Demons Make Mockery of Supreme God’s Incarnations

A concise summary of Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 3 Chapter 18

When the Supreme Lord, Sri Hari appeared in his Varaha incarnation, the demon Hiranyaksha couldn’t understand the divinity of the Lord. Instead he challenged Lord Varaha and called 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 Lord, even in His human-like form, and they deride His descent. Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita that persons with little intelligence deride the spiritual form of the Lord as material.

The Lord is extremely talented. He is able to accept demon’s mockery as glorification. Hiranyaksha mocked the Lord as vana-gocaraḥ, which means “one who is a resident of the forest,” but the Lord accepted it as the “one who lies on the water.” i.e. Vishnu.

Demons are very much disturbed when devotees worship the Lord in the prescribed ways recommended in the scriptures. Demons do not like such any activity that involves worship of God. They are always envious of God and His devotees. Their propaganda not to worship in the temple but simply to make material advancement for satisfaction of the senses is always current.

The Lord is invisible to the eyes of the common man, but His energies act in various ways. When demons are in adversity, they think that God is hiding Himself and is working by His mystic potency. They think that if they can find God they can kill Him just by seeing Him. Not only are demons always anxious to kill God with words and philosophy, but they think that if one is materially powerful he can kill God with materially fatal weapons. Demons like Kamsa, Ravana and Hiranyakashipu thought themselves powerful enough to kill even God. Demons cannot understand that God, by His multifarious potencies, can work so wonderfully that He can be present everywhere and still remain in His eternal abode, Vaikuntha.

Demons also say that God has no head, no form, no existence and no legs, hands or other bodily limbs. In other words, they say that He is dead or lame. All these misconceptions of the Supreme Lord are a source of dissatisfaction to Him; He is never pleased with such non Vedic descriptions.

When the Lord Varaha came out of the water, taking the earth in His arms to deliver it, the demon derided Him with insulting words, but the Lord did not care because He was very conscious of His duty. For a dutiful man there is nothing to fear. Similarly, those who are powerful have no fear of derision or unkind words from an enemy. The Lord had nothing to fear from anyone, yet He was merciful to His enemy by neglecting him.

Demons think of their possessions as their property, but actually everything belongs to the Supreme Lord, who can take anything at any time He likes.

A demon may be a great soldier and commander of a large number of infantry, but in the presence of the Supreme Lord, he is powerless and is destined to die.

A perfect Yogi can overcome a deathblow although it is offered by the laws of nature. It is useless for a demon to beat the spiritual body of the Lord with a powerful mace, for no one can surpass His prowess. Those who are advanced Yogis are freed from the laws of nature, and even a deathblow cannot act on them. Superficially it may be seen that a Yogi is attacked by a deathblow, but by the grace of the Lord he can overcome many such attacks for the service of the Lord. As the Lord exists by His own independent prowess, by the grace of the Lord the devotees also exist for His service.

Demons habitually find fault with gods, brahmanas and innocent people, to whom they are a constant source of fear. The way of the demon is to take power from the gods and then tease the gods themselves. There is an instance of a great devotee of Lord Shiva who obtained a boon from Lord Shiva that the head of whomever he touched with his hand would come off its trunk. As soon as the boon was offered to him, the demon wanted to touch the very head of Lord Shiva. That is their way. The advanced devotees of the Supreme Lord do not, however, ask any favor for personal satisfaction. Even if they are offered liberation, they refuse it. They are happy simply engaging in the loving service of the Lord.

The Supreme Lord is significantly described in the Vedas as yajñāvayava. One should not consider the Lord to have the body of an ordinary boar. He can assume any form, and He possesses all such forms eternally. It is from Him that all other forms have emanated. This boar form of Varaha is not to be considered the form of an ordinary hog; His body is actually full of Yajna, or worshipful offerings. Yajña (sacrifices) are offered to Vishnu. Yajna means the body of Vishnu. His body is not material; therefore He should not be taken to be an ordinary boar.