Radhanath Swami explains the importance of Celebrating Dvadasi:
Story_Of_Lord_VarahaDev
sädhu véra tvayä påñöam
avatära-kathäà hareù
yat tvaà påcchasi martyänäà
måtyu-päça-viçätaném
SYNONYMS
maitreyaù uväca—Maitreya said; sädhu—devotee; véra—O warrior; tvayä—by you; påñöam—inquired; avatära-kathäm—topics on the incarnation of the Lord; hareù—of the Personality of Godhead; yat—that which; tvam—your good self; påcchasi—asking me; martyänäm—of those who are destined for death; måtyu-päça—the chain of birth and death; viçätaném—source of liberation
TRANSLATION
The great sage Maitreya said: O warrior, the inquiry made by you is just befitting a devotee because it concerns the incarnation of the Personality of Godhead. He is the source of liberation from the chain of birth and death for all those who are otherwise destined to die.
Purport by his divine grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
PURPORT
The great sage Maitreya addressed Vidura as a warrior not only because Vidura belonged to the Kuru family but because he was anxious to hear about the chivalrous activities of the Lord in His incarnations of Varäha and Nåsiàha. Because the inquiries concerned the Lord, they were perfectly befitting a devotee. A devotee has no taste for hearing anything mundane. There are many topics of mundane warfare, but a devotee is not inclined to hear them. The topics of the warfare in which the Lord engages do not concern the war of death but the war against the chain of mäyä which obliges one to accept repeated birth and death. In other words, one who takes delight in hearing the war topics of the Lord is relieved from the chains of birth and death. Foolish people are suspicious of Kåñëa’s taking part in the Battle of Kurukñetra, not knowing that His taking part insured liberation for all who were present on the battlefield. It is said by Bhéñmadeva that all who were present on the Battlefield of Kurukñetra attained their original spiritual existences after death. Therefore, hearing the war topics of the Lord is as good as any other devotional service.
Celebrating Dvadasi:
Today we are celebrating this auspicious Dvadasi, which commemorates the appearance of that great illustrious incarnation of the supreme personality of Godhead Krishna Sri Varaha Dev. His beautiful story is narrated by Maitreya Muni to Vidura in the thirds canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. Vidura is enquiring in so many ways for so many details to understand more and more about the wonderful incarnations of supreme Lord and hearing Maitreya is praising Vidura who was taking a position of Maitreya’s disciple because he was so concerned to hear the glories of the Lord. It is explained that the Lords pastimes liberate one from the cycle of birth and death, but it is necessary that one is hearing from the perspective of a devotee and one is hearing from one who is a devotee otherwise the real transmission of spiritual grace cannot take place because the supreme personality of Godhead is independent. He can appear when and where he wants to appear. No one can force him to appear, you cannot force him to appear his name, you cannot force him to appear in the sound of his pastimes. He appears when he is pleased, when he is pleased by the devotion of the speaker and by the sincerity of one who comes to hear. It is a fact that sometimes a genuine speaker of Krishna Katha may be giving the narrations of the Lords pastimes and there may be a room full of various people, of various stages of consciousness and through the same vibration from the same bona fide source Krishna may be revealing such wonderful purifying grace upon one and he may not reveal anything to another in the same assembly. According to our motivation, according to our purpose in which we have come to hear. So therefore we should know that Krishna’s grace is always upon those who are sincerely aspiring to be his devotees.
bhaktyä tv ananyayä çakya
aham evaà-vidho ‘rjuna
Krishna says it is only through devotion that I reveal myself. Either physically in his divine spiritual form, through his name, through his pastimes, through his qualities, or even through the murti the deity of the Lord. He reveals his actual spiritual nature when we are sincere to be his servant and the servant of his servants. When we are sincere to hear his glories eternally for his pleasure and for our purification, because as we become purified we are given a greater service to the Lord. It is a not a question of what our service is, it is a question of the consciousness in which we perform our service. It is not a matter of what ashram or varna we may be temporarily placed, but the sincerity to please the Lord and of course to the extent we are purified to that extent whatever we do, we could do it in a way that is more pleasing to Krishna, therefore it is always foremost in a devotees consciousness to become purified, so whatever we do for the Lord will be that much more satisfied for his transcendental pleasure. Vidura was so anxious he left his home and how he left we all know the story, he was humiliated, he was disgraced, threatened, in fact if he did not leave Duryodhana he threatened that you will not even have the chance to breathe, while you still have your breath get out from this palace and Vidura was simply a well wisher he saw that Duryodhana and Dhrtarashtra were on the path to hellish condition of bondage. He could have easily lived comfortably in that palace and said nothing, but he was a vaishnav, he was compassionate, he was willing to take great risk to try to help those who he loves, this is a real loving family member. Sometimes in families people just to try to keep harmony they say nothing, but Vidura disrupted the whole family by his preaching, but he did not mind, because he saw that they were offenders to god and offenders to the devotees so he was kicked out of Hastinapur and he took it as gods grace and he went ultimately to the lotus feet of Maitreya Muni and began to have a wonderful, wonderful discussion and in this discussion Maitreya is explaining how the Lord appeared in so many wonderful incarnations and why.
