incarnations / avatars / expansions
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Imported quote 12828 In Bhagavad-gita the individual souls are also described as parts of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or Supersoul, so why not accept that Dattatreya was one of those parts? Lord Siva and Lord Brahma are also described here as parts, so why not accept all of them as ordinary individual souls? The answer is that the manifestations of Visnu and those of the ordinary living entities are certainly all parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, and no one is equal to Him, but among the parts and parcels there are different categories. In the Varaha Purana it is nicely explained that some of the parts are svamsa and some are vibhinnamsa. Vibhinnamsa parts are called jivas, and svamsa parts are in the Visnu category. In the jiva category, the vibhinnamsa parts and parcels, there are also gradations. That is explained in the Visnu Purana, where it is clearly stated that the individual parts and parcels who can travel to any part of the Lord's creation are called sarva-gata and are suffering the pangs of material existence. They are subject to be freed from the coverings of ignorance under material existence according to different levels of work and under different influences of the modes of material nature. For example, the sufferings of jivas who are situated in the mode of goodness are less than those of jivas situated in the mode of ignorance. Pure Krsna consciousness, is the birthright of all living entities because every living entity is part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. The consciousness of the Lord is also in the part and parcel, and according to the proportion to which that consciousness is cleared of material dirt, the living entities are differently situated. In the Vedanta-sūtra the living entities of different gradations are compared to candles or lamps with different candle power. For example, some electric bulbs have the power of one thousand candles, some have the power of 500 candles, some the power of 100 candles, some fifty candles, etc., but all electric bulbs have light. Light is present in every bulb, but the gradations of light are different. Similarly, there are gradations of Brahman. The Visnu svamsa expansions of the Supreme Lord in different Visnu forms are like lamps, Lord Siva is also like a lamp, and the supreme candle power or the 100 percent light is Krsna. The Visnu-tattva has ninety-four percent, the Siva-tattva has eighty-four percent, Lord Brahma has seventy-eight percent, and the living entities are also like Brahma, but in the conditioned state their power is still more dim. There are gradations of Brahman, and no one can deny this fact. Therefore the words atmesa-brahma-sambhavan indicate that Dattatreya is directly part and parcel of Visnu, whereas Durvasa and Soma were parts and parcels of Lord Siva and Lord Brahma.
(More...) Imported quote 12988 Devotional service comprises nine prescribed practices-hearing, chanting, remembering, worshiping, serving, offering everything to the Deity, etc. Here Dhruva Maharaja is advised not only to meditate on the form of the Lord, but to think of His transcendental pastimes in His different incarnations. Mayavadi philosophers take the incarnation of the Lord to be in the same category as the ordinary living entity. This is a great mistake. The incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is not forced to act by the material laws of nature. The word sveccha is used here to indicate that He appears out of His supreme will. The conditioned soul is forced to accept a particular type of body according to his karma given by the laws of material nature under the direction of the Supreme Lord. But when the Lord appears, He is not forced by the dictation of material nature; He appears as He likes by His own internal potency. That is the difference. The conditioned soul accepts a particular type of body, such as the body of a hog, by his work and by the superior authority of material nature. But when Lord Krsna appears in the incarnation of a boar, He is not the same kind of hog as an ordinary animal. Krsna appears as Varaha avatara in an expansive feature which cannot be compared to an ordinary hog's. His appearance and disappearance are inconceivable to us. In the Bhagavad-gita it is clearly said that He appears by His own internal potency for the protection of the devotees and the annihilation of the nondevotees. A devotee should always consider that Krsna does not appear as an ordinary human being or ordinary beast; His appearance as Varaha-mūrti or a horse or tortoise is an exhibition of His internal potency. In the Brahma-samhita it is said, ananda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhavitabhiḥ: one should not mistake the appearance of the Lord as a human being or a beast to be the same as the birth of an ordinary conditioned soul, who is forced to appear by the laws of nature, whether as an animal, as a human being or as a demigod. This kind of thinking is offensive. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu has condemned the Mayavadis as offensive to the Supreme Personality of Godhead because of their thinking that the Lord and the conditioned living entities are one and the same.
(More...) Imported quote 13453 In two hands Lord Visnu always carries a club and a cakra to kill demons, and in His other two hands He holds a conchshell and a lotus to give protection to His devotees. When His incarnation is present on this planet or in this universe, the Lord kills the demons and protects His devotees simultaneously. Sometimes Lord Visnu appears in His person as Lord Krsna or Lord Rama. All of these appearances are mentioned in the sastras. Sometimes He appears as a saktyavesa-avatara like Lord Buddha. As explained before, these saktyavesa-avataras are incarnations of Visnu's power invested in a living entity. Living entities are also part and parcel of Lord Visnu, but they are not as powerful; therefore when a living entity descends as an incarnation of Visnu, he is especially empowered by the Lord.
(More...) Imported quote 13838 Maharaja Prthu was one of the saktyavesa incarnations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as such he appeared on the surface of the earth to execute the orders of the Supreme. As stated in Bhagavad-gita, the Supreme Lord is the proprietor of all planets, and He is always anxious to see that in each and every planet the living entities are happily living and executing their duties. As soon as there is some discrepancy in the execution of duties, the Lord appears on earth, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gita: yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata (Bg. 4.7).
(More...) Imported quote 16153 Here another question may be raised. If God is all-powerful, why should He try to reform His devotee by putting him into distress? The answer is that when the Supreme Personality of Godhead puts His devotee into a condition of distress, it is not without purpose. Sometimes the purpose is that in distress a devotee's feelings of attachment to Krsna are magnified. For example, when Krsna, before leaving the capital of the Panḍavas for His home, was asking for permission to leave, Kuntidevi said, "My dear Krsna, in our distressed condition You are always present with us. Now, because we have been elevated to a royal position, You are leaving us. I would therefore prefer to live in distress than to lose You." When a devotee is put into a situation of distress, his devotional activities are accelerated. Therefore, to show special favor to a devotee, the Lord sometimes puts him into distress. Besides that, it is stated that the sweetness of happiness is sweeter to those who have tasted bitterness. The Supreme Lord descends to this material world just to protect His devotees from distress. In other words, if devotees were not in a distressed condition, the Lord would not have come down. As for His killing the demons or the miscreants, this can be easily done by His various energies, just as many asuras are killed by His external energy, goddess Durga. Therefore the Lord does not need to come down personally to kill such demons, but when His devotee is in distress He must come. Lord Nrsimhadeva appeared not to kill Hiranyakasipu but to see Prahlada and to give him blessings. In other words, because Prahlada Maharaja was put into very great distress, the Lord appeared.
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