Understanding the Lord's Actions - Part 1 Date: 2016-04-04 Author: Narahari Krishna das Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva. In many of the incarnations, the Lord displays His strength and Valor while fighting with the demons and doing super human tasks. Strength is generally defined as physical power possessed by an individual which enables him perform different activities. In Sanskrit it is denoted by the word 'bala'. Valour usually denotes a person's courage to enter in a battle and fight with enemies without fear and subdue them. It is denoted by the term 'veerya'. And the Lord is abode of infinite strength and Valor. The Supreme Lord is denoted by the word 'bhagavan' which means He is the abode of six principal qualities of which Bala and Virya are significant. This is confirmed in the Vishnu purana (6.5.79) by the great sage Parasara as follows. jnaana sakti bala aishvarya veerya tejaamsi asheshatah bhagavacchabda-vaacyaani vinaa heyaih gunadibhih The word 'bhagavat' is associated with the six superior qualities of knowledge, strength, lordship or non- dependence on anything else, valour, power, and effulgence in unlimited measure, absence of any inferior qualities of material nature. In this world, we generally become attracted to people who has great physical strength and stamina (like sportsmen and wrestlers) and great warriors who possess great valour. So the Lord display these qualities in various degrees in His incarnations to attract the conditioned souls. When the Lord descended in human like forms, He displayed His strength when He lifted the Govardhana Hill and broke the Yamala Arjuna trees; Lord Rama exhibited His strength by breaking the bow of Lord Shiva and kicking the skeleton of the demon Dundubhi(who was killed by Vali) miles away. He displayed His valour while He fought with Ravana, Kartavirya Arjuna, Jarasandha in battle. In these incarnations the Lord sometimes behaves like a human being with frailties i.e. He appears to fall into delusion, sorrow etc. though He is full of knowledge and He becomes defeated by the demons though He is all powerful. This creates doubt in the minds of inquisitive persons whether the Lord becomes a conditioned human being and becomes limited in His powers when He incarnates in this world. Because of this, some people misunderstand His human like incarnations like Rama, Krishna and Parasurama and think that He is just a powerful human being with great powers or a person who is now having great siddhis because of pious credits or yogic practices. Some even thought that He is a just a human being born out of karma just like us. But a close study of the scriptures like Ramayana, Mahabharata and the authentic puranas as explained by the acharyas reveal that the Lord is always the Supreme Absolute Truth when He appears in any form in this world. Also the scriptures tell that the Lord's display of strength and valour are much different from the strength and valour of humans in this world, though it resembles the humans. They also teach us how to understand these apparent actions of the Lord. Krishna willing, let us meditate on some aspects of the Lord's behaviour in the subsequent offerings. Hare Krishna. Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Narahari Krishna das Chennai. Understanding the Lord's Actions - Part 2 Date: 2016-04-05 Author: Narahari Krishna das Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva. This is in continuation of the previous topic titled, "Understanding the Lord's Actions". We will continue to meditate on the Lord's strength and valour. In the wars with Jarasandha, Narakasura, Paundraka Vasudeva, Salva etc., the Lord used many weapons such as bow and arrows, clubs and fought for a long time just like a normal King. Now a question arises, if He is all powerful why does He need weapons to fight? Also one may think that the Lord has only limited power during His incarnations and that's why He took a long time to win over the battles. We also see that the Lord fought with wrestlers like Chanura and Mushtika like a normal fighter and sometimes, was even attacked by them during the fight. If He is the all powerful Lord who can create, maintain and destroy the worlds just by His will, then why He should struggle to fight and kill demons like a normal warrior? However the great sage Parasara answers this in the Vishnu purana (5.22.14-15) as follows. manushyadharmasheelasya leela saa jagateepateh astraanyanekarupaani yadaraatishu muncati manasaiva jagatsrshtim samhaaram ca karoti yah tasyaapipakshakshapane kiyaanudyamavistarah It was the pastime of the Lord of the universe, in His capacity of man, to use various weapons against his enemies; Otherwise, what weapon is needed for the