Varaha Purana 123.2: Adhyaya 123, Shloka 2
The Greatness of Fragrant Flowers and Leaves: Prabodhinī (Awakening) Observances and Seasonal Rites
Uttara Bhāga · Kokā-māhātmya Reflection
धरण्युवाच॥ अहो प्रभावः कोकाया माहात्म्यं क्रोडरूपिणः॥ तिर्यग्योनिगतो वापि प्राप्तो यत्परमां गतिम्॥
dharaṇy uvāca || aho prabhāvaḥ kokāyā māhātmyaṃ kroḍarūpiṇaḥ || tiryagyonigato vāpi prāpto yat paramāṃ gatim
dharaNyuvAcha || aho prabhAvaH kokAyA mAhAtmyaM kroDarUpiNaH || tiryagyonigato vApi prApto yatparamAM gatim
धरनी ने कहा, अरे कोका में कैसी शक्ति है। भगवान ने सूअर का रूप लिया था, उनकी बड़ी बात है। जानवर की योनि में पैदा होके भी इंसान ऊपर की मंज़िल पा सकता है।
Sandhi Notes
- धरणी+उवाच → धरण्युवाच
- तिर्यक्+योनि+गतः → तिर्यग्योनिगतः
- वा+अपि → वापि
- यत्+परमाम् → यत्परमाम्
Pṛthivī (Dharaṇī)
Astonished and uplifted; devotional admiration mixed with soteriological curiosity.
Implicit: How can the boar-formed Lord’s tīrtha/mahatmya grant the highest state even to beings in animal birth?
Contact with the Lord’s prabhāva (through tīrtha, hearing, remembrance, devotion) can elevate even the most constrained embodiment.
Cultivate non-contempt toward any being; intensify śravaṇa/smaraṇa and tīrtha-sevā with faith, trusting transformative grace.
क्रोडरूपिणः (boar-formed Lord) mentioned without further iconographic detail.
Implied relational devotion: Bhū-devī praises the boar-formed Lord’s salvific potency as connected to Kokā-māhātmya; direct address is reverential rather than physical interaction.
Varāha here functions as the universal redeemer whose grace transcends jāti/yonis; the boar-form signifies divine accessibility even to the ‘tiryak’ condition, collapsing hierarchy through bhakti and tīrtha-prabhāva.
Only the epithet ‘क्रोडरूपिन्’ cues the Yajña-Varāha tradition in the background.
Grace (prasāda) overrides limiting upādhis (birth-conditions); hints at the doctrine that liberation depends on divine favor and right orientation, not merely social status.
Indirect Vaiṣṇava continuity: the same Lord worshipped in Varāha-form is the source of later avatāras.
Continuation of Kokā-māhātmya prabhāva; Lead-in to Bhū-devī’s further questioning (123.3+)
FAQs
It exemplifies the māhātmya genre’s expansive soteriology, extending salvific possibility beyond human social categories—an important feature in Purāṇic ethical imagination.
‘Kokā’ is referenced as a named sacred locus/theme, but the excerpt does not supply coordinates or an unambiguous modern correlate.
Moral and ritual efficacy is portrayed as accessible even to marginalized states of existence (tiryag-yoni), emphasizing inclusivity of spiritual aspiration within the narrative logic.
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