We are so very fortunate to be together on this blessed and an auspicious occasion of Çré Varäha Dwadasi. We have just sung the beautiful introduction of Géta-govinda by Çréla Jayadeva Gosvämé. Géta-govinda is a very very advanced spiritual literature, which describes the confidential pastimes of Rädhä and Kåñëa in the beautiful forest of Våndävana-dhäma. But, before we can understand with the proper state of consciousness the wonderful lélä of Våndävana, we must understand the nature, the transcendental nature, of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
janma karma ca me divyam
evaà yo vetti tattvataù
tyaktvä dehaà punar janma
naiti mäm eti so ‘rjuna
Kåñëa explains that one who understands the transcendental nature of my appearance in this world and my activities will never have to take birth again in this material world again, but attains his supreme abode. Some people they like to read about the beautiful pastimes of Lord Kåñëa with the gopé, but unless we properly study, understand, and follow with realization the basic principles of Bhagavad-gétä, which is the fundamental knowledge of spirituality, then our approach to the higher pastimes of Lord Çré Kåñëa will simply remain an imagination. We come to spiritual life not to be entertained. We come to spiritual life for realization and for purification and ultimately for service, selfless service.
Incarnation Of The Lord Varahadeva :
So first Jayadeva Gosvämé begins by explaining the greatness and the glory of the Supreme Lord, how he has appeared in so many wonderful incarnations. Through the first 9 Cantos of Çrémad-Bhägavatam, which are prerequisite to understand before approaching the 10th Canto of Kåñëa’s lélä, there is description of the various incarnations of Lord Çré Kåñëa. In the 3rd Canto, Maitreya Åñi is describing to Vidura about the wonderful means and ways by which the Lord appeared in the most incredible form of a boar, Varähadeva.
In summary, Sväyambhuva Manu was praying to Lord Brahmä who was his father and a spiritual master, and toward the end of his prayers, he explained to Lord Brahmä that the earth is in a terrible predicament. It is lying deep in the Garbhodaka Ocean. Lord Brahmä, he was thinking that I am just creating this universe and now this has happened. This is a great calamity because the earth is bearing the lives of so many living beings. So he began to meditate on the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who was the only shelter for all living beings from the insignificant ant up to Lord Brahmä. In our lives, we are faced with some many complexities and perplexities. Just the fact that we are growing old and we are approaching death is a complexity that none of us can really solve on our own. Therefore, all living beings should learn from Lord Brahmä that the only solution is to meditate on the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and take shelter of his lotus feet. So at that time as Lord Brahmä was immersed in remembrance of Lord Viñëu, a most wonderful little boar came out from his nose. It was just hardly the size of the tip of one’s thumb. Çréla Prabhupäda explains that the Vedas, they are the emanations of the breath of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and when Brahmä inhaled the breath of Viñëu, out from his nose came the personification of all the Vedas in the form of the Supreme Lord. He came out as a little boar and he went into the sky and he began to grow into a gigantic size, like a huge elephant, like a mountain, soon he was covering the entire sky. The great saints and sages from Janaloka, Tapoloka, and Satyaloka, they all began to offer prayers. At first, Brahmä was wondering what is this? Who is this? But then this beautiful boar began to roar like a mountain. Prabhupäda explains one’s voice is according to the size of one’s body. So Lord Boar, he was covering practically the entire universe, his body, so you can imagine the sound of his roar, but it was so sweet, it was so beautiful for the devotees, but it was like thunderous death to the non-devotees. And he began to slash his tail and cast his merciful loving glance upon all his devotees and then everyone began to offer prayers to him, and he dove into the ocean. Then as he dove, the ocean so fearful of this gigantic form that she raised her arms in the form of two large waves and she prayed, please do not cut me into pieces and he went deeper and deeper and deeper and the Lord especially took the form of a boar because you know hogs, you have seen them; in Våndävana, there are so many hogs; and with their nose, they are always keeping it down in the sewage or in some muddy waters looking for something to eat. So in the same way, this gigantic form of the Supreme Lord in the form of a boar with his nose, he was performing the pastime of searching for the earth towards the bottom of the Garbhodaka Ocean, and when he found the earth, he lifted it with his tusks and as he was bringing it up, the great demon Räkñasa Hiraëyäkña who was the younger brother of Hiraëyakaçipu, son of Aditi and Kaçyapa Muni, he challenged the Lord to battle. This Hiraëyäkña in order to satisfy his brother with his mighty mace, he traveled throughout the entire universe conquering everyone. He was so powerful that when he went to the abode of Indra, Indra was hiding for his life. Whichever abode of the demigods he came to, there was no body there; they just ran from him. Ultimately, he went into the ocean to Vibhävaré where he met with Varuëadeva and he fell at Varuëa’s feet and said, “Please, master, I beg you, fight me, I challenge you to battle.” And Varuëa looked at this audacious, egoistic demon and he said, “I am too old to fight, but I know who will cut your ego to pieces and make you food for dogs, Viñëu. You find him and fight him.” So Hiraëyäkña consulted with Närada, where is Viñëu, and Viñëu had already appeared in this wonderful form of a boar, and he was holding the earth on his tusks.
