Lesson B-6

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"Krishna is the Source of All Incarnations"The Ultimate Self Realization Course, Lesson B6 by His Grace Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari Under the all-merciful guidance of His Divine GraceSri Srimad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

 

 

 

In the First Canto, Third chapter of the Srimad Bhagavatam we find the following verses which are a list of the incarnations of God (Krishna):Text 6: First of all, in the beginning of creation, there were the four unmarried sons of Brahma [the Kumaras], who, being situated in a vow of celibacy, underwent severe austerities for realization of the Absolute Truth.Text 7: The supreme enjoyer of all sacrifices accepted the incarnation of a boar [the second incarnation], and for the welfare of the earth He lifted the earth from the nether regions of the universe.Text 8: In the millennium of the rishis, the Personality of Godhead accepted the third empowered incarnation in the form of Devarsi Narada, who is a great sage among the demigods. He collected expositions of the Vedas which deal with devotional

service and which inspire non-fruitive action.Text 9: In the fourth incarnation, the Lord became Nara and Narayana, the twin sons of the wife of King Dharma. Thus He undertook severe and exemplary penances to control the senses.Text 10: The fifth incarnation, named Lord Kapila, is foremost among perfected beings. He gave an exposition of the creative elements and metaphysics to Asuri Brahmana, for in course of time this knowledge had been lost.Text 11: The sixth incarnation of the purusa was the son of the sage Atri. He was born from the womb of Anasuya, who prayed for an incarnation. He spoke on the subject of transcendence to Alarka, Prahlada and others [Yadu, Haihaya, etc.].Text 12: The seventh incarnation was

Yajna, the son of Prajapati Ruci and his wife Akuti. He controlled the period during the change of the Svayambhuva Manu and was assisted by demigods such as His son Yama.Text 13: The eighth incarnation was King Rishabha, son of King Nabhi and his wife Merudevi. In this incarnation the Lord showed the path of perfection, which is followed by those who have fully controlled their senses and who are honored by all orders of life.Text 14: O brahmanas, in the ninth incarnation, the Lord, prayed for by sages, accepted the body of a king [Prithu] who cultivated the land to yield various produces, and for that reason the earth was beautiful and attractive.Text 15: When there was a complete inundation after the period of the Caksusa Manu and the whole world was deep within water, the Lord accepted the form of a fish and protected Vaivasvata Manu, keeping him up on a boat.Text 16: The eleventh incarnation of the Lord took the form of a tortoise whose shell

served as a pivot for the Mandaracala Hill, which was being used as a churning rod by the theists and atheists of the universe.Text 17: In the twelfth incarnation, the Lord appeared as Dhanvantari, and in the thirteenth He allured the atheists by the charming beauty of a woman and gave nectar to the demigods to drink.Text 18: In the fourteenth incarnation, the Lord appeared as Nrisimha and bifurcated the strong body of the atheist Hiranyakasipu with His nails, just as a carpenter pierces cane.Text 19: The Almighty God can bestow upon anyone the kingdom of the universe from a very small beginning, and similarly, He can take away the kingdom of the universe on the plea of begging a small piece of land.Text 20: In the sixteenth incarnation of the Godhead, the Lord [as Bhrigupati] annihilated the administrative class [ksatriyas] twenty-one times, being angry with them because of their rebellion against the brahmanas [the intelligent class].Text

21: Thereafter, in the seventeenth incarnation of Godhead, Sri Vyasadeva appeared in the womb of Satyavati through Parasara Muni, and he divided the one Veda into several branches and subbranches, seeing that the people in general were less intelligent.Text 22: In the eighteenth incarnation, the Lord appeared as King Rama. In order to perform some pleasing work for the demigods, He exhibited superhuman powers by controlling the Indian Ocean and then killing the atheist King Ravana, who was on the other side of the Text 23: In the nineteenth and twentieth incarnations, the Lord advented Himself as Lord Balarama and Lord Krishna in the family of Vrishni [the Yadu dynasty], and by so doing He removed the burden of the world.Text 24: Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Anjana, in the province of Gaya, just for the purpose of deluding those who are envious of the faithful theist.Text 25: Thereafter, at the conjunction of two yugas, the Lord of the creation will take His birth as the Kalki incarnation and become the son of Vishnu Yasa. At this time the rulers of the earth will have degenerated into plunderers.Text 26: O brahmanas, the incarnations of the Lord are innumerable, like rivulets flowing from inexhaustible sources of water.Text 27: All the rishis, Manus, demigods and descendants of Manu, who are especially powerful, are plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord. This also includes the Prajapatis.Text 28: All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary

portions of the Lord, but Lord Sri Krishna is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists.Text 29: Whoever carefully recites the mysterious appearances of the Lord, with devotion in the morning and in the evening, gets relief from all miseries of life.It's nice to see the auspicious benediction received by those who recite this list in the morning and evening. But what is more important to note is that even though Lord Krishna appears within the list as the 20th incarnation this does not mean that He is simply another one of the incarnations. He is described in text 28 as the original personality of Godhead from whom all the other incarnations come. Just as the sun spreads itself throughout the universe through its rays similarly Krishna expands Himself as so many millions and billions of incarnations "like rivulets flowing from inexhaustible sources of water."We overly absorb our human consciousness in such petty concerns as our job and our familial and bodily affairs. Of course these things are not to be neglected. As long as we have material bodies we have to execute certain material duties. However when we become too much engrossed in these things at the expense of our most important duty, self realization, it is sad indeed. We forget to connect ourselves with the Supreme Person, Who is the ultimate source of everything that exists. If we will connect ourselves with Him through loving devotion all of our trivial problems can easily be solved and we will enter into His resplendent divine association at every minute. This miraculous connection is made through the transparent via medium of the bonafide spiritual master. The spiritual master is

described in all the revealed scriptures as the most confidential servitor of the Lord. It is by his grace that we can conquer over our material desires and achieve pure love for Krishna, the source of all the incarnations.Hare KrishnaSankarshan Das AdhikariBhaktivedanta Ashram, Austin, Texas, USAFebruary 23, 2004