Story of Four Kumaras by Radhanath Swami:
He describes that four Kumaras they were very senior sons of Lord Brahma. In fact these four Kumaras were four of the original children of Lord Brahma in this universe. They are the elder brothers of Shiva and practically all of the other prajapatis and of course when Lord Brahma was creating as a service to the Lord he had to progenate so many species of life so he was ordering his sons to be prajapatis, which means that they should marry and have so many so many children and he will empower them to populate the whole universe, various planets. So he told the Kumaras that you should marry and you should have so many wonderful children on my order, and the Kumaras, they were thinking “to get married, have children, so much bondage, so much disturbance, so many unnecessary duties”! No, we will remain brahmacharis! Now even today most fathers are not very inclined towards such a decision by a son. Of course Brahma was doing it as a service to the Lord. They were interfering with his service, so he ordered them “No, I am your father, I am telling you, it is my instruction, you must marry, you must have children”, and Kumaras said “we are sorry, but we will not obey this instruction anything else, but not this. We will remain brahmacharis and we will remain free from any designations the cause material entanglement.”
So Brahma became very angry and from his anger Lord Rudra came from between his eyebrows and this is how Shiva was born within this material universe as the son of Brahma as a result of the anger towards the Kumaras. But anyways, Brahma had so many other children and he saw the virtue of the Kumara’s brahmacharya, they were such wonderful preacher so he accepted them, he was their guru and he explained the glories of the supreme personality of Godhead to them and it is explained, although the four Kumaras heard the glories of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, Lord Narayana, and they were aspiring sincerely as devotees, they had only realized the platform of Brahman, they had partially realized their ultimate goal. The monistic conception of liberation in the impersonal Brahmanda is a partial realization of the Lord, they were not Mayawadis. A Mayawadi is one who says the impersonal feature of the Lord is supreme and the personal feature is maya it is temporary, it is a product of material modes of nature, but they were Brahmavadis, which mean essentially they were devotees and they were seeking the realization of the personality of Godhead, but they had only come to the stage of realizing that liberated state of Brahman.
So on one occasion they decided to go to visit Lord Narayana in Vaikuntha and the four Kumaras they were very powerful yogis who had great control over the their mind and senses and they preserved the form of children of only four years old what is why they are called Kumaras. The reason is as the Acharyas explain that when you get older naturally you attain a stage where sex desire comes into your mind and at that time so many disturbances, so many frustrations come into life. One who has no sex desire is utterly innocent so they wanted to remain innocent, so they simply decided that they will keep their bodies four years old for the entire span of the creation and as children they were given entrance anywhere. Srila Prabhupada explains that child could go anywhere, and do anything and nobody really takes offense if an adult tries to get away with things the children can do people become very offended, but children are innocent so they go, they play, just like if there is a very big powerful prestigious man if someone comes and jumps on him he becomes very offended, but if a child comes and jumps on him he will laugh and say oh Hari Bol very nice, you are very nice so the Kumaras they could go anywhere in utter child like innocents and they were totally liberated souls so they came to Vaikuntha Dham and there were seven gates and they passed through the first six gates and no one dare to check them, they wore no clothes at all in fact it is said they were clothed by the environment, the four directions and wherever they went because they just felt they had the right to be anywhere, they had such confidence that people would just allow them to pass such purity each of these gates of Vaikuntha were made out of gold and rubies, and diamonds, and emeralds, and then they came to the seventh gate and there were two doorkeepers of the name Jay and Vijay and as the Kumaras just walked right by them they took their clubs and they put in front and said who have no right to come here, you are children, this is serious business going to see Narayana, so they checked them and the Kumaras who were so anxious to go to have the darshan of Lord Narayana were so anxious to go to serve his lotus feet they became angry. Now you may ask why a liberated soul becomes angry they were devotees, why a devotee becomes angry, generally people feel that if you are advanced spiritually there should be no anger, you should just be like a piece of stone, just tolerate anything and everything, but this anger is actually a transcendental attribute, which decorates the disposition of the great devotees. A devotee does not become materially angry, but what is the difference between material anger and the anger of a devotee. It is said that anger is the younger brother of lust or material desire in this world. When our material desires our ambitions are frustrated we become angry when someone or something comes to impede our sense gratification whether it could be gross sense gratification to experience the pleasures of the senses or whether it would be subtle sense gratification in the form of our dignity or our prestige being confronted, being checked, we become angry that is material anger. Krishna says in Gita that lust is the great enemy of this world and from lust anger is born, but for a devotee when his service to the Lord is being impeded he becomes angry that is called transcendental anger and that anger is actually pure because it is not for his satisfaction it is for Krishna’s satisfaction if we want to do something wonderful for Krishna and there is someone or something that is obstructing that service then we become angry and materialistic foolish people cannot understand unless they understand the principles of true Bhakti.
