Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: Canto 3: The Status Quo: Chapter 20: Text 8

sūta uvācaharer dhṛta-kroḍa-tanoḥ sva-māyayāniśamya gor uddharaṇaṁ rasātalātlīlāṁ hiraṇyākṣam avajñayā hataṁsañjāta-harṣo munim āha bhārataḥ

Translation: Sūta Gosvāmī continued: Vidura, the descendant of Bharata, was delighted to hear the story of the Lord, who, having assumed by His own divine potency the form of a boar, had enacted the sport of lifting the earth from the bottom of the ocean and indifferently killing the demon Hiraṇyākṣa. Vidura then spoke to the sage as follows.

In this past time Krishna is coming as a boar (pig). This verse was spoken by Suta Gosvami to the sages of Naimisharanya. Srimad-Bhagavatam or Bhagavata purana if we read tells about the Supreme Lord past times repeatedly like Suta Goswami talking to Maharaj Parikshit, then in the assembly of sages he says about how Maithreya muni who had heard Bhagavata purana from the Supreme Lord talking that to Vidura. Then the Supreme Lord talks about this to his dear friend Uddhava. So, this Bhagavata purana is retelling about Lord’s past times which by hearing and reading will purify our hearts.

Vidura was the step brother of Dhritarashtra. Dhritarashtra was always supporting his son Duryodhana for all his wrong doings, never ever correcting him. So Vidura kept on telling Dhritarashtra that he should tell his son to stop all these things and give the rightful share of the kingdom to the Pandavas.  Vidura kept on advising but Dhritarashtra was not at all going to listen because he was too much attached to his son. If parents are blindly attached to their children sometimes what happens is even though they do wrong they won’t correct them. Dhritarashtra and Duryodhana was so upset with Vidura and insulted him telling they don’t need him. Vidura was broken at heart with the behavior of father and son duo, so he decided to go for a pilgrimage.

 Vidura is a Mahatama and is a devotee of Supreme personality of God head. But even though Krishna was present during that time frame of Vidura, he could have gone to visit Krishna but instead of going to Krishna Vidura decided to go for a pilgrimage. Why? because Vidura was associating with Dhritarashtra   and Duryodhana for a long time so his mind was contaminated. Even though he was pure he felt that his consciousness was contaminated, so decides that he is not qualified to meet Krishna and off goes for a pilgrimage for 35 long years. Finally, he comes to Indraprastha (Present Delhi). On the banks of Yamuna, he meets Uddhava. Uddhava was in a pitiable condition, since Krishna had already left to the spiritual world, he was feeling the separation from the Lord. Vidura enquires what had happened to the Supreme Lord and to the Yadu Dynasty and also about Kurukshetra war. So Uddhava was describing and he was crying also since he was friend of Krishna and was missing him a lot. Vidura wanted to know more past times of the Lord like Cosmic creation and everything and insists that he tell more about it. Then Uddhava said he is not the right person to speak about that. Even though he is really qualified to speak about Krishna he asks Vidura to meet Maitreya Muni, who is more qualified and senior to him at the banks of Ganges at Hardwar and inquire all the truths concerning about the Lord. Since Uddhava was advised to proceed to Badarikāśrama to deliver some message to the devotees of Lord he guided Vidura to Maitreya muni and he leaves.

So Vidura meets Maitreya Muni who talks to him about the entire pastime of Krishna by describing the entire cosmic creation, the creator behind it and about the Supreme Lord .Here a lesson learned is we have to give respect to senior devotees, that is the proper Vaishnava Etiquette otherwise we will be stuck here only.

Now Krishna came as a boar. Here sometimes devotees get confused when they hear that Krishna came as a pig. So, Brahma answers about it that Krishna can take many forms and in Brahma Samhita confirms it (5.33)

advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam
ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca
vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

Translation: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is inaccessible to the Vedas, but obtainable by pure unalloyed devotion of the soul, who is without a second, who is not subject to decay, is without a beginning, whose form is endless, who is the beginning, and the eternal puruṣa; yet He is a person possessing the beauty of blooming youth.

