SB 1.10.25
Devanāgarī
यदा ह्यधर्मेण तमोधियो नृपा जीवन्ति तत्रैष हि सत्त्वत: किल । धत्ते भगं सत्यमृतं दयां यशो भवाय रूपाणि दधद्युगे युगे ॥ २५ ॥
Text
yadā hy adharmeṇa tamo-dhiyo nṛpā jīvanti tatraiṣa hi sattvataḥ kila dhatte bhagaṁ satyam ṛtaṁ dayāṁ yaśo bhavāya rūpāṇi dadhad yuge yuge
Synonyms
yadā—whenever;hi—assuredly;adharmeṇa—against the principles of God’s will;tamaḥ-dhiyaḥ—persons in the lowest material modes;nṛpāḥ—kings and administrators;jīvanti—live like animals;tatra—thereupon;eṣaḥ—He;hi—only;sattvataḥ—transcendental;kila—certainly;dhatte—is manifested;bhagam—supreme power;satyam—truth;ṛtam—positiveness;dayām—mercy;yaśaḥ—wonderful activities;bhavāya—for the maintenance;rūpāṇi—in various forms;dadhat—manifested;yuge—different periods;yuge—and ages.
Translation
Whenever there are kings and administrators living like animals in the lowest modes of existence, the Lord in His transcendental form manifests His supreme power, the Truth Positive, shows special mercy to the faithful, performs wonderful activities and manifests various transcendental forms as is necessary in different periods and ages.
Purport
The Lord then appears in His transcendental form without any tinge of material qualities. He descends just to keep the state of His creation in a normal condition. The normal condition is that the Lord has provided each and every planet with all the needs of the native living beings. They can happily live and execute their predestined occupations to attain salvation at the end, following the rules and regulations mentioned in the revealed scriptures. The material world is created to satisfy the whims of the nitya-baddha, or everlasting conditioned souls, just as naughty boys are provided with playing cradles. Otherwise, there was no need of the material world. But when they become intoxicated with the power of material science to exploit the resources unlawfully without the sanction of the Lord, and that also only for sense gratification, there is necessity of the Lord’s incarnation to chastise the rebellious and to protect the faithful.
When He descends, He exhibits superhuman acts just to prove His supreme right, and materialists like Rāvaṇa, Hiraṇyakaśipu and Kaṁsa are sufficiently punished. He acts in a manner which no one can imitate. For example, the Lord, when He appeared as Rāma, bridged the Indian Ocean. When He appeared as Kṛṣṇa, from His very childhood He showed superhuman activities by killing Pūtanā, Aghāsura, Śakaṭāsura, Kāliya, etc., and then His maternal uncle Kaṁsa. When He was at Dvārakā He married 16,108 queens, and all of them were blessed with a sufficient number of children. The sum total of His personal family members amounted to about 100,000, popularly known as the Yadu-vaṁśa. And again, during His lifetime, He managed to vanquish them all. He is famous as the Govardhana-dhārī Hari because He lifted at the age of only seven the hill known as Govardhana. The Lord killed many undesirable kings in His time, and as a kṣatriya He fought chivalrously. He is famous as asamordhva, unparalleled. No one is equal to or greater than Him.
