Shloka 57
Dhruva’s Humiliation, Sunīti’s Counsel, and Nārada’s Bhakti-Yoga Instruction
स्वेच्छावतारचरितैरचिन्त्यनिजमायया । करिष्यत्युत्तमश्लोकस्तद् ध्यायेद्धृदयङ्गमम् ॥ ५७ ॥
svecchāvatāra-caritair acintya-nija-māyayā kariṣyaty uttamaślokas tad dhyāyed dhṛdayaṅ-gamam
Meu querido Dhruva, além de adorar a Deidade e entoar o mantra três vezes ao dia, medita nas atividades transcendentais de Uttamaśloka, o Senhor Supremo, tal como Ele as manifesta em Seus diversos avatāras por Sua vontade e por Suas potências inconcebíveis.
Devotional service comprises nine prescribed practices — hearing, chanting, remembering, worshiping, serving, offering everything to the Deity, etc. Here Dhruva Mahārāja is advised not only to meditate on the form of the Lord, but to think of His transcendental pastimes in His different incarnations. Māyāvādī philosophers take the incarnation of the Lord to be in the same category as the ordinary living entity. This is a great mistake. The incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is not forced to act by the material laws of nature. The word svecchā is used here to indicate that He appears out of His supreme will. The conditioned soul is forced to accept a particular type of body according to his karma given by the laws of material nature under the direction of the Supreme Lord. But when the Lord appears, He is not forced by the dictation of material nature; He appears as He likes by His own internal potency. That is the difference. The conditioned soul accepts a particular type of body, such as the body of a hog, by his work and by the superior authority of material nature. But when Lord Kṛṣṇa appears in the incarnation of a boar, He is not the same kind of hog as an ordinary animal. Kṛṣṇa appears as Varāha-avatāra in an expansive feature which cannot be compared to an ordinary hog’s. His appearance and disappearance are inconceivable to us. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly said that He appears by His own internal potency for the protection of the devotees and the annihilation of the nondevotees. A devotee should always consider that Kṛṣṇa does not appear as an ordinary human being or ordinary beast; His appearance as Varāha-mūrti or a horse or tortoise is an exhibition of His internal potency. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said, ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ: one should not mistake the appearance of the Lord as a human being or a beast to be the same as the birth of an ordinary conditioned soul, who is forced to appear by the laws of nature, whether as an animal, as a human being or as a demigod. This kind of thinking is offensive. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu has condemned the Māyāvādīs as offensive to the Supreme Personality of Godhead because of their thinking that the Lord and the conditioned living entities are one and the same.
FAQs
This verse teaches that the Lord performs His incarnations and pastimes by His own will through inconceivable potency, and therefore devotees should meditate on Him as the heart-captivating Uttamaś्लoka.
Narada was guiding Dhruva—who had left home seeking the Lord—toward the proper focus of devotion: remembrance and meditation on Bhagavan’s divine nature and pastimes rather than worldly aims.
Daily contemplate a chosen avatara-lila (with japa, reading, or kirtan) to steady the mind and redirect desire toward devotion, since the Lord is “hṛdayaṅgama”—naturally drawing the heart to Him.