Krishna can take many forms or avatars. But he is the Adipurusham. He is the same transcendental person. He cannot be understood by cultivating knowledge and all, it comes by bhakti or pure devotion only. With bhakti we can understand the Lord. Even if he comes in the boar form, he is still the Supreme Lord or Swayam Bhagavan. And It is not the real pig that you see. Boar is different. Jayadeva Goswami talks about in Sri Dasavatara-stotra “kesava dhrita-sukara-rupa jaya jagadisa hare”. Here “Sukara” means boar and it has a tusk. It is not an ordinary pig. The Lord has a particular purpose for coming in this form because the earth fell in the Garbodhak ocean and boars are good swimmers, they can go deep in the water and are very good in lifting things also. 

Scriptures says that Lord comes in every species of life. There is 8.4 million species of life and they are divided in to 6 categories. The first one is aquatics, second is plants and trees,3^rd is insects and reptiles,4 th is four legged animals, 5 th is birds and 6 th is human. 

In aquatics, Lord takes Matsya or fish form to save Swayambhuva Manu, the Vedas and Satyavrata Muni. The Lord even took the form of a bird too. When the four kumaras of Brahma asks a question how to control the senses to which Brahma couldn’t answer and meditates upon the Supreme Lord and so the Lord comes as a Swan or Hamsa roopa. As Insects and reptiles Anadashesha, the Supreme Lord himself and Kurma avatar. As plant Krishna is the Banyan tree. And come as Dharu brahman tree. Lord Jaganath deities are made from this tree, that is Krishna himself. Human forms of the Lord are Vamana, Rama, Caitanya, Krishna. Every species of life Krishna comes. Why he is coming like that? The Lord wants to show that he is not partial to humans. Whether you are in plant body or animal body all are his children. So, to love equally, to teach devotion or to create auspiciousness in particular species. Krishna sometimes want to be like a naughty child, sometime he wants to have some fun also so he come as a pig, as a dwarf. 

Coming to the pastimes Brahma had 4 sons. They are Sanaka, Sanatana, Sanandana, and Sanatkumara. They are brahman realized means they are attracted to the Brahman aspect of the Supreme Lord or impersonal aspect. Brahma asks them to get married and start creation, but they wanted to be Bramacharis and wanted to remain always as 4-year-old. Acharya’s comments that after 4 years they get conditioned and different types of lusty desires creep in to enjoy the senses, so the kumaras decided that they don’t want to grow past 4 years. So, Brahma accepted it and he gives them the knowledge that they are attracted to impersonal aspect of Bhagavan but there is a personal aspect too which is more beautiful.

 The 4-kumaras had a desire to see the Lord Narayana in Vaikuntha where the Lord resides with his consort Lakshmi Devi. Vaikuntha have 7 gates. When the kumaras reached the 7 th gate the Lord’s gate keepers Jaya and Vijaya saw these naked kumaras and tries to stop them from entering Vaikuntha. So, the kumaras got so mad and angry at them. So here the question comes why a self-realized person gets anger. The answer is pure devotees get angry when service to Krishna is interrupted or stopped and that anger is called as selfless anger or spiritual anger. We cannot compare that with material anger which is purely to enjoy our selfish desires. Krishna says kama krodha vijayate. If kama is not satisfied it comes out as anger (material anger). 

There is Nava Vidha Bhakthi to worship lord 

Shravanam keertanam vishnoh smaranam padsevanam |
Archanam vandanam dasyam sakhyam atmanivedanam |

Archanam (performing pooja), Vandanam (prostrating before the lord) doing pooja and look at the deities, admire them, and do obeisance. Here the Kumaras are coming to meet Narayana and worship him but Jaya and Vijaya are stopping them. So, they curse them by telling that you don’t belong to Vaikuntha because Vaikuntha is a place where if any one wanted to do any service to Krishna they will help you, facilitate you and glorify you. The goal is to give pleasure to the Supreme Lord. Unlike the material world where there is more competition in the mode of ignorance ( example political wars), mode of passion( by hook or crook we want to win the battle even if we have to break the rules or violating the rules and regulations),the mode of Goodness( Thinking that the  presence of competitor will bring the best out of me, it gives me an inspiration that god has given them so much talents so what inspiration I can get it from them so I can stretch myself in to new realms of fortunate potential.) But still all the modes are wrong we cannot go back to Krishna. At least we have to be in the mode of goodness.