Some of you may ask, how is this possible? Is this some sort of fairytale, a boar holding the earth on his tusks? But what is impossible for the Supreme Personality of Godhead? For the Lord who had created the earth and the suns and all of the planets and all of the oceans and all of the mountains by an insignificant indirect process of his energies, his material energies, what is that that Lord cannot do? Acintya-çakti. The Supreme Lord has inconceivable potencies. He can do anything, anytime, anywhere, and one who has proper intelligence understands this. And therefore, the more wonderful a Lord appears it does not create doubt in a devotee’s mind. Rather, it just increases our love and appreciation for his supreme opulence. How can we doubt what God can or cannot do? Kåñëa is absolute. So Hiraëyäkña challenged him to battle, but Varähadeva, he simply went ignoring him and Hiraëyäkña was calling him a coward, but the Lord exhibited his supreme opulence of renunciation. What does he care for the words of demons?
Similarly, when we are preaching Kåñëa consciousness or when we are even trying to be a devotee, you can expect that people will blame you and criticize you and condemn you. They will say you are a coward, you are running away from the problems of life. That you cannot face things standing on your own two feet, so you have to take the scapegoat of God, some belief to give you some peace of mind. Anyways, there are innumerable arguments that atheists and pseudo-religionists will put before when you take to the process of God consciousness. But, that same mentality even condemns and criticizes God Himself, so we should not be surprised. Rather, we should know that we must be following in the footsteps of Lord Varähadeva if the asuras are saying all terrible words to us.
“Hari Om.”
It should encourage us. We should feel, “Yes, we must be pleasing the Lord.” Çréla Prabhupäda said if they are not attacking you that means you must not be doing something right.
Lord Varahadeva Killing Hiranyaksha :
So he placed the earth on the ocean and then there was a big fight. Hiraëyäkña began to blaspheme the Lord, “Now you will meet your death,” and Lord Varähadeva said, “Yes, anyone can talk, but let me see you fight with me,” and then they began to fight. And it was a wonderful fight. They were smashing each other with their mighty maces, and blood was coming from their bodies. When Lord Kåñëa wants to perform pastimes, he does it in such a wonderful exciting way. He could have killed the Hiraëyäkña without even touching him. Just by his thought, Hiraëyäkña could have been killed. But simply so that we can read and remember this wonderful pastime, he fought and he fought, and they were mashing each other with clubs and Hiraëyäkña, he took his trident and he threw it at the Lord, mighty trident, but the Lord with the Sudarçana cakra simply destroyed it. And then he began to smash him with his mighty fist, but the Lord just stood there completely unaffected. And at that time Lord Brahmä spoke that my Lord please kill this demon, we cannot tolerate him any longer plus it is becoming night and after the sun sets, demons gain great power, so please kill him now. So Lord Varähadeva simply smiled and Hiraëyäkña being very frustrated, he began to conjure up all sorts of magical, mystical powers where it became very dark and dust storms and fierce winds and pus and blood and hair and urine and stool and bones began to pour like monsoon rains. And then tridents and other various weapons started flying out of mountains and naked demonesses with scattered hair began to come out attacking the Lord and Yakñas and Räkñasas and various demons were crying out hideous, terrible slogans against the Lord. And Lord Varähadeva, he simply took his Sudarçana cakra, and within a moment, it dispelled all of the illusion of Hiraëyäkña. You see Lord Boar wanted to show everyone that you can use all your energies and all your powers and all your scientific technology or all your mystical powers, but ultimately you can use it all and exhaust it all, but the Lord will remain and ultimately if you are not surrendering to him, if you are not taking shelter of him, you will be destroyed. So then Hiraëyäkña went to grab the Lord and try to crush Him with his mighty arms, and as he put his arms around the Lord was outside of him, began to smash Him again with the fist, and Lord Varähadeva simply with his hoof he just touched very gracefully, gently touched Hiraëyäkña behind the ear and that touch caused Hiraëyäkña to fall to the ground like an uprooted tree with his hairs scattered and he died.
