The avataras deliver in diverse ways SB – 1.3.17-25

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you very much. Mohinya Mohyansthriya This is 1, 3, 17 Bhagavad Gita.
So, Dhanvantara Dvadashamam Dhanvantari appeared as the 12th avatar, Dvadasham. Trayodashamam Evachah And the 13th was Mohinya Mohyansthriya was the Mohini avatar. What did you do? Mohinya came in the form of a deluding woman with a charming beauty and Apayayat Apayayat means so to drink she gave it for drinking Suran Anyan So, she gave the nectar to the Devatas and for others she deluded them Anyan refers to the demons she deluded them with her beauty.
So, the previous text text 16 just talked about Kamatarupena So, that was referring to the Kurma avatar. So, in that same pastime the Lord and further it is stated that the 13th avatar that appeared was Apayayat was Mohinimurti Now, the original treaty between the Devatas and the Asuras was that the nectar which would come out that would be taken equally between both of them but what happened was that the Devatas were weaker Asuras were stronger and Asuras took all the nectar. So, at that time to delude them Vishnu appeared in the form of Mohinimurti and Asuras were so captivated by her beauty that they immediately desired to to have her as their object for enjoyment and in order to make a positive impression on her they started behaving in a very gentle manly way and they said oh we trust you you distribute the nectar and what Mohinimurti did was because they had already violated their word they had used the cooperation of Devatas for churning but then they wanted to take the nectar for themselves so deception was repaid by with deception Shatho Shathyam as it is said so Mohinimurti appeared and he deluded the Devatas and deluded the Asuras and with that glance she deluded them and with that glance she actually captivated them so much that they didn’t they just were satisfied with the glance and they did not ask for anything more and they just accepted what was being offered just a deluding glance and by the time the nectar got over and the Asuras were left with nothing so in this way Mohinya so the lord appeared as Mohinimurti and he deceived the deceivers so he tricked the tixters so this is as the lord has appeared in many manifestations but this is the only time when the lord appears in a female manifestation of course the lord always is there in most of his incarnations is there with his consort till now of course the list of incarnations that I mentioned the consort has not been highlighted but this is the only incarnation which the lord himself appears in a female form and this is a special incarnation and after this let’s go to text 18th 14th in this particular list it’s said to be Narasimhadev and 14th in this Narasimhadev 14th this Narasimhadev 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th 14th you know carpenter is trained it’s interesting metaphor the carpenter is trained and for a lay person to cut a cane might be a little difficult but when a carpenter is trained the carpenter doesn’t have much difficulty in separating the in cutting a cane it’s very easily effortlessly does it similarly although Narasimhadev played with Hiranyakashipu for some time and it was the Bhagavatam describes this pastime is described in the seventh canto of Bhagavatam.
Bhagavatam described that this playing was just like a cat playing with a mouse before eventually devouring it and eventually Narasimhadev Narasimha, Nara and Simha, man and lion so it is said about Narasimhadev that he is half man half lion and full God he’s God in his full majesty and quite often in the various incarnations the demons are physically bigger than the Devatas they are when the Lord also the demons sometimes giant and the Lord is small and yet the Lord overpowers the demons but in this case now although Hiranyakashipu was formidable but Hiranyakashipu was no match to Narasimhadev Narasimhadev was simply huge and in this way Narasimhadev overpowered the demon Hiranyakashipu and not only overpowered him not only defeated him but his body which was so formidable that even Indra’s thunderbolt could not put a crack on it could not put a scratch on it that body was ripped apart by Lord Narasimhadev and in this way it’s of course not mentioned here the whole pastime will come in detail in the seventh canto in this way he delivered Prahlad Maharaj and he delivered the whole universe. Text 19 Panchadasham Vamanakam Kritvagad Adhvarambalehe Padatrayam Yajyamanaha Pratyadip Sustripishtapam So Panchadasham the 15th incarnation that is mentioned Vamanakam so Vamanakam means Vaman refers to one who is short who is dwarf like so the Lord appeared in the short manifestation as Vamanakam and Kritvagad by assuming this form of a dwarf Brahmana Kritvagad he went Adhvarambalehe Adhvaram for the sacrifice of Bali Maharaj at that time Bali was the king of the Asuras and Padatrayam Yajyamanaha when he came as a Brahmana over there Bali Maharaj as per the as per the Brahmanical culture the etiquette he honoured him and offered him charity and Vamanadeva said just give me three steps in charity and what happened he accepted Bali Maharaj agreed and when the three steps were given Pratyadip Sustripishtapam actually he went there with the desire with the intention to return to gain the Tripishtapam, Tripishtapam is the three the kingdom of the three planetary systems so his intention in going there was to get the whole world the whole universe in fact which had been conquered by Vamanadeva by Bali Maharaj and he