Since Jaya and Vijaya had material consciousness which was very demoniac preventing the kumaras from doing service to the Lord selflessly so they have to fall on earthly planet by losing their spiritual position. Jaya and Vijaya got terrified and begged for forgiveness for living separate from Krishna even a minute, was a cruel punishment. Lord Narayan appeared before the kumaras with his consort Lakshmi Devi. The Lord had a moon like face, lotus like eyes, beautiful Kaustubha gem, Vaijayanti mala, decorated with Thulasi leaves. When kumaras saw that form they were blown away and fell at Lord’s feet. Gently the breeze was blowing they could smell the aroma of Thulasi leaves of Lord’s lotus feet which is actually the prasadam of the Lord.

Acharya’s comment that when we go to the temple, we should take darshan of the deities and then take the prasadam then only the darshan of the Lord is complete. Here the prasadam for the Kumaras is the fragrance of the Thulasi leaves from the lotus feet of the lord. The moment they had darshan and the fragrance of Thulasi leaves as prasad their impersonal concept went away they became perfect Bhaktas or pure devotees. 

The Supreme Lord apologizes for the actions done by his gate keepers Jaya and Vijaya to the Kumaras. But in material world apologizing after doing any mistake is considered as egoïstic. We should realize that when we make a mistake, misbehave or act improperly we are pulling our Guru, our Parampara and Krishna down. We are representing Srila Prabupada in a bad way. The Lord looked at Jaya and Vijaya and said to them that he can counteract this curse and keep them in Vaikuntha or ask the Kumaras to take back their curse. Since he wanted this incident to happen because the Lord was going to do some pastimes on planet earth, he wants Jaya and Vijaya to assist him in this mission. So, Jaya and Vijaya felt better. And in need to honor the Kumaras who are true devotees of the Lord, Lord said that he is going to give Jaya and Vijaya two options. The first option take birth in earthly planet for 7 lives as Lord devotee in that way they won’t forget the Lord and will be doing devotional service then after 7 lives they can come back to Vaikuntha Lokha and regain their original position as Jaya and Vijaya. Second option was to take three lives as enemy of Vishnu and come back to Vaikuntha Lokha. So, Jaya and Vijaya decided to go with the second option because 7 lives living separate from Vishnu was a very long time and unbearable for them and so they wanted to finish it quickly and come back.

Mean time in the earth all the 13 daughters of Daksha, Brahma’s son was married to Kashyapa Muni. 12 daughters became mothers. But one of the daughters Diti couldn’t conceive a baby and she was remorseful. One day as Kashyapa Muni was doing evening meditation. Diti got uncontrollable desire to conceive that time and told her desire to her husband. Kashyapa said It was inauspicious moment that time since Lord Shiva, who is very merciful goes to the Pathala Lokha and takes the  souls without the body and comes  to the earthly planet and sees the consciousness of the person and puts the souls in to the womb of people who does not have proper consciousness So, conceiving a baby that time was very inauspicious because Diti will attracting  the demons in to her womb. Scriptures talks about Pinda Sthithi, the science behind pregnancy or the Vedic understanding of how this process works. Diti was not willing to listen. So Kashyapa Muni thought it is the will of providence what can he do. So that is the time Jaya and Vijaya were falling down from Vaikuntha. They enter the womb of Diti and are born with demoniac mentality since the consciousness of Diti and Kashyappa was not correct and Kashyappa was yielding to the desires of his wife even though he knew that was not the right time to conceive so now twins were born. Hiranyaksha comes out and Hiranyakasipu comes second. But according to scriptures the elder one gives way for the younger one to come out first so here Hiranyakasipu is considered as the eldest. As they came out of their mother’s womb, they start to grow super big, and they had the determination to become the most powerful people of the planet. So, they did severe tapasya or tapobalam to Lord Brahma by controlling their senses and by doing severe austerities. The power comes through mystical siddhi. Then Lord Brahma appears before them and gives lots of boon. Hiranyaksha was satisfied, but Hiranyakasipu went to meditation again in need for more power. Hiranyaksha went to challenge everyone who says they are strong and asked them to fight with him and he was doing lots of atrocities like killing and fighting innocent people, troubling virtuous women’s, looting money from people, capturing the kingdom. Then one time he thought that everybody in this world is meek not strong and then he heard that Varuna is very strong. So, he decided to challenge Varuna.

