The Lord’s physical form is not made of the five elements as in the case of humans. It is composed of five divine elements. The Lord’s physical form is called Divya Mangala Vigraha. But when the Lord took avataras, He did not reveal these differences between our forms and His. When Rama goes to bring the golden deer, Lakshmana warns Him. He says other deer run away in fear from the golden deer. This must be because the golden deer gives off the smell of an asura, Lakshmana says. So however much one might try to disguise one’s natural traits, they are bound to show up.
But, during His avataras, the Lord concealed all His natural characteristics, taking on the characteristics needed for that avatara, said M.A. Venkatakrishnan in a discourse. When He appeared as Varaha, other boars did not shy away from Him. Instead, they rubbed themselves on His back. This would have been possible only if they had been convinced that He was one of them. So, He must have also smelt like them. But how can He smell like a boar? Would it not be wrong to make such inferences? Nampillai explains why it is not wrong. The Vedas describe Him as sarva gandhah, that means the One who has all kinds of smells. In that case, what is wrong if we say that He did not smell differently from the boars, during His Varaha avatara?
The Varaha Purana says we should offer tubers of nutsedge to Lord Varaha. These are tubers only boars like to eat. When Nanjeeyar read of Varaha’s preferred food, he fainted at the thought of the Supreme One eating the favourite food of boars. In the Srimushna temple, even today they give devotees a churnam as prasada. This is nothing but the nutsedge tubers powdered with sugar to make them palatable to us. But the Lord gladly ate this when He was Varaha!
