Text 53] Scheduled Incarnations with Specific Functions
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Lord's activities in relation with external energy useless for them, and they may falsely claim to be higher participants in the internal energy of the Lord, but factually the Lord's activities, either in relation with the external energy or with the internal energy, are equally good. On the other hand, those who are not completely free from the clutches of the external energy of the Lord should devoutly hear regularly about the activities of the Lord in relation with the external energy. They should not foolishly jump up to the activities of the internal energy, falsely attracted by the Lord's internal potential activities like His  rāsa-līlā . The cheap reciters of the  Bhāgavatam  are very much enthusiastic about the Lord's internal potential activities, and the pseudo-devotees, absorbed in material sense enjoyment, falsely jump to the stage of liberated souls and thus fall down deeply into the clutches of external energy.
Some of them think that to hear about the pastimes of the Lord means to hear about His activities with the  gopīs  or about His pastimes like uplifting the Govardhana Hill, etc., and they have nothing to do with the Lord's plenary expansions as the  puruṣāvatāras  and Their pastimes of creation, maintenance, or annihilation of the material worlds. But a pure devotee knows that there is no difference between the pastimes of the Lord, either in  rāsa-līlā  or in creation, maintenance or destruction of the material world. Rather, the description of such activities of the Lord as  puruṣāvatāras  are specifically meant for persons who are in the clutches of the external energy.  Rāsa-līlā , etc., are meant for the liberated souls and not for the conditioned souls. The conditioned souls, therefore, must hear the Lord's pastimes in relationship with the external energy with appreciation and devotion, and such acts are as good as the hearing of  rāsa-līlā  in the liberated stage. A conditioned soul should not imitate the activities of liberated souls. Lord Śrī Caitanya never indulged in hearing the  rāsa-līlā  with ordinary men.
In the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , the science of God, the first nine cantos prepare the ground for hearing the Tenth Canto. This will be further explained in the last chapter of this canto. In the Third Canto it will be more explicit. A pure devotee of the Lord, therefore, must begin reading or hearing  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  from the very beginning, and not from the Tenth Canto. We have several times been requested by some so-called devotees to take up the Tenth Canto immediately, but we have refrained from such an action because we wish to present  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  as the science of Godhead and not as a sensuous understanding for the conditioned souls. This is forbidden by such authorities as Śrī Brahmājī. By reading and hearing  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  as a scientific presentation,