Hanuman was very angry because Ravana was interfering with his service to the Lord of bringing Sita back and Arjuna became very angry because the Kuru’s were interfering with his service to the Lord to establish dharma in the world in the same way the Kumar’s were going to Vaikuntha to worship the lotus feet of the Lord to serve him and these people were impeding their service so they became very angry and they spoke who are you? what are you doing here? This is Vaikuntha. Vaikuntha is a place of harmony. The material world is a place of disharmony that is actually the difference between the material world and the spiritual world. In this material world there is so much disharmony amongst living beings because there are so many self centered desires that everyone has. As they say this is the world of the survival of the fittest. jévo jévasya jévanam that he stronger makes prey out of the weaker and on every level of life we see this. In our family usually the big brother beats up the small brother disharmony and then as they get bigger all sorts of other things start happening. Strong nations the other day we were describing world war II of the German army they were stronger so they just conquered and massacred so many nations and subjugated them and ultimately there was an alliance, which was stronger than them and they were destroyed so everyone is competing in this world for their own personal self interest either individual or collective and therefore this is a world of disharmony and even when we become devotees if we have material ambitions, if we have motivations for our own personal interest there will be disharmony amongst devotees, but the spiritual world is the place of harmony to go back to the material world even in the animal species they are all eating each other, they are all killing each other, they are all fighting with each other, they are all trying to survive at the expense of another and even the germs in your body they are eating each other. Bacteria’s are eating each other in this way from the lowest denomination of consciousness in this world up to the highest of the demigods. We read about so many things in the scriptures, stories, where the demigods are arguing, fighting, and cursing each other. Material world is the place of disharmony on every level and sometimes for some short span of time there may be some sense of harmony, but it cannot last because our material motivations will definitely spoil everything in due course of time, but in Vaikuntha people leave aside their own personal motivations. Everyone is simply motivated for pleasing Krishna for serving Krishna and everyone knows that there is nothing that pleases Krishna more than when he sees the devotees are serving one another so to please Krishna we have to become the servant of the servant of the servant. We have to put our own desires, our aspirations second to help another this is Vaikuntha. Srila Prabhupada prayed to all of his devotees to make his temples a Vaikuntha atmosphere where there is no anxiety due to disharmony. Where everyone is working together for one purpose, to fulfill Krishna’s desire and to fulfill Krishna’s mission. Therefore, to hear the glories of the Lord, to chant the glories of the Lord creates that when we hear and chant our own glories it creates disharmony. When we expect rather than feel that there is something expected of us it creates disharmony therefore Mahaprabhu has said,
amäninä mänadena
kértanéyaù sadä hariù,
The real harmony of keertan where everyone blends into one sweet mood of devotion comes when we are willing to offer all respect to others and to expect no respect for oneself that is Vaikuntha that is the only stage of consciousness where there can be real peace and real love so the four Kumaras were thinking what is this we have come to Vaikuntha and yet these men are creating disharmony what are you doing here are you impostors. We have come all this way in perfect harmony and now you are creating disturbance you should not be here, you are nonsense why you are stopping us. So they were very much disturbed and similarly when we are trying to serve our guru maharaj and Krishna we should not allow anyone to stop us, there are so many gate keepers in this material world trying to stop us from our devotional service and if we just oh yes you are good, I am good then we will never be able to properly serve the Lord. So basically the Kumaras considered that these Jay and Vijay were in maya. They are creating disharmony in the land of harmony therefore they should not be here so they cursed them to fall down to the material world where disharmony is acceptable, where trying to help people forget god is acceptable and when Jay and Vijay heard they are cursed they fell at the feet of the four Kumaras and prayed that we have made a great mistake please forgive us. You can punish us in anyway u like, but we just have one prayer we want to atone for our sin that we have committed please know that it is our heart. Where ever you cast us in any species of life, in any of the lower planetary systems there is only one prayer we have please let us always remember the supreme personality of Godhead. We do not mind going anywhere or doing anything, but please do not put us in a situation where we forget Krishna.
Just at that time the supreme personality of Godhead Lord Sri Narayana appeared on the scene along with his beloved consort Laxmi Devi. He came in a great haste to the scene of this cursing and when he appeared both the four Kumaras as well as Jay and Vijay they were able to witness directly with their own eyes the beauty of the supreme personality of Godhead. His beautiful, beautiful moon like face with lovely lotus like eyes, every limb so perfectly attractive to the heart and soul of every living being, his graceful form decorated with a beautiful vaijayanti mala, kaustubha mani, on that mala of flowers there were so many bamboo bees, to drink the nectar and the honey. The Lord was so beautiful and from the tulsi leaves that were decorating his lotus feet as well as decorating his garland a breeze carried that fragrance into the nose of the four Kumaras and the combination of seeing the beauty of the Lord and smelling the fragrance of the Prasad of the Lord they completely transcended their impersonal Brahman realization of the Lord and became purified bhaktas. They attained a state of Krishna prema.
muktänäm api siddhänäà
näräyaëa-paräyaëaù
su-durlabhaù praçäntätmä
koöiñv api mahä-mune
Out of so many liberated souls and out of so many great personalities who have achieved all mystic yogic perfections the rarest and most fortunate person is who has attained love for Narayana. Only such a person can experience real happiness, real joy, and real peace. Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in his explanation of the Atmarama verse that even the greatest persons in the most highly liberated perfect state when they come in contact with the personality of Godhead they give up that condition of moronism and surrender to the loving service of the Lord as his eternal servant and the four Kumaras are the perfect examples of this. People strive for mukti as the perfection of life, but we can understand by this story that bhakti is millions of times more wonderful than mukti because it is the eternal constitutional position of the soul.
Rupa Goswami explains compared to the pleasure of mukti, which is like one drop, bhakti is like a vast, unlimited fathomless ocean because through mukti there is no real pleasure. Mukti is just a state where there is no pain and for one who has been suffering relief of pain appears to be pleasure, but bhakti is the true positive form of ecstasy, anand that the soul is seeking always. The four Kumaras in a mood of pure unmotivated, uninterrupted love they bowed down and surrender to the feet of Lord Narayana. At that time, Lord Sri Narayana he explained that I am very sorry this Jay and Vijay are my devotees they are my servants, and therefore I am responsible for their conduct because they have offended you who are devotees they have committed this aparadh to you I am responsible whatever the servant does the master is responsible for and Srila Prabhupada explains how responsible a servant of Lord must be knowing this because whatever we do will either glorify or humiliate our guru the assembly of all the Vaishnavas, all the previous acharyas and Krishna and Radha Rani themselves. If we performed work that is unbecoming it is a scar upon guru, Vaishnavas, and Krishna and the whole world will recognize that scar. It is the nature of love to one to glorify those we love not to embrace them, not to make a mockery out of them in front of others what to speak of the world. When we miss behave if we are known as devotees people will think this is what a devotee of Krishna is, this is what they do, this is what type of guru, this is what your guru teaches you, people will criticize your guru, they will criticize the line of parampara you stand for, and ultimately they will criticize Krishna.
