TEXT 99
kali-yuge lilavatara na kare bhagavan
ataeva 'tri-yuga' kari' kahi tara nama
SYNONYMS
kali-yugein this Age of Kali; lila-avataraa pastime incarnation; nanot; karedoes; bhagavanthe Supreme Personality of Godhead; ataevatherefore; tri-yugaof the name Triyuga (manifested in three yugas); kari'-accepting; kahiI say; tara namaHis holy name.
TRANSLATION
"In this Age of Kali there is no lila-avatara of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; therefore He is known as Triyuga. That is one of His holy names."
PURPORT
A lila-avatara is an incarnation of the Lord who performs a variety of activities without making any special endeavor. He always has one pastime after another, all full of transcendental pleasure, and these pastimes are fully controlled by the Supreme Person. The Supreme Person is totally independent of all others in these pastimes. While teaching Sanatana Gosvami (Cc. Madhya 20.296-298), Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu pointed out that one cannot count the number of lila-avataras:
lilavatara krsnera na yaya ganana
pradhana kariya kahi dig-darasana matsya, kurma, raghunatha, nrsimha, vamana
varahadi--lekha yanra na yaya ganana Thus the Lord's incarnations were enumerated, including Matsya, the fish incarnation; Kurma, the tortoise; Lord Ramacandra; Nrsimhadeva; Vamanadeva; and Varaha, the boar incarnation. Thus there are innumerable lila-avataras, and all of these exhibit wonderful pastimes. Lord Varaha, the boar incarnation, lifted the entire planet earth from the depths of the Garbhodaka Ocean. The tortoise incarnation, Lord Kurma, became a pivot for the emulsification of the whole sea, and Lord Nrsimhadeva appeared as half-man, half-lion. These are some of the wonderful and uncommon features of lila-avataras.
In his book Laghu-bhagavatamrta, Srila Rupa Gosvami has enumerated the following twenty-five lila-avataras: Catuh-sana, Narada, Varaha, Matsya, Yajna, Nara-Narayana, Kapila, Dattatreya, Hayasirsa (Hayagriva), Hamsa, Prsnigarbha, Rsabha, Prthu, Nrsimha, Kurma, Dhanvantari, Mohini, Vamana, Parasurama, Raghavendra, Vyasa, Balarama, Krsna, Buddha and Kalki.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is not mentioned as a lila-avatara because He is an incarnation in disguise (channa-avatara). In this Age of Kali there are no lila-avataras, but there is an incarnation of the Lord manifested in the body of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This has been explained in Srimad-Bhagavatam.
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