XXX. The Bhagavatha Path

The sage Suka adjusted himself in his seat and began: "The supreme sovereign Lord manifesting Himself as Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara, through the prompting of primal desire (Moha) is engaged in creating, fostering and destroying the worlds. In what is thus created, there is always the principle of dualism. There is difference and disparity between one and another. If these differences and disparities are harmonised wisely, the world will have happiness and peace. If, on the other hand, living beings behave wrongly, the world will be sunk in anxiety, misery and confusion. When these arise, the Lord assumes appropriate forms and affords necessary protection and correction. He sets right the damaged world, removes the evil forces that caused the damage, and instructs mankind in the science of fostering the right and the good."

"It is not possible to limit the freedom of God in assuming forms. He adopts endless forms, to manifest Himself in the world and saves it. His incarnation is in conformity with the need of the crisis at the time. When the earth moaned under the injustice of Hiranyaksha, He had to appear as a boar, taking form and equipped with attributes, though, in essence, He is without form and attribute. The will of God is mysterious; it cannot be explained by categories or as consequences. It can be comprehended only by those who have known Him, and not by those who have acquired scholarship or sharp intellect. The cause and the consequence are integrally related."

"One day, when Brahma was resting awhile on His seat, there from His nose arose a boar as small as one's thumb-tip! Brahma who had assumed in sportive exuberance the Human form, knew the why and wherefore of everything; but, He pretended not to, and looked upon the tiny boar with astonishment. Meanwhile, it developed faster and faster into greater and greater size like a frog, a rat, and a cat, and into the proportions of a monstrous elephant in rut. Brahma was smiling within Himself at its antics. Very soon, the boar grew so huge that it seemed to cover both earth and sky; it slid into the sea and emerged from it with Goddess earth (who had hidden herself under the waters through humiliation), borne aloft safe and secure, on its tusks."