Text 18]
Questions by the Sages
75
activities of the Lord and His transcendental realm are sometimes favored by the Lord in His adventures as incarnations wherein He displays the eternal bliss of His association in the transcendental realm. By such activities He attracts the conditioned souls of the material world. Some of these conditioned souls are engaged in the false enjoyment of material senses and others in simply negating their real life in the spiritual world. These less intelligent persons are known as  karmīs  or fruitive workers, and the others are known as  jñānīs  or dry mental speculators. But above these two classes of men is the transcendentalist known as  sātvata  or the devotee who is neither busy with rampant material activity nor with material speculation. He is engaged in the positive service of the Lord, and thereby he derives the highest spiritual benefit unknown to the  karmīs  and  jñānīs .
As the supreme controller of both the material and spiritual worlds, the Lord has different incarnations of unlimited categories. Incarnations like Brahmā, Rudra, Manu, Pṛthu, Vyāsa and so on are His material qualitative incarnations, but His incarnations like Rāma, Narasiṁha, Varāha, Vāmana, and so on are His transcendental incarnations. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the fountainhead of all incarnations, and He is therefore the cause of all causes.
TEXT 18
अथाख्याहि हरेर्धमन्वतारकथाः शुभाः । लीला विदधतः स्वैरमीश्वरस्यात्ममायया ॥१८॥
athākhyāhi harer dhīmann avatāra-kathāḥ śubhāḥ līlā vidadhataḥ svairam īśvarasyātma-māyayā
atha—therefore; ākhyāhi—describe; hareḥ—of the Lord; dhīman—O sagacious one; avatāra—incarnations; kathāḥ—narratives; śubhāḥ—auspicious; līlā—adventures; vidadhataḥ—performed; svairam—pastimes; īśvarasya—the supreme controller's; ātma—personal; māyayā—energies.
TRANSLATION
O wise Sūta, please narrate to us the transcendental pastimes of the Supreme Godhead's multi-incarnations. Such auspicious adventures and pastimes of the Lord are performed by His internal powers.