Text 51] Scheduled Incarnations with Specific Functions
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(Bg. 9.4) that by His potencies alone He is present everywhere and anywhere, and everything that is manifested rests on His potency only, but He, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is always aloof from them. The potency and the potent are simultaneously one and different from one another.
One should not deprecate the Supreme Lord for the creation of this miserable world, just as one should not blame the king for creating a prisonhouse in the government. The prisonhouse is a necessary institution of the establishment of the government for those who are disobedient to the laws of the government. Similarly, this material world, full of miseries, is a temporary creation of the Lord for those who have forgotten Him and are trying to lord it over the false manifestation. He, however, is always anxious to get the fallen souls back home, back to Godhead, and for this He has given so many chances to the conditioned souls via the authoritative scriptures, His representatives, and personal incarnations also. Since He has no direct attachment to this material world, He is not to be blamed for its creation.
TEXT 51
इदं भागवतं नाम यन्मे भगवतोदितम् । संग्रहोऽयं विभूतीनां त्वमेतद् विपुलीकुरु ॥५१॥
idam bhāgavatam nāma yan me bhagavatoditam saṅgraho'yam vibhūtīnām tvam etad vipulīkuru
idam—this; bhāgavatam—the science of Godhead; nāma—of the name; yat—that which; me—unto me; bhagavata—by the Personality of Godhead; uditam—enlightened; saṅgrahaḥ—is the accumulation of; ayam—His; vibhūtīnām—of the diverse potencies; tvam—your good self; etat—this science of Godhead; vipulī—expand; kuru—do it.
TRANSLATION
O Nārada, this science of God, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, was spoken to me in a nutshell by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and it was spoken in