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srI:
SrI  upakAra  sangraham ? 39
--- 
adikAram ? 1
poorva upakAra paramparai
(The Foremost Series of Favours) 
---   
SECTION ? 5 (7)  
(27 Favours of the Lord leading to the means for
MOKSHAM)  
----- 
        Propagation of VedAs and related scriptures through
the ages has been ensured by the Lord with the help of
AzhvArs and AchAryas. However, they also had to face
difficulties, when things went beyond their control. 
On those occasions, the Lord had to come down to the
earth to save these scriptures.  This has been
discussed by SwAmi Desikan in the previous sub-section
6. 
        SwAmi Desikan reveals in this sub-section how the
Lord also had to rush to the earth to safeguard the
righteousness as laid down by the scriptures:

 (7) ippadip pravruttamAna shAsttirattil
pratipAditmAna dharmattinudaiya
samyak-sthApanartha-mAka,  ?samBhavAmi  yugE yugE? 
enkiRapdiyE  avatarittatuvum;

In order to well establish the dharma as declared by
the scriptures which have been thus brought out, the
Lord took births or incarnations. This is another
favour conferred by Him.  The Lord Himself has stated
this in the Bhagvadgita, which is a record of Sri
Krishna?s statements on dharma while instructing
Arjuna on the battlefield, KurkshEtra, just before the
start of the MahAbhArata war.  He also revealed about
his incarnations in this sloka which SwAmi Desikan
quotes here:

?samBhavAmi yukE yukE?   --- I am born every yuga. 
(Bhagvadgita, 4-8) 

        Now we shall consider the entire sloka:

pritrANAya sadhoonAm vinAshAya ca duShkrutAm /
dharmasthApanArthAya sambhavAmi yugE yugE //          
  (Bhagavdgita, 4-8)

(For the protection of the good, and also for the
destruction of the evil-doers, for the firm
establishment of dharma, I am born from age to age.) 

        This is the part of the five slOkas (4 ? 5-8) in
which the Lord as GitAchArya Sri Krishna reveals the
secret of His incarnations. One of the purposes for
which He takes birth is to restore dharma, the
virtuous conduct in the world. This is a favour
conferred by the Lord on those jIvAs who desire to
adopt the means for Mokaham, in particular, who seeks
prapatti as an independent means. He helps this
devotee by affording him the knowledge of the great
qualities of the Lord who is sought as the refuge. The
Lord also helps to develop supreme faith,
mahAvishvAsa, in the mind of the seeker after
salvation. 
        The Lord?s incarnations are countless, of which ten
are the most prominent. These incarnations are taken
by Him for various purposes.  Out of them, a few are
only for establishing the dharma as delineated by the
VEdAs and other shAstrAs. Of them, five are the most
prominent;

1) Incarnation as a Swan (HamsAvatAra) ? The Lord took
this birth in krutayuga.  According to SrImad
BhAgavata, the sons born out of the mind of BrahmA,
namely, Sanaka, Sanandana, SanAtana and SanatkumAra,
all sages. When they were in the form infants, they
were asked by their father to do creation of beings in
the world. But they as they were the incarnation of
the sattvika nature, they were not prepared to
undertake creation. They wanted to undertake yOga and
approached BrahmA and requsted him to tell them about
the subtle form of the yOga. As BrahmA, however, was
not aware of it, he undertook meditation on the
Supreme Lord. As a result, the Lord appeared before
him in the form of a swan, and instructed the sages,
in the presence of BrahmA, about the high tattvas,
jIva, prakruti and Ishvara. (SrImad Bhagavata, 11-13)

2) Incarnation as a Fish (MatsyAvatAra) ? The Lord
incarnated as Fish during the time of Vaivashvata Manu
or Satyavrata Manu, the son of VivasvAn. Once, while
BrahmA was reciting Vedas, an asura, HayagrIva by
name, stole the Vedas from the side of BrahmAand he
went with them to the bottom of the ocean and hid
himself there. So, the Lord decided to take the form
of a fish to recover the Vedas. 

Vaisvashvata Manu was doing penance in BadarIkAshrama.
He got down into the river KrutamAlA to take a bath. A
small fish told him that it was afraid of large fishes
and requested him to protect it. The kind Manu took
the fish in his hand and put it in an earthen-pot and
brought it up. In a few days the fish began to grow
and when the pot became insufficient, the Manu put it
in a larger pot.  When that also became too small, he
placed the fish in a pond. As the pond became too
small, the fish was put in the Ganges river at its
request. After a few days, the Ganges also could not
accommodate the fish which had grown bigger. The fish
told the Manu that within seven days, there would be a
great flood in world. Hence, he should make a boat and
take seven hermit-sages with him in the boat and
escape. It promised to help him. The Manu also
arranged an immensely large boat and carried out the
instruction of the fish. In seven days rains started
in torrents and everything in the world were immersed
in the flood.  A horn sprouted from the head of the
fish. Manu tied the boat on that horn. The fish
reached the HimAlayas with the boat. The boat was tied
to the peak of the mountain.  When the rain ceased, it
was seen that everything in the world had been
destroyed except the Man and the seven sages and some
of the germs, saved in the boat. 
Satyavrata Manu prayed to the Lord in the form of the
fish to be his AchArya and instruct him about the
tattvas. The Lord did the same. He also killed the
asura HayagrIva and restored the VEdas to BrahmA.

3) Incarnation as HayagrIva ? When BrahmA appeared on
the Lotus sprouted from the navel of the Lord lying on
the Milky Ocean, He taught BrahmA all the Vedas to
enable him to do creation. Before BrahmA?s appearance,
two water drops had appeared on the lotus leave as
willed by the Lord Himself. One drop turned into an
asura, Madhu,  representing the tamas quality, while
the second one became another asura, Kaitabha,
representing the rajas quality.  They rose up through
the lotus stem and came to the flower where Brahma had
converted the four Vedas into four babies. The two
auras stole away the four VEedas in the form of the
babies and went to nether world and hid themselves. At
the request of BrahmA, the Lord took  a form of white
colour with a head of a horse, went into the nether
world and recovered the Vedas after killing the demons
and returned to BrahmA enabling him to do the
creation.

4) Incarnation as nara-nArAyaNa ? The Lord took birth
as two sons of Dharma PrajApathi through his wife,
Moorti, who was the daughter of Daksha PrajApathi.
They were nArayaNa and nara. nArAyaNa instructed
NArada and other sages, in BadarikAshrama, on the
spiritual principles.  

5) Incarnation as Krishna ? The Lord in His
incarnation of SrI Krishna taught the essential
aspects of dharma to Arjuna which is the Bhagavadgita.

         Thus the Lord incarnated in order to protect the
Dharma and did another favour for the virtuous. 

(To continue)
dAsan 
Anbil S.SrInivAsan
------  




      
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