"The story of Hiranyaksha begins with his birth from Diti, the daughter of
Prajapati Daksha," Maitreya replied. "Diti strongly desired to have a child,
and she prayed her husband Kasyapa, son of Marici, to unite with her even
if the moment was inauspicious. Sunset is a moment of the day when the
forces of darkness stir and become more powerful - therefore it is better to
engage in religious ceremonies that will protect our awareness, keeping it
from sliding into the lower influences of matter. Kasyapa was sitting in
meditation after completing the fire ceremony and was offering homage to
Lord Shiva, who at that time travels around, accompanied by his retinue."
Diti, however, was agitated by sexual desire and had no intention to wait
any longer. Kasyapa consented to perform his conjugal duty, but warned
her that there would be negative consequences: the two children conceived
at that inauspicious time would be evil Asuras, tormentors of the universe,
and for this reason they would be killed by the Supreme Lord, Vishnu.
Later Diti repented for her lack of discipline, and Kasyapa said that the son
of one of those sons would be a great devotee of the Lord, blessed and
loved by all. Diti also tried to delay the birth of the two Asuras, but already
during the pregnancy the universe was gradually covered by a great
darkness, so that the Devas went to Brahma to ask him what was
happening.
Brahma explained that the problem had started when the four Kumaras had
gone to Vaikuntha to meet Lord Vishnu. After crossing the first six gates
and meeting many of the residents of Vaikuntha, who traveled in airplanes
together with their consorts, the Kumaras came to the seventh gate and its
two doormen Jaya and Vijaya. The two guards saw the Kumaras enter
without hesitation and stopped them, treating them as ordinary children.
Annoyed, the Rishis scolded the two guards for their narrow mindedness.
Such a mentality was characteristic of the material world, and that was the
place where they would soon end up.
At that very moment, Vishu arrived personally to solve the controversy.
After graciously accepting the prayers of the Kumaras, he declared he
approved the punishment that had been given to his servants. Directly
taking responsibility for the offense, he asked the Kumaras to allow the
doormen to return to his presence in Vaikuntha after expiating their
mistake by taking birth in the material world. The Kumaras repliedacknowledging the fact that everything always happens according to the
Lord's plan and that the curse against the two innocent doormen was due
to the influence of his illusory energy.
Thus Jaya and Vijaya fell from their positions and entered Diti's womb as
her two sons, Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipu.
The birth of the two twins was accompanied by many bad omens:
earthquakes, great fires, comets, meteorites, hurricanes and cyclones that
hid the light of the sun and the moon, immersing the entire universe in
deep darkness. The planets moved inauspiciously, often in retrograde path,
and there were many eclipses. Mars and Saturn became more powerful than
the other more peaceful planets such as Mercury, Jupiter and Venus. The
ocean moaned, agitated by huge waves. Dogs and jackals were restless and
continued to howl, wild donkeys ran around the land in herds, scaring the
birds and the cows.
Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipu were born already fully grown, with bodies
as strong as steel, decorated with crowns and other ornaments. They did
not fear anyone, and before them Indra and the other celestial beings fled
and went into hiding. Not finding any opponents to fight with, Hiranyaksha
ventured into the ocean and went to challenge the Deva Varuna in his
capital, Vibhavari. Not desiring to fight against the arrogant Asura, Varuna
convinced him to seek Vishnu, the Supreme and most powerful Being, and
fight with him.
Immediately Hiranyaksha went to search for Vishnu, and learning that he
was rescuing earth from the waters, he hastened to challenge him, insulting
and threatening him. Hiranyaksha had golden hair and terrifying tusks, and
wore a golden armor and other beautiful ornaments. He was equipped with
a huge mace and he rushed against the Lord without hesitation. Varaha
patiently tolerated the insults and first of all focused on rescuing the earth,
lifting her out of the water, like an elephant that is attacked by a crocodile
first of all thinks about his female's safety. Then he turned to face the
challenge, crushing the Asura's pride and threatening him.
The fight was terrible, and all the Devas and Rishis and the inhabitants of
the heavenly planets watched it anxiously. Both the opponents dealt many
heavy blows on one another and intoxicated by the smell of the blood, theybecame even more engrossed in the fight. Suddenly Varaha's mace slid off
his hand, and the Asura showed his chivalry by holding his attack.
Brahma was scared, and offering his prayers to the Lord, he asked him not
to play too long with his enemy, but to end the fight quickly. Then Varaha
smacked Hiranyaksha's mace off his hand and again offered the weapon
back to him. The Asura felt humiliated and grabbed a trident, that was soon
shattered to pieces by the Lord's disc. Enraged, Hiranyaksha tried all the
magic tricks he knew, evoking violent winds, darkness, hailstorms and a rain
of sand and stones. There was a shower of pus, hair, blood, excrements,
urine and bones, and armies of demons marched in full war gear. But the
Lord's Sudarshana disc dissipated all those terrifying illusions and Varaha
ended the fight with a hard slap just below the Asura's ear - and he fell
dead.
