Post by Admin on Dec 2, 2015 15:18:59 GMT
Sri Matsya Avatara
by Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Maharaja
Matsya-avatara is the first of the ten avataras. Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami has discussed infinite avataras in his abridged general review of the Prime Original Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna, in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila, Chapter 20. There, he writes that the lila-avatara (pastime avatara) is one of the six distinct kinds of principal descents of Sri Krsna. Among lila-avataras, the first is Matsya-avatara. There are countless numbers of lila-avataras mentioned in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta. In his commentary on Madhya-lila (20.245), Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati has discussed twenty-five principal lila-avataras. Chapter 3 of the First Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam also describes various descents of the Lord and Their characteristics.
sankarsana, matsyadika,-dui bheda tanra
sankarsana -purusavatara, lilavatara ara
(Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 20.244)
The first personal expansion is Sankarsana and the others are avataras like the fish avatara. Sankarsana is an expansion of the Purusa, or Visnu. The expansions such as Matsya appear in different yugas for specific pastimes.
lilavatara krsnera na yaya ganana
pradhana kariya kahi dig-darasana
matsya, kurma, raghunatha, nrsimha, vamana
varahadi lekha yantra na yaya ganana
(Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 20.297- 298)
No one can count the innumerable pastime avataras of Lord Krsna, but I shall describe the principal ones. Some of the pastime avataras are Matsya, Kurma, Lord Ramacandra, Lord Nrsimha, Lord Vamana and Lord Varaha. There is no end to Them.
Among the eighteen Puranas, the Matsya Purana describes the pastimes of Matsya-avatara. When Saunaka and other resident sages of Naimisaranya expressed their desire to hear the pastimes of Matsya-avatara from Sri Ugrasrava (Suta Goswami), the son of Sri Lomaharsana Suta, he spoke as follows:
In ancient times, King Manu, the son of the sun-god, entrusted the kingdom to his son and performed severe austerities for ten thousand years. When Brahma became pleased by his austerities and wished to confer a boon upon him, the king prayed to grandfather Brahma and said, Please give me the boon that I may save the living beings of this world and the world itself during the time of annihilation. Brahma said, So be it! He then disappeared, while the devas (demigods) showered flowers from heaven. Thereafter, one day when Manu was offering oblations to the ancestors while sitting in his asrama, a saphari (a kind of tiny fish-a minnow) jumped into his hands. Out of compassion, and for the safety of the small fish, he placed it in his water pot. Overnight the fish became as large as a finger, and finding it difficult to stay in the small water pot, it prayed to the king, Please save me! Please save me! Feeling compassion for the fish, Manu transferred it to a clay vessel. The fish again expanded, but this time to the length of three hands, within one night. It expressed its difficulty by saying to the king, I have surrendered to you. Please save me! Please save me! Then Manu put the fish in a well, but once again, due to a shortage of space, he put it in a lake, and then in the Ganges where it continued expanding greatly until he had no choice but to transfer it to the ocean. What had originally been a tiny fish now occupied an entire ocean. Manu became afraid upon seeing the whole ocean occupied, and began to think that this must surely be the Supreme Lord, Vasudeva, otherwise how could His body have expanded to the size of 200,000 yojanas? Understanding the Lord to have appeared as a fish, Manu offered his obeisances to Him. After accepting his obeisances, Matsya spoke to the king, making him aware of His real nature, O King, the earth will soon be flooded with water. I have a boat made by the demigods that is intended to save all the living entities. You should put the sweat-born or insects, the earth-born or those born from shoots and sprouts, the womb-born and all other helpless living beings on the boat to save them from the imminent deluge. When a strong storm approaches, you should tie the boat to my horn. You will become the prajapati (progenitor) after the universal dissolution of the whole world. In this way, at the beginning of Satya-yuga you will become the omniscient king of the next manvantara (the duration of a reign of Manu).
After that, when Manu asked when the annihilation would happen and how the living beings would be saved, Lord Matsya informed him of the coming of drought, famine and fire burning the earth, culminating in the submersion of the three worlds due to excessive rain. Everything would be reduced to one ocean (ekarnava). As per the Lords words, at the time of annihilation Lord Janardana appeared in the form of a fish with a horn protruding from His head. The great serpent Vasuki came to Manu to act as a rope. Pious Manu, the knower of dharma, gathered together all the living beings by his yogic spiritual power and put them safely onto the boat. He tied the snake to the horn of the Divine Fish. Lord Matsya, Brahma, Soma, Surya, the four worlds, the pious river Narmad, Markandeya, Rsi, Lord Bhava (Mahadeva), the Vedas, Puranas and all kinds of knowledge were manifested in Manu. Lord Matsya also told Manu that at the end of the Caksusa-manvantara, when the world would become ekarnava after dissolution, He would once again appear to rescue and re-establish the Vedas.