wanted to give it back to Indra in this particular manifestation of the Lord also known as Upe Indra because he appeared from the same father as Indra same parents as Indra Aditi and Kashya and because Indra had already appeared so he was like the younger brother of Indra and so Upe Indra he’s called so he wanted to benedict his brother by giving that kingdom back the kingdom of especially the heavenly planets and indeed the whole universe which Bali Maharaj had taken he wanted to take it back from Bali Maharaj and he did that but he asked initially for only three steps so here we see that the Bhagavatam speaks now at one level we may say isn’t it deceptive asking for three steps and taking and then taking everything by expanding one size yes it may be deceptive but we also need to understand that the Lord is transcendental and whatever he does he does not with any intention of deception he does with the intention of redemption of benediction he wants to bless and redeem everyone so in fact by taking the kingdom from Bali Maharaj he and giving it to Indra he did not bless Indra alone he blessed Bali Maharaj also because Bali Maharaj in the process of surrendering to the Supreme got devotion to the Supreme he had some dormant devotion because of being a descendant of Prahlad but that devotion had become covered over by demonic association and by the infatuation with opulence that had come because of that demonic association and when that opulence was taken away and when the Lord himself appeared Bali Maharaj should not resent or protest but his devotion manifested and he surrendered and thus the Lord gave Bali Maharaj supreme benediction of devotion so actually whatever the Lord does is supremely auspicious for everyone and in this case instead of he did not destroy the Dushkruti that is Bali Maharaj Bali Maharaj also had a devotional connection and had a devotional inclination so he destroyed whatever demoniac conditionings were obscuring the devotional inclination and thus he not only granted him devotion but thereafter he also went and became an associate of Bali Maharaj in Sutala where he saw Bali Maharaj as a such mercy bestowed so Bali Maharaj whatever he lost he got far far greater things in return by the blessing of the Supremes text 20 avatare shodashame pashyan brahma druho drupaan tri-sapta krutavah kupito nikshatram akaron mahim avatare shodashame so shodasha the 16th avatar is described as pashyan brahma druho drupaan pashyan on seeing drupaan the kings to be brahma druho to be the enemies of the brahmanas to be hostile and violent towards the brahmanas tri-sapta krutavah kupito tri-sapta means three into seven twenty-one times krutavah kupito being furious with them nikshatram akaron mahim nikshatram he rid the world of the Kshatriyas. Kshatriyas under Kartaveer Arjun had become so insolent that first they their defiance of the brahmanas was seen in their forcibly seizing away the property of of the of Bhugupathi here it is referred to as here the father of Parashuram he Jamadagni he was he stole Kartaveer Arjuna stole away his cow and when Parashuram punished him by cutting off the hands of Kartaveer Arjuna and thereafter delivering him by beheading him so his sons they were furious and they wanted to take revenge now Parashuram had fought valiantly and had in a fair combat over overpowered Kartaveer Arjuna and his sons had fled at that time they had not been able to be of any assistance at that time whatever reason but instead of again coming for a fair fight they very in a cowardly way they attacked the father of Parashuram their moral that you kill our father we will kill your father but they forgot that their father was a Kshatriya who had violated the proper course of conduct by trying to steal from a Brahmana in contrast Jamadagni had done nothing wrong he had just been a Brahmana practising Brahmanical principles and he was not even a warrior and so they when they killed Jamadagni, Parashuram was furious and Parashuram he saw this as a rot sometimes some surgeons when they see the doctors when they see one symptom of a pervasive rot in the body at present only one finger may be rotten but they may say the whole hand has to be chopped off because already what this much rot is visible but beyond this visible rot there is an invisible rot which is there and even if you cut off the visible rot so the invisible rot will spread and the whole body will get diseased so we have to cut not only where we see the visible rot we also have to see cut where there is an invisible rot so Parashuram he saw the brazen murderousness of the sons of Kartaveer Arjuna as a visible rot and for further he saw the overall Brahmadrupo overall animosity disrespect and while while in disposition of the Kshatriyas towards the Brahmanas which was not which might not have been manifested at that time that as an invisible rot and thus he removed not just the visible but also the invisible rot and thus he delivered the earth from atrocious rulers this is not just a blood vendetta you kill my father so I will destroy all of you no it was done actually for the welfare of citizens because if the kings are atrocious then who will protect the citizens so Parashuram he took the responsibility of protecting the citizens and he ensured that by teaching such a lesson to the Kshatriyas he ensured that they were at least for a substantial amount of time to come they would not dare to become become indiscriminately violent in their dealings they would not abuse their powers which they had as Kshatriya rulers.
