a version of a favorite tale

Hiranyaksha worshipped Bramha for decades, enduring great pain and suffering. In recognition of Hiranyaksha's devotion, Bramha offered Hiranyaksha a boon -- anything he wanted. Hiranyaksha asked to become king of the entire world, and that no person or animal that he listed by name should ever have the power to harm him. Brahma agreed, and Hiranyaksha then listed all of the people and animals he could think of. Brahma granted Hiranyaksha the power he sought, and Hiranyaksha became a demonic tyrant, plundering everything on the earth, tearing apart civilizations, and enslaving all peoples and animals. Finally, Hiranyaksha dragged even earth itself beneath the oceans.

The people and animals of the earth cried out to the gods for relief from Hiranyaksha's tyranny. The gods conferred and discovered that the only animal Hiranyaksha had not listed was the pig. Vishnu then took the avatar of a great sow, and sought to defeat Hiranyaksha. After a thousand years of battle, the sow defeated and killed Hiranyaksha, and she hooked earth with her tusks and dragged it back above the oceans. Life and peace began to return to the earth.

But Vishnu -- he liked living in the sow's body. Vishnu liked the feeling of the sow's strength, liked the scents she smelled, liked the feeling of dirt and mud, liked sex with the boars. Vishnu liked the pain of battle in a sow's body, liked the difficulty of getting around on four legs, liked the limited vision of a pig's eyes. And Vishnu liked being pregnant with a litter of piglets, liked giving birth to them and suckling them.

All the gods thought that this was outrageous, and that Vishnu should be behaving more god-like than that, so they went to Shiva, and asked him to intervene. Shiva went to Vishnu and tried to persuade him to return to the other gods. Vishnu grunted and kept suckling her piglets.

Finally, Shiva stabbed the sow with a trident, and Vishnu came out of the sow's body, laughing.