Incarnations of Lord Visnu

As suggested in another thread, I will post stories on various incarnations of Visnu.
I will first talk about Varah(boar) incarnation.

Varah incarnation
Near the beginning of his day, Brahma created a man and a woman. The man was called as Swyambhuv Manu and the woman as Shatrupa. They became husband-wife.
Brahma asked Manu to rule over Earth. But Earth was covered with water. Manu requested Brahma to do something so that Earth could come out of water. Brahma meditated on Lord Vishnu.
A very small white boar came out of Brahma's nose. Therefore, the current day of Brahma is called as shwet varah kalp.(Shwet=white, Varah=boar incarnation). The boar's size was only half of a thumb. But soon it became gigantic in size and roared. Brahma, Manu and the sages could understand that the boar was none other than Lord Vishnu. They extolled the Varah incarnation of Vishnu by singing hymns from vedas.
Varah rose into sky and scattered the clouds with his hooves and tusks. Then he entered the water and found the Earth. He lifted the Earth on his tusks.

To be continued...

Lord Varah killed Hiranyaksh
One of the wives of sage Kashyap(grandson of Brahma) was Diti. One of their sons was Hiranaksh. In He was born on Earth because of a curse from Kumar brothers. He was very powerful. With his mace, he killed many. Even gods headed by lord Indra fled from heaven in order to save themselves from Hiranyaksh. Hiranyaksh loved fighting. After returning from heaven, Hiranyaksh dived into deep ocean. There he met lord Varun(god of water). Hiranyaksh asked Varun to give him battle. Varun knew that he could not defeat Hiranyaksh. He told Hiranyaksh that he should go to Lord Vishnu for battle; then Hiranyaksh will be rid of his pride.
Hiranyaksh wanted to know where he could find Lord Vishnu. Sage Narad told him about Varah incarnation of Vishnu. Finding the whereabouts of Varah from Narad, Hiranyaksh went to that place. He saw Lord Varah holding Earth on the tips of His tusks. Hiranyaksh laughed at Lord Varah, challenged Him for a battle and threatened of killing Him. Varah came out of water, placed Earth on water, blessing Earth the ability to float. Hiranyaksh followed Varah. There was fierce battle between the two. Finally Lord Varah cut off all the weapons of Hiranyaksh using Sudarshan chakra. Getting angry, Hiranyaksh struck Varah hard. Varah gave him a slap below his ear. Hiranyaksh body whirled around and he died.

Story of Varah incarnation completed.

wow this is interesting akhl
thx so much for these stories
n plz continue posting them but can u make a thread which is sticky n post all the stories there it will be easy to find them in the future...if u dont mind of coarse 😳

jyots 😊

This is soo cool! I know about the Boar but I don't think I know the rest. I will just have to wait and see.

Great job though!! 👏 👏

Originally posted by: **Shona**

wow this is interesting akhl
thx so much for these stories
n plz continue posting them but can u make a thread which is sticky n post all the stories there it will be easy to find them in the future...if u dont mind of coarse 😳

This is a good suggestion. 😊 This thread itself can be made sticky because I will be writing stories of Vishnu's incarnations in this. For stories I have created another thread also in which I am writing stories related to Ravan. But that thread will not be very active. This is because I first check what is shown in Ravan serial. If I find that I can add more details or if I find that what is shown is significantly different from what scriptures say, then I post there from scriptures.
But this thread will be very much active. Since, there are so many incarnations, I wil describe each one in brief. But if you want me to put more light on any particular incarnation, then let me know.
Next I will post story of Kapil incarnation. In that I will describe Sankhya in detail because Sankhya is a very important philosophy mentioned in scriptures.

Incarnation of Vishnu as sage Kapil
There was a sage named Kardam. Lord Brahma asked him to beget children so that populaion on Earth could continue.
Kardam did askesis at the bank of river Saraswati to please Lord Vishnu. Being pleased Lord Vishnu appeared and said, "Day after tomorrow, king Swyambhuv Manu will come here with his queen. They will want to marry their grown up beautiful daughter Devhuti to you because you are a worthy husband for their daughter and Devhuti has set her mind upon you. After you marry her, you will have nine daughters from whom generation will continue. You will also have one son. I will Myself incarnate as your son." Saying thus, Lord Vishnu disappeared.

