In order to fulfill the promise made by his father, Rama along with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana went into exile. The demon Ravana, who invited His wrath, was destroyed totally. Rama, who in His intense fury resembled Rudra, decided to burn down the entire kingdom of his enemy Ravana. The ocean that was in His path, trembled with fear, seeing His fury.
The fact that his dearest wife Sita was far away from Him, filled his heart with uncontrollable anguish. This grief led to his uncontainable fury and was the cause for his reddened eyes. When he looked at the oceans, all the water animals such as whales, snakes, crocodiles were being burnt due to the heat that emerged from these red-hot eyes. The ocean that was trembling profusely, instantaneously made way for Him to proceed to Lanka.
When Ravana was engaged with Indra in a battle, the tusks of Lord Indra’s elephant Airavata, collided with the chest of Ravana, and broke. All the directions began to glow brightly owing to the radiance that emerged from the broken tusks. Ravana became the ruler of all these directions. Such powerful Ravana, who in his arrogance was moving about the battlefield amidst the army laughing boisterously, was silenced with just a twang of Srirama’s bow. In fact that twang took away his life.
21) Incarnations as Balarama-Krishna:
The kings who were born with demonic traits together with their armies turned into an unbearable burden for Mother Earth. Unable to withstand this burden, Mother Earth prayed to the Supreme Lord. Hearing her pleas, the Lord incarnated as brothers Balarama and Krishna.
With the reflection of his white hair falling upon him, Balarama was fair in complexion. Krishna was dark in complexion and had black hair. Ordinary people could not understand that He was none other than the Supreme Lord himself. Living secretly in this manner, he performed many deeds that brought out his greatness.
While in his infancy, he killed the Demoness Putana. At the age of 3 months he turned a huge bullock-cart upside-down. At the age when he was still crawling, he went amidst two huge Arjuna trees and uprooted them completely. Such unimaginable deeds could be accomplished by him in infancy, only because He was the Supreme Puruśa. If not, how could it be possible?
Drinking the poisoned waters in Nanda-gokula, the cows as well as the cowherds lost their lives. With His compassionate glance, Krishna restored them to life. Thereafter, with the desire to purify River Yamuna, Krishna played about happily in those waters. He playfully fought and drove away from those waters, the terribly poisonous snake Kaliya, along with its retinue. Definitely this was not a task that ordinary humans could perform.
One night, when the inhabitants of Nandavraja were in deep slumber, due to the heaps of dry leaves that were scattered around, a sudden summer forest-fire broke out and spread rapidly in all directions. Everyone there was sure that the time of his/her death had arrived. Meanwhile Srikrishna, who possessed unimaginable prowess and energy, along with Balarama asked them to close their eyes and He rescued them from the fire. This is His divine play.
Another time, in order to bring to an end the naughty activities of her son, mother Yashoda tried for a long time to tie Krishna with a rope. But whatever be its length, every rope would consistently fall short. Similarly, once when the little Krishna was yawning, Mother Yashoda saw all the 14 worlds within His mouth. With this she became apprehensive. At that moment she realized the truth that her son Krishna was none other than the Supreme Lord. Krishna could perform such divine deeds purely because He was the transcendental Supreme Lord himself.
The small Krishna saved his father Nanda Maharaja from the curse of Lord Varuna. Yomāsura, the son of Maya once hid all the cowherds in a cave. Srikrishna freed and rescued them all. The residents of Gokula would go into deep slumber at nights, tired due to the hard work done throughout the day. There was no scope therefore for them to undertake spiritual activities of any kind. Despite this, Krishna awarded to them Vaikunṭha, the place of ultimate liberation.
One year, Krishna raised objections to the Indra Yāga, a ritual that the residents of Gokula would diligently perform every year. Indra, who was angered due to the non-performance of the Yāga that year, showered torrential disruptive and destructive rains upon them for 7 days. Srikrishna, who was barely 7 years old, decided to save these innocent residents along with their cattle. With one hand He playfully lifted up the entire Govardhana Mountain, as if it were a toy umbrella. For 7 days He held the mountain in that manner and thus protected them all.
On the cool nights, when due to the Moon’s illumination everything would shine brightly, Krishna playfully wandered in the forests engaged in Rāsa-krida dance. On His flute he would play melodious songs. This melodious music strongly intensified the feelings of love among the Gopika women. Shankachuda, an assistant of Kubera, once abducted these Gopika women. Little Krishna chopped the head of this Shankachuda and rescued these women.
Pralambhāsura, Dhenukāsura, Bakāsura, Keśi, Ariśtāsura, Chānura and other mighty demons, the ferocious elephant Kuvalayāpida, Kamsa, Kālayavana, Narakāsura, Poundraka, Shālva, Dvivida, Balvala, Dantavaktra, the seven bulls of Nagnajit, Shambarāsura, Vidhuratha, Rukmi and many others mighty demonic warriors met their end in the hands of Krishna.
With the bow held tightly in their hands, the rulers of Kāmbhoja, Matsya, Kuru, Kaikaya, Srinjaya and other kingdoms uttered arrogant disrespectful words to Krishna. There were some others who deceptively disguised themselves as Balarama, Bheema, Arjuna and behaved like them. Krishna killed all such warriors and merged them into Him. Krishna blessed even such people with liberation.
22) Incarnation as Veda-vyāsa:
Due to the influence of Kali, intelligence grossly reduces in the human beings. Along with it their longevity also reduces. Therefore they fail to understand the vast treasure house called Vedas. Srihari, who realized this, took birth as Veda-vyasa, the son of Satyavati. In accordance to the rules of this eon, He divided the vast tree called Veda into four divisions.
Srihari Krishna!
