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Skandha 3, adhyayas 18-19 · Saptah day 2
Holding the Earth on his white tusks, the cosmic Boar meets Hiranyaksha's club, outlasts his dark magic, and fells him with a slap.
In chapters eighteen and nineteen of the third book (3.18–19), **Maitreya Muni** completes for **Vidura** the dramatic story of how the first demonic birth of Vaikuntha's cursed gatekeepers (**Jaya and Vijaya**) came to its end. At the close of chapter seventeen, the giant demon **Hiranyaksha** — twin brother of Hiranyakashipu — had marched across the floor of the cosmic ocean with his golden mace, scattering the creatures of the deep and jeering at Varuna, the lord of the waters, to give him a fight.
When mocked to his face by an arrogant conqueror, Varuna felt anger rise in his chest, yet he curbed it with calm intelligence and answered the demon with a dry, knowing smile (3.17.31): **"O good sir, we have given up fighting long ago; we are too old for war now! If you are so eager for battle that you cannot find a match anywhere, I see no one in the universe who can satisfy your pride except the ancient Person (*Purana-purusha*), Lord Vishnu, whom great heroes praise! Go to him, O chief of the asuras; he gives every man his due, and before him you will very quickly cast off your pride and lie down on the battlefield surrounded by dogs!"**
Pleased by the rumor of a worthy opponent, the reckless Hiranyaksha didn't even listen to the second half of Varuna's warning (3.18.1). Learning from Devarshi Narada where the Lord was to be found, the demon plunged straight down into the deepest subterranean abyss of Rasatala (3.18.2).
There, rising triumphantly from the floor of the ocean, he beheld the all-powerful Lord in the form of the cosmic Boar (**Varaha**), carrying the newly rescued Earth gently upward upon the curve of his gleaming white tusks and scattering thedemon's own splendor with the radiance of his reddish eyes (3.18.2–3). Laughing aloud in derision, Hiranyaksha blocked the Lord's path, brandished his club, and shouted a string of insults (3.18.3–5):
**"O foolish creature! Come here! Leave this Earth alone right where she is! Wait — do you think you can walk off with the property of the dwellers of Rasatala to please the weakling demigods while I am standing here watching? You are nothing but a forest pig (*mrigah*) taken on as a disguise to fool us! Today I will smash your skull with this mace and wipe out the grief of my kinsmen — and when you fall dead with your neck cracked, the demigods and sages who worship you with sacrifices will stand without a root!"**
Although pierced by the sharp javelins of the demon's abusive tongue, the Lord held back his rising anger because the trembling Earth was still resting upon the tip of his tusk (3.18.6). Just as a great bull elephant calmly walks out of a lake with his female companion while a pack of crocodiles snaps at him from behind, Varaha rose straight out of the deep waters as Hiranyaksha chased after him roaring like thunder and shouting, "Have you no shame running away before an enemy?" (3.18.7–8).
First things first: the Lord set the Earth safely on the surface of the water within his sight, infused his own sustaining energy into her so she would remain afloat, and stood admired by **Lord Brahma** and the celestial musicians who rained flowers upon him from above (3.18.9). Only then, turning around to face the demon who stood flashing in gold armor and roaring with pride, did the Lord laugh a deep, terrifying laugh and answer his taunts with steady irony (3.18.10–13):
**"Yes indeed, we are creatures of the forest (*vanyah*), searching everywhere for village watchdogs like you! Brave men who stand free of death's snare pay no attention to the empty boasts of talkers. Here we stand right in front of you — we have stolen your precious deposit, we have nowhere to hide, and we are holding our ground! Why hesitate now, O commander of the foot-soldiers? Fulfill your loud promises and strike cleanly without delay, so we may wipe away the tears of our relatives!"**
Stung by the Lord's calm mockery like a great cobra prodded by a foot, Hiranyaksha hissed with fury, his senses boiling over (3.18.14–15). Springing rapidly through the air, he swung his enormous iron-bound mace straight down at the chest of the Lord. With effortless agility, Varaha stepped slightly to the left by the width of a hair — just as an accomplished yogi slips past the blow of Death — and as the demon missed his mark, the Lord aimed his own blazing mace at the right side of Hiranyaksha's brow (3.18.16–17).
Yet Hiranyaksha was a master of mace-fighting: with a swift whirl of his own club he parried the Lord's blow in mid-air! For hours the two combatants circled and charged each other in the cosmic ocean, raining down blows that shattered the points of their maces while the sharp smell of blood rose between them, fighting like two furious bulls colliding for mastery of a herd of cows (3.18.18–19).