When Srila Prabhupada came to the west, although he was teaching the highest, purest, most perfect philosophy what attracted people to Krishna it was his good behavior because he manifested so much the loving compassion of Krishna because he was such a perfect friend of all loving beings because in every way he was such a gentleman. People were thinking if he is a devotee of Krishna, Krishna must be good. I want to surrender to Krishna, I want to become the servant of the servant of Krishna, but at the same time we see that in the world today there are many bad feelings towards the Krishna consciousness movement. The Krishna consciousness movement is Krishna there is no difference between Krishna and his movement because sometimes devotees act foolishly and people think this what type of crazy people are in this movement what is the use of this movement, what is the use of this Krishna, so therefore to carefully follow the four regulative principles to be very good in every respect and to be very strict in our devotional standards is the greatest glorification of guru and Krishna. Just to say guru maharaj ki jai is not very great glorification, but to make your life and your example say guru maharaj ki jai that is great glorification. To be willing to make a sacrifice for the prestige and the glory of Krishna and his eternal associates that is our duty that is what a real devotee means so Krishna explained in this way that this Jay and Vijay they are my servitors, they are my devotees so I must take the blame for what they have done. In this passage is a beautiful verse where the Lord says because I am the servitor of my devotees my lotus feet has become so sacred that they immediately wipe out all sin and I have acquired such a disposition that the goddess of fortune does not leave me even though I have no attachment for her and others praise her beauty and observe sacred vows to secure from her a slight favor. Relationship between the Lord and his devotees is so transcendentally beautiful. A devotee feels that because of my attachment to Krishna because of the divine grace of the Lord whatever good qualities in me, is by his mercy. A devotee can considers that I have no good qualities I am nothing, I am utterly useless without the divine grace of the Lord and anything that a devotee does it appears very nice. A devotee gives all glory to the supreme personality of Godhead. Not only through his mouth and through his actions, but in his heart he genuinely realizes that that he is the source of all our good qualities because I am aspiring for the dust of his lotus feet therefore there is something of value in my life, but the supreme personality of Godhead thinks the same way about his devotees as it is revealed here that because I am the servitor of my devotees my lotus feet have become so sacred. All of the persons, all of the demigods, and all of the yogis, and all of the great personalities throughout all the universes and even in the spiritual world they are all taking shelter of my lotus feet and they are finding the greatest satisfaction for my lotus feet, but I will tell you a secret why my louts feet have such quality because I am serving my devotees because I am a servitor of the Vaishnavas therefore my lotus feet have developed these qualities, Srila Prabhupada when so many thousands of people were taking shelter of the dust of his lotus feet he said the same thing because I am serving Krishna because I am serving the service of Krishna therefore my lotus feet can deliver all of you from the cycle of birth and death so how transcendentally beautiful is the exchange of love between the Lord and his devotees. In the next verse Lord that I am the master of my unrestricted internal energy and the water of the Ganges is the remnant left after my feet are washed that water sanctifies the three worlds along with Lord Shiva who bares it on his head. If I can take the dust of the feet of the Vaishnava on my head who will refuse to do the same. In this way the Lord is rejecting this idea of trying to approach him directly. He the master of all the worlds takes the dust from the feet of the Vaishnava’s what same person will refuse to do the same.
As Brindavan Das Thakur explains in Chaitanya Bhagavad that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came to establish that the highest form of all worship is the worship of the Vaishnava’s so in this way Lord Sri Narayana explained to the Kumaras that actually it is my desire that you cursed Jay and Vijay. The Lord explained to Jay and Vijay that I have the power to counteract this curse, in fact if I order the Kumaras they will retract the curse. The Lord explained that there is no reason why Jay and Vijay would stop such great sages from entering into Vaikuntha, into the palace of the Lord this is because I wanted them to commit this offense that they made this offense and there is no reason why the four Kumaras would curse in such a terrible way that for this offense they fall from the spiritual sky into this material world, but the world explains that it is my desire that this curse be, this is all my pastime. Now He told Jay and Vijay “you go down to the material world to take lower birth, but I give this word – you will never forget me and you will assist me in my world pastimes and very soon you will return again back home back to Godhead to be in my association” and the Lord sought the approval of the four Kumaras that “please let them never forget me and please let them come back home to Vaikuntha as soon as possible”, which shows how the Lord is so sad when a living entity leaves his eternal loving service and how anxious He is for every living being to come back to the spiritual world to exchange love with Him. So then they fell, they had to leave Vaikuntha and the demigods and so many great souls, when they saw this happening they were astonished!
Radhanath Swami narrates story of Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipu
It so happened that Diti who was the wife Kasyapa who was one of the sons of Brahma, she had a desire for children all of a sudden uncontrollable so she approached Kasyapa and he was sitting in meditation at the sacrificial fire he was great yogi and she said my dear husband cupids fiery arrows have entered my heart I desire children. The Acharya does explain that actually it is natural for women to want children, that Diti was one of the daughters of Daksha, and Daksha decided that all of his daughter should be married and he allowed them to choose their own husbands. But they did not just freely mingle with men like they do in the west to choose their own husbands, but rather without even meeting them, without even seeing them they would just analyze the qualities and the properties of certain great personalities and usually they were too shy to tell their father, so through a sister or a maid servant or mother or somebody they would relate their desired choice to the father; and ultimately it was for the fathers approval so Daksha married 13 of his daughters to Kasyapa and for 12 of them Kasyapa gave very nice children, but Diti had no children so she was thinking while all my co-wives have beautiful, beautiful children and I have none. And Kasyapa was expressing that you are so chaste and you are so faithful as much as any of the other co-wives, and I understand you desire and I will certainly fulfill your desire to have children. But you have to wait because it must be done in an auspicious time.
