 |
 |
|
|
|
|
TEXT 8 paritranaya sadhunam
SYNONYMS  paritranaya--for
the deliverance; sadhunam--of the devotees; vinasaya--for
the annihilation; ca--also; duskrtam--of the miscreants;
dharma--principles
of religion; samsthapana-arthaya--to reestablish;
sambhavami--I
do appear; yuge--millennium; yuge--after millennium.
TRANSLATION In order
to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish
the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.
PURPORT According to
Bhagavad-gita,
a sadhu (holy man) is a man in Krsna consciousness. A person may
appear to be irreligious, but if he has the qualifications of Krsna consciousness
wholly and fully, he is to be understood to be a
sadhu. And duskrtam
applies to one who doesn't care for Krsna consciousness. Such miscreants,
or duskrtam, are described as foolish and the lowest of mankind,
even though they may be decorated with mundane education; whereas another
person, who is one hundred percent engaged in Krsna consciousness, is accepted
as sadhu, even though such a person may neither be learned nor well
cultured. As far as the atheistic are concerned, it is not necessary for
the Supreme Lord to appear as He is to destroy them, as He did with the
demons Ravana and Kamsa. The Lord has many agents who are quite competent
to vanquish demons. But the Lord especially descends to appease His unalloyed
devotees, who are always harassed by the demoniac. The demon harasses the
devotee, even though the latter may happen to be his kin. Although Prahlada
Maharaja was the son of Hiranyakasipu, he was nonetheless persecuted by
his father; although Devaki, the mother of Krsna,
was the sister of Kamsa,
she and her husband Vasudeva were persecuted only because Krsna was to
be born of them. So Lord Krsna appeared primarily to deliver Devaki, rather
than kill Kamsa, but both were performed simultaneously. Therefore it is
said here that to deliver the devotee and vanquish the demon miscreants,
the Lord appears in different incarnations.
In the Caitanya-caritamrta
of Krsnadasa Kaviraja, the following verses summarize these principles
of incarnation:
srsti-hetu yei murti prapance avatare
mayatita paravyome sabara avasthana
"The avatara,
or incarnation of Godhead, descends from the kingdom of God for material
manifestation. And the particular form of the Personality of Godhead who
so descends is called an incarnation, or avatara. Such incarnations
are situated in the spiritual world, the kingdom of God. When they descend
to the material creation, they assume the name avatara."
There are
various kinds of avataras, such as purusavataras, gunavataras,
lilavataras, sakty-avesa avataras, manvantara-avataras and yugavataras--all
appearing on schedule all over the universe. But Lord Krsna is the primeval
Lord, the fountainhead of all avataras. Lord Sri Krsna descends
for the specific purposes of mitigating the anxieties of the pure devotees,
who are very anxious to see Him in His original Vrndavana pastimes. Therefore,
the prime purpose of the Krsna avatara is to satisfy His unalloyed
devotees.
The Lord
says that He incarnates Himself in every millennium. This indicates that
He incarnates also in the age of Kali. As stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam,
the incarnation in the age of Kali is Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who spread
the worship of Krsna by the sankirtana movement (congregational
chanting of the holy names), and spread Krsna consciousness throughout
India. He predicted that this culture of sankirtana would be broadcast
all over the world, from town to town and village to village. Lord Caitanya
as the incarnation of Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, is described secretly
but not directly in the confidential parts of the revealed scriptures,
such as the Upanisads, Mahabharata, Bhagavatam, etc. The
devotees of Lord Krsna are much attracted by the sankirtana movement
of Lord Caitanya. This avatara of the Lord does not kill the miscreants,
but delivers them by the causeless mercy of the Lord.
|