“Varähadeva ki – Jai.”
And Lord Brahmä came down and he saw Hiraëyäkña. He did not look like a dead man, although he was dead. He had a beautiful luster emanating from his body, and Lord Brahmä said. “How fortunate to die in the hands of God, how fortunate.” And then all the great saints and sages began to glorify Lord Boar who then after saving the earth, he cast his merciful loving glance upon all his devotees and then he returned to the spiritual world.
Murari Gupta – The Devotee
When Lord Caitanya Mahäprabhu appeared in this world, of course, we know that he was Kåñëa and Locana Däsa Öhäkura explains “saba avatära-sära çiromaëi
kevala änanda-kanda.” That he is the source and essence of all the avatars who came to deliver the chanting of the Holy name as the weapon to destroy all the ignorance within our hearts and establish pure love. So, one day when Lord Caitanya Mahäprabhu was living in Navadvépa, he heard someone chanting the beautiful glories of Lord Varähadeva, so he became immersed in the mood of Lord Varäha and he ran to the house of his devotee, Muräri Gupta, and he started calling out boar, boar, Varäha, Varäha, or in Sanskrit it is also Sükara, Sükara and then he went into Muräri Gupta’s temple room and he saw a pot of water and then Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu assumed the original form of Lord Varähadeva. And taking that pot of water to be the earth, he placed it between his tusks and Muräri Gupta came into the room and saw this most wonderful sight. He bowed down and surrendered before the lotus like hoofs of Lord Varähadeva, and the Lord ordered Muräri Gupta “Glorify me, praise me”. Then Muräri Gupta with heart full of love, he began to say, “My Lord, who can praise you? No one has the words to praise you. Even the Vedas cannot touch your glories. Even Ananta Çeña with his thousands of hoods can never exhaust your glories, and I am most insignificant. It is only if you empower one can anyone speak your glories. You are the only one suitable to praise yourself, and you can do so through any of our mouths if you so desire and then he fell down and surrendered himself at the beautiful lotus feet of Varähadeva and then Lord Boar began to speak. He said, “Oh! Muräri, I am very pleased with you.” He said the Vedas in many places they describe the absolute truth as being without eyes, without arms, without legs, without form. That is only to explain that the Supreme absolute has no material qualities but know that my form is eternal and Supreme, and anyone who offends my devotees who worship this divine form, he said, “I, myself, will punish them,” and then he told the world that it does not matter who you are. If you offend the Lord’s devotees, the Lord will punish you severely. He said, “Even if my own son commits offence to devotees, I will destroy him.” He said, “Muräri, I will give you an example. When I took this divine form of Lord Varäha and I lifted the earth, as I touched the earth, I impregnated mother earth and a son was born, his name was Narakä ((Bhauma) and this Narakä, I trained him to understand the Vedas and to be very religious. He was a protector of brähmaëas, he was always charitable, and he was always devotional. But, because somehow or other, he entered into the association of a materialistic person known as King Vena. He lost all his spiritual qualities. And this is a lesson to learn. However, spiritually advanced and pious you may be, if you associate with people who are too much materialistic intimately, you lose all your spiritual qualities. And parents understand how important it is to protect your children and give them association of pious and devoted friends and relatives. So because of this association, Narakä became cruel and offensive to devotees. So Lord Varähadeva said therefore in the form of Lord Kåñëa, I killed my own son because he offended the Vaiñëavas. Therefore, we should know how dear the Vaiñëavas are to me, and we should worship them. And Muräri Gupta, he was struck with divine ecstasy upon seeing this wonderful form of the Lord who revealed this message to the world.
Vasudeva – The Worshipper Of Varahadeva :
There is another story in Satya-yuga. Living in a place called Navadvépa, there was a brähmaëa name Väsudeva, and Väsudeva was a worshipper of Lord Varähadeva. He was a great devotee. Everyday, he had a murti of Varähadeva and he would wash Him with, bathe Him with Ganges water and offer flowers and fruits and sandal wood and so many other nice offerings and he would pray that “Lord Varähadeva, please don’t let my life be a waste. Please be merciful to me. Please appear before me.” So to fulfill the desire of his devotee, the Supreme Lord appeared as Varähadeva and gave him the darshan. And he told him that you are so fortunate Väsudeva because you are living in this land of Navadvépa. You should know that at the beginning of the Kali-yuga, I will personally appear in the form of the yugävatära, Lord Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu. So Lord Caitanya Mahäprabhu is Kåñëa who is in the mood of Çré Rädhäräëé and who has the complexion of Çré Rädhäräëé, and he will save the whole world just as I saved the earth by lifting it from the ocean of ignorance with my tusks. Gauräìga Mahäprabhu will save the whole world from the ocean of ignorance by spreading the congregational chanting of the Holy names.
