Varāha Pṛthivī Uddhāra

The Kūrma Purāṇa tells how Bhagavān Vishṇu-Nārāyaṇa took the form of Varāha (the Boar) to lift the earth out of the waters at the start of the present kalpa (age of the world). The Purāṇa calls this cycle the Vārāha Kalpa. The earth, Bhū-devī, lay sunk in a single dark ocean. Nārāyaṇa entered Pātāla in the Varāha form, raised her on his tusk, and was praised by the siddhas and brahmarshis. He then set the earth back in her place, levelled her, and put the mountains upon her. The chapter is called Pṛthivī-uddhāraḥ (the lifting of the earth) and is Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Poorvardha, Chapter 6.

The dissolution

The Kūrma Purāṇa sets the scene before it tells of the Varāha avatāra. At the start, all this creation was one ocean, without parts, fearful and full of darkness. The wind and all the other elements had drawn back into rest, and nothing could be told apart. All things that do not move and all that move (sthāvara-jaṅgama) had perished. The world had become one ocean.

At that time a being with a thousand eyes and a thousand feet, golden in colour and master of his senses, woke and lay on the waters of the ocean of pralaya (dissolution). He is Nārāyaṇa, the Parabrahman. The primordial waters are his path, and for this reason he has the name Nārāyaṇa: the nāras (waters) are the first cause of beings, and those waters became his mārga (his way and his home).

A cosmic night of a thousand yugas passed. Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa had rested through that night. He rose again in the form of Brahmā, to create.

Nārāyaṇa takes the Varāha form

Nārāyaṇa knew by inference that the earth lay hidden under the waters. He wished to lift her from the deep. Bhagavān Prajāpati, the maker of creation, thought it over. He took the Varāha form. It is the great and beautiful form of the cosmic Boar, which delights in play in water. It is a form that even the mind cannot shake, and it is made of the sacred word (Brahma-vāṅmaya).

In that Varāha form Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa went into Pātāla and with his tusk lifted the earth upward. At that moment he held himself up, for he was his own support.

The stotra of the siddhas and brahmarshis

The siddhas and brahmarshis who live in Janaloka saw Bhū-devī standing on the tusk of the Varāha Purusha. They praised Vishṇu, who had shown his strength. Their stotra (hymn of praise) called him by these names, each time saying “namaḥ” (bow):

  • Devatā-deva, Parameshṭhi, Brahma-deva, Purāṇa-purusha, Śāśvata, Jaya-rūpa
  • Svayambhū, Sarvajña, the maker of creation, Hiraṇyagarbha, the one whose form is Paramātmā, Brahman
  • Vāsudeva, the cause of the manifold world, the all-pervading, the doer of good for the devas, Nārāyaṇa Deva
  • the four-armed one who bears the Śārṅga bow, the cakra (discus) and the sword, the self of all beings, Kūṭastha Purusha
  • the secret taught by the Vedas, the cause of the Vedas, whose nature is knowledge, the spotless
  • the one whose form is bliss, the witness of the worlds, Ananta, Akola, the effect and the cause
  • the one made of the five elements, whose form shows in the five elements, Mūla-prakṛti, Māyā-rūpa
  • Varāha-rūpa, the one who takes the form of Matsya, who is known through yoga practice, who brings the senses under control
  • the one whose form is the three Mūrtis (Brahmā, Vishṇu, Śiva), who lives in the three worlds, who is fulfilled by the thought of divine radiance, who is to be honoured, who divides sattva, rajas and tamas
  • Sūrya-svarūpa, the place from which the lotus is born, the formless, the one who has form, Lakshmīpati

The siddhas and brahmarshis ended: “All this is made by you alone. In you alone it all stands. Protect all these worlds. You alone are the protector, the refuge, the shelter.”

Bhagavān Vishṇu’s grace and the earth set right

The Sanaka and other munis and the other ṛshis praised him in this way. Bhagavān Vishṇu in the Varāha form showed them his grace.

The Varāha Purusha then put Bhū-devī back in her former right place. The great mass of water drew back, and the earth stood still on the surface of the waters, wide and vast like a great ship. Because she was so wide, the earth did not sink back into the water.

After that, Īśvara in the Varāha form levelled the earth and set the mountains upon her. He decided to make again everything that had perished in the earlier kalpa. When he had done this first work of the kalpa, he drew back the Varāha form.

Where the chapter stands

In the Kūrma Purāṇa, the Varāha Pṛthivī Uddhāra comes straight after Chapter 5, which is about kāla-saṅkhyā (the measure of time). The stotra of the ṛshis names both the Varāha and the Matsya avatāras in its lines, and ends with the naming of the three Mūrtis.

Sources

  • Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Poorvardha, Chapter 6 (Pṛthivī-uddhāraḥ)
  • Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Poorvardha, Chapter 5 (Kāla-saṅkhyā, the measure of time), named as the chapter before it