ଶ୍ରୀ ଵରାହାଷ୍ଟକମ୍

Eight verses to Varaha, and the best of them is the third, which reads the boar's body as a sacrifice laid out. His body is the altar and his mouth the offering fire; his bristles are the sacrificial grass and his nose the ladle; his tusk became the wooden pin, and his tail the sacrificial post — so the animal is not merely rescuing the earth but is himself the rite by which she is rescued. The second verse is domestic by comparison, with the earth resting as an ornament on his left shoulder and his hand on her, and his snout smelling her cheek. The last turns personal and asks him to do it again: I have been thrown into the sea of becoming by wrongdoing and by helplessness, in waves that will not be checked — lift me up as you lifted the earth.