“Hare Kåñëa Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa Hare Hare
Hare Ram Hare Ram, Ram Ram Hare Hare.”
And you Väsudeva, you will also take birth at the time when I appear as Lord Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu, and you will get to watch this beautiful, wonderful pastime of mine of spreading the glories of the Holy name of Kåñëa. Since that time, that place is known as Koladvépa, Kola is another name for boar. And in this Koladvépa, Lord Caitanya Mahäprabhu, he came and excused the offences of so many great sinners, Devanand Pandit, Gopäla Chapala, Gopäla Chakrabarty, and others. People who were suffering terribly due to their offences to the Lord and to the devotees, he forgave them of all their offences because they humbled themselves and surrendered to Him there, and he gave them the perfection of life, pure devotional service by inducing them to chant the Holy names.
“Hare Kåñëa Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa Hare Hare
Hare Ram Hare Ram, Ram Ram Hare Hare.”
And the messengers of Lord Caitanya, this is their mission in this world. His divine grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda, he traveled to all parts of the world simply forgiving the offences of all living beings and on behalf of Çréman Mahäprabhu inducing them to chant the Holy names.
“Hare Kåñëa Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa Hare Hare
Hare Ram Hare Ram, Ram Ram Hare Hare.”
“Çréla Prabhupäda ki – Jai!
Çré Gauräìga Mahäprabhu ki – Jai!”
Gauräìga, Gauräìga, Gauräìga
Introduction Of HH Niranjana Swami Maharaj :
Tonight, we have a good fortune of the association of His Holiness Niraïjana Mahäräja. Hari Om. He is such a wonderful representative of Çréla Prabhupäda carrying out this divine mission of compassion and mercy, travelling to various places, especially he preaches in Siberia and Russia. You know throughout the world, Siberia is the place you think of, the most isolate, desolate, miserable place on the whole planet. Isn’t that what we have learnt? You should go to Siberia; if you hate someone, you wish they would just go to Siberia. Niraïjana Svämé went to Siberia on his own. Prabhupäda sent him to Siberia to preach the glories of the Holy name to the Siberians, and now there are tens and thousands of such Siberians chanting the Holy names.
“Hare Kåñëa Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa Hare Hare
Hare Ram Hare Ram, Ram Ram Hare Hare.”
So Mahäräja, he is doing such, such wonderful service to our Guru Mahäräja. So, we are so grateful to him because we know Çréla Prabhupäda’s blessings are so much upon him, and because he is pleasing Gurudeva, therefore, anyone who pleases our Gurudeva, we should feel eternally indebted to that person. So, it is my humble request that Mahäräja speaks his humble and gentle words to pierce our hard hearts and somehow or the other induce us with humility and devotion to chant the Holy names.
“Hare Kåñëa Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa Hare Hare
Hare Ram Hare Ram, Ram Ram Hare Hare.”
If you want Mahäräja to speak, you must chant very loudly
“Hare Kåñëa Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa Hare Hare
Hare Ram Hare Ram, Ram Ram Hare Hare.”
Kåñëa consciousness is a loving reciprocation.
“Hare Kåñëa Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa Hare Hare
Hare Ram Hare Ram, Ram Ram Hare Hare.”
When Lord Varähadeva appeared, when he roared, it was like the roaring of a mountain, so in glorification of Lord Varähadeva, our united congregational chanting should be louder than a mountain.
“Hare Kåñëa Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa Hare Hare
Hare Ram Hare Ram, Ram Ram Hare Hare.”
Niranjana Maharaja’s lecture.
“Niraïjana Mahäräja ki – Jai.”
On behalf of all the devotees, I offer you our deepest gratitude for your wonderful inspiration to us all. Please come again and again for Radha Gopinath’s devotees.
Guess what the best way we can show our gratitude to Mahäräja is, by enthusiastically and loudly crying out the Holy name of Kåñëa.
“Hari Om.”