The story of manu and Matsya avatar is similar to the story of noah due to both collecting all the living beings on an ark . Manu also collected plants and the 7rshis according to vedic sources .
The story of Matsya-avatara has also been described in Chapter 24 of the Eighth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Pariksit Maharaja desired to hear about the pastimes of Matsya-avatara, the earliest or first of the ten avataras, and spoke to Sri Sukadeva Gosvami as follows:
Sri rajovaca
bhagavat chrotum icchami harer adbhuta-karmanah
avatara-katham adyam maya-matsya-vidambanam
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 8.24.1)
Maharaja Pariksit said, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, is eternally situated in His transcendental position, yet He descends to this material world and manifests Himself in various forms. His first descent was that of a great fish. O most powerful Sukadeva Gosvami, I wish to hear from you the pastimes of that manifestation of the Lord as a fish.
One day of Brahma is called a kalpa. Brahmas one day is beyond human calculation. The durations of the four ages or yugas have been described as follows: the duration of Kali-yuga is 432,000 solar years, double this is the duration of Dvapara-yuga, triple is that of Treta-yuga and quadruple is the duration of Satya-yuga. The four yugas combined are called one divya-yuga or catur-yuga. The reign of one Manu is comprised of 71 such divya- or catur-yugas. The span of life of fourteen Manus is the duration of one day of the life of Brahma. Similar also is the duration of one night of Brahma. At the end of one day of Brahma or at the end of a kalpa, partial annihilation takes place.
A Manu is the king of men for one manvantara or 71 chatur yugas before another manu is ushered in for the new manvantara according to the vedic time scale.
At the end of his day, Brahma was feeling drowsy and desired to sleep. At that time, an asura (demon) named Hayagriva stole the Vedas from the mouth of Brahma and entered into the waters of annihilation. Brahma then wondered how, at the beginning of his day, he was going to perform the task of creating the world in the absence of the Vedas. Thinking like this, Brahma took shelter of Lord Visnu. At the beginning of the Svayambhuva-manvantara, Lord Visnu, in His appearance as a fish, killed the demon Hayagriva and rescued the Vedas. He then delivered the Vedas to Brahma:
atita-pralayapaya utthitaya sa vedhase
hatvasuram hayagrivam vedan pratyaharad dharih
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 8.24.57)
At the end of the last inundation (during the reign of Svayambhuva Manu) the Supreme Personality of Godhead killed the demon Hayagriva and delivered all the Vedic literatures to Lord Brahma when he awoke from sleeping.
Lord Matsya appeared twice in this kalpa. First, during the Svayambhuva-manvantara, he killed the demon Hayagriva and rescued the Vedic literature. Later, at the end of the Caksusa-manvantara, He appeared and bestowed His mercy on King Satyavrata.
In the commentary on Srimad-Bhagavatam, Eighth Canto, Chapter 24, Verse 37 published by Sri Caitanya Matha, the explanation of a statement from Laghu- bhagavatamrta is as follows:
Agastya Muni cursed Svayambhuva Manu, which caused an annihilation to occur in the middle of the manvantara. This annihilation has been described in the Matsya Purana. During the Caksusa-manvantara, the annihilation began suddenly by the will of the Lord. In the Visnu-dharmottara, this story was narrated to Vajra by Markandeya Rsi. Generally, annihilation does not take place at the end of a manvantara. At the end of the Caksusa-manvantara, by His maya potency, the Supreme Lord displayed the annihilation to Satyavrata as in a dream. Speaking in this way, Sripada Sridhar Swami (the original commentator on Srimad-Bhagavatam) has not accepted the annihilation at the end of a manvantara.
There is nothing that the Supreme Lord will not do for the pleasure of His devotee. In reality, it is only the devotee who is the root cause of the appearance of the Supreme Lord. To accept the service of His devotee, the Supreme Lord performs the pastime of being incapable. It was to accept the service of His devotee, Satyavrata, that the Lord first performed the pastime of being incapable.
