Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.14.20

sureshv rishishv īśa tathaiva nrishv api

tiryakshu yādahsv api te 'janasya

janmāsatām durmada-nigrahāya

prabho vidhātah sad-anugrahāya ca

SYNONYMS

sureshu — among the demigods; rishishu — among the great sages; īśa — O Lord; tathā — as well as; eva — indeed; nrishu — among the human beings; api — and; tiryakshu — among animals; yādahsu — among aquatics; api — also; te — of You; ajanasya — who never takes material birth; janma — the birth; asatām — of the nondevotees; durmada — the false pride; nigrahāya — for the purpose of subduing; prabho — O master; vidhātah — O creator; sat — to the faithful devotees; anugrahāya — for the purpose of showing mercy; ca — and.

TRANSLATION

O Lord, O supreme creator and master, You have no material birth, yet to defeat the false pride of the faithless demons and show mercy to Your saintly devotees, You take birth among the demigods, sages, human beings, animals and even the aquatics.

PURPORT

Among the demigods Lord Krishna appears in such forms as Vāmanadeva, among the sages as Paraśurāma, among human beings as Lord Krishna Himself and as Lord Rāmacandra, and among animals as the boar incarnation. Lord Krishna appears among the aquatics as Matsya, the gigantic fish. Indeed, the plenary expansions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are innumerable, as the Lord relentlessly comes down within the universes to smash the false pride of the atheists and show mercy to the saintly devotees.

In another sense, the Lord never appears, since He exists eternally. His appearance is like that of the sun, which is always present in the sky but which periodically appears to our vision.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
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