidence is in Your hand!” So, generally, people think that the Deity form of the Lord cannot move. But there are many histories like Sākṣi Gopāla, this history, if you have faith then the Deity can do anything.

But if you are breaking the principles or you are doing some kind of sinful activities and worshiping the Deity, He knows it! He knows it and is disgusted! If you are Māyāvādī and think the Lord is ultimately impersonal, He also knows that. If we pray to the Lord very nicely, the Lord is also aware of that and He is pleased with that. So we should be very personal in our worship of the Deities.

This example of the Boar avatāra shows us how the Lord has feelings. So, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu was hearing the Viṣṇu Sahasranama, when the name of the Boar or Varāha incarnation came, He took the form of the Boar and He manifested four hoofs and He came before Murāri Gupta. Śrīla Prabhupāda has taught us how the Lord should be worshiped very personally. But the prayer we do is one side, but He is bhāvagrāhi janārdana, He accepts the mood of the devotees, therefore when we offer prayers with our life, with devotion, He understands that. In the books it says that Lord Caitanya had manifested His four hoofs. Anyone who claims to be Bhagavān, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, then we should ask him to manifest his four hoofs! Kṛṣṇa can take any form at will. Each form has a particular mood. Our Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva is another form of Kṛṣṇa. When we worship the Lord, when we worship our devotion, our life and heart and when we offer our affection, the Lord accepts that. If some paṇḍita says by heart some mantra, he has no feeling, no love, the Lord will not be so pleased. But even if some of you, ladies, men, if you pray to the Lord with feeling, I love the Lord, He is my Master, He is my purpose in life, then He will appreciate that much more. How many of you have prayed and how many have devotion for our Deities? So we want to see that the Deities are pleased. So some verses in the Vedas say the Deity has no legs but He is faster than everyone. That does not mean He does not have feet or hands, that means He does have transcendental form and therefore He is faster than all of us. The Pañca-tattva, They are very merciful! But we have to deal with Them as people! So the more we read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books, the more we can understand the mood of the Deities.

When Lord Caitanya went to Vṛndāvana, the cows there wanted to smell His body, and they refused all the attempts made by the people to go away. Anyway, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has many different angles of looking at the thing and therefore in the Bhāgavatam this description of the Varāha avatāra is very revealing. And when Varāha finally turned to fight with the demon, His hind hoof touched the earth planet in Navadvīpa dhāma. And the place is known as Koladvīpa. We go there on parikramā every year. On one side, He touched the earth planet with His hind hoof and the other hoof, He was attacking the demon Hiraṇyākṣa with His club. So we are very much connected to the Varāha avatāra! Śrīla Prabhupāda would call Him, Lord Boar.

Anyway, this is a rare opportunity for us to see the Personality of Godhead. Śrīla Prabhupāda personally worshiped the brass Śrī Śrī Rādhā Mādhava Māyāpurcandra. I brought the Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Māyāpurcandra Deity, but it was too small. I miscalculated the size of the Deity. Then Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “That is alright, we will just put Mahāprabhu on a higher stand.” So, later, when we had the Pañca-tattva, I personally went and poured many gold articles while manifesting Them, because we were not sure if we gave all the gold to the person who was casting, he would not steal them! I went there personally and when the Deity was being cast, they keep them upside down, Their lotus feet up and lotus head down, and it was melted metal. I put the ornaments in there when this was going on. People had donated things like gold rings and other things. So, those are not Deities, but they are pratibimbas. And when They were brought here, the GBC and the top pūjārīs, we installed Them. And I will not go into the details, the Rādhā Mādhava Aṣṭa-sakhis were installed by the GBC. I did the nyāsa-homa for one of the Deities (Indulekhā). So, we begged Kṛṣṇa and the Pañca-tattva and Rādhā Mādhava, Aṣṭa-sakhis to come from the spiritual world and accept our sevā and worship. I don’t know which of you are dear to the Deities, but the Deities are for everyone.

Are there any questions or comments from godbrothers, sannyāsīs?

Question: How we can do service to our Deities more lovingly and more sincerely?

Jayapatākā Swami: When we come as neophytes we may think of the Deities as inert objects. But gradually, we should understand that They are people! And we should love Them! Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Any other question or comment?