Why do we not celebrate the apperances of avataras like Matsya, Kurma and Varaha?
From: ADITYA
i have one question that in ISKCON we follow all the the AVATARS OF LORD VISHNU(like matsya,ram,etc).but why we celebrate only ram navami, janmashtami, nrishma chautratasdi and not matsya avatar appearance or kurma avatar appearance or varaha avatar appearance?
Transcript
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in ISKCON we follow all the avatars of lord Vishnu like Matsya Ram etc.
but why do we celebrate only Ram Navami, Janmashtami and not Matsya avatar appearance, Kurma avatar appearance or Varaha avatar appearance answer Sri Prabhupada said that if he had the resources and the enthusiastic people he could celebrate a festival everyday in fact in the spiritual world it is a festival everyday and to the extent that it is practically possible in this world devotees try to create the Vaikuntha atmosphere within the material world in the Sangha of devotees so as such even Varaha Dvadasi is also celebrated devotees fast and devotees discuss the katha of Varaha Dev but in general because we live in a material world where there are practical limitations where we are not able to always practice spiritual life to the extent that we would like to that’s why we focus on the most important festivals now what is the basis of deciding that one incarnation is more important than another, actually all the incarnations in the world are transcendental but Rupa Goswami in his Laghu Babu Tamas explains that among all the Vaikuntha planets and among all the Vishnu forms there are some which are Paravastha Paravastha means they are transcendental to transcendental so he describes that Lord Krishna is Rasaraj, he has 64 qualities and Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is a combined manifestation of Radharani and Krishna so they live in the abode of Goloka which is the highest abode in Vaikuntha and between Krishna who is completely Rasaraj, exhibiting all 54 qualities, exhibiting all 5 Rasas in full and the other Vishnu forms there are two incarnations which are primarily exhibiting Bhakta Vatsalya more than other incarnations and these two are Lord Ram and Lord Narasimha and that’s why these are also the focus of the Vaishnavas in general and even if we look at Sri Vaishnavas and Madhva Vaishnavas they often focus on these festivals along with Janmashtami much more than all the other avatars so because the Bhakta Vatsalya of the Lord is manifested more in these incarnations, Krishna Lord Ram and Lord Narasimha Dev and their pastimes are more vividly described in the Vedic literature and because they are Paravastha avatars and because when we know about the avatars more, we know about the pastimes more, we can relate with them and we can pray deeply from the heart and we can relish their pastimes, so that is why the Acharyas, not just the Gauri Vaishnava Acharyas, but in general the Vaishnava Acharyas have focused on the appearance days of these particular incarnations as the major festival days and if we receive inspiration from a particular form of the Lord, there is absolutely no rule stopping us from celebrating that particular incarnation’s appearance on that day we can read the pastimes of that particular incarnation we can pray to that incarnation, memorise some verses and prayers which great devotees have offered to that incarnation and that way we can also deepen our personal celebration of the appearance of that particular incarnation so because of the limitation in the material world and because of the possibility of evoking greater devotional emotions in the case of these particular incarnations, their appearance days are