Now we should know that this happened in Satya Yuga and the previous ages every single thing you do or say is so technically precise in how responsible you are and what reaction you will get. In Kali-Yuga we do not have to be so worried about all of these technicalities. In Satya-Yuga if you think for a second of anything sinful you have to suffer the reaction. In Kali-Yuga you can think, no reaction, but if your thinking causes you to do it or say it, then there is a great reaction and we should know what we think is what we will say and what we will do unless we curve our thinking and correct it. So we have to control our mind very carefully from the very beginning. But in Satya Yuga if a sinful thought comes to your mind there is a terrible reaction because people were so highly qualified if they did anything at a time that was inauspicious there would be a terrible reaction. These days nobody even knows what is auspicious or inauspicious. Therefore the sastras say that where ever the chanting of the holy name of Vishnu is that is all auspicious and we do not have to worry about anything else forget all these other things just chant hare Krishna, ”Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare’. “tasmät saìkértanaà viñëu jagan-maìgalam”, that wherever the sankirtan of the name of Vishnu is in this age of kali, that is the supremely most auspicious place we do not have to worry about whether a black cat crosses our trial, we do not have to worry about if a donkey passes on our left side, we do not have to worry about if a untouchable walks by us while we are carrying water, we do not have to worry about any astrological configurations in the sky whether it is Shuni or anyone else providing or chanting the holy names of Krishna, ”Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare’ because the chanting of the name of Krishna makes everything auspicious because Krishna is all auspicious and Krishna’s presence makes everything auspicious.
oà apavitraù pavitro vä
sarvävasthäà gato ‘pi vä
yaù smaret puëòarékäkñaà
sa bahyäbhyantara-çuciù
One who remembers Krishna becomes pure, however, impure he is and when we chant the name of Krishna it creates purity and auspiciousness, but in those days when they did not have this Yugadharma of the chanting of Krishna’s name as a concession to a totally inauspicious atmosphere people were very highly responsible they had to be very, very conscientious of very thing they did and when and how so Kasyapa said just wait a few seconds then it will become auspicious, but now Shiva and the ghost are passing overhead this is interesting because Lord Shiva who is an expansion of Lord Narayana and who is in the role of the greatest of all devotees, Vaishnava nam yata shambu, but he is so kind, he is so merciful that he goes down to the lowest living creatures and gives them the chance to be elevated therefore he is called Bhuteshwar or Bhuthnath, which means he is the Lord of ghostly beings and it is explained that generally ghostly beings do not have a physical body because they have abused their physical body. Generally, through suicide or dying in terribly intoxicated stages, but they still have all physical desires so they are frustrated so they worship Lord Shiva and Lord Shiva grand’s them the blessing by which they can take physical bodies and the way they do that is when a man and woman come together in wrong consciousness in very, very materially lustful condition at the wrong time, at the wrong state of mind without any sense of religious principles in such a state Lord Shiva allows ghostly, terrible, horrible violent beings to enter in to that womb and take birth with a physical body and sometimes we see in this world today in this age of kali there are so many crazy people it is unbelievable how crazy people become. In the west there is big court cases where they found that people were killing children and eating them and they found the bones and they cooked them and everything where this desire become from to just kill little children, to molest them, and eat them. I mean it is unthinkable, people are like that, it is not that they went to school to learn those things, it is not that they read books about it that is their nature they are ghostly beings and somehow or other got physical bodies. There are so many murderers and rapist and cheaters and crazy beings even taking forms of big, big leaders and exploiting people wholesale murders because in this age of Kali-Yuga there are so many ghostly beings in physical bodies who have so many terribly unthinkable states of consciousness that a pious people just cannot understand, how can the people think like this how could they do like this. Generally people get a ghostly body because they commit suicide that means they lose their form and those formless beings worship Lord Shiva, but then Lord Shiva also came at Shankracharya and he became the Lord of the mayavadis and mayavadis also they want to commit spiritual suicide so Srila Prabhupada says they are also ghostly, sorry to say. A regular ghost commits physical suicide and they worship Shiva and the mayavadis they want to commit spiritual suicide by losing their spiritual identity so they also worship Shiva so in both cases he is Bhuthnath, he is the Lord of ghost. People who want to commit suicide either spiritually or physically so he was explaining this to Diti, but by the Lords arrangement she could not wait so she took him by the cloth and pulled and he just understood this is the Lords arrangement and he folded his palms and offered his respectful obeisance’s to providence and at that time Jay and Vijay falling from Vaikuntha Dham entered into the womb of Diti as brothers. Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipu and when they came into the earth there were all sorts of tremendous, tremendous mishaps everything inauspicious was seen everywhere. There was darkness and terrible storms and all pious people were feeling such suffering in their hearts and all impious people were feeling elated and soon those two children were born and Hiranyaksha was born first, which means he is the younger brother of Hiranyakasipu because babies kind of stand in line in the womb. The person who goes first is behind the person who comes second so the person who comes first is second to the person who comes second. Hari Bol. So Hiranyaksha was the younger brother of Hiranyakasipu he saw his brother was such a terrible demon he wanted to conquer everything everywhere by all illegal means and Hiranyaksha wanted to please him so he took his mighty mace and it is explained that Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipu performed such tremendous austerities that they became so powerful their bodies were like mountains in size and in hardness they were just undefeatable, even the Demigods would fear upon the thought of them and Hiranyaksha just went around destroying everyone and everything conquering subjugating, destroying, and the Demigods were so afraid that they would all literally run away abandoned in their abodes when they heard he was coming because they knew they did not have a chance what to speak of the residence of this earth.