As told by Lord Vishnu, Kardam as Devhuti got married. Devhuti had already heard about Kardam's nobility from sage Narad. Therefore, she herself wanted to marry Kardam and her parents also were happy with this alliance. Kardam and Devhuti had nine daughters. After that they had one son, who was Vishnu incarnate. The son was named Kapil. When Kapil grew up, then Kardam propitiated his son Kapil because Kapil was Vishnu. Sage Kapil said to sage Kardam, "I have descended in order to explain Sankhya yoga. This knowledge was lost in the course of time. Therefore, I will impart this knowledge again. I will impart the same knowledge to my mother so that she can attain liberation". Taking leave from Kapil, sage Kardam left the house and became a sanyasi.

When Kardam had left, then Kapil stayed with his mother Devhuti. One day Devhuti remembered words of Lord Brahma. Brahma had already told her that Vishnu would incarnate as her son to impart her knowledge. Devhuti asked Kapil to give her transcedental knowledge. Accordingly, sage Kapil explained to her Sankhya philosophy.

Next post-Sankhya philosophy

Sage Kapil explained Sankhya yoga to Devhuti. I am describing the same yoga below. Sorry for such a long post. I shortened it as much as I could. But I could not make it any shorter without losing important points.

Sankhya Yoga as explained by Kapil to Devhuti

When we serve God, without any motive of getting anything in return, then it is far better even than salvation. A true devotee likes to see God's various transcendental forms, which are all benevolent. Being absorbed in devotional service, he attains liberation without separate endeavor. He does not desire even the highest benediction obtainable in the upper planetary systems. He does not desire the siddhis obtained from mystic yoga, nor does he desire to be elevated to the kingdom of God. Yet even without desiring them, the devotee enjoys, even in this life, all the offered benedictions. It is because of God's supremacy that the wind blows; the sun shines out of fear of Him, and the lord of the clouds, Indra, sends forth showers. Fire burns out of fear of Him, and death works out of fear of Him.

God is the Supreme Soul. He has no beginning. He is transcendental to the material modes of nature and beyond the existence of this material world. He is perceivable everywhere because He is self-effulgent, and by His self-effulgent luster the entire creation is maintained. Divided into varieties, material nature creates the forms for individual souls, and the living souls, seeing this, are illusioned. Because of his forgetfulness, an individual soul accepts the influence of material energy as his field of activities, and he wrongly applies the activities to himself. Material consciousness is the cause of one's conditional life. Although the spirit soul does not do anything and is transcendental to such activities, he is thus affected by conditional life.

When Nature is in unmanifest state, it is called pradhan. It is called prakriti when in the manifested stage of existence. There are five gross elements, namely earth, water, fire, air and ether. There are also five subtle elements: smell, taste, color, touch and sound. The senses for acquiring knowledge and the organs for action number ten, namely the auditory sense, the sense of taste, the tactile sense, the sense of sight, the sense of smell, the active organ for speaking, the active organs for working, and those for traveling, generating and evacuating. The internal, subtle senses are experienced as having four aspects, in the shape of mind, intelligence, ego and contaminated consciousness. All these are considered the qualified Brahman. The mixing element, which is known as time, is counted as the twenty-fifth element. Because of the time factor the creation begins as a result of the agitation of the neutral, unmanifested nature.

