The Lord takes the Varaha avatar to rescue the earth that is submerged in the depths of water. This happens when Swayambhuva Manu, who is assigned the task to rule over the earth and propagate the race by Brahma, finds the earth missing. Brahma then meditates on the Lord who alone can solve this problem and sure enough the Lord appears as a small boar from Brahma’s nostril and soon grows huge in size. Seeing the earth, Bhu, the support of all beings and whom He had sheltered in his abdomen at the time of deluge, now in Rasatala, the Lord enters the waters, roaring and grunting. He rises from the depths lifting up the earth on His tusks. Hiranyaksha fights with Him but is killed by the Lord.
The word picture of this avatar that is described in the Bhagavata Purana through the vision of Brahma and the rishis is most amazing, pointed out Sri R. Krishnamurthy Sastrigal in a discourse. It is not only precise in details of the size, colour, texture, etc of the Lord’s Varaha form but it also highlights His symbolic Yagna form. Brahma and the rishis offer salutations to Him, who is manifest as all mantras, all the celestials, all the ingredients of worship, as the entire system of sacrifices and forms of worship. They see Him as the very state of enlightenment and jnana attained through renunciation, vairagya, devotion and concentration, etc. The Earth resting on His tusks appears as a lotus plucked and held by a sporting elephant from the waters of a lake The rishis beseech the Lord to place aside the earth, His consort and the Mother and abode of all beings so that they can pay obeisance to both of them. The Lord is the Father of all and His infinite power is present in the earth and is the cause for creation to evolve.