Lord who creates, maintains and destroys all the worlds just by His mere will, to annihilate His enemies? So, even though He is the all-powerful Lord, as a pastime and also to exhibit human behaviour, He fights like a normal king/warrior. The Bhagavata Purana also confirms this truth. After Kamsa was killed, Jarasandha was very upset because both his daughters Asti and Prapti (who were wives of Kamsa) became widows. So he wanted to destroy Lord Krishna and the entire Yadava clan. So he collected a huge army and came to fight with Yadavas. At that time Lord Krishna started thinking how to handle Jarasandha and his huge army. One may think why the Supreme Person should worry about an army of soldiers. We tend to think that when He comes as a human being, His powers become limited and hence He is worried. But the Bhagavata Purana verses,(10.50.5-6) gives the true reason as follows. nirīkṣya tad-balaṁ kṛṣṇa udvelam iva sāgaram sva-puraṁ tena saṁruddhaṁ sva-janaṁ ca bhayākulam cintayām āsa bhagavān hariḥ kāraṇa-mānuṣaḥ tad-deśa-kālānuguṇaṁ svāvatāra-prayojanam Although Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the original cause of this world, when He descended to the earth He played the role of a human being. Thus when He saw Jarasandha's assembled army surrounding His city like a great ocean overflowing its shores, and when He saw how this army was striking fear into His subjects, the Lord considered what His suitable response should be according to the time, place and specific purpose of His current incarnation. The purport explains, "The acharyas point out that the Supreme Godhead did not have to worry about a mortal attack from Jarasandha and his soldiers. But, as stated here, Sri Krishna was playing the part of a human being (kārana-mā nushah), and He played the part well. This play is called Lila, the Lord's enactment of spiritual pastimes for the pleasure of His devotees. Although ordinary persons may be dumbfounded by the Lord's pastimes, the devotees derive tremendous pleasure from His inimitable style of behaviour ." So, when the Lord appears in human-like forms, He plays the part of a human being without any compromise on His divinity. This gives pleasure to His devotees and attracts innocent souls to His lotus feet. Let us continue to meditate more on this aspect in the subsequent offerings, Krishna willing. Hare Krishna. Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Narahari Krishna das Chennai. Understanding the Lord's Actions - Part 3 Date: 2016-04-06 Author: Narahari Krishna das Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva. This is in continuation of the previous topic titled, "Understanding the Lord's Actions". We will continue to meditate on the Lord's strength and valour. We saw that Lord Krishna displayed human behaviour when Mathura was attacked by Jarasandha. He fought with Jarasandha 18 times. Out of this, 17 times He defeated Jarasandha but did not destroy him. Now a question may be raised why the Lord did not kill him? Is it because He did not have the power to do so? Many enemies of Lord Krishna rebuked him stating that He was actually defeated by Jarasandha since He could not kill him even after fighting so many times. But the Bhagavata purana (10.50.7-8) answers why the Lord did not kill Jarasandha in the first war itself. haniṣyāmi balaṁ hy etad bhuvi bhāraṁ samāhitam māgadhena samānītaṁ vaśyānāṁ sarva-bhūbhujām akṣauhiṇībhiḥ saṅkhyātaṁ bhaṭāśva-ratha-kuñjaraiḥ māgadhas tu na hantavyo bhūyaḥ kartā balodyamam [The Supreme Lord thought:] Since it is such a burden on the earth, I will destroy Jarasandha's army, consisting of akshauhinis of foot soldiers, horses, chariots and elephants, which the King of Magadha has assembled from all subservient kings and brought together here. But Jarasandha himself should not be killed, since in the future he will certainly assemble another army. One of the reasons behind the Lord's descent was to reduce the burden of the world by destroying the impious and since Jarasandha was enthusiastic to bring all the demons to His doorsteps, the Lord spared him every time. So one should not think that the Lord spared Jarasandha because He was unable to fight with him or his army. Because in the Bhagavata purana itself we find that Lord Krishna and Lord Balarama fought with Jarasandha's huge army vert effortlessly. In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 10.50.28, Sukadeva Goswami says balaṁ tad aṅgārṇava-durga-bhairavaṁ duranta-pāraṁ magadhendra-pālitam kṣayaṁ praṇītaṁ vasudeva-putrayor vikrīḍitaṁ taj jagad-īśayoḥ param And though this force was as unfathomable and fearsome as an impassable ocean, for the two sons of Vasudeva, the Lords of the universe, the battle was hardly more than play.