ब्रह्मोवाच यत्रोद्यतः क्षितितलोद्धरणाय बिभ्रत्क्रौडीं तनुं सकलयज्ञमयीमनन्तः अन्तर्महार्णव उपागतमादिदैत्यं तं दंष्ट्रयाद्रिमिव वज्रधरो ददार
brahmovāca yatrodyataḥ kṣiti-taloddharaṇāya bibhrat krauḍīṁ tanuṁ sakala-yajña-mayīm anantaḥ antar-mahārṇava upāgatam ādi-daityaṁ taṁ daṁṣṭrayādrim iva vajra-dharo dadāra
Synonyms
brahmā uvāca—Lord Brahmā said; yatra—at that time (when); udyataḥ—attempted; kṣiti-tala—the earthly planet; uddharaṇāya—for the matter of lifting; bibhrat—assumed; krauḍīm—pastimes; tanum—form; sakala—total; yajña-mayīm—all-inclusive sacrifices; anantaḥ—the Unlimited; antar—within the universe; mahā-arṇave—the great Garbha Ocean; upāgatam—having arrived at; ādi—the first; daityam—demon; tam—him; daṁṣṭrayā—by the tusk; adrim—the flying mountains; iva—like; vajra-dharaḥ—the controller of the thunderbolts; dadāra—pierced..
Translation
Lord Brahmā said: At the time when the unlimitedly powerful Lord assumed the form of a boar as a pastime, just to lift up the earthly planet, which was drowned in the great ocean of the universe called the Garbhodaka, the first demon [Hiraṇyākṣa] appeared, and the Lord pierced him with His tusk.
Purport
Since the beginning of creation, the demons and the demigods or the Vaiṣṇavas are always the two classes of living beings to dominate the planets of the universes. So Lord Brahmā is the first demigod, and Hiraṇyākṣa is the first demon in this universe. Only under certain conditions do the planets float as weightless balls in the air, and as soon as these conditions are disturbed, the planets may fall down in the Garbhodaka Ocean which covers half the universe. The other half is the spherical dome within which the innumerable planetary systems exist. The floating of the planets in the weightless air is due to the inner constitution of the globes, and the modernized drilling of the earth to exploit oil from within is a sort of disturbance by the modern demons resulting in a greatly harmful reaction of the floating condition of the earth. A similar disturbance was created formerly by the demons headed by Hiraṇyākṣa (the great exploiter of the gold rush), and the earth was detached from its weightless condition and fell down into the Garbhodaka Ocean. The Lord, as the maintainer of the whole creation of the material world, therefore assumed the gigantic form of a boar with a proportionate snout and picked up the earthly planet from within the water of Garbhodaka. Śrī Jayadeva Gosvāmī, the great Vaiṣṇava poet, sang as follows:
vasati daśana-śikhare dharaṇī tava lagnā
śaśini kalaṅka-kaleva nimagnā
keśava dhṛta-śūkara-rūpa
jaya jagadīśa hare
"O Keśava! O Supreme Lord who has assumed the form of a boar! O Lord! The earthly planet rested on Your tusks, and it appeared like the moon engraved with spots." [Daśāvatāra-stotra 3]
Such is the symptom of an incarnation of the Lord. The incarnation of the Lord is not the concocted idea of a fanciful class of men who create an incarnation out of imagination. The incarnation of the Lord appears under certain extraordinary circumstances like the above-mentioned occasion, and the incarnation performs a task which is not even imaginable by the tiny brain of mankind. The modern creators of the many cheap incarnations may take note of the factual incarnation of God as the gigantic boar with a suitable snout to carry the earthly planet.
When the Lord appeared to pick up the earthly planet, the demon of the name Hiraṇyākṣa tried to create a disturbance in the methodical functions of the Lord, and therefore he was killed by being pierced by the Lord's tusk. According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, the demon Hiraṇyākṣa was killed by the hand of the Lord. Therefore his version is that after being killed by the hand of the Lord, the demon was pierced by the tusk, and Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākur confirms this version.