 Varuna was in the  deep ocean so he went  to Varuna challenging him for a tough fight, so Varuna said to Hiranyaksha that you are a powerful mighty person I am an old man and I cannot keep up with you and said if he need the tough fight he need to go and fight with Vishnu. So, Hiranyaksha was determined to fight with Vishnu. Also, Hiranyaksha had a lot of desire for the gold and he took all the gold from the earth and earth lost its buoyancy. “Hiranya” means gold and “Aksha” means an eye for the gold. Then the cosmic order got disturbed and the earth fell from its orbit and fell in to Garbodhak ocean. That time the Devathas had a problem, earth is not there and all the living entities are struggling to breathe since they are under water so they went to Lord Brahma to ask his help. Lord Brahma said that it is beyond his capacity and ask them to pray to Lord Vishnu. The Devathas together with Lord Brahma meditated on Vishnu to solve their problem. So, a small boar came out of Lord Brahma’s nose and start to grow bigger. Earlier Vedas came from Lord Brahma. Krishna is the personification or conclusion of all Vedas so he is coming from Lord Brahma’s nose. Then the Lord appears before them and dives in to the water. He finds mother earth picked her up. Hiranyaksha comes to know about it and decided to fight with the lord and kept on insulting the Lord. Lord tolerated everything because his first priority was to save mother earth and put her back on the orbit.  Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2, text 14 talks about tolerance

matra-sparsas tu kaunteya
sitosna-sukha-duhkha-dah
agamapayino ‘nityas
tams titiksasva bharata

We have to focus on priorities and don’t get distracted by simple things in life. But what really happens is we always gets distracted by simple things and always miss the life. Actually, life is bigger than what you think. 

 So, the Lord put back mother earth on the orbit and then decided to fight with Hiranyaksha. At one point of the fight Lord Brahma says to the lord to finish him off because night time was fast approaching and during that time the demons will become more powerful. The Lord kills Hiranayaksha instantly. Here again a question comes why does Lord Brahma had to tell the Lord who is omnipresent and omnipotent to kill Hiranayaksha before evening comes. Acharya’s say that when Lord performs the past times, he covers everyone with his Leela Shakthi, so you do your role to increase the pleasure of the lord or to enhance the past times. So, he gives the forgetfulness and make you forget that he is the Supreme Lord. 

There are two kinds of forgetfulness we need to know. One is Lord covers yourself with Yoga Maya or Leela Shakti that forgetfulness give pleasure to Krishna. Second one is forgetfulness of Krishna due to sinful activities. Living entities forget Krishna due to selfish reasons. When we do sinful activities reaction comes, Krishna takes away the desire to serve him. Some examples are Shishupala, Duryodhana. Krishna was present during their time but they failed to understand Krishna. 

Sometimes these past times looks like a fairy tales. There is a logic in understanding Krishna and sometimes logic also fail. In general, human way of understanding things are different. They have a different framework of analysis like Math. If I have to mathematically verify something, I will believe it. If Science tells me this, I believe it or I use my own logical analyses to understand the concept. But when it come to the Supreme Lord past times, he completely escapes through all these analyses. Why is that? Because Krishna says that he is “Achintya Shakthi”. Inconceivability is the intrinsic nature of divinity. Jiva Goswami beautifully explains that. If your human intelligence is able to perceive the Lord then who are you. You are god, that is you are more powerful than god or as good as god. If inconceivability is not there then he is not god. We apply our human intelligence and material senses to perceive things and apply logic to understand the existence of god. You will observe the beautiful world or macro world around you and wonder how it operates so precisely. Then you observe the   microworld or sub atomic how they follow all the rules and regulations precisely. Then the Cosmic world how all the planets are perfectly operating. We never hear the Moon clashing in to Jupiter. With our logic we can understand the existence of god. If you want to understand the nature of the god or Supreme Lord then logic won’t work It escapes all the human logics. We can put like this the logicality of the Bhakthi process is the experiential aspect of it. That is what Krishna talking in 9^th chapter of Bhagavad-Gita, second verse

rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ
pavitram idam uttamam
pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ
su-sukhaṁ kartum avyayam

Translation: This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.

