Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 3.13.35
Īśānukathā· The Lord and His devoteesLord Boar Personifies the Vedic Hymns
“O Lord, Your form is worshipable by performances of sacrifice, but souls who are simply miscreants are unable to see it. All the Vedic hymns, Gāyatrī and others, are in the touch of Your skin. In Your bodily hairs is the kuśa grass, in Your eyes is the clarified butter, and in Your four legs are the four kinds of fruitive activities.”
What the purport teaches
- The purport warns against claiming strict allegiance to the Vedas while rejecting the Lord’s incarnations. Such disbelief prevents one from seeing His worshipable form.
- The Lord’s eternal forms are not imagined human qualities imposed upon God. His incarnations are personified forms of the Vedas.
- The verse identifies Vedic hymns with His skin, kuśa grass with His bodily hairs, and clarified butter with His eyes. Lord Boar personifies the Vedic hymns, especially the Gāyatrī mantra.
Try this today
Reread one description of Lord Boar’s body and reflect on it as part of His worshipable form.
Ask yourself
Am I approaching the Lord’s form with respect, or dismissing what I do not yet understand?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
The study points, practice and question are short summaries drawn from Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport. Read the full purport to go deeper.