So he dove deep into the sea where he wanted to conquer and fight with Varuna the Lord of the oceans. He said please I have come as a beggar and the arms that I am begging from you is what I want you to fight with me so I can destroy you. Varuna said I am very old, I am no match to you why do you want to waste your time with an old man like me. If you want to really fight with someone you should fight with the supreme personality of Godhead who has just now appeared.
So it is explained that Hiranyaksha he created such terrible exploitation by stealing and plundering gold that it created such an imbalance in the earth that the earth actually fell to the bottom of the Garbhodaka ocean. Srila Prabhupada actually explains that the foolish materialist, who are so much plundering the earth of oil they are also exploiting mother earth for their own materialistic sensual purposes and it will create a tremendous imbalance and it will create many disasters on this earth. It is interesting because in America before there was such an intense, immense, lust for oil. They were getting most of their oil from Texas and Oklahoma to southern states of America at that time they were not depending so much on the Gulf countries so the name of oil was Texas gold or black gold. Hiranyaksha was directly exploiting the earth of gold and Srila Prabhupada compares that the people digging oil are taking another form of gold from the earth and we see that these countries that have so much oil they can get away with practically anything and no one can say anything because they want their oil exploitation. Now the whole civilization is based on that principle of great need.
So Hiranyaksha through his exploitation of the earth caused the earth to fall to the bottom of the Garbhodaka Ocean at that time Swayambhu Manu approached Lord Brahma along with great saints and sages and after offering prayers they said that this all living beings on the earth are in a very dangerous situation because the earth is falling into the ocean so please we have come to you to protect mother earth. So Brahma was thinking that only the supreme personality of Godhead can help us what can we do even Brahma was unable to solve the problems of this world, which is a great lesson from a biggest problem to the smallest problem ultimately only Krishna can solve it and if we think that we can do it ourselves without his help that is our greatest illusion.
Radhanath Swami on Incarnation of Varahadev:
So Brahma began to meditate and the supreme personality of Godhead Jagat Guru and just at that time a little tiny bore the size of the tip of a thumb came out from the nose of Lord Brahma and it went into the sky and Brahma was thinking what is this and all the saints and sages around were thinking what is this and then the bore began to grow he grew and grew until he was like a huge mountain and then they understood, they all began to speculate who is this, what is this, what is happening we have never seen such a thing, but then the Lord began to roar and when he roared it was like the roaring of a mountain and they could all understand that this was the supreme Lord Narayana who has taken this most fantastic unbelievable, incredible form and then he began to grow in such size that he covered the entire sky and the great saints and sages, and the devi, devathas they began to offer prayers of love to the supreme personality of Godhead, glorifying his supreme most transcendental position and the Lord again just to enliven his devotees he began to roar, he began to slashes his boar like tail and he cast his merciful glance upon them to tell them there is nothing to fear I have come. So someone may think how is this possible what type of mythology do you Vaishnavas believe in that god is a gigantic boar. Boar is a relatively of the hog the pig, which is not a very respectable distinguished animal by any means. In fact they are considered very lowly, but Krishna’s body, Krishna’s transcendental nature is transcendental.
janma karma ca me divyam
evaà yo vetti tattvataù
tyaktvä dehaà punar janma
naiti mäm eti so ‘rjuna
One who understands the transcendental nature of my appearance and activities will never have to take birth in this material world again, but attains my abode. If you want to go back to the spiritual world you must have complete faith in the Lord’s transcendental ability to do anything at anytime and his completely pure spiritual nature as the cause of all causes. If we do not have that faith no matter what else you do you cannot enter into the divine room of pure love or Bhakti. Therefore, it is essential that we associate with people who have faith in the wonderful pastimes of the Lord in the teachings of the Lord, because by associating with people with faith we gain faith and by associating with people who doubt and who are faithless we also become plagued with the disease of doubt. Hearing in the association of the Lord and his devotees the Lord’s pastimes and teachings is the means by which real faith is awakened and strengthened within our heart, therefore this is essential. Real human civilization is based on this principle of coming together in the association of devotees with faith and hearing and chanting the names and glories of the Lord, therefore this is essential. Real human civilization is based on this principle of coming together in the association of devotees with faith and hearing and chanting the names and glories of the Lord it is the most essential part of our lives. It is not mythology it is fact what is that the Lord cannot do he has achintya shakti, he has performed so many incredible miracles right in this world that we see with our own eyes that can never be duplicated by even the greatest thinkers of society. Achintya shakti inconceivable power there is nothing that Krishna cannot do if he can keep the sun located floating in the sky who can do that we are proud that we can put a sputnik in the sky for sometime, but the Lord has taken a planet millions and millions and millions of times bigger than this earth made of fire and floated in the sky and all of these other planets floating around it what is that the Lord cannot do so for the pleasure of his devotees and to establish almost wonderful enjoyable pastime for all the world for all times to hear he became a boar. Now this took place so many millions of years ago, but still every year on Varaha dvadasi we are discussing this wonderful pastime. Now what mortal man through any of his activities after millions and millions and millions of years are people still taking about them Krishna is the supreme personality of Godhead and we must know that this is not just some allegorical story telling to depict certain lessons in life. The impersonals preach like this and the mundane scholars that yes these stories are very good because of the lessons to be learned from there, but there is no truth, there is no historical validity to these stories, but a devotee must boldly reject these ideas because unless we do we cannot achieve real bhakti all we will get is some lessons perhaps some moral and spiritual lessons, but love of god can only come from those who are striving to achieve real faith in the historical significance and validity of the Lords wonderful, wonderful pastimes so yes Krishna did appear as such a boar so beautiful. In this material world boars are ugly no one likes boars. We seen in peoples homes, we see picture of dog and pictures of cat, and pictures of monkey sometimes and pictures of cows and horses Prabhupada actually said the horse is the most beautiful animal on earth so people like to have such pictures, but we do not see people with pictures of hogs or boars in their house because it is not very pleasing they are dirty or ugly they are basically gross.