Text 21 Satyavatyam Parasharath Chakre Ved Tarho Shakha, Dhrishtva Phumso Alpamedha Saha Satyavati was born Vyasadev this is referring to Chakre Ved Tarho Shakha Chakre he prepared from the the desired tree of the Vedas Ved Tarho Vedas are also in Kalpataru so here is the word Tarho is used for the shorter word is used for poetic purposes poetic rhyming purpose Shakha so he prepared put the Vedas in written form and he made the Shakhas the divisions so Dhrishtva Phumso Alpamedha Saha he saw that people were Alpamedha Saha people did not have adequate intelligence Krishna uses the word Alpamedha Saha to refer to the worshippers of the Devatas in 7.23 Antavakthapalantesham Tad Bhavaty Alpamedha Sam so Prabhupada translated Medha Saha as brain substance so Alpamedha Saha means scant brain substance so less intelligence so the Vedas along with their Upanishads and everything the whole the body of knowledge is quite extensive and it’s not so easy to understand so just as if we are given a huge watermelon to eat how will we eat it it can’t even go in our mouth so what do we do is we cut into small manageable pieces and then we can eat it so similarly here Vyasadev he decided he divided the vast Vedic knowledge into branches so this division into branches has been talked about will be talked about once again in the next chapter before describing how Vyasadev despite doing this literary work remained dissatisfied but suffice it to say that this was a phenomenal literary achievement and he was he was what we could call a literary superstar and this Vyasadev is considered to be a literary incarnation of the Lord and he had descended for the purpose of making spiritual knowledge available for the masses and thus enabling them to be benefited by this knowledge so he made it available in written form and he made it available also through division into various sections in an accessible form because whereas in the past people had photographic memories by which they could where Shruti Dhara she would hear and they would retain so they could remember huge quantities of information and knowledge and understanding but because they could not do that they were Alpamedhasa especially in Kali Yuga so he benefited them by dividing the literature into shakhas so 1.3.22 Naradevatvam Aapannaha surakara chikirshaya samudra nigraha dini chakra viranya atah param Naradevatvam Aapannaha so the Lord appeared in a human form Devatvam Aapannaha while being he was actually divine while manifested in human form surakara chikirshaya here manifested thus for surakarya for fulfilling the purpose of the devatas samudra nigraha dini samudra nigraha nigraha dini means to control so he controlled the ocean by getting a floating bridge built across it Adini he did many wonderful things like that including of course delivering the world and especially the devatas of the scourge of the Rakshasa monarch Ravana chakra viranya atah param chakra viranya in this way he performed superhuman activities atah param thereafter so Lord Ram is among the most celebrated avatars of the Lord and his pastimes are described in the Ramayana by Valmiki Rishi and have been immortalised thereafter by many poets through their writings in many vernacular languages in all over the Indian subcontinent and even beyond so Lord Ram here is describing so it is described how one of the most amazing things that he does to have a bridge built across the oceans he controlled the ocean we may say that was it he who controlled the ocean you know is it was that the monkeys built the bridge but actually before that he had sat in austerity to try to satisfy please the Samudra Dev and to ask him to separate or to offer him away when Samudra Dev refused then Lord Ram he just took one arrow and even before he discharged the arrow he had invested such mystic power in the arrow that the whole ocean started getting heated up and at that time Samudra Dev was forced to come in come and offer obeisances and offer and pacify him and he said that I cannot give up my nature of being liquid but still if you construct a bridge I will support it from below and I will ensure that the stones don’t sink so this by us yes the Mandaras built the bridge and they were able to build the bridge because they were able to because Lord Ram had controlled Nigraha he had controlled the Samudra Dev and he had thus got the Samudra to cooperate so this was a spectacular feat by which Lord Ram scaled the ocean and thus was able to perform further superhuman deeds such as overcoming the all the demon hordes including the Emperor Ravana so Ekonishva and Vimsha the 19th and 20th manifestations of the Lord were Vrishnusu Prapya Janmani they appeared as the descendants of Vrishni in