Watching that titanic struggle for a tiny globe of earth, **Lord Brahma** arrived in the sky surrounded by thousands of sages and saw that the demon had gained tremendous stamina (3.18.20–21). Folding his hands in concern, Brahma spoke to the Lord of sacrifice (3.18.22–28): "O Lord, this demon who was once your own attendant at the gate of Vaikuntha has come down under the brahmanas' curse to offend those who take shelter at your feet! Do not play with him any longer, O Self-born One, as a child plays with a venomous cobra pinned on a stick — kill him before he regains his full strength! Look: the dark twilight hour (*asuri vela*), when the mystic power of demons swells, is fast approaching! Right now the auspicious noon solar hour designated as **Abhijit** is passing above us; seize this victorious moment and strike down this formidable foe for the peace of your friends!"
Hearing Brahma's nectar-like plea, the Lord smiled affectionately, accepted his prayer, and struck Hiranyaksha squarely on the chin with his mace as the demon stalked in front of him (3.19.1–3). Yet carried by the tremendous impact of Hiranyaksha's counter-swing, **the Lord's own mace slipped from his hand and fell tumbling into the depths, shining like a shooting star**, while a cry of *"Alas, alas!"* rose from the demigods watching above (3.19.4)!
Wait and notice what happens next in verse 3.19.5: seeing that his divine opponent was now standing completely unarmed, **Hiranyaksha respected the ancient warrior code (*dharma*) and refused to strike the Lord in combat**, even though he had a clear opening!
Honoring the demon's chivalry while the gods cried out in relief, the Lord immediately summoned his supreme weapon — the blazing **Sudarshana discus** (*chakra*) (3.19.6). As the razor-rimmed wheel spun into the Lord's hand and he played with it before the crooked son of Diti, the watching sages, who did not yet recognize the full measure of the Lord's hidden strength, cried out anxiously: "May complete victory be yours! Slay him quickly!" (3.19.7–8).
Seeing the lotus-eyed Lord standing before him with the whirling Sudarshana discus at the ready, Hiranyaksha hissed like a stepped-on serpent, bit his own lip in rage, and hurled his gigantic mace straight at the Lord shouting *"You are dead!"* (3.19.9–10). Without moving from the spot, the Boar knocked the flying club effortlessly aside with his left forefoot (*savya-padena*), just as Garuda knocks away a snake, and challenged the demon to pick it up and try again (3.19.11–12).
Refusing to touch the fallen club out of warrior pride, Hiranyaksha snatched up a blazing three-pronged **trident** (*shula*) hungry like flaming fire and hurled it with all his strength at the Lord of sacrifice (3.19.13–14). As the trident streaked across the sky like the flaming staff of Yama, Varaha released his razor-edged Sudarshana discus, which sliced the trident to pieces in mid-air the way Indra's thunderbolt clipped the wings of the mountains (3.19.15)!
With his trident shattered, the furious demon rushed forward and pounded the Lord's broad chest — where the goddess of fortune Lakshmi resides — with his iron-hard bare fist, then vanished on the spot with a thunderous roar (3.19.16). Never trembling any more than a bull elephant struck by a wreath of flowers, the Lord stood utterly calm while Hiranyaksha unleashed terrifying demonic sorcery (*asuri maya*) across the sky (3.19.17–21): howling hurricane winds darkened the horizon with stones driven from catapults; black clouds flashed with lightning and thunder while raining down burning coals, pus, hair, blood, bones, and stool; and magical armies of naked female demons armed with tridents and hair flying loose swarmed out of nowhere shouting *"Cut him! Pierce him!"*
To scatter that entire dark illusion at once, the Lord released his beloved Sudarshana discus, which burned through the demonic magic in a single flash like the sun scattering night (3.19.22). At that very instant inside her distant palace, Hiranyaksha's mother Diti shuddered as she remembered her husband Kashyapa's warning that her sons would die when they fought the Lord, and blood suddenly flowed from her breasts (3.19.23).
Seeing his magic dissolved, the demon charged back one last time, wrapped his massive arms around the Lord to crush him in an iron embrace, and found to his astonishment that **the Lord stood wholly outside his grasp** (3.19.24)! As Hiranyaksha rained stony fists upon Varaha's chest, the Lord of the Maruts casually **slapped him once with the base of his open hand right at the root of the ear (*karna-mule*)**, just as Indra struck the demon Vritra (3.19.25).
Even though the Lord struck him almost negligently, the single blow spun Hiranyaksha's giant body around in mid-air; his eyes bulged from their sockets, his arms, legs, and hair flew loose, and he crashed dead into the waves like a towering forest tree uprooted by a cyclone (3.19.26).
When Brahma, Bhrigu, and the gods looked down at the fallen warrior lying on the ocean floor with his lip still bitten in defiance, his cheeks glowing, and his giant body unbroken in luster, they marveled in awe (3.19.27–31): **"Ah, who in the universe could ever ask for a more blessed death than this? Struck by the touch of the forefoot and hand of the Lord whom yogis meditate upon in solitude to break the shell of ignorance, he cast off his mortal body while gazing straight into the face of Bhagavan!"** Having thus ended the first of Jaya and Vijaya's three cursed lives as easily as breaking a clay toy, the cosmic Boar returned to his own unbroken bliss, praised by Brahma and the gods in song (3.19.32–38).
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