śrī vārāhyanugrahāṣṭakam

Eight verses on grace, and the most literary writing in the Vārāhī group. It opens by calling her the stage-manager of the drama of the world's making, and then makes the ordinary humility topos do real work: even Īśa, in trying to grasp your true form, arrives at a state that is not lordship — so who else could compose a hymn to you? The third verse describes what devotion actually feels like from inside, the hair standing up as immeasurable joy rises at the thought of her. The fifth is the one that settles her identity, setting her beside Viṣṇu as the boar who lifted the earth in play and calling her the boar-form that accomplishes everything, while also naming her the one who took the left half of Hara's body. The last verse asks four questions in a row, each answering itself: what is hard to do, to obtain, to bear, to conquer, for one who has held you in mind even once?