the in the family of Vrishni Prapya Janmani and who are they? Ram Krishna Itibhuva they appeared in the earth as Ram and Krishna so Ram is a short way to refer to Balram over here so Balram and Krishna are mentioned here in 19th and 20th avatars Krishna Itibhuva Bhagavan Aharadbharam they appeared as Bhagavan and they removed the burden of the earth. This theme Bhara avatarnaya nye bho na lodha dhau Siddhantya bhoribhare na yato yatma bhuvartha. Kunti Maharaj talks about this purpose of the Lord in dissenting that is to equate and liberate by removing the burden of the earth so it is that same purpose which we talked about later is mentioned briefly over here when the earth was being overrun by various demons Krishna and Balram appeared and freed the earth from the burden of the demons of course while Krishna and Balram are mentioned here as one among the list of incarnations a special position will be highlighted soon after a few verses and we’ll discuss that in due course when we come to it.
24th take tatha kalausam pravrtte sammohaya suradvisham buddho naam naanjana-sutaha kikate shubhavishyati so here what is stated is that the Lord appeared tatha kalausam pravrtte so in Kali Yuga he appeared sammohaya suradvisham those who are envious of the suras sammohaya for deluding them buddha naam naanjana-sutaha he appeared by the name of Buddha kikate shubhavishyati he appeared in the province of Kikata, Gaya. So now Buddha his godmother his mother was not Anjana but his godmother the nurse who took care of him and who was to all practical purposes acted like his mother was Anjana and although he was not born in Gaya he attained enlightenment in Gaya. But the Bhagavatam is talking about subtle truths over here so Buddha he attained buddhatva so the Bhagavatam is not talking just about his physical birth over here but he is attaining of enlightenment buddhatva that happened in Gaya.
There is a tree in Bodh Gaya where he got enlightenment and interestingly his mission is said to be sammohaya suradvisham those who are enemies of the devatas he deluded them. How did he do that? Those who had gone away from Vedic wisdom thereby by misinterpreting it as a licence for animal slaughter Buddha he told them to give it up at least to come to preliminary moral principles so they had become so when they asked what the Vedas say this this is how can you follow something which doesn’t gel with your conscience can’t you if you can’t give life what right do you have to kill take life so don’t follow the Vedas then what about God he says don’t bother about God so Buddha for our practical purposes was agnostic and pragmatic he didn’t say there is no God all the subsequent Buddhist thinkers have often portrayed Buddhism as atheistic but primarily it is non-theistic and he said don’t bother about God don’t bother about scripture just live morally so those who so although he said that you reject God but he said don’t bother about God but he himself was God and people followed him they were indirectly following the word of God so thus they were elevated so suradvisha means those who were against scripture those against God those who are against Vedic culture in general he deluded them for their own good by getting them to he didn’t let their defiance take on rajasic or tamasic forms but he allowed he brought it gradually towards sattvic forms by enabling them by facilitating them to follow regularity principles of good conduct of positive thought positive words or positive actions by which they could stay progressive on the path of Dharma and then the last of this are talked about so now the another one condition that is being talked about is the prediction here at the junction of the two ages by that time most of the would have become flag bearers so janita vishnu yashasho so at that time will be born janita as the son of a brahmana and vishnu yash naam na kalakir jagat pati he is the lord of the universe jagat pati he will be born as kalaki so this is a prophecy that is made that kalaki will come and deliver the universe towards the yuga sandhyayam so towards the end of satyuga kalaki will appear and he will free the universe of all the afflictions which are their characteristic of kalayuga and he will inaugurate satyuga thereof so the bhagavatam is a book written in a historical context and here we are having a prophecy being given the prophecies for kalayuga will be talked about more in the 12th canto also we will discuss them there so essentially the bhagavatam gives bhagavatam lists of avatars completes here with kalaki then some important summary statements and some significant inferences from this list will be given in future verses which we will discuss in our future classes thank you