3^rd line is very important. Krishna says I will reveal myself to you, you can directly perceive me. The great Rishis, Jnanis cannot understand me, but only a bhakta can understand me. Another lesson we can learn here is that Lord appeared as a boar because Lord Brahma prayed for it to solve their problem and the Lord appeared. Krishna says that he is not accessible to anybody easily but only through Acharya’ s or spiritually advanced people like Srila Prabupada and we follow the Brahma Madhava sampradaya. That is why it is very important to sing every day the prayers to the Spiritual masters.  The eight prayers to the Spiritual master by Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura say

yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasado

yasyaprasadan na gatih kuto ‘pi

dhyayan stuvams tasya yasas tri-sandhyam

vande guroh sri-caranaravindam

Translation: By the mercy of the spiritual master one receives the benediction of Krishna. Without the grace of the spiritual master, one cannot make any advancement. Therefore, I should always remember and praise the spiritual master. At least three times a day I should offer my respectful obeisance unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master.

You get the mercy of Krishna only through a Guru. Without Guru you cannot get benediction of Krishna. If you have demonic mentality, Krishna talks about in 16^th chapter of Bhagavat- Gita, The Divine and Demonic nature, verse 13-15

isvaro ‘ham aham bhogi
siddho ‘ham balavan sukhi

we have 5 demonic qualities which are as follows: –

 I am human, I am not a demon.” Ishwaro ham” I am the controller of life, “aham bhogi” everything exists for my enjoyment, only me and my family. “Siddho ham” I am super perfect I don’t have any faults. “Balavan” I am strong nothing can shake me mentally, physically. “Sukhi” means I am always happy.  If we have these qualities you cannot understand Krishna. If you don’t practice devotional service these demonic qualities are not going to go way. It will stay in your mind life after life. And again, if you don’t practice devotional service, it will be like a ritual simply just going to the temple and eating prasadam.

 From the past times of the Lord we can learn that in our life too we think we can solve all our problem. But certain problems are beyond our capacity, one who knows that is successful because he understands that they should seek the help of higher means. If, you divide the Vedic scriptures in to two things Pravarthi marg and Nivarthi marg. Pravathi marg means you all have a desires to enjoy the senses but doing it in a regulated way( karma kanda)  gradually you will purify yourself and will come to the point that Krishna is the Supreme Lord. Nivarthi marg is not for everybody. It is about detaching completely, control the senses and go back to Krishna completely. The Vedas want to cover maximum number of people to go back to God head that is why Pravarthi marg is recommended. And in pravarthi marg when you encounter any problems you go to temple, pray to the Devathas because you believe there are higher means which we cannot see, but they operate the entire world. That is what our parents and grandparents did and taught us but now we take shelter of Science and Technology. The concept of submitting to higher means is vanquished now due to atheist mentality. 

Also, it says Krishna come in all species of life the 4 reasons are

1) To have fun

2) To create auspiciousness 

3) To give association to the living entity’s other living entities in the same species

4) Establish religiosity

5) The 5^thor the Incidental reason is to protect devotees and kill demons

It is said that Jaya and Vijaya comes as Ravana and Kumbakarna, then as Shishupala and Dandavakra in Dvapara Yuga life after another. We can see that the demon’s enmity to Vishnu diminishes as life passes by. In Kaliyuga they come as Jagai and Mathai. The curse was already over but still they come to assist Lord Caitanya in his past times by their own free will. It is because the previous 3 was curses was forced upon them, due to them offending the true devotees of the Lord.

Whoever relishes the past times of the Lord, cherishes it or appreciates it, reads it, remembers it always all their sinful reactions will go away.