By exhibiting His potencies, God adjusts all these different elements, keeping Himself within as the Supersoul and without as time. After God charges material nature with His internal potency, material nature delivers the sum total of the cosmic intelligence. The primordial matter in the universe is called Mahat-tattva. From Mahat-tattva evolve three modes of material nature - goodness, passion and ignorance. From goodness evolves the mind, whose thoughts and reflections give rise to desire.The mind of the living entity is known by the name of Lord Aniruddha, the supreme ruler of the senses. He possesses a bluish-black form resembling a lotus flower growing in the autumn. He is found by the yogs. From passion, intelligence takes birth. The functions of intelligence are to help in ascertaining the nature of objects when they come into view, and to help the senses. Doubt, misapprehension, correct apprehension, memory and sleep, as determined by their different functions, are said to be the distinct characteristics of intelligence. From ignorance, sound is manifested, and from sound come the ether and the sense of hearing. From ether, touch and thence the air and sense of touch evolve. By the interaction of fire and the visual sensation, the subtle element taste evolves under a superior arrangement. From taste, water is produced, and the tongue, which perceives taste, is also manifested. Although originally one, taste becomes manifold as astringent, sweet, bitter, pungent, sour and salty due to contact with other substances. Due to the interaction of water with the taste perception, the subtle element odor evolves under superior arrangement. Thence the earth and the olfactory sense, by which we can variously experience the aroma of the earth, become manifest. Odor, although one, becomes many — as mixed, offensive, fragrant, mild, strong, acidic and so on — according to the proportions of associated substances.

When all these elements were unmixed, then God, along with time, work, and the qualities of the modes of material nature, entered into the universe with the total material energy in seven divisions. From these seven principles, roused into activity and united by the presence of the Lord, an unintelligent egg arose, from which appeared the celebrated Cosmic Being. Within this egg is the universal form of Lord Hari, of whose body the various fourteen planetary systems are parts. From the Cosmic being, various body parts, senses, gods presiding over these senses, and various elements came.

Because soul is unchanging, if he does not claim proprietorship, then he remains apart from the reactions of the modes, although abiding in a material body, just as the sun remains aloof from its reflection on water. When the soul is under the spell of material nature and false ego, identifying his body as the self, he becomes absorbed in material activities, and by the influence of false ego he thinks that he is the proprietor of everything. The conditioned soul therefore transmigrates into different species of life, higher and lower, because of his association with the modes of material nature. Unless he is relieved of material activities, he has to accept this position because of his faulty work. Actually a soul is transcendental to material existence, but because of his mentality of lording it over material nature, his material existential condition does not cease, and just as in a dream, he is affected by all sorts of disadvantages.

One should execute his prescribed duties to the best of his ability. One should practice nonviolence and truthfulness, should avoid thieving and be satisfied if he possesses as much as he needs for his maintenance. For doing yoga, one must observe silence, acquire steadiness by practicing different yogic postures, control the breathing of the vital air, withdraw the senses from sense objects and thus concentrate the mind on the heart. The yogi should clear the passage of vital air by breathing in the following manner: first he should inhale very deeply, then hold the breath in, and finally exhale. Or, reversing the process, the yogi can first exhale, then hold the breath outside, and finally inhale. This is done so that the mind may become steady and free from external disturbances. By practicing this process called pranayam, one can eradicate the contamination of his physiological condition, and by concentrating the mind one can become free from all sinful activities. When the mind is perfectly purified by this practice of yoga, one should concentrate on the start of the nose with lightly closed eyes and meditate upon God. A yogi sees God in all manifestations. Then he gets perfect realisation.

Great p[ost Akhl,

Its really interesting to learn our mythological history. I read all the fcat and they were pretty interesting. Although I was aware of most of them but your writing added a little zing in reading.

I have a question : I just read on another thread that Lanka was built by Viswakarma on Somali amd his brothers command but I have learned that Lanka was originally built by Lord Vishwakarma on Lord Shiva request for Lordess Parvati and on its inaugration Kuber Fell in love with Lanka at first sight and requested for it himself, from Lord Shiva and Lord Shiva promised him Lanka. Parvati was furious and she cursed Kuber that just like she was not able to enjoy the comforts and pleasure of her Lanka , Kuber will loose it too time and again. Correct me.

Hi mahimn,
Please check once again. Did you read that Lord Shiva gave Lanka to Kuber or did you read that Shiva gave Lanka to Ravan.