Srimad Bhagavatam — Ashtama Skandha, Shloka 2

Matsya-avatāra: The Lord as Fish Saves the Vedas and Guides Satyavrata

Devanagari script

यदर्थमदधाद् रूपं मात्स्यं लोकजुगुप्सितम् । तम:प्रकृति दुर्मर्षं कर्मग्रस्त इवेश्वर: ॥ २ ॥ एतन्नो भगवन् सर्वं यथावद् वक्तुमर्हसि । उत्तमश्लोकचरितं सर्वलोकसुखावहम् ॥ ३ ॥

Transliteration

yad-artham adadhād rūpaṁ mātsyaṁ loka-jugupsitam tamaḥ-prakṛti-durmarṣaṁ karma-grasta iveśvaraḥ

Translation

ကမ္မဘంధတွင်ကျရောက်သော သတ္တဝါတစ်ဦးကဲ့သို့၊ လောကက မနှစ်သက်သော တမောဂုဏ်ပြည့်ဝ၍ ဒုက္ခကြီးသော မత్సျရုပ်ကို ဘဂဝန်သည် မည်သို့သော ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ဖြင့် ခံယူခဲ့သနည်း? အရှင်၊ ဤအရာအားလုံးကို မှန်ကန်စွာ ရှင်းပြပါ; ဥတ္တမရှ္လိုက၏ လီလာကို နားထောင်ခြင်းသည် လောကအားလုံးအတွက် မင်္ဂလာနှင့် သုခကို ပေးသည်။

Synonyms

• yat-artham: for what purpose
• yat-artham: Prayojana (प्रयोजन)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: yad + artha (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: अव्ययीभाव: yat-artham = yasya arthāya (for what purpose); used adverbially

• adadhāt: assumed/put on
• adadhāt: Kriya (क्रिया)
• Type: Verb
• Root: √dhā (धातु)
• Form: Luṅ (लुङ्/Aorist), Parasmaipada, 3rd person, Singular

• rūpam: a form
• rūpam: Karma (कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: rūpa (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Neuter, Accusative (द्वितीया/2), Singular

• mātsyam: fish (as)
• mātsyam: Visheshana (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: mātsya (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Neuter, Accusative (द्वितीया/2), Singular; qualifying rūpam

• loka-jugupsitam: despised by the world
• loka-jugupsitam: Visheshana (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: loka + jugupsita (कृदन्त-प्रातिपदिक; √gup/√gups (धातु) + kta)
• Form: Neuter, Accusative (द्वितीया/2), Singular; तत्पुरुष: lokaiḥ jugupsitam (despised by the world)

• tamaḥ-prakṛti-durmarṣam: of dark nature, hard to bear
• tamaḥ-prakṛti-durmarṣam: Visheshana (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: tamas + prakṛti + durmarṣa (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Neuter, Accusative (द्वितीया/2), Singular; multi-member determinative qualifying rūpam: 'of dark nature, hard to endure'

• karma-grastaḥ: as if seized by karma
• karma-grastaḥ: Visheshana (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: karma + grasta (कृदन्त-प्रातिपदिक; √gras (धातु) + kta)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative (प्रथमा/1), Singular; qualifying īśvaraḥ; तत्पुरुष: karmaṇā grastaḥ (seized by karma)

• iva: as if
• iva: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध/marker)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: iva (अव्यय)
• Form: Particle of comparison (उपमावाचक-अव्यय)

• īśvaraḥ: the Lord
• īśvaraḥ: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: īśvara (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative (प्रथमा/1), Singular

Purport

Parīkṣit Mahārāja’s question to Śukadeva Gosvāmī was based on this principle stated by the Lord Himself in Bhagavad-gītā (4.7) :

Characters & Entities

• Matsya
• Ishvara (Supreme Lord)
• Parikshit
• Shukadeva Gosvami

FAQs

Why did Lord Vishnu take the Matsya (fish) form in Srimad Bhagavatam?

Parikshit asks this because the fish form seems worldly and low; the Bhagavatam explains that the Lord assumes any form to accomplish His divine purpose and protect creation and dharma.

How can the Supreme Lord appear ‘bound by karma’ if He is Ishvara?

The verse says “iva” (as if): the Lord only appears conditioned to enact His līlā, while remaining eternally beyond the modes and karma.

Practical application: what does this teach about judging spirituality by external appearance?

Do not measure divinity or devotion by outer form; learn to see purpose, humility, and God’s hand even in unexpected or socially disregarded appearances.