During the Caksusa-manvantara, a devotee of Lord Narayana named King Satyavrata performed severe austerities by drinking only water. One day, Satyavrata was offering oblations in the Krtamala River when he saw a tiny fish in the water cupped in his palms. Satyavrata, the king of Dravida, threw the fish into the water. The small fish then said in great distress, O merciful king! I am a small fish; big fish will eat Me. Knowing this, why did you throw Me into the river? I am very scared. Please protect Me. Hearing the distressful words of the fish, the king placed the fish in his water pot and went back to his asrama. Within one night, the small fish grew so much that it was difficult for it to remain in the water-pot. The fish again offered prayers expressing that it did not want to remain in that difficult condition. It wanted to be kept in a bigger pot where it could move about freely; so the sage put the fish into the water of a big wok. But in that place, within one muhurta (forty-eight minutes), it again expanded to the length of three hands. Upon the repeated prayers of the fish, it was placed in a pond, then a large freshwater lake, and finally the ocean. While entering into the ocean, the fish spoke to King Satyavrata in a humorous way, There are many large crocodiles and other creatures in the ocean; they will eat Me. It is not proper to leave Me here. Hearing the sweet words of the fish, the king understood that it was not an ordinary fish. This wonderful entity was the Supreme Lord Himself in the form of a fish. The king replied, You are making fun of me in Your form as a fish. Who are You actually? Within one day You have occupied the entire area of this huge freshwater lake, 800 miles long. I have never seen or heard of such an amazing and powerful aquatic. You must surely be the Supreme Lord Hari. You have taken the form of an aquatic to favor all the living beings. I am taking shelter of You. Please grace me. Although all Your lila-avataras are for the eternal welfare of living beings, what is the purpose of Your appearance as a fish? Please tell me.
In reply, the Supreme Lord Hari in the form of a fish said, On the seventh day from today, the three worlds will be inundated by the waters of annihilation. I will send you a big boat at that time. You should put all kinds of herbs (medicinal plants) and seeds on the boat. Surrounded by the seven great sages, you should ride on that great boat with all the living entities and float freely on the ocean of annihilation. When your boat trembles due to the force of a strong wind, you should tie the boat to My horn using the great serpent Vasuki. I will pull the boat with you and the sages until the night of Brahma ends. At that time you will come to know of My glories. Having said that, Sri Hari disappeared. After His disappearance, King Satyavrata was waiting for the time foretold by Sri Hari. He sat down on kusa grass facing the northeastern direction and meditated on the lotus feet of Lord Matsya. At that time, he saw that terrible rainfall was swelling the ocean to cover the land on the shore and was gradually covering the whole earth. Being very much afraid, the king began to look for shelter. Suddenly he saw that a great boat had come to him. Taking herbs, seeds and so on with him, the king boarded the boat along with the best of the brahmanas. The brahmanas asked the king to meditate on Lord Kesava for protection from this danger. Upon meditating steadily, the king saw that Lord Matsya had appeared. His body was one million miles (400,000 krosas) long, glowing like gold, and He had a horn on His head. As instructed, the king used Vasuki as a rope and tied him to the horn of the giant fish. He then offered prayers to Lord Matsya. Being satisfied by his prayers, the Supreme Lord enlightened the king with knowledge of the Supreme Truth. By the mercy of Lord Visnu in the form of a fish, the king became fully enlightened and took birth as Vaivasvata Manu (in the form of Sraddhadeva) in the present kalpa.
pralaya-payodhi-jale dhrtavan asi veda
vihita-vahitra-caritram akhedam
kesava dhrta-mina sarira jaya jagadisa hare
(Sri Jayadevas Dasavatara-stotra, 1st Verse)
O Kesava! O Lord of the universe! O Lord Hari, who have assumed the form of a fish! All glories unto You! You easily acted as a boat in the form of a giant fish just to give protection to the Vedas, which had become immersed in the turbulent sea of devastation.
Footnotes
[1] Yojana: a unit of length found in ancient Indian scriptural and astronomical texts. These literatures seem to indicate the existence of two types of yojana utilised for different purposes-the shorter being equal to 4.5 - 5 miles and the longer being equal to 8 - 9 miles, depending upon the specific source of information.
[2] The form of Lord Matsya: four armed, holding a conch, disc, mace and lotus; having a blackish complexion; with a horn on His head; looking like a fish; with foot-like marks all over His body; human form from neck to navel, and fish form from navel downwards.
[3] The transcendental realm of Lord Matsya and the three worlds.
[4] The duration of Brahmas one day has been given in the New Bengali Dictionary of Ashutosh Dev. Brahmas day equals 4,320,000,000 years and is called a kalpa. The duration of the reign of one Manu is known as a manvantara and one day of Brahma consists of the reign of 14 such Manus.
[5] Krosa: a distance of two miles.
