Shloka 37
Bhagavān’s Avatāras, Their Protections (Poṣaṇa), and the Limits of Knowing Him
देवद्विषां निगमवर्त्मनि निष्ठितानां पूर्भिर्मयेन विहिताभिरदृश्यतूर्भि: । लोकान् घ्नतां मतिविमोहमतिप्रलोभं वेषं विधाय बहु भाष्यत औपधर्म्यम् ॥ ३७ ॥
deva-dviṣāṁ nigama-vartmani niṣṭhitānāṁ pūrbhir mayena vihitābhir adṛśya-tūrbhiḥ lokān ghnatāṁ mati-vimoham atipralobhaṁ veṣaṁ vidhāya bahu bhāṣyata aupadharmyam
Apabila para pembenci para deva, setelah mahir dalam sains Veda, membinasakan penghuni pelbagai loka dengan kota/kenderaan terbang halimunan ciptaan Maya, Tuhan Janārdana akan mengelirukan fikiran mereka dengan menyarung rupa Buddha yang memikat dan mengajarkan prinsip upadharma (agama semu).
This incarnation of Lord Buddha is not the same Buddha incarnation we have in the present history of mankind. According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, the Buddha incarnation mentioned in this verse appeared in a different Kali age. In the duration of life of one Manu there are more than seventy-two Kali-yugas, and in one of them the particular type of Buddha mentioned here would appear. Lord Buddha incarnates at a time when the people are most materialistic and preaches commonsense religious principles. Such ahiṁsā is not a religious principle itself, but it is an important quality for persons who are actually religious. It is a commonsense religion because one is advised to do no harm to any other animal or living being because such harmful actions are equally harmful to he who does the harm. But before learning these principles of nonviolence one has to learn two other principles, namely to be humble and to be prideless. Unless one is humble and prideless, one cannot be harmless and nonviolent. And after being nonviolent one has to learn tolerance and simplicity of living. One must offer respects to the great religious preachers and spiritual leaders and also train the senses for controlled action, learning to be unattached to family and home, and enacting devotional service to the Lord, etc. At the ultimate stage one has to accept the Lord and become His devotee; otherwise there is no religion. In religious principles there must be God in the center; otherwise simple moral instructions are merely subreligious principles, generally known as upadharma, or nearness to religious principles.
FAQs
This verse says the Lord can assume a deceptive guise and teach counterfeit dharma to bewilder those opposed to the devas and to true devotion, leading them away from the genuine Vedic path.
In the context of listing divine incarnations and their functions, Shukadeva explains that the Lord sometimes uses delusion as a strategy to curb destructive, anti-divine forces and to safeguard authentic dharma.
Be discerning about spiritual teachings: measure them by their fruits—humility, devotion, compassion, and truthfulness—rather than by attractive rhetoric that merely flatters the mind or promotes selfish aims.