Varahadev Placing The Earth Back In Its Place:
But when Krishna becomes a boar he is so beautiful so transcendentally beautiful that he was attracting the hearts with motivated love of all the devotees and even the demigods, demigods they all have such beautiful apsara wives, but immediately all their attention and attraction became to the beautiful form of this boar and then after glancing his eyes upon all of his devotees he began to dive into the ocean and as he dove into the ocean it explains the Garbhodaka ocean appeared like it was being cut into two so big, so magnanimous, so magnificent and you see boars something like pigs they like to eat dirty things in dirty places and they use their nose to find out what smells the worst and then they enjoy that. Of course, Srila Prabhupada explains that if one is indiscriminate in ones eating habits one can take next birth like this and with nose sounds they make and that sound that they are making is just their nose just lustfully searching for the most abominable possible thing to eat and enjoy, but the Lord in the bottom of the Garbodak ocean with his nose searching for the earth and he came to the earth planet and in such a wonderful, beautiful, transcendental gesture he lifted the earth upon his beautiful white tusks and he began to carry the earth. Jai Dev Goswami prays in his glorification
vasati daçana-çikhare dharaëé tava lagnä
çaçini kalaìka-kaleva nimagnä
keçava dhåta-çükara-rüpa
jaya jagadéça hare Keshava kara rupa
Sri Varaha Bhagavan Ki jai and as he was carrying the earth to bring it back to its respectable place the great demon Hiranyaksha came to stop him he called him an amphibious beast and he challenged him to fight, but the supreme personality of Godhead is a possessor of all six opulence’s in full. One of his opulence’s is renunciation and the greatest form of renunciation is renunciation of our ego our prestige. The Lord for he sake of protecting the earth and all of the inhabitants of earth was willing to accept such terrible, terrible humiliation from this monstrous demon who is insulting him with the most piercing, frightening words, and after the Lord placed the earth in its proper place then he came back to fight with Hiranyaksha.
Battle between Varaha Dev and Hiranyaksha by Radhanath Swami:
Maitreya Muni explains to Vidura the blow by blow action of this great battle, which was something wonderful and for those who like matches of to strong personalities you will find the fulfillment of all our desires in this wonderful battle between Varaha Dev and Hiranyaksha there is no need to go to the world of Wrestling Federation matches in Dadar I see the signs everywhere people they are trying imitate Hiranyaksha, they put on all these masks and everything look they are like little babies compared to Hiranyaksha and they fight against each other and in America one of the largest money making sports is boxing where the people just beat each other with their fists and millions of people either go to the stadium or watch on television as they are seeing two strong personalities pounding and beating and punching each other and practically most all athletic events people trying to show their powers of how they defeat another and this is very attractive why is it attractive? Why are people attracted to such crazy thing of watching people beat each other and pound each other it is because originally we love to see the Lord having these fighting lilas with his devotees, but because we have lost our recognition of our relationship with god we are trying to fill that thirst in our heart by seeing ordinary mundane people beating each other and we make no spiritual advancement in fact we do not make any advancement, but by hearing the wonderful story of Varaha Dev fighting with Hiranyaksha not only it is so enjoyable and wonderful and exciting and exhilarating to our mind and senses and heart, but also it purifies us and creates love of god from within us it liberates us from the clutches of material existence so they were pounding each other with their maces and when their maces struck one another it created such a resounding echoing effect that it deafened the entire universe and everyone was watching as spectators. The demons they were all rodding for Hiranyaksha to win and the demigods and the devotees they were all pushing on the Lord to win it was a great match and at one time Hiranyaksha created such a mystic arena where there was just volumes and volumes of terrible catastrophes all over the world all coming toward the Lord, but the Lord simply with his Sudarshan Chakra just spinning on his finger the light of it made everything go away and ultimately the demigods they were actually becoming very afraid because Hiranyaksha was so strong they were praying please my Lord, please now is time kill him so although with such a terrible, terrible fight the Lord wanted to show that actually it is all my play and just by touching him gently touching him behind the ear with his hoof, a boars hand is called a hoof and then Hiranyaksha just became unconscious and then the Lord gently stabbed him with his tusk and fell to the ground like a banyan tree uprooted by the wind and fell dead. Sri Varaha Bhagwan ki Jai and everyone was so relieved that Hiranyaksha is dead and the higher living beings began to shower flowers upon the Lord and then he again ascended into the sky and he assumed the form of bluish temal tree, he became blue in complexion the very complexion of Lord Narayana himself just to show everyone that actually he is the supreme personality of Godhead then after receiving the worship and the prayers of his devotees he returned to the spiritual abode.
