Shloka 90
Atithi-satkāra and the Consolation of Wise Counsel (अतिथिसत्कारः प्रज्ञानवचनस्य च पराश्वासनम्)
कपि शब्दका अर्थ वराह एवं श्रेष्ठ है और वृष कहते हैं धर्मको। मैं धर्म और श्रेष्ठ वराहरूपधारी हूँ; इसलिये प्रजापति कश्यप मुझे “वृषाकपि' कहते हैं ।।
kapi-śabdasya arthaḥ varāha evaṃ śreṣṭhaḥ, vṛṣa iti dharmam āhuḥ | ahaṃ dharmaś ca śreṣṭha-varāha-rūpa-dhārī ca; tasmāt prajāpatiḥ kaśyapo māṃ “vṛṣākapi” iti vadati || na cādiṃ na madhyaṃ tathā caiva nāntaṃ kadācid vidanti surāś cāsurāś ca | anādyo ’ham amadhyas tathā cāpy anantaḥ, pragīto ’ham īśo vibhur loka-sākṣī ||
“The word kapi signifies the boar and also ‘the excellent’; and vṛṣa is said to mean Dharma. I am Dharma, and I bear the form of the supreme Boar; therefore Prajāpati Kaśyapa calls me ‘Vṛṣākapi’. Neither the gods nor the asuras ever truly know my beginning, my middle, or my end. Hence I am celebrated as ‘Beginningless’, ‘Without a middle’, and ‘Endless’—the all-pervading Lord, the witness of the worlds.”
तामिन्द्र उवाच गच्छ नहुषस्त्वया वाच्योथ<पूर्वेण मामृषियुक्तेन यानेन त्वमधिरूढ
Educational Q&A
The passage teaches that the supreme reality is Dharma itself, assumes forms for cosmic purposes (here, the supreme Boar), and transcends all finite measures—beginning, middle, and end—thus being infinite, all-pervading, and the witness of all worlds.
A divine speaker explains the etymological basis of the epithet “Vṛṣākapi” by linking vṛṣa with Dharma and kapi with the boar/excellence, then asserts divine transcendence: even gods and asuras cannot grasp the deity’s origin, extent, or limit.