I: Introduction

There is a story in the Vedic scriptures of a time when the great sage Narada went to visit the Supreme Lord Narayan (Krishna) in the Spiritual Kingdom of Vaikuntha. Narada was traveling on the earth at the time for the purpose of spreading the Hare Krishna Mantra, and before leaving, he met a brahmin on the road. The brahmin learned that Narada was going to see Lord Narayan, so he requested that Narada find out his spiritual status: how long, how many more births would he have to undergo before he would be liberated from material existence? Narada agreed to inquire about the brahmin's position. Further on he was hailed by a cobbler who was tending his craft while sitting under a large tree by the roadside. The cobbler paid his respects to Narada and asked the great sage to please find out how many births more he would have to spend in the miseries of repeated birth and death before he would attain final liberation. In the Vaikuntha planet, in the Presence of the Supreme Lord, Narada reported his missionary activities to Narayan and received all the necessary information for carrying on his loving devotional service. He then inquired about the two conditioned souls he had met on the earth planet. When the Lord was asked about the brahmin He said, "Oh he will have to spend many, many more lifetimes before his liberation." Narada noted the reply, and then asked about the cobbler. On hearing mention of that cobbler, the Lord smiled, "Please tell him that he will be liberated in this very lifetime!" Then Narayan added, "And when you tell them, if they ask what I was doing, please tell them I was threading an elephant through the eye of a needle."

When Narada approached the brahmin on the earth planet the brahmin enquired what the Lord had said. Narada told him, and the brahmin became morosely silent. This brahmin was a rigid practitioner of the scriptural regulations; he took three baths a day and never failed to perform the proper rituals, so he was surprised to hear that he had a long way before being liberated. He then asked what the Lord was doing. When Narada told him that Lord Narayan was threading an elephant through the eye of a needle, the brahmin became outraged with disbelief: "What? Go away! You haven't been to see Narayan. This is just some nonsense you are concocting!" And the brahmin turned away from Narada. Narada next approached the cobbler. On seeing Narada Muni, the man jumped up from his place under the tree and ran to the devotee-sage: "You have just seen the Lord. So tell me when I am to be liberated." Narada was pleased to tell the cobbler that he would be liberated in this very lifetime. The cobbler turned ecstatic and began jumping for joy. Very soon he would be with the Lord! He then asked Narada what Lord Narayan was doing. Narada replied, "The Lord was threading an elephant through the eye of a needle." The cobbler became still more ecstatic. "Ah, how great my Lord is!" he exclaimed. Narada asked him further, "How is it you have such faith that you can believe the Lord was doing such an impossible thing?" The cobbler answered unflinchingly, "Impossible? Just see this large, spacious tree we are sitting under. Do you know that such a big spreading tree came out of a seed no bigger than a pin? So if the Lord can put such a big tree into a tiny seed, why can't He thread one elephant through a needle's eye?"

The purport is clear. The cobbler had more than a blind faith in God. He had understanding that God means Param Brahman, the Greatest, and the Greatest means that He can do anything. So many impersonalists will admit that God means the unlimited, the infinite, but as soon as they hear that the Lord descends as Avatara and acts in a way indicative of His unlimited potency, they take it differently. They say it is a myth or allegory, or they criticize. The mental speculator tries to put God within the restrictions of the understanding of the tiny human brain. This is his error. Rather, the Vedic process for understanding the Absolute Truth is to receive it as it is. The Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth, is inconceivable, therefore we cannot measure Him. But we can hear from authorized sources of His Activities. Everyone should be interested in this transcendental hearing, because everyone is intimately connected as part of the One Supreme Lord. By listening, our heart can become cleansed and we can have revealed to us the practical, loving intent of the Lord in His multi-incarnations. If we can understand His Pastimes, all our problems will be solved. By understanding Krishna's Appearance in the world, we reach the perfection of life by leaving this temporary world of ignorance and misery and going back to Home, back to Godhead. That is the version of the Bhagavad-gita.

It is in this spirit that the great sages and transcendental scholars of the Vedic literature request we listen to the Activities of the incarnation of the Lord as Boar, or the Baraha Avatara.