[From "Dasavatara - The Ten Manifestations of God" by Swami B.B. Tirtha]
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Currently the manu for this age Vaivasvata Manu resides in Ramyaka- varsha-
SB 5.18.24 — Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: In Ramyaka-varṣa, where Vaivasvata Manu rules, the Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared as Lord Matsya at the end of the last era [the Cākṣuṣa-manvantara]. Vaivasvata Manu now worships Lord Matsya in pure devotional service and chants the following mantra.
SB 5.18.25 — I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is pure transcendence. He is the origin of all life, bodily strength, mental power and sensory ability. Known as Matsyāvatāra, the gigantic fish incarnation, He appears first among all the incarnations. Again I offer my obeisances unto Him.
The area known as earth according to modern scholars and explorers(as far as the masonic united nations allows us to know ) is in the area of Bharata varsha according to the vedic cosmology .
In the following yantra of jambhudvipa you can see Ramyaka-varsha's position compared to Bharata-varsha .Also take note of Hari-varsha another island within jambhudvipa where another famous incarnation of hindu mythology appeared Lord Nsringadev and his devotee Sri Prahalada maharaja.Finally in the widely renown spiritual text by Vedavyasadev the Mahabharata Arjuna once conquered the celestial area of Kimpurusa-varsha and came to the land of Hari-varsha travelling north of Bharata varsha.
SB 5.18.7 — Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: My dear King, Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva resides in the tract of land known as Hari-varṣa. In the Seventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, I shall describe to you how Prahlāda Mahārāja caused the Lord to assume the form of Nṛsiṁhadeva. Prahlāda Mahārāja, the topmost devotee of the Lord, is a reservoir of all the good qualities of great personalities. His character and activities have delivered all the fallen members of his demoniac family. Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva is very dear to this exalted personality. Thus Prahlāda Mahārāja, along with his servants and all the denizens of Hari-varṣa, worships Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva by chanting the following mantra.
Note #6—"Arjuna Conquers Harivarsa"
Arjuna was becoming successful in his conquests, he first overpowered
the king of the Kulindas, then the Anastas, then the Kalkuttas. He defeated the many kings on the island continent of Sakala, then encountered King Bhagadatta, a powerful warrior. The battle with Bhagadalta lasted eight days, but finally when the king found himself overpowered, he agreed to accept Yudhisthira's rule.
Arjuna continued toward the north. He reached the mountains and
vanquished the many barbarian tribes. Arriving in Kashmir, he subdued
the region's kshatriyas, then passed over the Himalayas. To the north of
the mountains lay the land inhabited by the Kimpurushas, semi-celestial
beings born of Yaksha women. Incensed at the approach of a human
army, they fought a fierce battle, but finally Arjuna subdued them. The
Pandava then conquered the land of the Guhakas, another tribe of celestial fighters, followed by a region inhabited by Gandharvas.
Finally Arjuna arrived in Harivarsha, the land where the Northern Kurus
dwelt. At the border, a number of powerful, large-bodied guards stopped
him. They said, "O Arjuna, this land cannot be entered by humans. If you
try you will perish along with your army. Indeed, even if you were able to
enter, you would not see anything, because human eyes cannot see this
land or its residents. Go back. There is nothing to be conquered here. Your conquests are already sufficient. We are pleased with you and will happily offer you a gift. What would you like.""
Arjuna bowed respectfully to the divine beings and said, "I desire
Yudhisthira's imperial dignity. If you accept him as the emperor of this
wide earth, then please give something as a tribute."
The Northern Kurus immediately offered Arjuna a large number of
celestial clothes and ornaments, saying, "We know you and your brothers
to be great servants of the Supreme Lord. Go now with our blessings. May you always gain victory."
Taking all the wealth he had won, Arjuna returned to Indraprastha and
reported his success to Yudhisthira. (Mahabharata: THE RAJASUYA SACRIFICE)
It is interesting to note that according to this understanding of vedic cosmology the sun and moon of which there is only one of each orbit around the plane of Bhumandala which is considered to be 4billion miles in diameter (2billion miles of inhabited area across to the loka loka mountains ) , the sun and moon orbit within the upper half of the egg like bramananda universe created by lord Bhrama, who is in turn manifest from one visnu called Garbhodaksai visnu, who is in turn manifest from another visnu called Karanadaksai visnu .
At any rate complex epistemology aside it is suffice to say that in this vedic cosmology, the mistake of thinking we are on a small area which is spinning while the stars and celestial bodies are staitonary is not made . In this model due to refraction ,even though the distances of the sun and moon orbiting such a large plane, the whole view is of the cosmos above as projected as if onto a dome above, according to the perspective of each individual and there outlook. Accordingly the zeitectic model correctly measures by trigonometry the distances and estimates from the dome without taking into account the refraction and perspective differences created by the rays of the sun , moon and different self luminous celestial bodies hitting the atmosphere/plane after traveling though the ether or Antariksa known as outer space . So in this vedic model the distances and sizes of the sun and moons orbits/positions does not orbit around the earth at a smaller distance they actually cross the bow like section of Bharata-varsha from one end of the bow string to the other .Seasons are created by the lateral and vertical movements of the sun across and up and down from the plane of Bhumandala .
