SB 3.18.2
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT 2
- dadarśa tatrābhijitaṁ dharā-dharaṁ
- pronnīyamānāvanim agra-daṁṣṭrayā
- muṣṇantam akṣṇā sva-ruco 'ruṇa-śriyā
- jahāsa cāho vana-gocaro mṛgaḥ
SYNONYMS
dadarśa — he saw; tatra — there; abhijitam — the victorious; dharā — the earth; dharam — bearing; pronnīyamāna — being raised upward; avanim — the earth; agra-daṁṣṭrayā — by the tip of His tusk; muṣṇantam — who was diminishing; akṣṇā — with His eyes; sva-rucaḥ — Hiraṇyākṣa's own splendor; aruṇa — reddish; śriyā — radiant; jahāsa — he laughed; ca — and; aho — oh; vana-gocaraḥ — amphibious; mṛgaḥ — beast.
TRANSLATION
He saw there the all-powerful Personality of Godhead in His boar incarnation, bearing the earth upward on the ends of His tusks and robbing him of his splendor with His reddish eyes. The demon laughed: Oh, an amphibious beast!
PURPORT
In a previous chapter we have discussed the incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as Varāha, the boar. While Varāha, with His tusks, engaged in uplifting the submerged earth from the depths of the waters, this great demon Hiraṇyākṣa met Him and challenged Him, calling Him a beast. Demons cannot understand the incarnations of the Lord; they think that His incarnations as a fish or boar or tortoise are big beasts only. They misunderstand the body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, even in His human form, and they deride His descent. In the Caitanya sampradāya there is sometimes a demoniac misconception about the descent of Nityānanda Prabhu. Nityānanda Prabhu's body is spiritual, but demoniac persons consider the body of the Supreme Personality to be material, just like ours. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ: (BG 9.11) persons who have no intelligence deride the transcendental form of the Lord as material.