We should know that Jai and Vijay fell as Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipu who was killed by Varaha Dev and Narasimha Dev, next is Ravana and Kumbhkarana who was killed by Lord Sri Ram, next as Dantvakra and Shishupal who were killed by Krishna they were not just ordinary demons they were actually great devotees and Jeva Goswami very, very extensively explains the nature of these six demons and he explains how they were never covered by material energy, they were never actually in maya because how could the Lords devotees who are taking part in the Lords pastimes in this way ever be covered maya they were just like theatrical performers just playing these roles, but in the inner core of their hearts they actually knew their identities as the eternal servants of the Lord and they were simply making a show of being terrible, terrible demons just so the Lord will find pleasure in fighting with them and liberating them and also they were playing this role knowing that by behaving like this they would attract the supreme personality of Godhead to come to the material world, which was his desire.
pariträëäya sädhünäà
vinäçäya ca duñkåtäm
dharma-saàsthäpanärthäya
sambhavämi yuge yuge
In order to protect my devotees and annihilate the demons and reestablish principles of religion I descend for ordinary demons the Lord does not come down to kill he does not waste his time, it is through time he destroys them or through some other means, but in order to exhibit beautiful, wonderful, magnificent pastimes that will attract all the world for all time to come he comes as a half man, half lion, he comes as a beautiful, beautiful, wonderful boar why? Just to attract our hearts and give pleasures to his devotees, but to make his pastimes very wonderful and exciting he sent Jai and Vijay to play the role of Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipu and these other demons and we find in these demon forms they were always thinking of the supreme personality of Godhead they would never forgetting him as theatrical performers just like sometimes even here at RadhaGopinath temple our devotees perform dramas just like in one drama Hari Keeshav was Hiranyakasipu and Madhava was Prahlad and Hari Keeshav was actually blaspheming the Lord he was actually blaspheming the Lord and blaspheming the greatest Vaishnavas Raghunath also he was Hiranyakasipu he was also blaspheming the Lord and his devotees terribly threatening to kill and murder and everything so we should know that although they were really playing the part in fact they won awards Nathji won the academy award for being Shuklacharya who was blaspheming Vaman Dev, he was blaspheming the supreme personality of Godhead, but we saw Raghunath and Hari Keeshav we were thinking my god Hiranyakasipu is empowering them. The theatrical performance was so wonderful they put their heart and their soul so much into being demons that some of our children were crying they thought they were actually demons so in the same way Jai and Vijay took these roles and they played their part so well that everyone thought they were demons, but actually they were servants of the Lord performing the wonderful pastimes of the Lord just to attract our hearts and minds always to the service of his lotus feet.
Radhanath Swami on Incarnations Lord Chaitanya And Nityanand:
Tomorrow is Lord Nityanand Prabhu’s appearance day of all the incarnations of the Lord we are reading of who were so wonderful so transcendentally merciful Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityanand are considered the essence of all avatar’s
parama karuëa, pahuì dui jana,
nitäi-gauracandra
saba avatära-, sära-çiromaëi,
kevala änanda-käëòa
But of all the various incarnations of the Lord, Lord Chaitanya and Nityanand are param karuna they are supremely merciful because although in previous incarnations they killed demons and liberated them. Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityanand have come to give pure love of god Krishna prema to anyone simply accept.
So tomorrow please everyone come to celebrate this glorious day of Sri Nityananda Trayodasi help us to celebrate in a wonderful way the glorious mercy of Sri Nityanand Prabhu in this world and in this way the Lord has come in so many wonderful ways to give us so many wonderful opportunities to come together to hear his glories and to chant his holy names, ”Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare’. Actually when the four Kumaras saw Lord Narayana they remembered what their guru maharaj Brahma told them because Brahma was a pure devotee, Brahma was always discussing the glorious forms and pastimes of the Lord they were always striving for that, but although they achieved liberation they could not achieve that when they saw his beautiful form they prayed to the Lord that everything Brahma has spoken in the glorification of your beautiful, beautiful personal form we have now realised by your divine grace. It is through the grace of the spiritual master that the beautiful darshan of the Lord is revealed. Jiva Gowswami explains how having the darshan of the Lord is not necessarily seeing the Lord or we can say seeing the Lord is not necessarily having the darshan of the Lord that is a better way of putting it because when Krishna on this earth so many people saw him, but they could not see him when Krishna entered into the wrestling arena Shanura and Mushtika they saw the body of Krishna and Balaram as strong and powerful as thunderbolts now a devotee sees the body of Krishna and Balaram they are so soft and tender and gentle so although they were seeing they were not seeing it at all and sometimes people claim that I saw Krishna or I saw Prabhupada may be they did, but they did not. Jiva Goswami explains you can understand who is actually seeing god or who is having divine revelation not by just he experienced, but by the qualities if one is genuinely detached from material life and one is genuinely attached to being the servant of the servant of the Lord with love and has these qualities we can understand that they can see Krishna, but they are seeing Krishna may be within their hearts or may be the darshan of the Lord is upon them, but those who are still materially attached even if they see Krishna face to face or even if they have a vision and Krishna is playing his flute they are not seeing Krishna at all. Krishna reveals himself by his divine grace according to the nature of our purity in our devotion. So sometimes people will say I had a dream and Krishna came and we think and this person is not even following the principles of Krishna Consciousness and we are following so much and we are not having such dreams why we should know that even if they are not lying, even if there was such a dream they were not seeing Krishna, even if Krishna appears he does not reveal himself unless our heart is sincere, humble, and devoted with bhakti, therefore in all instances we must always keep this quality of consciousness first and foremost in our evaluation of everything so the four Kumaras they were explaining to the Lord that now what Brahma explained to us we have realised by your divine grace. It is only by divine grace that the Lord makes himself available to his devotees and it is only by divine grace that we have the good fortune of serving the Lord, his devotees, and chanting his holy names, ”Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare’.