SB 5.23.2 — Established by the supreme will of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the polestar, which is the planet of Mahārāja Dhruva, constantly shines as the central pivot for all the stars and planets. The unsleeping, invisible, most powerful time factor causes these luminaries to revolve around the polestar without cessation.
SB 5.23.3 — When bulls are yoked together and tied to a central post to thresh rice, they tread around that pivot without deviating from their proper positions — one bull being closest to the post, another in the middle, and a third on the outside. Similarly, all the planets and all the hundreds and thousands of stars revolve around the polestar, the planet of Mahārāja Dhruva, in their respective orbits, some higher and some lower. Fastened by the Supreme Personality of Godhead to the machine of material nature according to the results of their fruitive acts, they are driven around the polestar by the wind and will continue to be so until the end of creation. These planets float in the air within the vast sky, just as clouds with hundreds of tons of water float in the air or as the great śyena eagles, due to the results of past activities, fly high in the sky and have no chance of falling to the ground.
SB 5.21.19 — My dear King, in his orbit through Bhū-maṇḍala, the sun-god traverses a distance of 95,100,000 yojanas [760,800,000 miles] at the speed of 2,000 yojanas and two krośas [16,004 miles] in a moment.
In this model the size of the sun globe is 80000 miles across .Postions above the plane of the sun , moon above Bhumandala are 100000 yojans above or 800000 miles above for the sun, while the moon is twice the distance above the plane it seems to be a similar size, this is because it is twice the width across 160000miles or 20000 yojans breadth at a vertical distance of 200000 yojans above or 1600000 miles above . Rahu is below the sun by 10000 yojans creating eclipses for the sun and moon being a breadth of 30000 yojans or 240000 miles across. As for how the suns height is changing above the plane of bhumandala works, with its upwards and downwards motion, I am unsure and am assuming it moves upwards vertically from the bottom postion of 100000 yojans in order to create the seasons ? (more research needed on my part).
SB 5.24.1 — Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: My dear King, some historians, the speakers of the Purāṇas, say that 10,000 yojanas [80,000 miles] below the sun is the planet known as Rāhu, which moves like one of the stars. The presiding deity of that planet, who is the son of Siṁhikā, is the most abominable of all asuras, but although he is completely unfit to assume the position of a demigod or planetary deity, he has achieved that position by the grace of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Later I shall speak further about him.
SB 5.24.2 — The sun globe, which is a source of heat, extends for 10,000 yojanas [80,000 miles]. The moon extends for 20,000 yojanas [160,000 miles], and Rāhu extends for 30,000 yojanas [240,000 miles]. Formerly, when nectar was being distributed, Rāhu tried to create dissension between the sun and moon by interposing himself between them. Rāhu is inimical toward both the sun and the moon, and therefore he always tries to cover the sunshine and moonshine on the dark-moon day and full-moon night.
SB 5.24.3 — After hearing from the sun and moon demigods about Rāhu’s attack, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu, engages His disc, known as the Sudarśana cakra, to protect them. The Sudarśana cakra is the Lord’s most beloved devotee and is favored by the Lord. The intense heat of its effulgence, meant for killing non-Vaiṣṇavas, is unbearable to Rāhu, and he therefore flees in fear of it. During the time Rāhu disturbs the sun or moon, there occurs what people commonly know as an eclipse.
SB 5.16.7 — Amidst these divisions, or varṣas, is the varṣa named Ilāvṛta, which is situated in the middle of the whorl of the lotus. Within Ilāvṛta-varṣa is Sumeru Mountain, which is made of gold. Sumeru Mountain is like the pericarp of the lotuslike Bhū-maṇḍala planetary system. The mountain’s height is the same as the width of Jambūdvīpa — or, in other words, 100,000 yojanas [800,000 miles]. Of that, 16,000 yojanas [128,000 miles] are within the earth, and therefore the mountain’s height above the earth is 84,000 yojanas [672,000 miles]. The mountain’s width is 32,000 yojanas [256,000 miles] at its summit and 16,000 yojanas at its base.
The Vedic sciences although considered mythology by modern scholars is consdidered fact by its followers coming in four different transcendental disciplic successions.
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